I’ve been swimming in this sea of sour gummy worms for ages now. Seriously, like three weeks maybe? I’ve nearly lost sight of the shore. It’s just bright orange, lime green, electric blue, and hot pink, sunshine yellow and neon red all about. Gorgeous really.
I asked my friends to come along. It looked like a lot of fun, something I hadn’t done before, maybe a fun adventure. It was something that I would definitely have jumped right into in my younger days, and I thought they would appreciate that, always reminiscing like they are.
I said to a couple of them, “Look! It’s a sea of sour gummy worms! Doesn’t that look great! Let’s just go for a little swim! Might be fun!”
They looked at me blankly. I tried to keep a fun, encouraging face, and said, expectantly, “Well?!”
Monica smiled and then said “Hey, remember that time we walked through the chocolate forest? That was funny right? I don’t know about swimming in gummy worms, but the chocolate forest was ah-mazing! All the chocolate right?! Yeah, that was great!”
I smiled and nodded, still wading in the gummy worms, in up to about my ankles. “Yeah, that was fun, this could be fun too. Let’s give it a go!”
Whitney said, in her hip German accent, “You know I don’t really eat sugar anymore. It’s not very gut for you, you know.” Whitney, who used to drag us to the candy shop every weekend. We bought a whole grocery bag full of candy once, just for the hell of it. But now it’s not good enough for her. So much for old times’ sake. All I could do was blink. I turned to Carla.
“For real, though! Look, taste this one, Carla! Feel how squishy it is! Wouldn’t it be a hoot to swim in!”
Carla tasted the the gummy worm I tossed to her. She nibbled the end thoughtfully. She smiled, “Yeah that’s not bad,” my eyebrows went up with my hopes. “That’s something I might consider doing in the future.” Eyebrows and hopes crashed back down.
“I’m already in, though! I didn’t mean three weeks from now, I’ve started now! This could be a fun thing for us all to do!” I cried. But I had already lost their attention. They were talking about something else that I couldn’t quite hear and they had started walking down the shore. With spiteful determination, I turned and faced the sour gummy sea. I stomped out until the gummies reached my knees and then I leapt out, arms outstretched into the rainbow of gelatinous worms.
The beach where I had started was sort of in a cove, and as I paddled and frolicked (swimming in gummy worms is not quite like normal swimming. You do float, but not quite as well as in water. It’s sort of between swimming and going through a ball pit, so frolicking is still definitely possible, even when you can’t reach the bottom), I noticed one of my other friends out on the shore to my right. She had always more tolerance for my strange notions, and had had some of her own. When others failed to appreciate me, she usually did. I waved and called out to her.
“Vanessa! Look! I’m swimming in a sea of sour gummy worms! Come join me!” She waved back and smiled. I knew she liked sour gummy worms, so I was hopeful I would finally have some company. But with a wave of nausea, I remembered that the last several things I had suggested to her had not gone over well. She hadn’t been thrilled with the sugar glass spectacles I recommended, and thought that the cotton candy wig I told her about had been cute, but not practical enough to really say she “liked” it. But still! We had both previously enjoyed sour gummy worms, and on a separate occasion, wading through a maple syrup swamp.
“Oh, that looks like fun! Let me go get my goggles!” She shouted back.
“That’s a good idea! Sometimes the sour sugar gets in and burns a little, but it’s still worth it! I am just having fun, so I won’t be far gone when you return!”
That was two weeks ago, and I haven’t heard back. I thought I saw her coming back over a dune and I jumped and waved, asking if she was coming along, that I was getting lonely, but she either must not have heard me or she decided a sea of sour gummy worms was just too much. So I bounce along alone.
Sometimes I think the gummy worms are coming alive and keeping me company. They’re always a lot of fun. Very sarcastic, sour gummy worms are. Just like you’d expect from a candy that makes you pucker. Other times, I start to think that maybe I’m becoming a sour gummy worm too. Part of me knows this isn’t really rational, but there are nights when the full moon shines down and my arms and legs wiggle about a lot like gummy worms, my knees and elbows the middle where the flavor and color changes. Sometimes each of my fingers are gummy worms too! But when I bite them, it hurts, so I don’t do that so much anymore.
I don’t regret coming out here, even though sometimes the sour sugar gets in my eye, and I’ve got a canker sore on my tongue. I just wish my friends had come along. Who would have known that candy could be so divisive? The gummy worms are my friends now. It’ll be alright.
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