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The Blackberry Popsicle

Charles Wiegand

    Jason walked happily along the road, oblivious to the hot sun, sucking on a blackberry popsicle. He had dark red popsicle juice smeared all around his lips and dripping onto and down his hands. This made for a sticky mess that was also collecting all the dust in the air as he walked along the sandy, dirt road. The delicious popsicle was more melted all over him than eaten but he didn’t care, he had a popsicle, a blackberry popsicle!
    He arrived at a traditional farmhouse with a wraparound porch, all painted white but had green trim that highlighted the details of the house. He knocked on the door, leaving reddish blackberry juice marks on the clean white paint. It was his friend Andy’s house.
    The door opened and it was Andy’s mom who greeted Jason, “Hi, Jason. Oh! My goodness, what’s that all over your face? And your hands? You’re quite a mess, young man. What have you been eating?”
    Jason happily chirped, “Oh, the most delicious blackberry popsicle ever!”
    “I see. Did you actually eat it? Or did you simply wipe it all over your face?” asked Andy’s mother, trying to not laugh too much.
    “I ate it. Oh, and some melted on my hands, see?” He looked proudly at his messy, dirty juice covered hands and waved them around in the air so she could see all of it. Drops of juice flung off in all directions.
    “Dear me! Jason, stop doing that! Okay, it also appears to have melted all over your face, too. Come inside and let me clean you up before you go out to play with the others.”
    “Oh, no! You can’t do that!” he said.
    “Why? You look like quite a little mess, sweetie.”
    “Hmm, maybe, but here’s what’s happening, okay? When the blackberry juice slides down my face I stick out my tongue, like thisÉ” he swiped his tongue around the outside of his lips, trying to reach the dirty blackberry popsicle juice.
    “Well, okay, yes I see how that can be fun,” Andy’s mother replied.
    “Yes, and I still get some of the blackberry juice even though the popsicle is gone!” Jason said, his eyes big and his smile shining like the sunshine. Andy’s mother couldn’t argue with that.
    “Okay, Jason, but I think you’ll just have a very dirty face before too long.”
    “It’s okay, I’m going outside now,” said Jason, determined to share his blackberry popsicle juice with his friends.
    “Yes, please, go outside and play with the other children, but try not to get your melted blackberry juice on them.”
    With a quick, happy “Okay!” he ran through the house and out the back door.
    Jason went out the sliding glass door leaving blackberry popsicle juice smeared on the glass and was out on the back patio before Andy’s mother could shout out, “Don’t touch anything!” Once on the patio Jason yelled to the other children, and they came running up to him.
    “Hey, Jason! Hehe, what’s all over your face?” asked Andy.
    “I think he was eating a popsicle, and he made a big mess!” said Andrea, another friend who had come over to play with them.
    Jason asked, “You guys want some? It’s blackberry popsicle, it’s delicious!”
    “How? You already ate it all, or smeared it all over your face,” said Andrea, with a little disappointment.
    “I have another,” he reached his hand into his pants pocket and withdrew another soggy, sticky paper package of a popsicle that was no longer a popsicle.
    “Hey! That’s not a popsicle! It’s just melted juice,” said Andy, not at all happy about it.
    Jason happily replied, “Well, then we can smear some on your face and when it runs down your cheeks you can do this,” and he proceeded to stick out his tongue and flick it around his lips attempting to reach more sticky, dirty popsicle juice.
    “Cool! Give it to me!” said Andy. He took the sticky mess, raised his face to the sky, and poured some of the sticky juice on his cheeks. The others all laughed as the dark red juice turned to black when it mixed with the dirt already on his face. Then he stuck his tongue out and tried to lick off some of the black stickiness, “Wow! That’s good!” he cheered to the others.
    “Let me have some!” said Andrea, and she took the mess of a bag, raised her face to the sky just like Andy did, raised the sticky package up high over her face and poured it out, and a big glob of sticky blackberry popsicle juice plopped all over her face. Then a second glob dropped out of the small package and landed between her eyes and her entire face and some of her hair was covered in sticky, now black, juice. And they all roared in joy at the sight.
    “Wow! You look like a ghoul from some monster movie, like you had your face ripped off! Hehe!” They all laughed uproariously as she tried and tried with her little tongue to reach some of the blackberry juice mud on her face, but just got a tiny bit.
    “Come on, let’s go play with the chickens! I love chasing them around!” Andy said.
    The children ran through the dusty dirt yard and into the barn where they found some of the chickens pecking around in the straw. Andrea tripped and fell and when she got up, she had bits of straw stuck to her sticky juiced-covered face.
    “Hey, you look like a scarecrow! I want to do that, too!” said Jason.
    Then they all got down on the ground and rubbed their faces in the dirty straw on the dirt floor of the barn.
    “Hey! Look at me! I’m the scariest scarecrow ever!” Andy said as he stretched his arms out wide.
    “Hehe Andy, you look so silly!” said Andrea.
    Then Jason said, “So do you! You have straw up your nose!”
    Jason rubbed straw into his hair and said, trying to sound scary and with his arms sticking out from his sides, “I’m the scarecrow! If you come into my cornfield, I will catch you! And eat you!”
    Andrea ran past him, he reached out for her but missed, and they all laughed and rolled on the floor again. Then he got back into his scarecrow position and she ran past him again, but this time he caught her, they laughed and he spun her around several times, she got dizzy, and she fell on the floor, laughing. When she got up the front of her shirt was dirty with chicken poop, and very stinky. They all went into a wild laughing spree and ran out of the barn, into the yard, and towards the patio. The chickens were scattering everywhere.
    Andy’s mother saw the three little scarecrows running towards the house and stepped outside the door and called out to them, “You guys are filthy! What have you been doing? Oh my goodness, Andrea! Look at your shirt!” Trying to not laugh too much, she said “And your face and your hair! What are your parents going to do when you get home looking like that?”
    Andrea looked up at Andy’s mother and shrugged her shoulders, smiled, and tried to lick some of the blackberry mud from around her lips.
    The children couldn’t stop laughing no matter how stern Andy’s mother tried to be with them, and soon she, too was laughing at the sight of the three children.
    “Come with me, all three of you,” she commanded. They walked out to the center of the yard where she picked up a hose and sprayed all three of the children, washing off as much of the gunk as possible, from head to foot. The laughter never stopped.
    “Why don’t you guys go play in the front yard where it’s not so dirty, okay?” Andy’s mother said, “And maybe you’ll dry off a little before you guys go home. I hope your parents don’t call me to complain about you little urchins.” Laughing at them, she gave them a little push and got them running across the yard.
    The children ran around the side of the house and into the front yard where they played for a while in the grass and sunshine, getting a little dryer and not so dirty.
    A few minutes into their game of tag Jason reached into his other pocket, pulled out another melted mess of a paper wrapper from another melted blackberry popsicle and...

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