CHOCOLATE CHIPPERS

Once, in the land of Boomdeeboom, there were two tribes.

One tribe, the Chocolates, was made up of people who ate nothing but chocolate. The other tribe, the Chippers, was made up of people who ate nothing but cookie dough.

These tribes were far enough removed from each other so as to hardly ever have occasion to see each other. Each individual tribe told amazing tall tales about the other tribe, each imbuing the other with either horrid and grotesque rituals or superhuman powers, depending on the night.

The two tribes lived separately for many years, one eating their chocolate, and peacefully enjoying the shade of the trees; the other eating their cookie dough and enjoying the sunny rolling fields.

This separation would have gone on forever had not a small Chipper named Pnut, gotten lost in the jungle that separated the lands between the two tribes. He’d wandered off from his parents while they were busy milling the flour that went into their delicious cookie dough. He toddled deep into the mass of trees and vines and then became very sleepy. He rolled himself up in a giant leaf and fell fast asleep.

When morning came, Pnut looked around and decided to walk toward the delicious but foreign smell that was wafting through the underbrush. Pnut walked and walked and walked and finally came upon a clearing where he saw many strange people, with skin the color of the sky which was different than the people of his tribe whose skin was the color of the water. He hunched down behind a bush and watched them all going about their daily business.

So enthralled was Pnut with these strange goings on, that he did not hear the two sky colored Chocolates coming up behind him. The two large Chocolates grabbed the small water colored Chipper, and carried him, hooting and hollering only slightly louder than Pnut’s terrified howls.

The Chocolate men carried the screaming Pnut straight into the chief Chocolate’s tent and dropped him on the soft mat. When Pnut saw the chief, a large sky colored man with hair that looked like rain clouds stuck to his face and head, his crying stopped immediately. The chief, a jolly old Chocolate, recognized Pnut as one of the water colored Chippers he remembered seeing as a child, and immediately felt pity for the poor baby Chipper. He took him in immediately, and raised the water colored boy as his own.

When Pnut came of age, he of course found a mate and they lived peacefully with the Chocolates until one happy day his made had a baby that was half colored like the sky and half colored like the water. Pnut suddenly got very curious about a world he vaguely remembered, where the people were colored like the water just like him.

The little family took a walk one day deep into the jungle that young Pnut got lost in so long ago. They came out on the other side and were greeted by Pnut’s parents who had assumed their child had been eaten by a wild animal and were very happy to see him and his family.