Life In The Gumball Machine – Vinnie And Gordy’s Return

by Maureen Bartone

  He shouted up at the clearing pink sky.

  “Okay, Sammie. It’s time to go now. No more games. This is serious. We have no time left. Now quit fooling around. Do you hear me?”

  His words were met with silence. He crouched to his knees and covered his face with his hands. He couldn’t hold back his tears.

  45

  Patrick’s Frosty Return

  SAMMIE WAITED patiently for Patrick and Joe to return. His side no longer hurt and he was feeling much better, but the noise and excitement of Violet’s arrival made him feel weak again.

  He looked at his sister. “Daisy. Where are Patrick and Joe? What’s taking them so long?”

  “Violet said they’re on their way. We’re just waiting.”

  Sammie walked over and sat next to Violet who smiled when she saw him. She put her arm around him and said, “Sammie! You’re back! Joe will be so happy.”

  Daisy scrunched her face and looked at Michael. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Maybe her brain is still a little frozen.”

  They were interrupted by more banging and ran to crowd around the gumball machine.

  “This should be Patrick,” Violet said.

  “Okay. Back away you two. Daisy and I will get him out,” Michael said.

  Violet and Sammie scooted back and out of the way. They waited and watched as the gumball machine started jerking and shaking.

  Daisy saw a tiny body being sucked down and around the tunnel. She recognized Patrick’s shoes.

  “Yep. It’s Patrick!”

  “Okay. Get ready to grab him,” Michael said.

  After a few loud bangs, the latch at the bottom flew open. Patrick’s tiny body slid out, and Daisy and Michael yanked him until he was completely out of the machine.

  Sammie shouted to them. “Hey. How come he’s still tiny? Why isn’t he growing back to normal?”

  Michael opened his mouth to answer but didn’t need to. Patrick’s tiny body started to shake and shudder.

  “H-i-c-c-u-p!”

  Violet’s eyes widened. She’d never seen anything like it. “Did I do that too?” she asked.

  Daisy and Michael looked at her briefly and nodded.

  “Wow. That’s freaky,” she said.

  After he returned to his normal size, Michael and Daisy pulled on Patrick’s arms until he was in a sitting position. His dazed look lingered for a moment. Then he blinked and looked around.

  Michael slapped him on his back. “Welcome back, dude!”

  The slap seemed to wake him up. “Oh! I made it!” Patrick smiled and rubbed his fingers over his icy face. When he realized his glasses weren’t on his nose, he panicked. “My glasses!”

  Daisy smiled and reached near his ear. She had to tug a bit, but his glasses came loose from his frozen hair. She wiped them with the edge of her t-shirt and handed them back to him.

  “Phew!” He put them on and saw Sammie.

  “Sammie! You made it back. Joe will be so relieved. He’s been so worried about you.”

  Daisy and Michael again gave each other a confused look.

  Daisy shook her head at Violet and Patrick. “You guys, Sammie has been here with us in this cruddy old shed, the whole time. What are you talking about?”

  “No, I wasn’t!” Sammie shouted. “I told you. I was up there too!”

  Michael raised his eyebrows. “Okay. If you say so.”

  Patrick interrupted Michael and turned to Sammie. “Joe’s up there waiting for you Sammie. He doesn’t want to come back home without you.”

  “What!?”

  Sammie stood up and walked over to the rumbling gumball machine. He placed his hands on the clear globe and rested his face on it as he spoke to his big brother.

  “Sammie! Don’t touch that,” Daisy said, as she ran to stop him.

  “Don’t touch him, Daisy!” Michael shouted. “He looks fine. But we don’t need you getting sucked up there.”

  Daisy pulled her hands back in time. She didn’t understand why Sammie wasn’t getting sucked in, but at this point, there wasn’t much she understood about this gumball machine. She left Sammie alone to talk to Joe.

  “Joe,” Sammie whispered. “It’s me, Sammie. I’m here with Daisy, Violet, Patrick, and Michael. I’m okay. You can come home now. Please, Joe. Can you hear me?”

