One Thousand Lollipops

by Emma Laybourn

  Before Sam could answer, he heard a horrified voice behind him. “Sam! What on earth are you doing with all those lollipops?”

  It was his Mum.

  “I was just carrying this box inside for Hanif’s dad,” said Sam.

  “For Hanif’s Dad? I don’t think so! That’s your box, Sam! It’s got Tufty pictures stuck all over it! Dad told me it was full of your old cars – but it’s full of lollipops!”

  “It’s not my fault –” Sam began.

  “You’ve made me look a fool!” said Mum in a low, angry voice, as she swept up a handful of sticky leaflets. “I’ve come here to tell everyone not to eat sweets, and I find you throwing lollipops all over the playground!”

  “Mum, you don’t understand–”

  “I understand perfectly! I heard what that child was singing. Sam, Sam, the lollipop man!”

  “It’s just a silly nickname,” said Sam helplessly.

  “Is it indeed?” snapped Mum. “And is that why they were saying you’ve got loads of lollipops again? You’ve got some explaining to do! I am really cross, Sam. I’ll talk to you later – and I’ll want the truth!”

  Mum turned her back on him and strode into school. Sam was left sitting dejectedly with Tufty Toothbrush in the middle of a carpet of lollipops.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  When Sam stood up, lollipops stuck to his trousers.

  “Stupid things,” he muttered. He kicked at the pile, and lollipops stuck to his shoe.

  Half of them had come unwrapped as they bounced around the playground in the lollipop explosion. They were sticking to everything.

  Hanif hurried over to him with his own carton of lollipops. He put it down. “Your Mum was mad, wasn’t she?” he said sympathetically. “I can see why you didn’t want to tell her.”

  Sam closed his eyes and groaned. Mum had said she wanted the truth – but when she heard it, the truth would make her even angrier. How could he tell her that he’d entered a competition to win a thousand lollipops, and then tried to eat as many as he could before giving the rest away?

  “She’ll never forgive me.”

  “Don’t worry! She’ll get over it,” said Hanif. “Mums always do.” He picked up a clump of lollipops. They were all stuck together, like a rainbow hedgehog with white spines.

  “I don’t think we can put these in the bran tub,” Hanif said ruefully. “They’re so sticky you could build models with them. No glue needed. Twizzo lollipops – the modelling kit you can eat!”

  Sam knew Hanif wanted to cheer him up, so he tried to laugh.

  “Look, I’m making a monster,” said Hanif, jamming lollipops together. “Here’s its head, and here’s its tail!”

  Sam gazed at the blotchy, spiky lump of orange and purple lollipops in Hanif’s hands.

  “A monster,” he said thoughtfully. Then he looked at Tufty Toothbrush. Blotchy, spiky, orange and purple. “Could we make him?”

  “I don’t see why not,” said Hanif cheerfully. “They’re both yuck colour. Let’s have a go.” He began to tear the wrappers off lollipops.

  Sam stared hard at Tufty Toothbrush. Then he picked up lollipops and began to stick them together. Hanif was right: they didn’t need glue. Some of the small children gathered round to watch.

  Sam carried a sticky armful of lollipops over to the bench nearby. He sat Tufty up on it and began to build in earnest.

  He built two stumpy legs, and a blotchy body on top of them. As fast as Hanif unwrapped lollipops, he added them to the model. It grew two fat arms and eight lollipop fingers.

  Last of all, he shaped a head, with twenty-four lollipop sticks pointing at the sky – just like Tufty’s bristles.

  Sam’s lollipop monster was twice the size of the real Tufty, who stared at it, appalled.

  “It needs a face,” said Sam. “Have you got a pen?”

  “Wait a minute,” said Hanif. He ran inside, returning with a felt tip pen. Sam used it to draw a fearsome face onto a piece of cardboard torn from the box. It had round, glaring eyes, and a manic grin even scarier than the real Tufty’s.

  He stuck the cardboard to the monster’s head. Last of all, he slapped a Tufty leaflet on each sticky lollipop hand.

  By now he was surrounded by a giggling crowd of infants. More and more came pouring out of school to see the lollipop monster.

  “What’s that?” they wanted to know.

  “It’s Tufty Toothbrush.”

  “He’s funny! Can we eat him?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “My Mum will tell you why not,” said Sam. “She’s got a stall inside, all about looking after your teeth.”

  “Seen it,” said the smallest infant. “It’s boring. This is much better.” He poked the lollipop monster, and laughed. “Do you know a story about Tufty Toothbrush?”

  “My Mum does,” said Sam. “She knows loads of stories. You should go and ask her.”

  As he spoke, he saw Mum walking across the playground towards him.

  “What’s going on? Nobody’s coming to my stall,” she complained. “I was just trying to get some of them interested, when they all ran outside!”

  Then she saw the lollipop monster. She stopped dead and stared at it in amazement. “Sam? Is this meant to be some kind of joke?”

  “This is the surprise I was keeping in the wardrobe,” said Sam with dignity. “You didn’t give me time to explain. I thought a Tufty Toothbrush made out of lollipops might get the little kids interested in your stall.”

  “Mrs Toothbrush!” yelled the smallest child. “Tell us a Tufty story!”

  “What?” Mum was bemused.

  “Tufty Toothbrush story!” insisted the infant, clinging to Mum’s legs.

  “Now’s your chance,” said Sam. “They’re all listening to you.”

  Mum sat down on the bench next to the lollipop monster. She sat the real Tufty on her knee, took a deep breath, and began.

  “Once upon a time there was a little toothbrush called Tufty. He had lovely clean, white bristles. But, oh dear! He was very unhappy. Nobody wanted to play with him…”

  “Heard this one,” Sam muttered to Hanif. “All the bunnies and squirrels get toothache, until Tufty comes to the rescue. Come on! Let’s go inside.”

  “I want to go on the bouncy castle,” said Hanif. “I haven’t been on one in years. Are you coming?”

  Sam shook his head. He didn’t feel at all bouncy – quite the opposite. He felt shattered. He was worn out – and totally sick of lollipops.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Sam mooched around the fair. He picked over the books on the bookstall, and listened to the school band honking like a group of grumpy geese.

  Mum’s stall was deserted. Sam slunk past it to the toy stall, where he found a fluffy pig to buy for Laura. At least she would be happy…

  Mum should be happy now too, with her Tufty Toothbrush monster and her audience of children. But Sam wasn’t happy at all. His day had been ruined by Mum’s anger. He felt dreadful. It wasn’t fair!

  He ought to feel better now that he’d made the Tufty monster, and given her a good excuse for all the lollipops. She should be feeling guilty now, not him.

  Sam sighed.

  He knew what the real trouble was. He’d lied to Mum. He’d tricked her. Even though it was to save his own skin, it still made him feel awful.

  He supposed he should have told her as soon as he won the lollipops. But she would have been so horrified at the idea…

  Mrs Vernon called out from the raffle table.

  “Do you want to buy a raffle ticket, Sam? You could win the biggest bar of chocolate in the world!”

  Sam looked at the prize. It was a truly enormous bar of chocolate. For a moment he was tempted. But just imagine what Mum would say if he won that!

  Glumly, he shook his head and trudged away. He steered clear of the bran tub and the sideshows, where children were sucking the giant rainbow lollipops they’d just won and pulling doubtful fa
ces. The sickly smell of prune and mango hung in the air.

  Sam sighed. It wasn’t as if he wanted a lollipop himself – but why did he have to be the only child in the whole school who couldn’t eat one? Why couldn’t he enter a lollipop competition, if he wanted to?

  “Sam! Sam!”

  Mum was waving at him across the school hall.

  “Oh, Sam,” she exclaimed as she hurried over to him. “That went really well! They were all spellbound. They asked loads of questions about Tufty. It was a brilliant idea of yours!”

  “It was Hanif’s idea really,” said Sam.

  “Well, it worked! There’s just one problem... Sam, you might not be very happy about this…”

  “What?”

  “The little ones liked Tufty Toothbrush so much that I had to give him to the school.”

  “The real Tufty?”

  “Yes. Your Tufty! Do you mind very much?”

  “Not very much,” said Sam. “I was getting a bit old for him anyway.”

  “Thank you, Sam.” Mum put an arm round his shoulders. “So you bought all those lollipops off Hanif’s Dad, just for me? That must have cost a lot of money!”

