Page 53 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

very sweetly asked, “And where did you send them, Reggie dear?”
Reggie was not fooled by the tone of her voice. He could see that she was tapping the long staff of her scepter on the stone floor and with every tap a puff of dark and ominous fog burst from the Nut, until he could barely see the Mouse Queen’s head from the dark cloud, forming around it.
“I – I sent them back,” Reggie stammered.
At that, a heavy snow began to fall from the cloud. The Mouse Queen tapped her pointy claw on Reggie’s pointy chest. Reggie had to keep stepping back because it hurt – just a little, but enough to scare him.
“So, you sent them back?” “That’s right, I did.” “Back, where?”
Reggie knew he was in a pickle, which leads me to digress because I really don’t know what being “in a pickle” means. Oh, I know we use it to say we’re in trouble, and Reggie was in trouble, that’s for sure, but really, what does “in a pickle” mean? Are we stuck inside a slimy, salty green lump of what used to be a cucumber? If you ever find out – please let me know, ‘cause not knowing has me in a pickle.
Anyway, Reggie said the first thing that popped into his mind, as we so often do when we’re in a pickle. And that is the worst thing you can do, for there’s no straight thinking when you are in that state.
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