Disclaimer: the characters of the Stephanie Plum Series belong to Janet Evanovich and are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Challenge: Jeanne’s Week 8 challenge use either “It doesn’t get much better than this” or “Look at it this way, things can’t get much worse” in a fic.
Young Carlos And When Sweet Turned Sour
By TT
It was a cool, rainy Sunday afternoon in late October. It was too wet to go outside and play, which was unfortunate, because the houseful of guests were beginning to make Carlos feel trapped.
His aunt, uncle and cousins had come over for a visit and they seemed to be everywhere.
Eventually, he escaped upstairs, only to hear a sound coming from his parent’s room.
Knowing that no one should be in there, he stepped in the room.
At first, he didn’t see anyone, but it wasn’t long before a sound from the closet drew his attention.
With a few steps, Carlos was across the room and looking into his parent’s closet. Peering inside, he found one of his cousins sitting on the floor, a bag open before him.
“What are you doing?” Carlos asked.
“Nothing,” his cousin denied, his mouth full of candy.
“That’s the Halloween candy,” informed Carlos. When his cousin simply shrugged, he scolded, “You shouldn’t be eating that.”
“I’m not hurting anyone,” his cousin defended. “Besides there’s lots!”
Looking at the large shopping bag filled with various types of treats, Carlos had to agree that there was, indeed, a whole lot of candy in there. Surely it was far more than they would need to give out. And besides, they would only eat a few pieces, right?
Deciding his older cousin must be right, Carlos settled on the floor opposite him as his cousin handed him a piece of candy.
After the first few pieces of candy, Carlos’ cousin announced, “It doesn’t get much better than this.”
Carlos could only nod, his mouth full of chocolate.
He nearly choked a moment later when his father boomed, “What do you think you’re doing in here?”
Both boys quickly swallowed what was in their mouth and jumped up. They stood at attention as they faced Carlos’ angry father.
“Are you two eating the Halloween candy?” he demanded.
“Y-yes, sir,” Carlos answered. To his horror, his mother and aunt appeared behind his father.
“That candy was for the children on Halloween,” his aunt scolded.
“Both of you get out here now,” Carlos’ father commanded. The boys hurried to obey, not wanting to anger him further.
The three adults looked at each other and then drew together, whispering. The boys stood quietly, waiting to hear their punishment.
Carlos’ cousin leaned over and whispered, “Look at it this way, things can’t get much worse.”
Oh, but they could and they were about to get worse.
Stepping into the closet, Carlos’ father grabbed the bag of candy and set it on the bed.
“Since you boys seemed to enjoy the candy so much,” Carlos’ mother began, “you can finish eating it. All of it. Every last piece.”
The boys’ eyes widened, Carlos’ with horror and his cousin’s with glee. Carlos couldn’t think of a worse fate, even playing dolls with his sister was better than this. Yes, he liked candy and sweets, but there was an awful lot in that bag and he’d never been one to eat a lot of candy, preferring apples or cookies as a treat.
Knowing there was no getting out of it, the two boys, under the watchful eyes of the women, began eating the candy.
By the time the boys finished off the bag of candy they’d been eating, it had stopped tasting good. By the time they finished their second bag, neither boy felt good at all. As they opened the third bag, the smell of the chocolate bars was enough to sour their stomachs and both boys raced for the bathroom.
Carlos made it to the toilet before losing the contents of his stomach, his cousin wasn’t quite as quick, but made it to the bathtub.
As both boys removed the evidence of their illness under their mothers’ watchful eyes, they turned to leave when Carlos’ aunt stated, “Back to the room. You still have candy to eat.”
Both boys turned pale at the threat and Carlos’ cousin started to cry.
Present
“That’s horrible!” Stephanie exclaimed as Ranger finished his story of why he hated candy. “Did they really make you finish it?”
“No,” Ranger admitted. “Once we got back in the room, they asked us if we’d learned our lesson and when we agreed we had, they told us to sit in the living room with the adults the rest of the day. To this day, though, I hate candy and especially chocolates.”
Stephanie just shook her head.
“I suppose you never got into mischief like that,” Ranger teased. When Stephanie turned bright red, he added, “Oh, you have to share now.”
Stephanie sighed and began her confession. “Valerie didn’t steal candy, she stole frosting from cakes. It was just about the only thing wrong Valerie ever did as a child, but she just wouldn’t stop no matter how many times she was told to. So one day, after Val, who was about seven, ate the letters off my father’s birthday cake, my mom mixed up a fresh batch of frosting, sat Val at the table and told her to eat all of it. After about a quarter of the bowl, Valerie was crying and feeling sick, so Mom said she should go to her room. It wasn’t until her wedding years later that Val ate frosting again.”
“But what does that have to do with you?” Ranger asked.
Stephanie turned even redder in her embarrassment and pressed her face into Ranger’s chest. “I finished eating the bowl of frosting and asked Mom for more.”
Ranger’s chest bounced up and down under Stephanie’s head as he laughed. Reaching down, he tipped her chin up and kissed her. “Only you, Babe. Only you.”
End