by Gabriel Cheung (P6 2021)

        “That will be two dollars and fifty cents,” the cashier at the candy stall said cheerfully with a giant optimistic beam plastered across his face.

        “Here is the money. Thank you very much,” Tom replied before munching on his favourite M&Ms eagerly. Every day, Tom would go to the candy shop and deliberately use the money that was meant to be for his lunch to buy some sweets. Tom thought that the colourful candy with the shades of the rainbow was better than any other food in the whole entire planet. He thought that the toothsome candy was the greatest flavour in the world that he had ever tried. Although his parents would advise him to curb his bad habit, he continued to eat sweets everyday as he could not control himself.

        As Tom walked out of the shop, the sun shone hard on him and cast elongated shadows on the ground. The occasional breeze had died down, leaving everyone in the sun to suffer the scorching heat. “Oh my! It’s so hot and I need to walk home? It’s going to be the worst thing that I have experienced,” Tom grumbled with a sigh. Little did he know that something worse was set in store for him that night.

        Tom dragged his feet under the relentless sun, and treated himself to the M&Ms that he had bought, piece by piece. Finally, he managed to reach home. “I’m home, Mum. It was so hot just now!” Tom complained to his mother as he continued to put another piece of M&M into his mouth.

        “I don’t care how hot it is! You need to stop your habit of eating sweets every day!” Tom’s mother snapped. “It is very unhealthy for you to eat so much sugar every day! You have to control yourself!”

        “Mum, you don’t need to be so worried. It is not harmful to eat sweets every day. Even my friends eat sweets every day and look at them! They are completely fine,” Tom replied calmly, popping another M&M into his mouth.

        “We are going to take you to see a doctor if you continue like this,” Tom’s mother replied in response to Tom’s comment. However, she did not realise that Tom had turned a deaf ear to her last sentence.  Over the next few days, Tom continued to eat sweets and did not even think that eating sweets everyday was dangerous to his health at all.

        Later that evening, Tom had a stomachache. It was so painful that Tom kept grabbing his stomach and looked like he was about to throw up. “I am brining you to the doctor,” Tom’s mother informed him, seeing that he kept having stomachaches all day long. “You have eaten a lot of sweets and now you are ill!” Tom wanted to throw a tantrum because he did not like going to the doctor but followed his mother as he had no other choice. He knew that his mother was really scared that he had fallen ill and that his mother would force him to go to the doctor.

        Tom went through many tests and sat at the table, across from the doctor, awaiting his results. His heart pounded hard and fast and it skipped a beat when the doctor sat down with wrinkles forming on his forehead while he shook his head. “I am so sorry to tell you this but your son has diabetes,” the doctor said in despair. “He has to start taking medication and he cannot eat things that are sweet in order to reduce his blood sugar level. I think that your son has diabetes because he eats too much sweet food.”

        “What? I have diabetes? Now I can’t eat the sweets that I like and will have to eat medicine every day! How I wish I had controlled myself and listened to Mum,” Tom thought to himself as tears welled in his eyes. “I’m sorry Mum, I should have listened to you and controlled myself from eating too many sweets,” Tom apologised with his head hung low. Tom’s mother accepted his apology and reminded him to have self-control. Regret hit Tom like a giant wave and crashed onto him. He regretted not controlling himself and eating too many sweets.

        From that day on, Tom learnt to have self-control and not let himself fall into the temptation of wanting to continuously eat sweets.

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