The Day The Gingerbread Left

• Courtney Bosworth, Grade 5, Narangba Valley State School
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Beyond Words 2015' competition

It was a dark and stormy afternoon in Grey Stone village. Charles, the village’s only baker thought it would be a great idea to bake some fresh gingerbread men; Maree, Charles’s wife brought out all the ingredients. So they got to work making the gingerbread men. They cut up little man shapes, put them in the oven and allowed to cook. Once the gingerbread was cooked, Maree made some delicious blue icing. She iced all the gingerbread men except for one, as she was icing the second last one she knocked some chemicals into the icing. Maree spread icing on the last gingerbread man and a puff of magical black smoke circled around it and before her eyes it came to life. Charles and Maree stared at the gingerbread man wondering what he would do next. Then suddenly the gingerbread man caught a glimpse of something shiny outside and ran to it as happy as could be. He was disappointed to discover it was nothing more than a rusty piece of metal from an old horse and cart. When he turned around, he didn’t know where he was. Charles and Maree missed the sweet smile and the gingerbread man’s face, so they set out looking for him. Meanwhile the gingerbread man just kept wondering around. He was really scared and lonely, it was getting dark and he needed a safe place to spend the night. Maree and Charles thought it was getting late and really crowded so they would try again first thing tomorrow morning. When the gingerbread man woke up, he was in an entirely different place. He seemed to be in a brightly coloured candy filled little shop. There were thousands of children swarming outside, he suddenly felt terrified. Maree and Charles woke up, got dressed and started searching. They looked high and low, they even asked everyone they saw if they saw him but no luck, they started to get worried. Back at the candy shop, it was three minutes until opening time, the gingerbread man had to think fast. At the last second he found an air vent and quickly crawled through it. He didn’t know where he was going at all but it was better than being eaten by nasty, greedy little chicken at the candy shop. The gingerbread man felt a gush of wind behind him, so he looked back. Suddenly he fell down, down, down, it seemed to have no ending until, CRASH! He reached the cold hard bottom, he seemed to be in some kind of dumpster, all repulsive and disgusting. But then his heart leaped with joy as he saw Maree and Charles walked past. They were all so excited to see each other. In fact so happy, they celebrated with a huge party and invited all the villagers. The villagers were so happy, they decided to make it an annual event called Gingerbread Day to celebrate the very special gingerbread man.