Once upon a time there were four sweets in a paper bag. They were mint sweets and they were called Minty, Monty, Jinty and Jonty. They were all absolutely the same, all white and round, and they like living in a paper bag because they could play games when no-one was looking.
But one day a big hand came in the bag and took Jinty out.
He never came back.
“Where’s he gone?” said Jonty.
“He’s being sucked,” said Monty.
“Sucked?” said Jonty. “Why would anyone want to do that?”
“Because we taste nice, when people suck us,” said Monty.
“How horrible,” said Jonty.
Just then a hand came in and took Jonty out and he never came back.
“That’s just us left now,” said Minty, “I don’t want to be sucked!”
“It’s quite easy if you don’t want to be sucked, “ said Monty. “All you have to do is…”
But Minty never heard the rest of the sentence. Just then a hand came in and took Minty out. The hand belonged to a driver who was driving to London and liked sucking mints to keep himself awake. And what Monty was going to say was that if you don’t want to be sucked, all you have to do is fall out of the paper bag on to the floor, because people hate sucking sweets that have been on the floor. With a great effort, he pulled himself to the edge of the bag and fell out. A moment later he was on the floor of the car beneath the driver’s seat.
He was just in time. A moment later he heard the driver put his hand in the paper bag and say: “That’s funny! I thought there was another sweet in the bag. Damn. I shall have to buy some more. I wonder if the last one fell on the floor…
Quickly, before he could find him, Monty rolled right under the seat of the driver in the car, right underneath, where a driver cannot reach with his hands because it is too dark and difficult to reach. He went right into the darkest corner, and lay there very quietly. And the driver drove on and didn’t look for him and he began to relax. Then…
Then he got the shock of his life.
“Hello,” said a voice right in his ear.
“WHO SAID THAT?” said Monty
“Ssssh,” said the voice. “You’ll give us away.”
As Monty got used to the dark, he began to look round him and he could see that he was not the only person down there. There were several other peppermints, two jelly babies, a wine gum, a box of matches, an old telephone card, a pen with no ink, a bit of a thunderbird toy, a Batman badge and loads of other things.
“Who are you all?” said Monty.
“We are the runaway sweets, “ said the next mint.
“And we are the runaway matches,” said the box of matches.
“And we are the runaway packet of tissues,” said a packet of tissues he hadn’t noticed.
“And we are the runaway peanuts, “ squeaked some tiny, rather dirty peanuts.
‘Yes, yes, yes,” said the big mint, “I think he gets the idea, anyway, we have all hidden under the driver’s seat to avoid being eaten or used up, and now we are all going to London.”
“What happens in London?” said Monty.
“Oh, the driver always cleans out the car in London, and he lifts up the seat and says, “What a horrible mess” and gets a dustpan and brush, and then he’ll throw us away, and then we’ll all climb out of the dustbin and have a wonderful time in London! Do you want to come along?”
“Yes, please,” said Monty the Mint, and that is when his adventures started…
