Robbie Remembered

4:5

Trixie trudged off the stage. Once she was seated with a cup of water her stomach stopped gurgling so loudly and she was able to join in cheering with the other kids. All eyes were on Ziggy and Robbie, tucking into the pies with no signs of stopping.

Ziggy's face was covered in syrupy apple filling and flecked with crumbs of crust. He'd lost his fork early on in the contest but had no qualms with using his hands. The boy had never looked happier. He ate with a ravenous energy as if he hadn't had a decent meal in his life.

Beside him Robbie had a markedly different style. The man skewered caramelized apples on his fork and fed them into his mouth mechanically one after the other. It was hard to say if he even tasted them or bothered to chew. Where Ziggy's messy performance broadcast his pleasure for the feast Robbie's still and steady cadence suggested nothing more than dutiful resignation. As fast as Ziggy ate Robbie continued to pace him and they were neck and neck.

"Do you think he can do it?" Stephanie asked, her eyes riveted on the spectacle. "Ziggy's only a little kid..."

"He's got a smaller stomach than Robbie," Pixel said, "but I think he's got the bigger appetite."

Stingy snorted. "No kidding. His eyes are even bigger than Robbie's stomach."

Signs began to show that the contestants were pushing their limits. Ziggy's face was pink and sweaty underneath his fruity face mask. Robbie had to loosen his belt. They had eaten so much that the great stacks of pies that had before been so foreboding were now decimated to a more manageable heap. It still didn't seem possible that they could eat them all.

Robbie finished another pie and stacked the emptied tin with the others. As he slid the next one onto his plate he glanced towards Ziggy. The man watched him for a moment.

"For such a little boy you sure can put it away," Robbie commented. Ziggy turned his head enough to look at Robbie as he crammed more pie into his mouth.

"I love pie," Ziggy said, spraying some crumbs as he struggled to speak through the food. He swallowed and giggled. Robbie nodded.

"All these apple pies made out of apples," Robbie said. "I'm surprised we haven't found any worms yet."

Ziggy paused with a handful of pie halfway to his mouth. "Huh?"

"Oh, you know," Robbie said, "now and then there's bound to be a worm inside an apple, and with so many apples used to make all these pies we're certain to find at least a few. In fact, we should have seen some of them by now. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Ziggy asked.

"Unless," Robbie said, "you didn't look closely enough before you put it in your mouth, and then..." He swallowed grandly and Ziggy stared as the man's Adam's apple bobbed on his throat.

"You mean," Ziggy said, his face paling under all the sticky smears, "I might have..."

"Gulped them like a fish," Robbie said. He grinned. "Or maybe a bird."

Ziggy lowered his hand, letting the pie fall out. His complexion took a turn towards the shade of a green apple. Robbie leaned a little closer, looking at the boy's plate.

"Say, I think I see one now."

With a wail Ziggy jerked back from the pie in front of him. He shoved at the table so hard that his chair tipped back on its rear legs, then over. The chair toppled and crashed onto the stage with Ziggy in it.

"Ziggy!" Stephanie stood up from her seat to see the little boy better. "Are you okay?"

"No more! No more!" Ziggy crawled on hands and knees out from under the table, scrambling to get away as fast as he could. Sportacus strode forward just as Ziggy reached the edge the stage and caught the boy before he tumbled head over heels to the ground.

"Easy, Ziggy," Sportacus said. He hefted the boy in his arms— the child was heavier than normal from all the pies— and set him on his feet. "Next time make sure you use the stairs."

"It appears that Ziggy has forfeited," Milford announced over his microphone. "That makes Robbie Rotten the winner!"