Johnny and the Sparkips

            by Jacob Friedman

 

            Early one morning a boy named Johnny awoke to the bright sun shining through his window.  The blinding light reminded him of a dream he had the night before.  A small green troll about the size of a fork took him out of bed and led him to a rocket ship. The two of them blasted off into space, zooming through bright balls of light. 

 

 

The small green troll looked up at Johnny and said, “These here balls of light are all pieces of candy.  I highly recommend you taste one of them, they’re delicious!”

But Johnny was unsure.  “But I thought that stars were huge flaming balls of gas, hotter than anything on earth!”

“Oh no my friend, they are the most exquisite treat to be found anywhere.  They taste like a sunset!  Here, let’s stop and have some, shall we?”  And the small green troll brought the spacecraft to a stop.

 

 

He opened a door and a walkway appeared from the spaceship heading towards a group of bright balls of light.  Johnny followed the small green troll along the path towards the cluster of floating dots.  When he got close enough, Johnny could see that each dot was only as big as a peanut, but they shined and sparkled more beautifully than diamonds.

 

 

He took one of them and popped it into his mouth.  It was absolutely amazing! “Wow!” Johnny said. “I’ve never had anything like it before!”

“These are the finest candy in the universe, they’re called sparkips.  What’s really great about them is they never run out.  There’s an infinite supply of sparkips, so anybody can have as much as they like!  They’re also the only candy with vitamins and minerals in them, so they are sweet and healthy!”

“Cool!  That means my mom will let me eat them!  Can I take them home with me?”

 

 

“Well sure you can, and I have just the right thing for you to put them in.  Take this magical green pouch, for it possesses a wonderful power.  You can fit anything in this pouch and it will stay the same size and weight, so you can fill it with all the sparkips you want!”

Johnny took the pouch and began collecting all the sparkips, eating one or two along the way.  He must have collected a thousand sparkips by the time he was done.

“Now take those home and you can eat them whenever you like.”

“Thanks a lot!”

 

 

            Johnny lay in bed wishing his dream had been real.  He could almost still taste the wonderful flavor of the sparkips from his dream.  He sighed, yawned, and stretched- but as he stretched his hand touched something under his pillow.  Not recognizing the feel of it, he moved his pillow and discovered the magical green pouch!  He opened it up and the inside looked like a beautiful sky filled with sparkips.

 

 

            He was so excited he didn’t know what to do.  He wanted to tell everyone about this new treat.  He ran to find his mother to share the news.  But when he told her, she did not believe him.  He tried to explain, but she refused to pay attention, and continued about her business.

 

 

            Johnny would not let his mother get him down.  He dashed out the front door and ran down the street.  Every time he saw a person, he would give them a handful of sparkips.  After all, there was plenty to go around.  He gave them to mothers, fathers, children, old people, babies, rich people, poor people, even to cats and dogs!  Johnny was so happy to feed all the grateful people and animals that he continued to do it for years and years.  And every now and then, in the middle of the night, the small green troll comes to visit Johnny and deliver more sparkips.