I want to feel like a real writer for once so I'm dedicating this short story to my parents who have given me a wonderful sense of humor to keep my spirits up. And to Mrs. Campbell who first taught me how to write.
Phillip had always been stuck to the rest of his family, and their constant presence was starting to agitate him. Immobilized by cellophane walls and held fast at the tail which was inconveniently stuck into his brother, Shane's breast, he couldn't even turn himself over. He just watched the world with the one eye facing out and a mind overflowing with curiosity. Phillip yearned to see the world but in the short span of his existence he rarely ever saw anything other than the box in front of him. Luck and a large marshmallow spewing snake had placed him at the edge of his family so that whenever the number of boxes to his right dwindled to three or less he could get a glimpse of the world beyond. Things moved, made noise and took boxes away constantly. Since they had arrived on their shelf Phillip had always wished for a spot right on the edge; nearer to the movement and noise that plagued his thoughts.
Compared to the thoughts excited in Phillip by the world beyond, his family's thoughts were infinitely less interesting. They spent their copious free time memorizing nutrition facts and ingredients printed on the box that claimed their entire view. It bore all the ideas that they chose to live according to, that they must always have 200 mg of sugar and 0 mg of protein and of course that Marshmallow Peeps must always be a low-fat snack. Phillip had no clue what they were thinking but he couldn't avoid it. Being physically attached right to someone's heart gave you a pretty good understanding of them, inside and out. Feelings traveled especially well down the family. Mostly there was just the dreary feeling of complacent reverence and occasionally a bit of agitation in response to his insatiable curiosity. He sometimes considered that they only scorned his interest for a lack of a better view themselves and that maybe when the box preceding theirs was removed they might find a world that was more interesting to them than meditating over a few sentences that never changed in meaning. Until the moment when he could touch the world and not just his barriers of cardboard and plastic Phillip thought he could bear the gravity of their thoughts and when that day arrived he hoped that maybe with a change of heart his family would join him in the adventures he was to have.
Phillip had no way to measure time, he knew that sometimes the lights and the noise ceased but he felt the time of light, noise and motion was much longer. The light had just arrived and murmurs of sound were starting to pass by when the box in front of them was suddenly removed. Phillip's rejoicing was almost entirely drowned out by the shock and terror emanating from his family. They had known of the world beyond from his thoughts but they were now acutely aware of their exposure, the precipitous drop before them and perhaps most keenly felt was the loss of their precious text. Phillip could hear his father's trembling prayer to be delivered from their plight and for the safe return of their saving words and guide. Momentarily their prayers and the wishes of Phillip were all answered. To the temporary horror of his family their box was removed from the shelf and placed in a bag with the other box. Phillip was in awe of all he saw. He thought that there was nothing more wonderful in the world than movement and he relished the feeling that he had dreamed about endlessly. They stopped and started, turned and accelerated, rose up and fell down and there was noise surrounding him always.
After a while the movement stopped and Phillip though desperately curious to examine his new surrounding and to be set at liberty from his cellophane enclosure and the unbearably distressing attitude his family had assumed. To his relief the movement suddenly returned and they were pulled into the open. Phillip was delighted and his anticipation only increased from observing how often their box was being handled. He dared not hope that they would be free so soon but the creature broke the plastic just below him and his anticipation was proved not to be in vain. Fresh air filled the box as it was opened and for the first time Phillip smelled aromas other than that of sugar and corn syrup. They were light and intermingling, the scents of the entire world, it seemed had all been let in at once and just for him. He watched in admiration as the creature reached in and separated one Peep to give her freedom, but his admiration suddenly turned to horror and fear as the creature lifted her into the air and without warning removed her head with it's terrifying teeth. Phillip plainly saw the disgusting saliva running down her side, ruining her crystalline coat and those vicious teeth besmirched with yellow pigment.
He could think of nothing but escape but for all of his screaming and agitation nothing could posses his feet to move. "No!" he cried aloud. "I need to live! I have to see the world! I was never meant to die! All I have seen is the inside of this box and those useless words!" At that moment he felt his father calm himself and direct his words towards Phillip. "Maybe if you had read those words more and endeavored to understand them you would not be so afraid right now. Have you considered that maybe what they were telling us all along was that this was our future and our place in the world, in the grand plan?" Phillip struggled and fought with all his might, whatever his father thought he had not intended this to be his future. He knew that those silly words they had studied were no substitute for the real world even if he would never feel it. Even their feeling of certainly, of purpose, of security in their fate could never compare with the reality that he saw through plastic walls every day. When his father was taken he felt his resolution falter for just a moment and felt the fear that still resided in him despite his courage and faith. He hadn't escaped it at all. Phillip was taken after Shane and he screamed at the top of his lungs "What was the point?! Why did I dream of adventure and the world beyond if I was just made to be food for some monster?!"
Bits and pieces fell down and dissolved. As Phillip's pieces fell on top of his family's he screamed in agony with them though for a very different reason. He had just been freed, let into the world and was now entombed again, his chance for a real life gone forever and it pained him more than being reduced to moistened shreds. As the pieces of him dissolved he calmed and just began to think "I was just food, all along. Despite my dreams and hopes for a better life, I was always just food for something else. What was the point? Did my life have more meaning than just being a low-fat snack? What about my ambition to live? Doesn't that mean anything?" His thoughts swirled around in stomach acid and were slowly digested. As his body became part of his captors he felt the thoughts swirling through monsters head too "What is the meaning of life? There are so many ideas and I don't know what is right. Where do I go when I die?" As he disappeared Phillip whispered "You are just food, food for someone else who doesn't understand it either."
The End
The title is taken from the bowl of petunias in Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
This story was inspired by a journal I wrote in fifth grade in Mrs. Campbell's class as a creative writing assignment. It was originally titled The Peeps.
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