Author: Edward Guenther

Written: 10/26/2013

She was apparently deathly ill. Rachel was never sick and now she was obviously in pain and lethargic. For a nail biting 30 minutes her mom and dad considered turning back. Would the emergency room be better up ahead or could they make it back home?

It was too bad to have to give up the long planned Crater Lake trip, but with appendicitis or worse in the process it couldn’t be helped. Her dad did not want to have to perform another surgery.

In the quiet, as mom and dad thought out what to do, somebody in the car pulled out the trail mix, laced by demand with M&M’s. Rachel thought she’d like to try some but her dad was skeptical. This could be her demise! Well, perhaps just the healthy nuts would be OK. Reluctantly, Rachel was given the bag, wherein she proceeded to pick out all the M&M’s … and then gobbled them down. The car erupted with, “She’s eating the M&M’s”. “Rachel! You’re going to get worse!” Having polished them off she sat back with a peaceful, contented look on her face, declaring, “I feel fine now.” She noticed her dad was turning all shades of purple. The other kids were all adamant that her being sick was all part of her subterfuge to get all the M&M’s but she maintained that she really was sick. Nobody believed her, but all agree that it was a good ruse and thought they should try the ploy sometime. Most of all, all were grateful they didn’t have to give up their vacation.

To dad’s credit he didn’t say a word, not a single word … though he tucked a little insight to life into his hard drive.