ON Monday, it was very hot. The thermometer read: 113 degrees Fahrenheit. Everyone was back on duty watering candies, picking candies, trimming branches, eating, and guarding the gingerbread drawbridge leading to the Candy Castle as usual. Everyone was working up a sweat in his work.
At nighttime it was very stormy. A forecast for tomorrow said it was going to get very windy; a hurricane was forming and was going to make a direct hit on the borderline of South Hilleria and Candy Land.
The forecast said that on Wednesday there was going to be a lot of sun, and every now and then a sun shower or two. The forecast said that Thursday, which was the first day of Fall, it would snow. Also, the hurricane would be hitting Candy Land that day. The worst of the hurricane would be hitting Molasses Swamp and the West of the Candy Castle. It should be moving at 27 miles per hour (mph), 823 millibars (mb), SE (southeast), and head toward Earth in the other dimension. Friday had no forecast.
Tuesday arrived. Winds began to build up in the mountains. Land began falling in the far Western mountains, about 1,997 miles from the Candy Castle. Terminator, as the hurricane was called, was about 3,700 miles in diameter. The eye was centered on the point 374 miles from the edge of Candy Land's mountains. Effects from the hurricane Terminator were already being received in Candy Land, mostly from the outflow.
The effects being received in Candy Land were flash floods, hail, the hail about the size of a balloon, probably, maybe larger. The trees were being wrapped around each other by the wind, even if the trees were 50 feet apart! Not redwood trees, not that tall -- trees about 20 - 30 feet tall, maybe shorter, like 15 feet and under, around that size.
At 5:00 P.M. on Tuesday evening, our hurricane, Terminator, seemed to be getting shorter by the minute. Every minute Terminator got stronger by 1 millibar. It was now at 345 millibars. At 6:00 in the evening, while the people living in Candy Land were eating dinner, the hurricane was only 499 miles away. The plants were dying and the water outside the people's homes was over 10 feet deep.
The people's homes were being crushed beneath the flood's rapid waves. Candy Land was losing the fight. It really couldn't hold out much longer.
Eight o'clock in the morning on Wednesday, the hurricane changed course. But it wasn't gone for good. It would come back.
The hurricane was now heading North a 7 mph. It was 725 miles away, moving at -- 785 millibars and slowing down. Why? Why do you think it's slowing down? To turn around again? To form another hurricane? Why?
The hurricane was heading for the Hillerian Islands Steep, High, and Low. These islands were beautiful and deserted. Luscious fruits and pretty flowers grew there. The only animals inhabiting them were birds, monkeys, and lizards (chameleons, iguanas). It would have been a tragedy for these islands to be destroyed. But what can you do? These things happen.
The sun was out and Candy Land was a happy place again. All that was received from the hurricane Terminator was the outflow, now only a little drizzly and showery. The sun remained out all day, and soon, by 8:00 at night, Terminator was off the map.
Thursday was the first day of Fall. It was very sunny for most of the day. At about two o'clock in the afternoon it started to snow. Terminator was back! Now it was moving at 63 mph. The hurricane wasn't as small as before; it was probably bigger than Russia -- 10,000 miles in diameter, going at -1,967 millibars SSW (south, southwest). That would be a direct hit on Lollipop Woods!
The worst of Terminator was still out at sea, but not far from Candy Castle -- only 2 miles from it. The Candy Castle would miss the worst of the storm, but most of the others would not! In fact, Gramma Nutt was dead meat! Her house was in the path of the storm's eye, which had three tornadoes in store just for her.
The wind soon began picking up molasses from Molasses Swamp and throwing it around. By 10:00 at night, all of Candy Land had been splattered with molasses.
Gramma Nutt had not much time now -- only a few seconds until her end! The house started wobbling. The nails holding the ceiling and walls together came loose! Then the ceiling ripped off, her windows shattered, and she was scrambling out the door when her house suddenly flew up into the air, as she was thrown out of her house from the harsh winds and landed on the ground, which had no more water on it because the tornadoes had sucked it all up.
Gramma cried all night and soon fell asleep. Morning came quickly. Everyone got up bright and early, showered, and started working.
One planter was planting a sugar plum tree, and as he was placing the tree in the hole he was planting it in, something jumped out on top of the planter, killing him. He didn't see what had jumped on him, for it all happened too quickly, and before he knew it he was dead.
