Taking Candy From A Baby
As the parents put all the kids in the playpen for a nap, Angelica watched them. She knew the babies were super sneaky and would not actually go to sleep when they were put down. The babies would always break out and no matter how many times she tried, Angelica could never get the parents to catch them. Today, Tommy was sure to be concocting some new plan to break out since Angelica had seen him pocket his screwdriver to unlock the gate. As the parents left the room, gushing about how perfect the babies are, Angelica peered around the corner. As she did, she saw Phil and Lil pull out a stash of candy they had hidden in a toy.
The twins never agreed on anything. Although they were identical twins, they fought nonstop and were both extremely competitive. Soon they were arguing about who got which candy, both fighting over the prized lollipop. Phil felt he deserved the treat since he was the one who had found the candy, but Lil disagreed since she was the one who snuck over to get it and hid it so the parents didn’t find out. As the argument escalated, they began to wrestle for it. Tommy tried to break them apart but was having no luck when Angelica realized her opportunity. She approached the playpen and began to mediate.
"I know who should get what candy because I am older so I know what is fair," she explained. She pulled them apart from wrestling and took the candy out of the play pen.
"Then you know I should get the lollipop and the candy bar," claimed Phil.
"No, I should get the candy bar, lollipop, and gum," said Lil, "because Phil pulled my hair! And that is cheating."
Angelica seized the opportunity saying, "I think Lil should get the candy bar since pulling hair is not nice and, Phil, you get the gum." And as she handed out the candy she put the lollipop into her pocket.
"Hey! That's no fair,” said Phil.
“You took our lollipop!"
"Yeah, you stole from us," yelled Lil.
"Shush! It is my fee for helping solve your problem! You should just thank me for helping you and not telling the parents you were fighting,” responded Angelica. She then unwrapped the lollipop and put it in her mouth, skipping away. Angelica’s plan had worked perfect like taking candy from a baby, literally.
The twins were obviously upset and the other babies were astonished. They wanted to go and try to retrieve the lollipop or even just get revenge, but with the playpen locked and the parents coming back soon there was nothing they could do. Their revenge would have to wait until another day. Tommy had seen the entire thing but was knew there was no use trying to argue with Angelica right now. He was a mastermind and sure to come up with a plan for nap time the next day. Angelica was smart but she was too cocky and so the babies would get her back for this.
The twins knew better than to fight over stuff and now neither of them got the chance to have a lollipop. They decided to split their candy with the other babies to make up for starting a fight and getting Angelica involved in the first place. They learned their lesson the hard way that day.
Author's Note: This story is an adaptation of a Jakata Tale. In the original, a wolf’s mate wants fish to eat. The wolf goes out to find some and watches the river as two otters catch a fish. He then watches as the two otters start arguing over a fish that they had caught together, both wanting the part with the head. The wolf sees them arguing and helps resolve the fight by splitting the fish into three pieces. He handed out the pieces of fish but kept the best part of the fish, the middle and largest part, for himself. The otters are upset but there is nothing they can do because he was a wolf and they were just otters. The wolf then returned with the fish to his mate and when question about how he acquired it, he claimed he was given it in payment for settling a fight.
This story reminded me of someone taking candy from a baby because the otters could not do anything about the wolf taking the fish, so I changed the characters into members of the show Rugrats, which was on when I was little. The Rugrats series centers on a group of babies who hang out since their parents are friends. There are five baby characters and two older children characters. Phil and Lil are part of the babies, and they are identical twins. They argue often in the TV show and Angelica is always being bratty so I felt like they were the perfect character fits for this story.