Moth Mondays with the Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera: Loudmouse from Undercover Elephant
So much for elephants being scared of mice: Loudmouse, in teaming up with Undercover Elephant, can get into plenty of near-scrapes himself, but none as interesting as this one which we'll leave him relating on:
So what could be crazier than doing off-the-books freelancing as a house detective for some two-bit waterpark resort in Wisconsin Dells as takes in the lesser sort of people the "big name" such are afraid of taking? For Undercover Elephant and me, plenty. Especially when it happens to be one of the hottest summers on record, guaranteed to translate into substantial waterpark traffic as people seek to cool off.
And when it seems as if things couldn't get weirder than local bored youth, short of writing fake news stories, seeking cheap thrills by siphoning gasoline from the gas tanks of Illinois visitors' cars, it did. Not from the waterslides, but from some rather rough peanut brittle from the candy kitchens downtown (as if fudge wasn't good enough a confectionery draw). My teeth, you know, are rather prominent, and can get to be pretty sensitive with the wrong sort of food.
Don't get me wrong: Undercover Elephant loves peanut brittle as much as anybody else. Especially so the sort that's real thin, loaded with plenty of peanuts and made with real dairy butter for the most part. And it's probably because of him that I can't resist peanut brittle. Or, even better still, pecan coconut crunch. Especially the coconut. And more often than not from the sampler bins, which is a little easier in size for the most part on my teeth.
In this one instance, which was rather close to the July 4th weekend, a rather big weekend in the Dells area for the tourist traffic, I was trying a rather substantial piece of peanut brittle when--I don't know how it happened--a bit of brittle got lodged in the corner of my tooth on the upper lip to the point where it bled rather substantial. It took some time for Undercover E. to notice what had happened, but he read somewhere that hot water and a little salt can be rather effective in dealing with mouth and gum injuries. He managed to get a smallish cup at one of the local cafes and mixed about an eighth of a cup of hot water into which one of those restaurant packets of table salt had been dissolved ... and swishing it around a little bit managed to ease the bleeding. And the irritation, in a way.
Still, a few more of these treatments managed to ease things somewhat by the time supper came around. Even if it was bits of macaroni and cheese, which, given its soft texture, is sometimes recommended for irritated and bleeding gums.
And I don't know what happened, but on the overnight, the brittle managed to dislodge itself from the crook in the tooth. And before long, the bleeding pretty much quit.
Which, in any case, meant a switch in terms of preferred candies to fudge, the better to make it easier on the teeth. And I'd have to acknowledge that one of my favourite flavours of fudge is chocolate peanut butter marble. Hey, it's no Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, but the medley of flavours can hardly be irresistable to this mouse. Same with Undercover E, though he still takes his peanut brittle on occasion.
So don't get the idea that I'm somehow craving sweets when Undercover E. and yours truly are resting on a bench downtown watching the tourists walk by--and having the odd chew of fudge. Or, for that matter, pecan coconut crunch.
"... and that's the story from The Moth"
(The preceding is an independent fanfic feature having no official connexion or association with The Moth. For more information, please visit TheMoth.org.)
