Every once in a while, there comes a story that just needs to be told. The following is one of those stories. Written with siblings and young cousins with varying degrees of involvement from plot development to suggesting the word "butt" numerous times, this story follows a young crumb and his adventures in the world.
The Story of Bob the Crumb
By: E, C, K, J & B
Once upon a time there was a crumb
named Bob. Well, he wasn’t always a
crumb. He used to be part of a granola
bar. A little oatmeal, a little honey, a
little granola. Bob had all of
these. One day, as Timmy, the owner of
the granola bar, tried to eat it as a snack, Bob got scared and jumped
off. He hoped for a better future on the
floor. Little did he know the trials
that lay ahead…
Bob decided
to walk and try to find some other crumbs and a safe place to stay. After what felt like hours and hours of
travelling, Bob finally came across other crumbs. But why were they running?
“The
mouse! The mouse!” they screamed. “The mouse is coming!”
“The what?”
Bob asked.
“The
MOUSE!”
Although he
didn’t know who or what this “mouse” was, he decided that it was best to
run. Bob ran cross the floor until he
spotted a hiding place, a small hole in the wall. He sped toward it, please with his discovery.
“This will
be the perfect place for me to hide from the mouse.”
Bob
scurried inside and wondered why none of the other crumbs were following
him. Once he looked at his surrounding,
however, he realized his safe haven wasn’t so safe after all. He saw terrified crumbs huddled in the
corner, staring at him with hi worried eyes.
Some were old, and some were no more than baby crumblets, but all were
terrified. Before he could leave, he
heard the pitter patter of footsteps making their way to the hole in the
wall. Bob headed into a small dark
corner of the cave.
No sooner
was he out of sight then the owner of the footsteps arrived at the entrance of
the hole. Although he had never laid
eyes on the creature before, he knew without a doubt who the creature of the
door was: the mouse.
“Hello my
darlings,” the mouse said in a devilish British accent, “Glad to see you
decided to stick around.”
The crumbs
quivered at the sound of his voice and huddled closer together. The crumblets whimpered.
“I have
good news and bad news. The good news is
I won’t eat you now.”
One crumb
let out a sigh of relief.
“The bad
news is that you will all be in my stomach within the hour!”
The mouse
laughed an evil, maniacal laugh and exited as quickly as he had come.
Bob knew it
was only mater of minutes before the mouse returned to eat them all. He approached the other crumbs.
“Quick, we
have to get out of here before the mouse takes a fork to us!”
“We can’t
leave,” Chester the crumb piped up, “or else the mouse will eat our king!”
“He’s
trapped the king under a cereal bowl!” another crumb whispered.
“Well maybe
we can escape and save the king!” We’ll
have to act fast,” Bob urged his fellow crumbs.
“I have a plan.”
Bob
explained his plan to the other crumbs and they put it into action immediately.
When the
mouse returned five minutes later with more little crumbs in his grasp,
everything appeared the same.
“Time for
tea and crumb-pets!”
The mouse
cackled at his own lame pun. As he moved
toward the corner to gobble up the crumbs, there was a sudden SNAP! The mouse found himself trapped in the
mousetrap that the crave crumbs had found and dragged into position only
moments before.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
screamed the mouse.
“YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!”
screamed the crumbs.
And off
they went to go free the king from his cereal bowl prison. And that’s just what they did. When they found the cereal bowl, they all
worked together to tip it over and free the king.
“Who do I
have to thank for my freedom?” the king asked his crumb subjects.
”That would
be Bob, your honor,” Chester explained, pointing at the heroic crumb. “He saved
all of us.”
“Wow Bob!”
said the king, “You are a true hero. I
hope that you will serve by my side and protect all the crumbs from dangers
like that evil mouse.”
As the king
mentioned the mouse, Bob remembered that they had left the mouse in the trap.
“Excuse me,
I have one thing left to do.”
Bob
scurried back to the mouse’s hole. Bob
entered the hole and approached the trapped mouse cautiously.
“What are
you going to do now?” the mouse sighed sadly.
“I’m going
to free you.”
“What?”
said the mouse.
“WHAT?”
said the crumbs, who had followed Bob.
“What?!”
said the king, shocked and surprised.
“Why would you free the mouse? He
tried to hurt us all!”
“Well,”
said Bob, “That is true, but only because he was hungry.”
“That is true,” said the mouse, “I don’t know
what else to eat.”
Bob had an
idea.
“Perhaps we
can come up with a solution. We can free
the mouse if he promises to only eat cheese and leave the crumbs alone.”
Everyone
agreed to this plan, for cheese was not alive.
The crumbs were happy, the mouse was happy, and Bob was happy. And because of Bob’s heroic, worthy and
clever actions, the king awarded him the Brave and Honorable Crumb award, which
came with a medal. They placed the huge
medal around Bob’s neck, but because of his small size and the medal’s large
size, he was nearly crushed.
“Take it
off! Take it off!” Bob squeaked from
under the medal. Once he was free, Bob
laughed.
“I think
this will fit on my shelf better than around my neck!”
Everyone
joined in laughing.
“And that’s
why the mouse always eats cheese,” announced Chester.
“What?”
said everyone else.
THE END.