This began happening all over Candy Land. Wherever there was a hole, big or small, these things jumped out, killing whomever they could. If you could have ever seen the movie "The Thing," if you remember the thing in it, well, that's sort of what these things looked like.
While Gramma Nutt was watering her peanut brittle plants, one large "thing" stood in front of her, shadowing the place where Gramma Nutt stood. Gramma Nutt looked up at the "thing" and screamed.
Plumpy, one of the Sugar Plum Trolls, was walking to the Candy Castle looking for more work to do. Obviously he had finished his other work and was going to ask the king, King Candy, if there was anything else he could do. Anyway, he head Gramma Nutt scream and ran over to see what was wrong. "What's wrong?" asked Plumpy.
The "thing" roared some terrible, terrifying roar, making Plumpy look up at it too. He screamed and grabbed Gramma Nutt's hand, and they made a run for it.
They ran to the king's castle, yelling things like, "Hurry!" and "Come on!" to each other, or yelling cries of help like "Help!" "We're being invaded by monsters!" or "They're coming to get us!"
When they got to the castle, they slammed the door in the "thing's" face and locked it. They fell against the door in relief. Suddenly, the "thing" shot two long tentacles through the door. Plumpy and Gramma Nutt jumped off the door, while the tentacles swished through the air, trying to grab them. Then the two tentacles clung to the wall.
Suddenly, the tentacles ripped a hole in the side of the castle, so the rest of it -- the "thing" -- could get in.
Plumpy and Gramma Nutt ran into the king's bedroom and shut the door behind them. "Whew!" they said. "That was a close one!"
"WHAT'S THIS ABOUT!?!" demanded the king, angrily. "I WAS JUST GETTING CHANGED, AND YOU BARGE IN ON ME LIKE THIS! THERE IS NOTHING SO IMPORTANT THAT SHOULD MAKE YOU RUN INTO MY ROOM LIKE THIS! YOU HEAR ME? YOU HEAR ME?! THERE IS NO GOOD REASON TO COME AND BARGE IN ON ME LIKE THIS! AND IF I EVER NEED TO TELL YOU THAT AGAIN, -- !"
"We're sorry," said Gramma Nutt. "It's just --"
Just then, the door to the king's bedroom fell down, and there stood the "thing" that had chased Plumpy and Gramma to this very place.
"--that!" continued Gramma.
"Now, that is a good reason," said King Candy.
They all ran to the back door, Gramma, Plumpy, and the king, who was at the time still in his underwear. The king, the most frightened one of them all, pushed Plumpy and Gramma Nutt out of his way, yelling "Me first!"
The "thing" followed them, knocking objects in its path out of its way. Plumpy, King Candy, and Gramma Nutt all ran to the cellar.
When they got there, they realized that they should go warn the others. They ran across the meadow full of minty fresh grass on which many beautiful candy roses and chocolate chrysanthemums grew. From there they ran to the Lollipop Woods to warn Princess Lolly.
She wasn't there, though. This made Plumpy and the others think she was visiting someone else. So they went to the Ice Cream Sea to warn Queen Frostine, but when they got there Princess Lolly and Queen Frostine were nowhere to be seen.
Maybe they both were visiting someone else like Gloppy, Mr. Mint, or Jolly, the Greeter of the Gumdrop Mountains. But when they went to those places they found no one. Wherever they were, they weren't anywhere around here. Maybe they were taking a quick swim. Who knows?
"Where is everyone?" Plumpy asked himself. "Where did they go?"
Then they spotted a hole in the ground, possibly a passageway of some sort, leading to lost cities like Atlantis or El Dorado. They went inside and saw a cavern, bigger than you can possibly imagine.
Inside about 10 miles was a hole. The hole was so deep you could not see the bottom. It was approximately 57,220 feet and 6 inches deep.
The cavern was very damp, all except the hole, which was soaking. No one knew what was inside the hole because the people who did never survived to tell anyone. They all died.
Gramma, Plumpy, and King Candy split up to see if anyone was there.
"I wonder if anyone's down there," Plumpy thought. So he went back to the castle to get some twizzler rope. One he got the rope he started back.
The "thing" had gotten lost in Lollipop Woods when it was chasing Gramma Nutt and the others and had just found its way out. It saw Plumpy going toward the cave and ran after him. The "thing" ate Plumpy, and I'll say, you wouldn't want to be eaten by this thing; why, he's totally made out of disgusting substances, snot and loose bowels.
