12DC #9 | A Gingerbread Tail

I am sure you are familiar with Daniel and Archie by now, but someone who might be new to you is the Hill'sd legendary cat-Moo-Moo

Moo-Moo had Hoo-Hoo, who had Zoo-Zoo, who was the aunt of Too-Too, who was the brother of Not-Noo, who had Loo-Loo, who a nephew called Boo-Boo, and Boo-Boo had Soo-Soo, who was the mother of Foo-Foo. Foo-Foo was the most mischievous cat ever, and it was constantly getting into mischief with his brother, Goo-Goo. All the gets names get very confusing after a while, so we will push all the others aside and focus on only too: Foo-Foo and Goo-Goo.

One of the Hill’s traditions was to make a gingerbread house five days before Christmas and then eat it on Christmas Eve. All if you have a gingerbread house, who needs people to live inside them, so they made gingerbread men as well.

The gingerbread men looked exactly like any gingerbread men, except done by children. So one of them had one eye and one had three. But for all that, they all looked very festive and everyone was getting more and more excited for Christmas.

When the gingerbread house was completed, the children decorated it carefully with all kinds of sweets and treats, chocolate and icing of different colours. Then the house was put on a big white plate, and powdered sugar was sprinkled on top, to make it look like it was snowing. Then Mama put it on the middle of the table, and remind everyone not to pick or eat it, even though after all these years, they were all very well trained.

Then Mama took the cookies out of the oven, and set them down on the counter and harden. By the time Mama had removed them from the pan, they had already started to twitch, which is not odd behaviour for a gingerbread.

Then, they were decorated, with the same ingredients used for the gingerbread. Two of them seemed particularly active. Daniel wanted to practise with his icing to not mess up his actual cookie, but when he drew a pair of pants of a piece of parchment paper, the gingerbread promptly jumped up, and put the pants on!

Daniel and Archie stared at each other, but no one else seemed to have seen.

Once the cookies were completed, Mama put them all together on a plate that matched the one the gingerbread house was on, and then everyone got to eat the one they had made.

The only ones who remained were the brothers who have miscalculated eyes (one had one and the other had three). One belonged to Cayla, and the other was one leftover. They were just as human as us, possessing the ability to think, talk, walk, and laugh. The only difference was that their names were Hip and Hop, which is not a common human name. And also, they were made out of gingerbread and had candy all over them, stuck on with icing.

Once everyone had eaten their cookie, they left the kitchen, except for Daniel and Archie. They had been left behind to tidy things up.

Hip jumped up. “I am not going to sit on that pan any longer,” he declared. “I deserve much better than that.”

“Aye aye,” agreed Hop. And he jumped up too.

This time, Daniel and Archie weren’t the only ones who noticed their movement. Foo-Foo and Goo-Goo did too. Their paws and whiskers twitched.

“I don’t remember the last time I had gingerbread,” said Foo-Foo.

“Last time a Christmas, silly,” said Goo-Goo. “When Cayla dropped hers on the floor.”

“Right. That was a long time ago. All I remember about it is that it tasted very good.”

“Everyone already had their cookie, except Cayla and she’s asleep, so she wouldn’t know if we ate hers,” said Goo-Goo. “I think those gingerbread men belong to us.”

“Cayla might want it when she wakes up,” said Foo-Foo.

“That’s of no consequence, I don’t mind the sound of crying.”

“You’re heart is as hard as a gingerbread.”

“That’s insulting,” said Hop.

“I’m insulted,” said Hip.

And they marched away together, heading for the door. (Everyone knows that gingerbread men live in fancy, candy-covered gingerbread houses, deep under the fluffy snow.)

“Now or never,” said Goo-Goo.

He and his friend looked at each other, licked their paws, twitched their tails, and hopped off the table.

The chase was on.

Hip and Hop ran fast. They scurried across the kitchen, jumping onto the counter. The cats jumped on behind them, nocking piles of dishes onto the floor.

They ran down the counter and then jumped the short distance to the fridge. They gripped the top with their brown, icing-covered hands, pulling themselves on top, and running across the top. Then they jumped down onto the buffet.

Goo-Goo and Foo-Foo jumped, clawed, and ran as fast as they could. But the gingerbread men always remained a few inches in front.

“Haha!” said Hip. “You’ll never catch us!” And he paused a short second, to stick his tongue out. It’s never a good idea to be in-polite, and the one short second of inattention caused him to slam into the leg of the table. Hip lost all the buttons on his pants, and it was a miracle his pants didn’t fall off.

Hop quickly climbed up the leg, grabbing Hip’s hand and pulling him to safety. Foo-Foo, who has been right behind him, about to pounce, ran right into the table leg, which shocked the table, and caused many things on top to fall over. Finally, the gingerbread men jumped back onto the table, jumped onto the plate on which sat the gingerbread house, and ran up the chocolate path. They flung open the door to the gingerbread house and slammed it shut behind them.

Goo-Goo and Foo-Foo knew better than to touch the gingerbread house. So there was nothing to do but be disappointed. They licked their paws again, mewed in disappointment, and then turned and walked away sadly, tails drooping.

Daniel and Archie looked at each other, with wide eyes.

“Well, there you go,” said Daniel, after a long pause. “That was our Christmas miracle.”

Archie looked around the kitchen, which was quite a mess. Things had been knocked off the counter, the saucepan had fallen over on the stove, and the melted chocolate which had been inside had spilled all over. The bread had fallen off the top of the fridge, and a few glasses and plants that had been on the kitchen table had fallen over.

“Too bad Mama won’t believe us if we say it was the gingerbread men who made this mess,” said Archie with a sigh. "I think we need another miracle."