Thumbalinas

Thumbalinas
Prompt 2
Word Count: 530

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It was within a light bulb upon an immaculate chandelier that a family of Thumbalinas waited patiently for the right moment to rappel down onto a coffee table in order that they might retrieve a few of those colorful-circulish-mint candies that one always finds at graduation parties.

"How does it look now, Smalls?" Father Thumbalina asked his eldest son of three children.

The boy pressed his nose against the warm glass. "The same."

Father Thumbalina shook his head disparagingly. "People just come and go as they please. There's no sense of punctuality anymore."

"Don't worry father," said Shorty, the middle child and daughter Thumbalina. "We'll get some mints before they're all gone. Besides, no one actually eats them. They just look pretty among the barbecues and trail mix."

"And that's just as well; more for us," said Father. "Goodness, its getting warm in here. Why are we actually inside the lightbulb again?"

"Because if we are seen, the humans will mistake us for dead flies," replied Smalls.

"As we just as well may be, if we don't get some mints soon enough! Hoofdah, how can those creatures like it in here?"

"Look father!" cried Little, the youngest child and son, after a few hours passed. "They're slowing down now!"

"Finally! Let's do this, boy."

The Thumbalinas fastened a string around Little, who was the lightest of the bunch, and he climbed to the wide opening of the fancy bulb and perched there for a moment. "Father, I wonder. Couldn't a family that owns such a nice chandelier afford fancier food?"

"Son, if you want to bring out the cheapness in anyone, get married or graduate."

With that, the rest of the Thumbalinas began lowering Little toward the mint-candy bowl. As they labored, Father Thumbalina suddenly paused and his stomach growled. "I sense a disturbance in my colon." His face turned pale.

"You're hungry, father, we all are," Smalls assured him.

He shook his head grimly. "Not that kind of disturbance."

Shorty's eyes widened and she quickly glanced at the filament wire glowing red-hot behind them. "No Father! You have to hold it in!"

"I can't. Its too much. I'm sorry children."

Hardly any of the humans below noticed the little pufft sound and flare of the light bulb above them, nor the feint, high-pitched squeal and resulting cur-plunk that stirred the surface of the candy bowl. But hardly any is enough to cause trouble.

"Mom? I think a dead fly fell in the mints," said the graduating senior as he cautiously examined the confections.

"Well throw them out, nobody eats those anyway."

Back in the bulb, an awkward moment was shared between the blackened and singed Thumbalina family as they exchanged bewildered glances with one another. Father sheepishly avoided the eyes of his children.

Suddenly Shorty came to her senses. "What happened to the rope? Where's Little?"

They hurriedly pressed their faces against the glass and looked down just in time to see a boy exit the room with the candy bowl in his hands. The Thumbalinas gaped in horror. Father fearfully and despairingly exclaimed what they all were thinking.

"THEY'RE TAKING THE MINTS!"