Jacob held his breath as his dad scanned the crowd. The man's wandering eyes drifted from person to person until they landed on a little girl wailing about a bag of jellybeans she had accidentally spilled onto the pavement. Believing he had found the cause of the commotion, Mr. Johnson turned around and returned his attention to the menu that was still several feet in front of him.
As soon as he was sure the coast was clear, Jacob raced through the crowd with Nate in tow. They sprinted past dozens of people devouring junk food and even more of them wearing tacky shirts with Casey on them.
By the time he was far away from his dad's line of sight, Jacob's sides were heaving as sweat soaked through his t-shirt. Nate panted next to him and wordlessly reached out for his hat. Jacob returned it to him, relieved to get it off. His hair clung to the top of his head as if someone had coated it in grease.
"We did it!" Nate exclaimed once he caught his breath.
"We sure did. You may be a little booger sometimes, but that was a great plan."
Nate beamed. "You think so?"
"Yeah." Jacob ruffles his hair. "No wonder you always manage to sneak extra cookies after dinner. You're a regular criminal mastermind."
"I couldn't have done it without you though. It was scary being alone in that crowd."
"Someone's got to look out for you," Jacob said. "Now, how about we finally have some fun?"
"Are you going to take me to see Casey now?"
"Actually, I was thinking we'd go on the Caramel Coaster first."
"You promised we'd see Casey though."
"But I didn't say we'd see him first." Jacob wasn't sweating just because of the heat anymore.
"You promised!" Nate balled his hands into fists. "You're just like Dad."
"But we can't see Casey yet. He's, uh, taking a catnap," Jacob lied.
"Aw," Nate said, hanging his head.
"But," Jacob said, "we should at least be able to see his house from the Caramel Coaster." He had no idea if that was true, but he hated seeing his little brother upset.
"Really?" Nate looked up. "Alright, let's go!"
CZYTASZ
The Lost Sweet Tooth
General FictionCasey's Candy Land is the sweetest place in the world to everyone except Jacob. Thanks to an incident involving the amusement park's mascot, Jacob struggles to have fun alongside his Casey-obsessed little brother and his well-meaning father who is h...
