Thinking Outside of the Cereal Box

The Piece of Cereal
Who Thought Outside the Box

Hi, my name is Jonathan and I’m of the race they call cereal. We are round and are known for the bumps we sometimes have on our sides. I’m pretty easy going and I never really do anything out of the ordinary, I just sit here with my other cereal friends in my box and let the time pass. I’m kind of like the handy man around here; they call me a jack-of-all-apple. But anyways, I want to tell you a story about an adventure that I barely survived that got me out of my box.
It was dark and close in here and smelled of apple and cinnamon. Then here it came again, it had been happening a lot more often lately almost everyday. Everything trembled and shook then it was quiet. None of us on the bottom really knew what was going on each time this happened but it was rumored from the pieces on top that there was a horrible, barbaric, cereal eating human out there. It was hard to believe at first but with these box quakes occurring more frequently I was beginning to wonder.
I had heard so many stories of members of my race being sucked from our box into this terrifying pit of death they called a bowl. Oh, it makes me quiver just to think about it,. In this dungeon of torture and killing, I was told that this creature called a human would pile his victims on top of each other until the ones on the bottom could barely breathe. After that he would pour this white poisonous liquid and watch them drown in this deluge of milk. Ughh! It makes me sick to think about it. But I kept on doing what I was doing in spite of the danger outside.
When this last tremor hit our little box I think it finally hit home that something really was out there. I could actually hear the people screaming as they plunged to there death and there was only one thing I could think about. How could they let this happen to them without a fight? So I began to look around and analyze what was wrong in our little card board world. There was one thing that stuck out to me, the other ones in my box new what was coming yet they still sat there uncaring and unmoving.
It was then I determined within myself that I wasn’t going to end up like the other pieces of cereal in my box. I had always heard Granny Smith talking about how they used to do it in the old days and they changed things, but that hadn’t happened in a long time. With this determination rose up a resistance within me not to end up like the rest of them I was going to think out side the box. I wanted to make a difference and leave a legend behind me so other young cereal pieces could make it too.
Uh oh, here we go again there is another box quake somehow I know that this is my day to face this alleged monstrosity of a human. So I prepared my self for the events that were about to ensue.
Light streamed into the box and inched its way down the wall towards us helpless pieces of cereal. As the others coward together and said there last goodbyes to one another I set my course of action and pressed to the front of the crowd knowing I was not going to meet the same fate as these other pitiful pieces of cereal.
The beam of light was now shining on us with full intensity and it was hard to see at first but when I finally adjusted to it I could see a whole new world out there and I wondered how none of the others tried to escape. I did not know what fate I would be facing today, but I knew which one I wouldn’t be facing. And that was the bowl of death! The quake was over now but I could feel the box tipping over at a strange angle. Hhhmmm, I’ve never noticed this before but then again I have never been on top before and I didn’t really care before either. It was getting harder to stand where I was at. I began to slip but I held on for all I was worth as some of my friends rolled past me into their final destiny. I held on a little longer and let a few more slide by before I made my move.
As my friend Washington slid by he yelled to me, “I’ll see you in the bowl Jonathan.”
I answered him, “No I won’t Washington, no I won’t.” He looked at me in confusion as he slipped over the edge into the bowl as so many others had before him, he was going with the flow, I thought. He is meeting the status quo and doing what is expected of us all but I won’t remain the status quo I’m going to do something worth talking about.
It was virtually impossible to stay there any longer, so I pushed off from the box and move as fast as I could towards the opening of the box. I could here the faint voices behind me saying, “Goodbye Jonathan,” but I didn’t dare turn around now. I reached top speed just before I reached the edge of my box. It was coming closer, closer, closer, this new territory was coming into view and it was looking a lot bigger than I had expected. I thought to myself, maybe I don’t want to go through with this plan of mine, but as soon as it this thought crossed my mind I dismissed it immediately. How could I think such a thing at this time? I thought to myself and I pressed on harder and faster than before. I reached the edge. Fear sliced through me like a pair of sheers through an apple tree. With everything within me I pushed off the edge of the box and I watched, in what seemed like an eternity, the last vestiges of my old comfort zone pass by as I plunged towards my new fate, whatever that would be.
There were about ten other pieces including my friend Washington already in this ceramic dwelling place of death moaning and crying out in fear, and some were even screaming in rage, “Why are things are like this? Someone needs to change something!”
I heard someone else say, “If Henry would have done something different I wouldn’t be in this predicament!”
It amazed me that even in this place they could still complain and shift the blame to someone else for their own near-sightedness. Didn’t they realize that they were the only ones responsible for being there? If they really wanted to do something about their circumstances they could have but they chose to lay there and complain about it instead while they were in the midst of being consumed.
The determination within was even stronger at that point. I was not going to end up like these others, I just wasn’t, that’s the way it was. I knew it wasn’t normal for a piece of cereal to even imagine that he could get free from this “predestined” end let alone attempt it but that’s what I was doing.
The bowl filled my vision until it was the only thing I could see. I could hear the wails of others behind me that were still in the box. Some mourned my name and some cried the names of the ones in the bowl. Then everything sped up it was as if someone took it off slow-motion mode and pressed the fast-forward button.
I hit floor hard but not hard enough to slow me down any that’s for sure. I kept my momentum going and ran full force towards the steep inclines of the “Cereal Bowl”-fitting name isn’t it- and my speed pushed me up it was getting closer yet it still seemed so far away. I could feel my strength giving out but what I had seen earlier kept me going finally I reached the brink of the bowl and I leaped into the air. As I did the wails and sobs went silent for a split second then erupted into cheers coming from the box and the bowl alike.
It felt as if I were flying and I was about to give out a whoop of victory when the pull of gravity grabbed me and flung towards the floor. The floor tiles appeared to be light-years away but they were rapidly approaching! My “whoop” changed tunes to a scream and I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I did a “little applish thing” if you know what I mean. Then, WHAM!! I hit the floor with full force and all I could do was lay there too stunned to move.
Everything was black at first and I didn’t know where I was at but it all started coming back to me slowly but surely.
I jumped……….from the box………
I went blank.
The bowl………
Blank again.
I fell………
Then it hit me in a rush. I jumped from the box and landed in the bowl then I rolled out of the bowl and leaped into freedom! My elation was almost to much for my self. I had done it, I made it out alive.
It was this memorable day that I realized the importance of thinking outside the box.

Michael Brandon Blue.