  Sammie’s voice cracked as the tears streamed down his face. He wanted his big brother back with him. He was afraid Joe wouldn’t hear him and wouldn’t come home. Even though Joe was mean to him sometimes, he couldn’t think of life without him. He was his one and only big brother.

  Through his tears, he called to Joe, his voice getting louder and louder.

  “P-l-e-a-s-e Joe! Come home−now!”

  The gumball machine stopped rumbling and fell still. The children looked at each other. Patrick’s stomach growled, and everyone glared at him. He wrapped his arms around his waist and shrugged his shoulders.

  “What? I’m starving!”

  He never went this long without eating.

  Ignoring him, Daisy said. “The shake-down! It stopped! Michael−quick! Put in another nickel!”

  Just then, they heard the sounds of a truck pulling up outside the shed.

  Michael put his finger to his lips. “Shh!” He jumped up to peek out the window.

  He turned to the others and whispered, “It’s the moving van. They’re back. We need to get Joe out of there−now!”

  Daisy reached in for another nickel, knelt down and put it in. She turned the crank, and the rumbling resumed.

  “That was close!” Patrick whispered. They settled in and waited for Joe to come home.

  46

  The Voice

  UP IN THE GUMBALL MACHINE, Joe was sitting on the ground, his legs crossed when he felt the rumbling stop. The gumball world fell silent and panic gripped his throat. He wasn’t positive, but he thought Patrick said the shake-down only lasts for about fifteen minutes. He wondered how long he’d been sitting near the hill waiting for Sammie. He looked around and realized how completely alone he was.

  He wanted to continue waiting for Sammie, but he also knew he couldn’t wait much longer. If he didn’t leave soon, he may never escape. He jumped up and felt a buzzing under his feet. As he took a step, he thought he heard a voice. He stopped and tilted his head to listen. It was muffled, but he definitely heard someone talking. He blinked and strained to hear the words.

  Sammie!

  He let out a breath. The buzzing under his feet continued as the muffled voice told him to come home. He couldn’t hear everything, but he definitely heard that. There were more muffled words and the voice grew louder.

  “Come home, Joe!”

  Joe nodded. Yep. That was his little brother. Sammie was home waiting for him. He jumped in the air.

  “Yes! Whoo-hoo! I’m coming home Sammie! I’m coming home! Whoo-hoo!”

  Relief flooded his body. Sammie was home and safe. This was the greatest moment of his life. No−the greatest moment will be when he gets back home and sees his little brother and sister. That will be the greatest moment.

  He stood there waiting for the gumball world to get going. He knew he needed more than a little buzzing. He needed it to rumble and shake like it did before.

  He looked down at the latch and shouted. “Come on! Come on you guys! Put in another nickel. I’m ready to go!”

  He waited, but nothing happened.

  He looked up at the pink bubblegum sky and raised his hands.

  “Come on! I’m ready. Let’s do this!”

  At that moment, the gumball world started to rumble and shake. It was subtle at first but quickly turned violent. The sky darkened and the wind picked up, as he heard an avalanche of gumballs rolling and crashing toward him from the hills.

  Joe panicked and turned to run toward the latch. He almost reached it but tripped and fell. He got up on one knee, and then the other. Putting one foot on the ground, he started to stand, but a huge rumble sent him head-first into the tunn
el.

  47

  Joe’s Coming!

  SAMMIE KNELT BESIDE the gumball machine, waiting and crying. Daisy and the others crowded around him, anxious for some sign of Joe’s return. After several minutes, the gumball machine made a loud bang and the kids backed away. The banging grew louder as the gumball machine started shaking and rocking back and forth, almost tipping on its side.

  Michael ran to the window to make sure no one could hear the loud noise. No one was out there and the truck was empty.

  Sammie never took his eyes off of the tunnel, and when he saw some tiny hands, he forgot to keep his voice down.

  “Here he comes!”

  “S-h-h!” Daisy whispered.

  They wanted to cheer, but instead, they moved closer to get a better look.

  “Uh-oh,” Patrick said. “He’s head-first!”

  “What?!” Michael peered closely at the tunnel. “Oh no! Not good! We’d better get ready.”

  Michael had everyone move back while he and Patrick positioned themselves near the latch and waited.

