Candy

"Mom," said the little girl, rubbing her eyes and standing in the doorway to her mother's room.

"Mom, the Easter Bunny is eating my candy," she said.

"Nonsense, baby," the woman replied. "The Easter Bunny gives out candy, he doesn't eat it..."

The woman lightly shook her covers and continued to speak, halfway into her pillow and halfway to her daughter, "Go back to sleep, baby..."

"But, mom," the girl said. "The Easter Bunny is eating candy!" She now spoke in a more serious tone, almost as if she were going to cry.

Her mother sat up and opened her arms. "Baby, I just told you. The Easter Bunny doesn't eat candy, he hands it out to little children. Besides, it's not even Easter yet. Go back to sleep," she said in her kindest voice.

"Okay, mom," the child sighed as she turned to walk out the room.

The woman smiled and thought, 'Crazy kid with her lively imagination,' and went back to sleep on a whim.

Out in the hallway, the little girl stood for a while staring at the Easter Bunny eating her candy. She then sighed. "Mommy said I should go back to bed."

The Easter Bunny smiled. "Good idea, child. Turn around and don't look back."

He flicked a shiny metal pendant at the child. She picked it up and cried as she saw what it was: it was a dog tag and it read 'Candy.'