It was H-block, and I was tired as usual but at least this block wouldn’t demand too much of the energy I didn’t have. My French teacher was sick and my fellow comrades and I were left to our own devices to watch, Le Petit Nicholas. Everyone whined and complained about being hungry and contemplated getting cereal later. My classmates and I decided to tackle our problem. One of our classmates had just received a package from her mother all the way in Germany. We’d hit the jackpot because that package was filled with delicious German goodies that our classmate was kind enough to share with us.
This was like heaven on earth; there was nothing better than eating delicious German chocolates and cookies as we watched a movie. The chocolates were passed around and I was dumbfounded. I was flabbergasted not because of the insane amount of goodies that came out of the tiny box but because of the special piece of chocolate that laid on my desk. I had seen this chocolate before—was this really it? It couldn’t be…
I sat in my French class but for ten seconds I was somewhere else. Seeing this chocolate transported me back to when I was a little girl. I remembered being obsessed with this chocolate. I would rush home from school, riding my bicycle as though my life depended on it. It took me less than five minutes to climb the paint chipped wooden stairs and change out of my yellow and royal blue uniform and “kiss” ridden socks. Decked out in my “home” clothes and flip-flops, I ran down the red dirt road with my red ribbons still in my hair and my brown twenty dollar bills and silver hexagon ten dollar coins clenched in my tiny fists.
My first request was the chocolate umbrellas, the very chocolate umbrella that was sitting on the table in front of me, almost eight years later. Next on my candy checklist were cubes of caramel covered in cellophane, and Tunnock’s caramel wafers wrapped in the shiny red and gold wrapper. I didn’t forget to ask for Chico tattoo gum and “jub-jub”, a multicolored gel cube covered in sugar. “Jub-jubs” are similar to a Turkish sweet known as lokum. After ten minutes of teamwork with the shop owner, we’d figured out the best combination of candies to clean me of my money. I could barely see over the counter if I tip-toed but now I was hanging on the worn wooden counter gathering my candy with my feet dangling beneath me. I was the happiest kid ever. I felt as though I had accomplished everything and now it was time to stuff my face full of candy and stick gum tattoos over my body and parade around the house as if I was the coolest kid ever.
The grin plastered across my face at that moment was revived years later as I sat in my French class eating chocolate. Although the chocolate didn’t taste the same and the chocolate I was eating was Lindt choco-eizapfen, I hadn’t been as happy as I was in that moment in a long time. I couldn’t believe my eyes and I was absolutely elated to have a part of my childhood back and relive a memory of eating a chocolate umbrella I hadn’t seen or eaten in almost eight years. The moment was so great it made my day and I think it even made my week.
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