Our Wacky Trip

The line moved pretty quickly, and soon it was time for Ryan to climb up the stairway so as to enter Frosty’s belly.  Inside of the giant snowman was a self-service machine that dispensed steaming hot chocolate as well as cookies and donuts.  Principal LoRicco handed each of us two dollars which was enough to buy a cup of hot chocolate and a package of two chocolate chip cookies.  After Drew came out, I climbed up the stairs and entered the giant snowman.  It was totally cool inside, and right beside the vending machine was a control panel with all sorts of buttons and lights on it.  Just above the panel was a large sign that said ‘Do Not Touch’, which of course meant only one thing for a fourth grader.  It screamed out ‘Please Touch’ to the mind of any ten-year-old boy.

            “Shoot, I can’t figure out how to work this thing, Caleb,” Ryan declared as he pressed the button for hot chocolate again, but the machine only groaned and spit out a few drops of water.  “I put my money in and then placed the cup under the dispenser.”

            “Let me see,” I said while checking the machine out.  While I did that, Ryan glanced over at the control panel and began studying the buttons.

            “Aw, this snowman is so cool.  I wonder what would happen if I press this button right here.”

            “Don’t do it, Ryan,” I blurted out. 

            “Why not?” my friend asked me with a mischievous look on his face.  “Do you think we’ll get in trouble?”

            I shrugged my shoulders.  “I don’t know, but there’s a sign right there that says not to touch.”

            “All the more reason to press it,” Ryan declared.

            Being the genius that I was, I got the hot chocolate machine to start working again as a steady stream of cocoa poured into the cup. 

            “I’m gonna press it, Caleb,” Ryan whispered, and after looking behind us to make sure nobody else was in the snowman, he pressed the big black button that was labeled ‘Stairs’.  Suddenly, a roaring sound was heard as the stairway began to lift up and return to the inside of Frosty.

            “You dork, you just made the stairs come back up,” I shouted.  “Quick, press the button again so it will go back down.”

            Ryan’s face took on a look of panic as he pressed the button again and again, but nothing happened as the huge steel staircase closed us inside of the giant plastic snowman.  “It won’t work, Caleb.  I’m pressing it, but nothing’s happening.”

            “I told you not to press it,” I warned before pushing Ryan aside and pressing the button with my own fingers.  Sure enough, the stairs didn’t budge now that they were inside of the snowman and we had no way out.