Princess Lolly, part 2

Once upon a time, Princess Lolly was skipping happily through the gardens at her parents’ castle in Candy Land.

“How are you this evening, Princess Lolly?” asked her mother, Queen Frostine.

“I’m good. How are you?”

“I’m doing well. My word, you’re looking very sticky this evening!”

“Yeah,” said Princess Lolly, smiling happily.

“What fun things have you been up to that made you so sticky?”

“Well, I will tell you, Mommy.”

And this is her story:

Princess Lolly loved to visit her friends in Candy Land, and she decided that she would visit them all on this bright, lovely day.

First she visited Plumpy in the Plum Forest. Plumpy’s favorite food is plums, which he liked to pick from the tree and eat in one bite. Princess Lolly loved to eat those plums, too, but she didn’t pick them off the tree first. She simply walked up to the tree and bit a plum right off the branch.

As anyone who has tried it knows, this is a very messy way to eat a plum. As she bit, the juice dripped out of her mouth and down her chin and cheeks. This made her face very, very sticky.

Next Princess Lolly visited Mr. Mint in the Peppermint Forest. Mr. Mint’s was a lumberjack, cutting down peppermint stick trees and loading them up to haul away. Princess Lolly was too young to help him chop down the trees, but she loved to help him carry the peppermint sticks. And sometimes she would hug one of those trees, just for the sheer happiness of it.

Hugging and carrying those peppermint sticks made her arms and her torso very, very sticky.

A short walk away from the Peppermint Forest, Princess Lolly’s friend Jolly was waiting in the Gumdrop Mountains. Large gumdrops cover the land, and there is only one travelable way through the mountains: the Gumdrop Pass. So naturally, when Princess Lolly visits Jolly, that’s the way she goes, skipping across the gumdrops in the pass.

Unfortunately, gumdrops are not very strong, and sometimes they collapse under the weight of hopping feet. So Princess Lolly found herself sinking into a large purple gumdrop, all the way up to her belly button. After she pried herself up out of the goo, she continued on her way. But her legs and feet were very, very sticky.

Next she made her way to Grandma Nutt’s house. Grandma Nutt was famous for her peanut brittle, which she made by hand almost every day. When Princess Lolly went to visit, Grandma Nutt was stirring a batch in her giant pot with her best wooden spoon.

Princess Lolly preferred to be a little more hands-on. Though the brittle was warm, it was not too hot, and Princess Lolly reached in to stir it with her arms. And when they poured it out to cool, she spread it not with a spatula but with her hands. By the time Princess Lolly left Grandma Nutt’s house, her arms and hands were very, very sticky.

In fact, at this point, Princess Lolly’s face, arms, hands, torso, legs, and feet were all very, very sticky.

The day was nearing its end, and there was just enough time to visit Gloppy in the Molasses Swamp. She dove into the swamp and swam happily. So even if she hadn’t been sticky before, by the time she was done at the Molasses Swamp, she was—from head to foot—very, very sticky indeed.

Finally, Princess Lolly returned home to her mother, Queen Frostine.

“Hello, Mommy,” said Princess Lolly.

“Hello. How are you this evening, Princess Lolly?” asked Queen Frostine. And after Princess Lolly had finished telling about her day, Queen Frostine declared with a smile, “I think, my dear, that it is time for a bath!”

However, Queen Frostine did not have any water. In fact, all she had was the Ice Cream Sea. So at the end of the day, after a thorough bath in a vast ocean of ice cream, Princess Lolly remained very, very sticky.

The End