The Giant Forest - COMPLETED - True to life adventures of preteens.

Getting Lost One Crumb at a Time

Sybil overheard Mousi think out loud that she was going back to the cabin to get some leftovers to pass out to any stray animals she might come across. His sizeable belly began to rumble and he got an idea. He had a secret stash in his backpack. Gummies, chips, chocolates and peanut butter cups. Gummies are Aimi's favorite. Roci loves chips. Mousi will nibble on chocolates any time. And Sycamore smears peanut butter on any and everything - celery, carrots, bread, even on his eggs. Sybil's favorite was M&Ms. All of them - peanut, milk chocolate, crisps, almond, pretzels, red, white & blue on Independence Day, red and green at Christma, orange and black on Halloween, pink and white on Valentine's Day ... Sybil was particularly proud that he knew of all the different variations. One of his essays at school was on M&Ms. " Mars and Murrie, the co-creators of the candy ..." the essay went. Sybil even bought the DVD of the M&M movie. Sybil also thought to himself, "I always want to have something to share with my friends. One for them, one for me," Sybil snickered.

Sybil pulled the zipper to the left on the front pouch of his Darth Vader backpack and stuck his hand inside. He was embarrassed to still have a Star Wars character backpack. But his grandparents gave it to him for a birthday present just a couple of weeks before summer vacation ended. Sybil didn't have the heart to refuse their kindness. He loved them. They loved him. But they didn't understand well about American culture having come from the old country. They were also slow to see Sybil grow up. Finally, unlike his parents who gave him his own credit card account and kept it flush with cash that he could use as he pleased, his grandparents didn't have a lot of money and when they did spend money, it was on him, their precious grandson. Instead of wearing this evil character with shame, Sybil decided he would wear it as a badge of love to show his appreciation to the unconditional love he felt from his grandparents.

Exasperated, Sybil sucked air in and he felt his puffy cheeks grew. Nobody around him would have noticed. The pocket on his backpack was not that big. Big enough for him to put both hands in but not leave any room to root around. With one hand inside he could dig. He dug. But it was empty! He found a pair of fingernail clippers and some earbuds from an old pair of earphones that his mommy had brought him from a recent trip. She got them off the airplane. Sybil didn't see his mother often. And when he did, she was never the warm and fuzzy type. No hugs. Just small gifts from the various places her job took her. Sybil's heart never felt as full as his belly did.

Horrified, Sybil grumbled loudly, "I have nothing to eat, uh, to share with my friends." He corrected himself mid sentence. Food was his way to connect with others and for others to connect with him ... and for him to fill a void in his own life.

Then he remembered. "According to the website, the Cosmos will be open after the evening worship service for 30 minutes. And, Daddy always makes sure I have enough money in my camp account. I'll skip the worship service and go wait outside the door for the canteen to open. I'll be first in line and I'll stock up. I won't let my friends down." For sure, he would not let himself down either.

Sybil ran, more like waddled out of his cabin, turned to go left and huffed and puffed his way up the hill past the tire swing and the huge multi-camper teeter totter that nobody would let him play on, towards the Cosmos.

The Cosmos wasn't there!

"Huh? Uh? How can this be? Where's the Cosmos?!" Sybil thought out loud. "Over the hill, past the playground and to the right."

Or was it to the left? Or to the right, after you come out of the cabin? Sybil got flustered. "When my belly grumbles, my head gets muddled," he thought out loud. He turned around to retrace his steps, go back past the teeter totter and tire swing and back to his cabin. But they were not there either!

"What is going on here?" Sybil paused and took a deep breath. "Breathe in. Breathe out," he murmured. As he took in one deep breath a delightful smell wafted his way. "Fresh cookies!! Mt Hermon is going to surprise us all with fresh cookies!" Sybil forgot instantly that he might be lost.

Instead Sybil committed to following his nose. After all it had never let him down.

Oblivious to his surroundings Sybil appeared almost as if drunk as he rocked side to side and, at least in his own mind, floated towards the heavenly smell. He had seen both his mom and dad lose control when drinking. He imitated their actions when he ate.

Sybil saw smoke coming out of a building that he didn't recognize.

"It's dark now. It's probably the cafeteria. That's why!" He smacked his own leg hard enough for it to sting. "The Cosmos is closed so they can give us warm cookies. I wonder if there will be cold milk, too. Or vanilla ice cream so we can make our own cookies and cream ice cream sandwiches... " His mind wandered where it usually did ... towards food. Unlike Hansel and Gretel who hoped crumbs of food would lead them home, crumbs of food took Sybil away.

When Sybil walked in to what he thought was the cafeteria a different aroma smacked him in the face so hard, even at his size, he nearly fell backward. It was not the smell of warm snicker doodles, chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies. Not peanut butter or sugar or gingerbread cookies either! And he most certainly was NOT in the cafeteria.