EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second chapter in a 12-chapter fictional tale that will run through Christmas Day. Parents are encouraged to read aloud to their children.

“It’s settled then,” Mayor Gingerman said. “We will move forward with Operation Ginger Quest! Numbers may have dipped last year, but we will not let that happen again! We will prevail and return to the top and show those Chocolate menaces we’re the best! For the next week, you may submit your ideas to the ballot box in Town Hall. This Christmas, the humans of the world will be filled with joy over the winner’s idea … a brand new, magnificently delicious Gingerbread creation. Meeting adjourned!”

Filled with excitement, Molly waved goodbye and ran home as fast as she could. This was her chance, and she wasn’t about to blow it.

Early the next morning, she yawned and stared down at her sketches. She’d stayed up late drawing dozens of cookies and cakes and pastries galore, but none of them seemed quite right.

Sketchbook in hand, she headed to her favorite peak where she sat dreaming of impossible desserts. The ones in her imagination always seemed to include ingredients that came from other parts of Candyland, enhancing the gingerbread. She drew a hardened gingerbread bark, but it just wouldn’t work without some chocolate chips. Same with the gingerbread candy with a marshmallow center.

“It would be so delicious,” she thought out loud.

Molly knew how all the other treats tasted. Once a year, on Candyland’s Sweetest Day Trade Holiday, a delegate from each homeland sent sample baskets full of treats to every group. It was the one day a year that everyone on Gingerbread Island, and all of Candyland, was allowed to indulge in their neighbors’ creations.

Something red far below caught Molly’s eye. It was moving quickly through the trees but she couldn’t quite make it out.

“Probably a bird,” she muttered. But just then the red blur stepped out of the shadow of a tree and stopped, looking around.

Molly gasped and had to put her hand over mouth to keep from screaming out. It was a boy, a Peppermint boy from the looks of him, wearing a red shirt and hat and carrying a red and white striped knapsack.

Looking back toward the path that led to the safety of her neighborhood, Molly knew that what she was thinking about doing would get her in more trouble than she’d ever been in, maybe more than anyone had ever been in. But the idea brewing was so strong, it was impossible not to follow it. Seeing the boy was a sign, and she knew it was now or never.

She opened her sketchbook and scribbled out a quick note: “Mom and Dad, I’m sorry. I promise I’ll be safe and be back very, very soon. I have a dream to follow. Please don’t be mad at me and try to understand. I love you very much.”

She secured it with a heavy rock, knowing they would come looking for her when she didn’t get home by dark.

Blowing out a big shaky breath and pushing down her feelings of guilt, she picked up her backpack — thanking her lucky stars it was stuffed with snacks — and began carefully climbing down the large hill that led to the outskirts of Gingerbread Island.

When she reached the bottom, she quietly followed the boy over the bridge that led off the island. Molly had never been this far outside of Gingerbread Island. The farthest she’d ever gone was Sugardrop Beach for her family’s annual camping trip where they slept under the stars. It was her favorite day of the year, even more than Christmas. She always looked up at the stars and wondered if they looked the same from everywhere in Candyland.

As she went farther into the dark woods, she got closer to the boy, all the while imagining different reasons why he might be out wandering. Just when she was about to muster up the nerve to say something, the boy spoke from behind her.

“Want to tell me why you’re following me?”

Read chapter 3 in the weekend newspaper.