Seven-year-old Toby just couldn't stand the aroma of fresh chocolate cookies emanating from the kitchen. Enveloping the whole house like a warm blanket.
He could perceive it right from his room upstairs, and it had turned him into a spy, carefully spying and monitoring to see when Nana would leave the kitchen with the cookies spread out to cool so he could sneak in and grab a few bites.
Severally, he would peek between the kitchen door frame to see if Nana had left the kitchen, but there she was, still humming to her favourite folktale tunes and arranging her steaming treats on a tray to cool.
"Almost time," sneaky Toby chuckled, rubbing his palms together like a character from one of the Weeny Tunes cartoon productions.
"Mia, can you help me put the cookies in the jar while I run down the street to get some milk?" Finally, he heard Nana call out to Mia, his sister as she left the kitchen.
Like an agent on a mission, he got out of his hiding place and sneaked to the kitchen. Making sure Nana had gotten into her car and left, he sneaked into the kitchen. The golden brown cookies staring right at him, his hands itchy to grab one and his mouth watery already.
He got to the tray and without a thought that the cookie might still be hot, he grabbed the biggest share. The hotness burned his hands, but his greedy quest wouldn't let him stop. Still blowing the hot cookie in his hands with his mouth, he heard a voice call out.
"Toby, don't gobble that down. You'll burn your mouth!" it was Mia; she was standing in the doorway watching Toby fight with the hot cookie.
But before she could finish, out of fear that he had been caught, Toby quickly shoved the whole cookie into his mouth. And before he could realize what he had done, it was already late as his mouth was on fire.
Confused, he tried to chew on the hot cookie, his face turning red, but as he chewed, the more it felt like his mouth was a fiery oven, the more he realized that he had made a costly mistake.
Eyes popping out of its socket, Toby screamed "Ahhh!". Then he ran to the kitchen sink and spit out the remnant cookie from his mouth. He turned on the faucet and let the cold water run over his tongue providing a temporary relief to the burning sensation in his mouth. He pulled his face out of the sink and gasped for air.
"You just have to act like a baby sometimes. Why would you gobble a hot cookie down like that?" Mia asked, walking up to him in the sink and patting him gently on his back.
Immediately, they heard the kitchen door creak open; they turned to see Nana returning to the kitchen with a bottle of milk in her hands. Confusion in her eyes as she watched Toby bent over the sink with a few crumbs of cookie stuck in his lips
"What's going on here?" Nana asked, placing the milk on the table and walking over to Toby to help him.
“The thief got burnt by his loot", Mia laughed, letting go of Toby. "I barged into him stealing some hot cookie and all his tiny brain could think of was to gobble it down his mouth. Well, it looks like in his quest to take a bite, the cookie bit back," she explained in between laughs.
"I was just hungry Nana. I wasn't stealing" Toby lied, his words barely understandable as his tongue was still stuck out his mouth. The sting from the burn was still unbearable.
Nana sucked on her teeth. "I made this cookie for us. It isn't going anywhere. You should have just let it cool; then you'd enjoy the taste more" She gave him a towel. "Here, wipe your face".
Toby dried his wet face while trying to look innocent. Nana led him to a kitchen counter and made him sit. Then she poured him a glass of milk. "This should help soothe the pain," she said. "Don't gobble it down like the cookie, just a little sip now and then"
Toby stared at his sister with a mischievous smile on his face as he took the glass of milk and sipped it.
"I still don't feel sorry for you", Mia said, walking out of the kitchen laughing.
Toby didn't care. He might have missed the taste of the chocolate cookie and gotten his tongue burnt. But he won himself a glass of milk.