"Help! Help me!" he cried over and over again. He began to disintegrate into the "thing" and became part of it in no time. "Hyielp! Queng Kondyi! Whaari aar yuuowu? Queng Kongdyi! Hyielp!" shouted Plumpy as loud as he could. He was trying to say: "Help! King Candy! Where are you? Help!" He said it funny because his mouth was almost gone.
Meanwhile, King Candy was having trouble of his own. He had just found the hole and was trying to climb down it. He was getting many bruises and scraps as he was slipping and falling.
Then he heard someone call out in a low voice that seemed to be coming from below. "Help!" the voice cried, echoing off the walls of the cavern, which made it sound quite spooky.
Suddenly, King Candy lost his balance and fell to his doom.
He didn't die, but he was very badly scraped and bruised. He may have had a broken bone, but I'm not too sure. When he hit the bottom of the hole he became unconscious.
About an hour later, he awoke. He saw loose bowels and snot under glass domes with force fields surrounding them. Under the glass domes where the mixture of loose bowels and snot was, you could see faint images of King Candy's friends. When King Candy saw this he heard some"thing" come down the hole. King Candy ran and hide behind a rock.
The "things," I should say, were giving Plumpy and Gramma Nutt some glass domes of their own. Thousands, millions of "things" started coming down the hole and as soon as they were gone King Candy made a run for it. He started climbing up the hole.
When he was almost through climbing up the hole, he scraped his knee on the raggedy side. "Ouch!" he cried. His cry echoed off the cavern's walls. A "thing" heard the echoing of his cry and looked around to see where it was coming from.
The "thing's" eyes were just positioning on King Candy when King Candy stepped on a loose rock, which fell out of its soil, landing on the "thing's" head. The "thing" was dead. Stone dead.
Another "thing" heard its friend fall onto the ground and came from another part of the cavern to have a look. When he saw his dead friend, he became furiously angry. He began to look for who or whatever did this awful thing.
The "thing," after looking everywhere else, came to look up the hole. When he saw King Candy, he figured this is the one; this is the one who had killed his friend. The "thing" angrily jumped onto the side of the hole, after King Candy.
When King Candy finished climbing back up the hole, the "thing" was right behind him. The king made a long dash to the cavern entrance just before the "thing" got him.
Soon, King Candy was at the castle.
At nighttime it was very stormy. A forecast for tomorrow said it was going to get very windy; a hurricane was forming and was going to make a direct hit on the borderline of South Hilleria and Candy Land.
The forecast said that on Wednesday there was going to be a lot of sun, and every now and then a sun shower or two. The forecast said that Thursday, which was the first day of Fall, it would snow. Also, the hurricane would be hitting Candy Land that day. The worst of the hurricane would be hitting Molasses Swamp and the West of the Candy Castle. It should be moving at 27 miles per hour (mph), 823 millibars (mb), SE (southeast), and head toward Earth in the other dimension. Friday had no forecast.
...
Tuesday arrived. Winds began to build up in the mountains. Land began falling in the far Western mountains, about 1,997 miles from the Candy Castle. Terminator, as the hurricane was called, was about 3,700 miles in diameter. The eye was centered on the point 374 miles from the edge of Candy Land's mountains. Effects from the hurricane Terminator were already being received in Candy Land, mostly from the outflow.
The effects being received in Candy Land were flash floods, hail, the hail about the size of a balloon, probably, maybe larger. The trees were being wrapped around each other by the wind, even if the trees were 50 feet apart! Not redwood trees, not that tall -- trees about 20 - 30 feet tall, maybe shorter, like 15 feet and under, around that size.
At 5:00 P.M. on Tuesday evening, our hurricane, Terminator, seemed to be getting shorter by the minute. Every minute Terminator got stronger by 1 millibar. It was now at 345 millibars. At 6:00 in the evening, while the people living in Candy Land were eating dinner, the hurricane was only 499 miles away. The plants were dying and the water outside the people's homes was over 10 feet deep.
The people's homes were being crushed beneath the flood's rapid waves. Candy Land was losing the fight. It really couldn't hold out much longer.
...
Eight o'clock in the morning on Wednesday, the hurricane changed course. But it wasn't gone for good. It would come back.
The hurricane was now heading North a 7 mph. It was 725 miles away, moving at -- 785 millibars and slowing down. Why? Why do you think it's slowing down? To turn around again? To form another hurricane? Why?
