The Little Birthday Candle That Couldn’t

by Steven Pentecost

This is the story of Erik’s 37th birthday as seen from the littlest birthday candle, Chip. Chip had dreamed ever since the day he was born at the Happy Candles factory in Smileyville, France, of making someone’s birthday cake special. Soon Chip would find his dream coming true. It happened on December 13th in the year 1873 when one special monsieur was given a birthday cake on the second floor of the ballet studio located on Rue du Renard.

If you could understand candle language you would have heard Chip cheering loudly as he was slowly drawn out of his candle box - waving goodbye to all of his co-inhabitants. Soon Chip was gently placed into the pillowy soft icing of a rich devil’s food chocolate cake. This is every birthday candle’s dream, he thought to himself. Looking all about him there was icing as far as his little wick could see. If he’d possessed arms and hands he would surely have put them down at his side and sighed with contentment. Suddenly though, a shadow passed across him as a hefty hand put another one of his previous co-inhabitants down into the soft icing. Chip was glad to have the company, but couldn’t help but wish that the hand had put his fellow candle elsewhere on the cake. After all, there was vast space on the cake and to put this other candle right next to him seemed a little uncalled for. Just as he was resigning himself to this neighbor, another shadow passed over him, and before he knew it he had another unwelcome neighbor just on the other side of him.

Chip, being a nice candle, was fighting hard not to become indignant about this sudden decline in living conditions. Before he had a chance to try and convince himself of the positives of having such close neighbors, the hand had already plopped another squatter next to him. This was too much for poor Chip. His dreams of living happily upon the wide-open spaces of a cake were quickly becoming cramped. Chip was sad at this turn of events. Little did Chip know that soon there would be a forest of neighbors surrounding him. So much so, that he would not be able to see the outer edges of his cake home. In all, Chip ended up with 36 neighbors, all of whom were equally indignant about their neighbors. Chip’s life long dream had been crushed in just under two minutes. Sad, but at least not-lonely Chip began to cry little wax tears…thinking that all was lost and that there could not have been a worse outcome to his dreams…or so Chip thought.

Suddenly from up in the sky a bright light flashed causing all of his neighbors to cast shadows throughout the forest of candles. In the distance he heard one of his Candle neighbors, probably one lucky enough to have been placed on the edge, begin to scream. What’s his problem? thought Chip. Just then, a wave of panic rushed through the forest of birthday candles as word spread that the great hand had set fire to one of the brethren! As hard as they tried, the poor candles could not flee the mighty hand, as they did not have legs! Soon another scream was heard, and another, and another! The enormous hand was one by one systematically burning the little birthday candles. In only a moment, a raging inferno of 36 candles surrounded Chip, with the feminine hand slowly lowering toward Chip. All is lost, he thought to himself. My friends are all melting away and my icing is no longer fluffy. He tried to wail and finding his own scream, he too was lit and began melting into oblivion.

As Chip’s little birthday wish came to a close, he heard a great feminine voice in the sky laughingly say, “Make a wish, Erik, before the sprinklers go off.” Chip’s last sight was a tender half-masked masculine face lowered to his level. The left cheek puffed out and there followed a great gust of wind that whooped up an inferno of fire. Poor Chip was never the same after that. But in his kind heart, he hoped Erik got his birthday wish and that all the candle carnage was worthwhile.

The End

Chip Meets His Unwelcomed Neighbors

READER COMMENTS

I keep thinking about Chip, the little birthday candle (I feel so bad for him)…trying to be so cheery and then just melting away. I’m still laughing about that. Could Steven please put something inspirational up for Valentine’s Day?
Jo-ann