COUPLE of days before Christmas (yep, the time of merriment and sharing, of goodness and get-togethers) Atomo had this fabulous idea of cooking one big kaldero of delicious, oodles of pancit with Weboy the Buddha Bear and sharing it with the neighborhood kids. She wanted to be nice, and so she did.

She cooked and she cooked (you know, nothing so difficult, just an easy pancit recipe). They cooked it in an open space outside. Finally it was done, and Atomo and Weboy were happy.

Since the pancit was still hot they decided to let it cool, and so they played outside (you know, whatever game they could think of, like piko, agawan base, or dance revolution karaoke-style).

But when they came back: Oh, no!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

The pancit was gone. Where could have it gone? Where could it be?

So they searched and they searched. They saw some suspicious-looking footprints--actually, tsinelas prints. And they saw the kaldero too. With Weboy’s keen sense of smell (he’s a bear, that’s why) they went out to look for the missing pancit.

And then they heard it.

Not so far from them, there was that looooong burp. . . . It was the smell of pancit.

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Uh-oh. The Christmas pancit was now inside somebody else’s stomach. And it was a huge, scary-hairy-man’s stomach. There was no way to get it out... (Eeeeyyyyow! Would you try?) Actually, since Atomo is short she really couldn’t see past the legs and the stomach. But Atomo was determined to do something.

"Nobody can do that and get away with it!" Atomo said. So she devised a plan to get back at the man. Now Weboy isn’t a Buddha Bear for nothing. "Wait!" he said, "Violence is not the way. What do you think you’re doing Atomo? This is Christmas, we’re supposed to make sure the spirit of it is in sharing."

All Atomo could actually hear was a bear saying blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But she wasn’t a bad kid. She wasn’t going to take revenge. She was just going to make the pancit-eating man nice. Yep, that was her goal.

PLAN A.: She and Weboy were going to dress up as the ghost of Christmas Present and their message to him would be: "Please, Mr. Pancit Man, refund the pancit and be nice to people." Jeez, that was their plan.

So they did. They were about to go up to the man while he was standing near the neighborhood sari-sari store when--oh no!--it was an attack they did not even think of. Atomo was screaming: "Oh, no!! Retreat, retreat!"

Great. The Pancit Man just farted. Thanks a lot.

That hairy man was tougher than Atomo had thought. Up next: PLAN B.

Atomo thought that if they did something nice to the man, he’d be nice. Some reverse psychology. She was going to introduce herself and ask if he wanted to get a free haircut (remember, Atomo thinks he’s hairy).

So they did. They were about to go up to the man (again) when he again--

There. It was done. There was that ripping sound and Atomo had to run for cover.

And so there was Plan C, and then D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S ... Nothing was working.

That was it. Atomo decided to call it quits, but she couldn’t. Still she couldn’t think of any more plans until...

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

It was unstoppable , Atomo was crying. It was really bad. The world stopped. Weboy stopped. But the man didn’t. He finally looked at them and went to where Atomo was. Uh-oh, the hairy, rooting-tooting man was going to really get them.

"Hey, kid! I’ve been looking for you. I was so hungry I ate your pancit. I wanted to say thank you, so here." The man handed Weboy and Atomo a present.

"Waaaah..." Atomo stopped crying for a minute and she opened the present. Inside was a recipe book for a million ways to cook really good noodle dishes. And a note: