The Legend of the Gingerbread Man

Once upon a time, lay a gingerbread house in a gingerbread town full of nice gingerbread folk. There was a boy in that town- no bigger than a pinky- he'd not yet grown into a man, not even a button. The townspeople all knew him as they did one another. Often with warnings of tales they'd heard from his mother.

"He's an odd one, that boy," the women would say. "Reading books on the legend of the Gingerbread Man that we can still recall, even today."

What they all didn't understand was that he was learning about the world, and what he saw was something bigger than a river and fox's mouth. Beyond just a story, that was crafted to be scary, he saw a world full of opportunity ready for his merry.

"There surely is much more out there for me than to be eaten. And that I must see," he whispered before bed.

As he grew, the town stopped talking to him and his outlandish dreams. 'What more could he want?' they thought. 'How foolish that boy is!'

No longer could he stand being estranged and so different as he packed up his stuff and a few gumdrops in his carry. He started on his journey and looked one last time at the town he'd be leaving and the folk hardly caring.

"Here I go. There will be no turning back. Surely I won't fall into a fox's mouth," he muttered. There was a stretch of a path, just outside of their room, that led down some corridor empty and barren. So he started on down it when he heard someone talking and then someone running and soon someone yelling.

The gingerbread boy ran around the corner on his short little legs and peeked at the sound of a girl that was crying.

"I want to go home!" she was saying with her face in her knees. There was another, much older, crouching to meet her at her level.

"I know, sweetie. But this is home now. You're gonna make friends here, I promise. It was just a bad day."

Little did they know as they picked themselves up, the gingerbread boy had disappeared in her bag. It thumped and it shook for a while before he felt it stop. Then the zipper flew open to the girl's brightly lit room.

"Ouch!" he yelped when she dumped it. She was startled. Then very merry.

"I'm not a man, I'm a gingerbread boy!"

His response made her jump back. She was sure he just spoke. When he stood and dusted off she knew this wasn't a joke. "How did you speak? Aren't you a cookie? Do you have batteries? Or maybe something called a chip or something?"

"I don't have chips. But I did grow a button. There's two gumdrops in my bag. Why do you ask something so silly?"

The little girl laughed very loudly. Loud enough to call her mother because the footsteps drawing near had led the girl into a panic. "Hide! Hurry, quick! Or she'll eat you up quick!"

So he did what she said. He hid behind her books. When the woman had left he snuck back out to some sort of smell. "What do you got there?"

The little girl looked down at the hot chocolate served with care and drew a new idea, thinking the boy was not aware. "You've never been in a hot spring before? Jump right on in. It's warm and cozy~ You'll love it! It's relaxing!"

The gingerbread boy took a look once more, then he recalled some old tales and he scoffed in a fury. "I did my studying of the strangeness of this world back in my town where the books are lettered in frosting. If you were good, you would do the same too, then you'd know the old story that would make me say no to you. Friends don't eat friends. So if you want any be kinder. I don't have any either, and I would like to make this one matter."

The girl gave him a smile and giggled a bit. "Now you're just silly. But I like you a bit." Then she disappeared out of the room and came back with a box of a gingerbread house small enough to fit a mouse. "I used to eat cookies, but I guess I won't anymore because I made a new friend and I want him to stay a long time more."

So they built up his house, laughing and sharing a gumdrop for each aside the dreams that were carried.