At the Grocery Store
Huckle was at the grocery store helping his mom do some food shopping. His mom put him in the seat of the grocery cart and told him to be good. Huckle sat there happily for five minutes, and then he started to get bored.
He climbed out of the grocery cart and went over to the fruit section. He saw a big pile of bananas. He began to pull the peels off the bananas, and he threw the peels into a big ladies shopping cart. She was too busy checking the oranges to notice Huckle.
When Huckle's mom sawsa what he was doing, she cried, "Why are you doing that?"
"Nobody ever eats the yellow part, so I think they should only sees the white inside part. Don't you think that is a good idea?"
Huckles mom just shook her head and told him to follow her and to stop destroying the fruit.
Huckle followed her quietly, and he said until they got to the health aids section. When Huckle saw a box of band-aids, he just could not resist. He took them out a began sticking them on all the people that walked by. He did it very quietly, so they did not know what he was doing. He put band-aids on their knees, shoes, and backs. It was funny to see all the bandaged people walking by.
"Come on Huckle," his mom called. "Stop poking."
"Oh boy, the cereal aisle," cried Huckle as he caught up with his mom.
"What cereal do you want?" asked his mom.
"I don't know. Let me see."
He open a cereal box and pushed his hands inside to find the toy inside. He did not like what he found so he grabbed another box and tried to put this one back.
His mom sighed, "Now we have to buy that box."
"But I don't want the toy!"
As he argued, he tripped and dropped the box and the cereal pour out all over the floor.
"It's okay, Mom. I will put it back," Huckle said and he started to pick the cereals pieces off the floor and put them back into the box..
"No, Huckle, the cereal is dirty now."
Just then the big woman with the banana peels in her cart walked past and crunched the cereal pieces with the wheels of her cart.
"Hey you are crushing my cereal," Huckle yelled.
"What? Did you make this mess. We will have to call a worker to come to clean this up," the woman said.
A man who was stocking shelves came over and started to sweep up the mess. He gave Huckle a dirty look and told him to stay with his mom and to behave.
The next aisle was the baby food aisle.
"Hey, look at the neat food they have to feed babies," shouted Huckle. "Choppeds worms with onions, squished monkey toes, and green fish brains!"
A little boy who was in the aisle looked very upset when he heard Huckle saying this.
"What?" said Huckle's mom. "How can they have that! Now look. It doesn't say that. It say carrots, squash, and green beans. Why did you say those things?"
"Because I cannot read that well."
When they reached the dairy section, Huckles found a bottle of chocolate syrup, and when he saw the bottles of milk, he got an idea.
"Hey, I bet everyone would rather buy chocolate milk."
He opened a few milk cartons and poured some syrup into them and shook the containers until the milk brown.
Then he went to the butter.
"Hey. I bet no one has ever thought of chocolate butter before."
When Huckle was finished, the store had chocolate milk chocolate butter, chocolate cottage cheese, and a few chocolate covered eggs.
"When Huckle's mom noticed him, she picked him up and put him back into the grocery cart and exclaimed, "Now you stay up here where you cannot get into any more trouble."
"Nobody appreciates my attempts to make things better," Huckle sighed.
When they were at the check-out counter, the big lady was complaining. "This is the strangest store in which I have even shopped! Banana peels mysteriously get into my cart. Everyone has band-aids on them. I heard a young man who was very frightened about the gross baby food, and the butter is chocolate flavored!"
The checkout girl was surprised to hear about all of this, until she saw Huckle.
"You are back again!" she cried.
"You remember me?"
"Yes, last time you were here, you used a canteloupe as a bowling ball and knocked over some cans. And then you changed the labels on some of the cans, so people who thought they were getting green beans were getting pickled beets instead."
"I am sorry," said Huckle's mom. "I can pay extra to pay for the damage he caused."
While she was saying this, Huckle climbed up on the conveyer belt with the rest of the groceries. He thought it would be a great ride.
"I have a better idea," said the checkout girl, and she winked at Huckle's mom.
She picked up Huckle and looked all over him.
"I don't see a price tag," she said.
"That's because I am not groceries." Huckle replied.
"Hmm...I say he is worth about five cents per pound," she said.
She put him up on the scale, and it said forty pounds.
"Two dollars," she said. She stuck a price sticker on Huckle's nose.
"Wait a minute. Mom, tell her you own me already and don't have to buy me!"
Huckle's mom said, "That is rather expensive. I will only take half."
"Whoa, you have to take all of me!"
"So do you want him?"
"I think we should leave him here with the cucumbers."
"Now, cut that out," said Huckle. "I hate cucumbers!"
"I guess I will have to buy him then."
The checkout girl picked him up and put into a brown paper bag.
"This has gone far enough," Huckle cried. "I am not groceries. You cannot sell me or leave me with cucumbers! I don't want to be in a silly old bag. Let me out!"
But Huckle's mom put the bag into the shopping cart and wheeled the cart to her car. He then put the bag into the backseat of the car.
"I tell you I am not groceries, Mom!"
Huckle complained for the whole car ride home, but he could not get out of the bag until he was carried into the kitchen.
"Boy, mom," said Huckle. "You adults sure are crazy! Too bad everyone is not normal like me!"
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