Black Licorice

 
Haley had an amazing secret and so did her mother. Yet, neither of them ever talked about it. Haley knew better than to bring it up with her mother. Whenever she tried her mother would say,
“The answer is no! And I don’t want to hear about it again!” 
Haley was curious of course and wanted to find out why she wasn’t allowed to have black licorice in the house! One day she would discover what mom’s dark secret was, but until then it would remain a mystery.

 Her own secret began while she was reading the Guinness book of World Records in her bedroom. One afternoon a gust of wind came in through the window and swooshed the book out of Haley’s hands .She heard a faint tune carried by the wind.
Black Licorice, black licorice,
Don’t eat if you can’t stop.
Too much of a good thing
Will turn you into
A gooey black blimp filled blob.”

 Haley wondered where the tune came from when she saw her book swirling though the air and finally landing open face up on her bed. She read the caption.
“Dulce Fennel World’s record holder for most black licorice sticks ever collected.”
Her eyes zeroed in on a picture of a young girl, standing outside her bedroom. The curious thing was that the girl’s bedroom was filled to the brim with black swirl sticks of licorice.

 “Now this was weird!” she thought. This could be the answer to mom’s rules of no black licorice... There was a reason for it. She thought for a moment and then exclaimed,
"Dulce Fennel’s world record. I am going to collect black licorice sticks and beat her record... Suddenly she stopped in her tracks, but how am I going to hide all that licorice from mom. 

“.Hmmm”, she thought and got that mischievous look in her eye.
Haley had to keep her secret from her mother.  Black licorice was forbidden in the house. But what she wanted to know was why? It was a puzzle worth solving and a Dulce Fennel’s world record was worth beating.

 The next day Haley took her allowance that she had been saving up and purchased some black licorice. She was too nervous to taste it so when she arrived home she threw it in her closet and locked it with her special padlock. Every week she continued with the same routine for three months and watched as her pile of black licorice twists grew and grew until there was no more space in the closet. Then she removed the padlock from the closet and drilled a hole in her bedroom door and locked it.  She continued pretending there was nothing going on.

 Haley’s mother was becoming suspicious. She wondered if Haley were hiding early Christmas presents in the closet, or maybe she didn’t want to wash her dirty socks and was hiding them in there.  And when her mom noticed the padlock and a hole in the door she had had enough!

 Haley Karlson, I want to talk with you right now!”
Haley was playing in the kitchen when she heard her mother calling her. She ran down the hall where she found her mother glaring at her.
“Haley Karlson, you open this door this minute!”
“But mom” she protested.
“Not another word”. Said her mother.” Open it!”

 Haley lowered her head sheepishly and began turning the padlock’s dial. 2 to the right, 4 to the left and 55. There was a soft click and Haley removed the lock. As she tried to open the door she could barely move it. The room was over stuffed with licorice sticks. Her mother pushed and tried to force the door open.
“Oh my word Haley why won’t this door open?”
Her mother took a deep whiff of the sweet smelling candy through the crack in the door. Her eyes became bulgy and round.“Aaaah” she said, and such a lovely smell indeed. She stood upright, smiled at Haley with glazed over eyes and asked,“Honey, do you have black licorice in there?

 In a guilty tone Haley replied,”Yes mom I am sorry but”….. And before she could finish her mother shoved the door open, squeezed her way into the room and slammed the door shut. There was silence for a minute then Haley heard crazy laughter and a strange tune coming from the room. She recognized it immediately!

 Black Licorice. Black Licorice,
Don’t taste it if you can’t stop.
Too much of a good thing.
Will turn you into
A gooey black blimp filled blob.

 Next she heard strange gulping, and chewing and swallowing sounds coming from the room. Haley peered through the hole in the door and saw something that horrified her. .. Her mother was in an uncontrollable state she was hopping and bopping in the room with tons of black licorice sticks hanging from her mouth. And she looked different. Her color was darker. She had squiggly black lines running through her body. Her skin developed into a thin transparent bubble-like substance and she began to take the shape of a giant black bubble of goo. In an instant there was nothing left of her mother except two beady eyes and a few wisps of hair that resembled that of her mothers. Otherwise she seemed to have turned into a blimpy blob of black goo.

Haley screamed,”Mom, Where are you?”
Then she picked up the phone, dialed 911 and the person on the other line calmly said, “Hello, how can I help you?” Haley quickly screamed into the phone. “My name is Haley. My mom was stuffing licorice sticks in her mouth and she couldn’t or wouldn’t stop. Now she’s blown up and liable to burst any minute. I mean she is filled with black goo and has beady eyes. Help come quick!”

 “Don’t worry honey”, the woman said.” Someone will be right there.” In a few minutes the paramedics arrived but by that time her mother’s over blown bubble body filled the entire bedroom and continued it’s gooey adventure throughout the rest of the house. Martha, the paramedic knew just what to do.” Mary, get over here”. Now get rid of this black licorice immediately. The woman is out of control. Hook up the licorice de-tox Mary brought in a huge vacuum sucker and began sucking up any left over licorice sticks in the bedroom.  They told Mrs. Karlson not to worry and that they were going to pump her stomach.  Slowly they began the procedure one while globs of black goo came pouring out of her stomach into the big holding tank... Finally the job was done and Haley’s mom could rest.

 “What happened?” said Mrs. Karlson?”
I don’t know. You suddenly started devouring the licorice and nothing would stop you, said Haley. 
“I am sorry” said her mother. But, do you see why I can’t have it in the house.  It just sets off an uncontrollable craving and I become licorice monster eater. I become sub human and I just act like a herd of starving grunting pigs. And before you know it I look like a giant blimp.  We all have problems and things we just can’t seem to control. For me it is just better not to have the stuff around...  The temptation just becomes too great!

 “Mom, I wish you would have told me before and I wouldn’t have been collecting all that black licorice for the Guinness book of world records.
“Is that what you were doing all this time? You were collecting black licorice sticks to beat a world record?”
Oh honey, I am sorry. I shouldn’t have been ashamed to tell. I guess I was worried that you might have inherited the same problem...

 “Hey mom, said Haley?”
“Yes, said her mom?”
"How about I collect giant red ants instead?” Her mother looked at her with a ghastly expression on her face.” I don’t think so dear, she replied.” Maybe teddy bears instead?” Haley began to smile and her mother started laughing.

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