  “Not exactly,” said Sam. He hesitated. It would be so easy to say that Hanif’s Dad hadn’t wanted them. It wouldn’t even be a lie.

  But it wouldn’t be the real truth, either. And the real truth was – that he was tired of hiding his love of all things sweet.

  Sam took a deep breath. “Mum?”

  “Yes?”

  “About those lollipops? Actually, I won them in a colouring competition. I won a thousand of them.”

  “A thousand lollipops?” Mum gasped in disbelief. She let go of his shoulder and turned to stare at him. “You entered a competition, knowing that the prize would be a thousand lollipops? But, Sam – I thought you didn’t like sweets!”

  “I love sweets!” Sam burst out. “I love most sweets, anyway. But those lollipops were horrible. I couldn’t eat them.”

  “Just as well!” said Mum sternly. “Imagine what a thousand lollipops would do to your teeth! Oh, Sam! I’m very disappointed.”

  Sam felt more miserable than before. He’d told Mum the truth – and just as he’d feared, the truth had made things even worse.

  He wanted to defend himself. But just then Mrs Vernon stood on a chair and rang a bell, so there was no chance to say anything.

  “Attention, please!” shouted Mrs Vernon. “It’s time to draw the raffle. Tickets ready, everyone? Then let’s see who the lucky winner is.”

  She held out a box of tickets to the smallest infant, who pulled one out.

  Mrs Vernon unfolded it. “And the winner of the first prize, the biggest bar of chocolate in the world, is….”

  She paused.

  “… everybody’s favourite dentist. Mrs Hunter!”

  All the children turned and stared at Mum, amazed. So did Sam.

  “What?” he said. “You entered a competition to win the biggest bar of chocolate in the world? Oh, Mum! I’m very disappointed.”

  Mum had gone red. “I didn’t think I’d actually win,” she said in a small voice.

  “You’ll have to give it back,” said Sam.

  “Oh! But – but I haven’t had chocolate in years!”

  “Of course you haven’t. You don’t like chocolate.”

  “No-o... Not really,” said Mum longingly.

  Sam’s eyes widened. “Mum? Are you trying to tell me you secretly like chocolate?”

  “I know I’m not supposed to,” groaned Mum. “I am a dentist, after all. Oh, dear!”

  “So that’s why you bought a raffle ticket!”

  “It was a moment of weakness. I just couldn’t resist – but this is so embarrassing! What on earth will everybody think? What should I do?”

  “Don’t worry,” said Sam. “I’ve got experience in dealing with unwanted prizes.”

  He marched up to Mrs Vernon, who handed over the mammoth bar of chocolate. Cradling it carefully in both arms, Sam turned to face the crowd.

  He spoke out firmly.

  “Because the little children listened to her stories so politely, my Mum’s decided to share the chocolate with them,” he announced. The children began to cheer as he went on. “You can have a piece each – as long as you promise to practise cleaning your teeth as soon as you get home, just the way she told you!”

  “I promise!” “I promise!” shouted the infants, rushing forward eagerly.

  “Hold out your hands!” said Sam. He broke the enormous bar into chunks and doled them out.

  At last, when everybody had a piece, he went back to Mum.

  “Well, at least I’m popular,” sighed Mum. She looked wistful.

  Sam grinned. “Hold out your hand!” he said. “There’s still quite a lot of it left.”

  “Oh!” said Mum longingly. “But I shouldn’t.”

  “Yes, you should. I think we should both be allowed sweet treats – not every day, but maybe just on Saturdays. There’s nothing wrong with liking chocolate.”

  “I suppose once a week wouldn’t be too bad for us,” said Mum. She popped a piece of chocolate in her mouth and rolled her eyes in ecstasy. “Mmm! That tastes so good!”

  “Better than celery,” he agreed.

  “But Sam, if we do have sweets on Saturdays, I’m going to set a rule. We have to clean our teeth straight afterwards.”

  “Fine,” said Sam. “I’ve got a rule too.”

  “What’s that?”

  Sam grinned as he broke off a piece of chocolate for himself. “Absolutely NO prune and mango lollipops!”

  THE END

  Thank you for reading One Thousand Lollipops.

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