The hurricane was heading for the Hillerian Islands Steep, High, and Low. These islands were beautiful and deserted. Luscious fruits and pretty flowers grew there. The only animals inhabiting them were birds, monkeys, and lizards (chameleons, iguanas). It would have been a tragedy for these islands to be destroyed. But what can you do? These things happen.
The sun was out and Candy Land was a happy place again. All that was received from the hurricane Terminator was the outflow, now only a little drizzly and showery. The sun remained out all day, and soon, by 8:00 at night, Terminator was off the map.
...
Thursday was the first day of Fall. It was very sunny for most of the day. At about two o'clock in the afternoon it started to snow. Terminator was back! Now it was moving at 63 mph. The hurricane wasn't as small as before; it was probably bigger than Russia -- 10,000 miles in diameter, going at -1,967 millibars SSW (south, southwest). That would be a direct hit on Lollipop Woods!
The worst of Terminator was still out at sea, but not far from Candy Castle -- only 2 miles from it. The Candy Castle would miss the worst of the storm, but most of the others would not! In fact, Gramma Nutt was dead meat! Her house was in the path of the storm's eye, which had three tornadoes in store just for her.
The wind soon began picking up molasses from Molasses Swamp and throwing it around. By 10:00 at night, all of Candy Land had been splattered with molasses.
Gramma Nutt had not much time now -- only a few seconds until her end! The house started wobbling. The nails holding the ceiling and walls together came loose! Then the ceiling ripped off, her windows shattered, and she was scrambling out the door when her house suddenly flew up into the air, as she was thrown out of her house from the harsh winds and landed on the ground, which had no more water on it because the tornadoes had sucked it all up.
Gramma cried all night and soon fell asleep. Morning came quickly. Everyone got up bright and early, showered, and started working.
One planter was planting a sugar plum tree, and as he was placing the tree in the hole he was planting it in, something jumped out on top of the planter, killing him. He didn't see what had jumped on him, for it all happened too quickly, and before he knew it he was dead.
This began happening all over Candy Land. Wherever there was a hole, big or small, these things jumped out, killing whomever they could. If you could have ever seen the movie "The Thing," if you remember the thing in it, well, that's sort of what these things looked like.
While Gramma Nutt was watering her peanut brittle plants, one large "thing" stood in front of her, shadowing the place where Gramma Nutt stood. Gramma Nutt looked up at the "thing" and screamed.
Plumpy, one of the Sugar Plum Trolls, was walking to the Candy Castle looking for more work to do. Obviously he had finished his other work and was going to ask the king, King Candy, if there was anything else he could do. Anyway, he head Gramma Nutt scream and ran over to see what was wrong. "What's wrong?" asked Plumpy.
The "thing" roared some terrible, terrifying roar, making Plumpy look up at it too. He screamed and grabbed Gramma Nutt's hand, and they made a run for it.
They ran to the king's castle, yelling things like, "Hurry!" and "Come on!" to each other, or yelling cries of help like "Help!" "We're being invaded by monsters!" or "They're coming to get us!"
When they got to the castle, they slammed the door in the "thing's" face and locked it. They fell against the door in relief. Suddenly, the "thing" shot two long tentacles through the door. Plumpy and Gramma Nutt jumped off the door, while the tentacles swished through the air, trying to grab them. Then the two tentacles clung to the wall.
Suddenly, the tentacles ripped a hole in the side of the castle, so the rest of it -- the "thing" -- could get in.
Plumpy and Gramma Nutt ran into the king's bedroom and shut the door behind them. "Whew!" they said. "That was a close one!"
"WHAT'S THIS ABOUT!?!" demanded the king, angrily. "I WAS JUST GETTING CHANGED, AND YOU BARGE IN ON ME LIKE THIS! THERE IS NOTHING SO IMPORTANT THAT SHOULD MAKE YOU RUN INTO MY ROOM LIKE THIS! YOU HEAR ME? YOU HEAR ME?! THERE IS NO GOOD REASON TO COME AND BARGE IN ON ME LIKE THIS! AND IF I EVER NEED TO TELL YOU THAT AGAIN, -- !"
"We're sorry," said Gramma Nutt. "It's just --"
Just then, the door to the king's bedroom fell down, and there stood the "thing" that had chased Plumpy and Gramma to this very place.
"--that!" continued Gramma.