  48

  Joe’s Frosty Return

  JOE HAD ALWAYS BEEN GOOD at doing handstands. In fact, he could walk on his hands. But falling head-first down the tunnel of the gumball machine was like doing a handstand while spinning, swirling and then free-falling.

  He panicked. He wasn’t supposed to be going head-first! With his feet straight up behind him, and his head racing toward the bottom, he twisted and turned down and around the narrow tunnel.

  I must be going a hundred miles an hour!

  Joe remembered that Patrick had told him he needed to go feet-first with his arms above him, but now, he’d done the exact opposite and there was nothing he could do to change that. He wondered how bad his landing would be. He could only hope he came out in one piece. He squeezed his eyes to shut out the cold and did the only thing he could think of−scream!

  “A-a-h-h!”

  Man, it was cold. The searing frost covered him like an icy bedsheet. First, the ice crawled up and around his head and face, sealing his eyes and then his mouth, muffling his screams. It continued to crawl around his body, all the way up to his feet. He felt like an upside-down frozen mummy−and it hurt! He tried to relax his muscles and fade away, hoping this whole nightmare would end soon. He just wanted to get home.

  INSIDE THE HOT SHED, Michael and Patrick sat near the latch of the gumball machine, their hands in front of them, ready to brace Joe’s head and catch him so he wouldn’t crash onto the floor.

  Patrick was in a panic. “This is bad, you guys. Bad!”

  “Stop it, Patrick. Just keep quiet. You’re not helping,” Michael said.

  Patrick was making him more nervous than he already was.

  “Here he comes!” Daisy shouted. “Get ready!”

  They could no longer worry about whispering. Joe’s tiny body flew out of the latch, head-first into Patrick and Michael’s hands, saving him from hitting the floor, but the force of his frozen−and growing−body caused them to crash and tumble back, with Joe’s heavy body landing at the top of the pile.

  Daisy, Violet, and Sammie watched as Joe’s body jerked wildly.

  “H-i-c-c-u-p!”

  They ducked and dodged, as shards of ice broke into pieces, flying everywhere. Within seconds, Joe was back to his normal large size, and he was squishing Michael and Patrick.

  Violet shook her head. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She, Sammie, and Daisy ran to remove Joe’s big, frozen body off of the other two boys.

  “Ugh! He’s so heavy!” Patrick grunted as he pushed Joe’s big leg off of him. He and Michael sat up and caught their breath.

  Lying on the floor, Joe’s frozen body was stiff and unmoving, his eyes closed. Daisy and Violet started rubbing his hands, while the three boys began chipping away at the rest of the ice.

  After a few minutes, Joe started to move and his eyes blinked. He felt the warmth of the shed and it made him relax, although he still wasn’t quite sure where he was or what just happened.

  With one long blink, he opened his eyes to see the dark, wooden beams of the shed’s ceiling. Once he remembered where he was and why he lifted his head and tried to sit up.

  “Where’s Sammie? Is he here?”

  Sammie leaned in closer to Joe and said, “I’m right here, Joe. Did you hear me calling you?”

  Seeing his little brother, relief spread through to his bones. He reached over and grabbed his little brother, pulling him down and hugging him tightly.

  “Sammie! Yes, I did hear you! Thank you for doing that.” They looked at each other, as Joe continued. “I was so relieved to hear you were okay. I didn’t want to come home without you. I was so worried I’d lost you forever. I can’t believe you’re here!”

  Sammie pulled away and Joe sat up, rubbing his forehead as he looked around at everyone. “Wow. Was that a dream you guys?”

  Surrounded by the five kids, Joe watched as they all shook their heads and smiled.

  “No dream, Joe. Pretty amazing, right?” Patrick said.

  With the ice melting, water now dripped from Joe’s head. He wiped it as he nodded.

  “Pretty amazing.”

  49

  Time To Go Home

  AS JOE, PATRICK, AND VIOLET THAWED, the children sat near the gumball machine and talked and laughed as they reminisced about the magical experience that changed their lives.

