If It Looks Like Sugar...

Chances are it's not.

Why would there be a pile of it just sitting on your plastic table among your crayons and unfinished drawings? You could have gotten some from the kitchen but you swore you'd only do that once. Maybe it's a wayward pack of Sour Patch from a ninth birthday party close to being a tenth. All you know is there is sugar on my table! And all you want to do is take a bite. Any previous doubt disappears. Clearly, it's destiny. The universe's enigmatic controlling hand saw that you were craving something sweet and brought it straight to your table. Eat it! Don't be ungrateful. So into your tiny hand go the white crystals, so satisfying, so sweet, so saccharine....that they're borderline bitter. But seconds later, they're actually bitter. In fact, the taste was never sweet in the first place. Your mouth needs to rid itself from this mystery. You make a frantic run to the kitchen, you shove marshmallows into your burning mouth, Chubby Bunny for one minus the fun. Is sugar even to be trusted anymore? you ask yourself on marshmallow number 12. Will things ever be sweet again? Each and everything is tainted. The taste of your favorite food, the unfinished art projects, the crayons, the sparkly, light-up lava lamp, wait. Sure enough, a crack in the surface. You shake it to see if the glitter still swims around like a pleasant summer storm, and it does, but it sends a white mess onto your clothes. And you're left with the realization that you nearly poisoned yourself.

All for the sake of the sugar that never was.