"Now, that is a good reason," said King Candy.
They all ran to the back door, Gramma, Plumpy, and the king, who was at the time still in his underwear. The king, the most frightened one of them all, pushed Plumpy and Gramma Nutt out of his way, yelling "Me first!"
The "thing" followed them, knocking objects in its path out of its way. Plumpy, King Candy, and Gramma Nutt all ran to the cellar.
When they got there, they realized that they should go warn the others. They ran across the meadow full of minty fresh grass on which many beautiful candy roses and chocolate chrysanthemums grew. From there they ran to the Lollipop Woods to warn Princess Lolly.
She wasn't there, though. This made Plumpy and the others think she was visiting someone else. So they went to the Ice Cream Sea to warn Queen Frostine, but when they got there Princess Lolly and Queen Frostine were nowhere to be seen.
Maybe they both were visiting someone else like Gloppy, Mr. Mint, or Jolly, the Greeter of the Gumdrop Mountains. But when they went to those places they found no one. Wherever they were, they weren't anywhere around here. Maybe they were taking a quick swim. Who knows?
"Where is everyone?" Plumpy asked himself. "Where did they go?"
Then they spotted a hole in the ground, possibly a passageway of some sort, leading to lost cities like Atlantis or El Dorado. They went inside and saw a cavern, bigger than you can possibly imagine.
Inside about 10 miles was a hole. The hole was so deep you could not see the bottom. It was approximately 57,220 feet and 6 inches deep.
The cavern was very damp, all except the hole, which was soaking. No one knew what was inside the hole because the people who did never survived to tell anyone. They all died.
Gramma, Plumpy, and King Candy split up to see if anyone was there.
"I wonder if anyone's down there," Plumpy thought. So he went back to the castle to get some twizzler rope. One he got the rope he started back.
The "thing" had gotten lost in Lollipop Woods when it was chasing Gramma Nutt and the others and had just found its way out. It saw Plumpy going toward the cave and ran after him. The "thing" ate Plumpy, and I'll say, you wouldn't want to be eaten by this thing; why, he's totally made out of disgusting substances, snot and loose bowels.
"Help! Help me!" he cried over and over again. He began to disintegrate into the "thing" and became part of it in no time. "Hyielp! Queng Kondyi! Whaari aar yuuowu? Queng Kongdyi! Hyielp!" shouted Plumpy as loud as he could. He was trying to say: "Help! King Candy! Where are you? Help!" He said it funny because his mouth was almost gone.
Meanwhile, King Candy was having trouble of his own. He had just found the hole and was trying to climb down it. He was getting many bruises and scraps as he was slipping and falling.
Then he heard someone call out in a low voice that seemed to be coming from below. "Help!" the voice cried, echoing off the walls of the cavern, which made it sound quite spooky.
Suddenly, King Candy lost his balance and fell to his doom.
He didn't die, but he was very badly scraped and bruised. He may have had a broken bone, but I'm not too sure. When he hit the bottom of the hole he became unconscious.
About an hour later, he awoke. He saw loose bowels and snot under glass domes with force fields surrounding them. Under the glass domes where the mixture of loose bowels and snot was, you could see faint images of King Candy's friends. When King Candy saw this he heard some"thing" come down the hole. King Candy ran and hide behind a rock.
The "things," I should say, were giving Plumpy and Gramma Nutt some glass domes of their own. Thousands, millions of "things" started coming down the hole and as soon as they were gone King Candy made a run for it. He started climbing up the hole.
When he was almost through climbing up the hole, he scraped his knee on the raggedy side. "Ouch!" he cried. His cry echoed off the cavern's walls. A "thing" heard the echoing of his cry and looked around to see where it was coming from.
The "thing's" eyes were just positioning on King Candy when King Candy stepped on a loose rock, which fell out of its soil, landing on the "thing's" head. The "thing" was dead. Stone dead.
Another "thing" heard its friend fall onto the ground and came from another part of the cavern to have a look. When he saw his dead friend, he became furiously angry. He began to look for who or whatever did this awful thing.
The "thing," after looking everywhere else, came to look up the hole. When he saw King Candy, he figured this is the one; this is the one who had killed his friend. The "thing" angrily jumped onto the side of the hole, after King Candy.
When King Candy finished climbing back up the hole, the "thing" was right behind him. The king made a long dash to the cavern entrance just before the "thing" got him.
Soon, King Candy was at the castle.