  Joe, Patrick, and Violet told Daisy and Michael all about their trip up into the gumball machine, including Cecilia, the green peacock, and her magic blue lightning bolt. They told them about the gum-bull, (everyone laughed at Patrick over that story), and then, the big ride down Pudding Hill. They told them that Vinnie and Gordy had healed, and described their trip to the waterfall and how Sammie had disappeared.

  Patrick and Violet then talked about how worried they were when Joe refused to leave the gumball world without Sammie.

  “Whoa, wait a minute,” Michael said. “Why do you guys keep saying Sammie was up there with you?”

  “Yeah,” Daisy added. “He was with us the whole time. He never left our side−not even for a second. I was super worried because he was really sick. All he did was mumble and moan.”

  Michael nodded. “And sometimes he talked in his sleep, but, it’s true. He never left our side.”

  Sammie shook his head. “I was up there! Tell them you guys.”

  Joe, Violet, and Patrick all nodded.

  “Yep,” Violet said. “He was there. I should know. Cecilia threw him right into my lap.”

  “And why would I stay up there and refuse to come back down until I had him with me?” Joe added.

  Daisy and Michael looked at each other.

  “I’m so confused!” Daisy said.

  Sammie stood up, smiling, his arms stretched out in front of him. “It sounds like I was in two places at once. Do you know what that makes me?”

  Daisy smiled and rolled her eyes. “No. What does that make you?”

  Sammie’s eyes gleamed as he whispered to the group. “M-a-g-i-c.” He nodded his head. “Yep. Magic.”

  The kids threw their heads back and laughed. Sammie sat back down, grinning.

  “Yeah, right. You wish,” Daisy said, as she rubbed his head.

  But they all knew he was right. It was a magical world, and they’d made friends with magical gumball people. It was an experience that would be their little secret and they knew they’d never tell anyone else about it, mostly because no one would believe them.

  “Come on. Let’s get out of here and go home. It’s been a long day,” Michael said.

  “Yeah. I’m starving!” Patrick said.

  The others turned to him and shouted, “We know!”

  They stood up and dusted themselves off as they continued to re-live their great adventure. The more they talked about it, the more they laughed, and the louder they got. They’d completely forgotten they were hiding from the movers who were just outside.

  Their laugh
ter was silenced when a large, bearded man in a dirty, greasy t-shirt stormed through the shed’s door.

  “What in the name of Sam-Hill are you kids doing? You’re not supposed to be in here.”

  The big, sweaty man sneered at them, and they stared back, wide-eyed and speechless.

  The large man narrowed his eyes and pointed at Patrick, Violet, and Joe.

  “Say, how did you three get so wet? You weren’t playing around with the garden hoses out there, were you?”

  Michael walked to the front of the group. “No, sir. They just came from a waterfall.”

  The man scrunched his blubbery face and scowled. “Are you mocking me kid? Cuz’ I don’t take kindly to kids mocking me. It’s disrespectful.”

  “No, sir. I’m not mocking you.” Michael stood tall, unafraid.

  But the man had had enough. “That’s it.” He pointed his big, fat finger toward the door to the shed. “Out. Now.”

  The kids scrambled around the large man, ran past him and out the door. They gathered their bikes and the wagon and took off. Once they were far enough away from him, the kids looked back. The man had gone back to work, so the kids jumped in the air, whooping, and yelling, and laughing.

  Sammie turned to look back at the shed and saw four pretty, green birds swooping and soaring just above it. It looked like they were twinkling in the sunlight.

  “Hey, you guys! Look!”

  The others turned and saw the unusual birds fluttering overhead.

  “Wow,” Violet said. “They’re so pretty!”

  “They sure are,” Daisy said.

  Joe stretched out his hand toward his little brother. “Come on Sammie. Let’s go home.”

  Sammie continued to look at the shed as he slowly turned back toward Joe. He was so sad that he’d never see the gumball machine−or his two best friends, Gordy and Vinnie, ever again.

  They took a few steps toward home when Sammie saw movement from the corner of his eye. He turned and watched a second, younger man, wearing jeans and a white t-shirt, walk into the shed.

  “Look!” he shouted. “That guy’s probably going to take our gumball machine away.” He turned to the group. “Wait up. I’ll be right back.”