Based on Hey, Arnold! characters created by Craig Bartlett. Author claims no copyright.
The Shortmans gave their kids a rule of no sweets during the week. It was a Thursday evening. Amber Shortman climbed up to the house cupboard in search of the cookie jar. She may have inherited the football head from her father but her rebelliousness solidified her as her mother's daughter. Amber was caught red-handed.
Helga scolded her daughter. "I told you, no junk food during the week!," she said while carrying a wailing Amber to her room for a timeout. This woke up Arnold, who had nodded off on a LA-Z boy recliner.
"Can you tell her the Chocolate Boy story?," Helga asked her husband upon going back to the living room. "Yeah, I got this," said Arnold as he arose from the recliner then walked into Amber's room.
"You know why mommy put you in here?," Arnold asked his daughter. "Because I wanted a cookie," said Amber. "I know you did," said Arnold, "but you can only have sweets during the weekend, and today is a weekday." Amber was not abiding. "But I don't like that rule!," she said while heading towards the door.
Arnold scooped her back up. "Amber," said Arnold assertively, "let me tell you a story about a boy mommy and I used to know. We called him Chocolate Boy. All he ever cared about was chocolate. His face was covered with it. He ate it all the time. He got sick. Other kids at school laughed at him. You don't want to be like him do you?"
"No," said Amber.
"Well you won't if you have sweets sometimes but not all the time. Chocolate Boy's parents never let him eat any. That's why he wanted it so badly. Mommy and I let you have some but not too much."
"Ok daddy," said Amber, giving up.
"How did it go?," asked Helga as Arnold walked back into the living room. She was on the couch checking her phone. "Fine," he said, "But just in case let's put the cookie jar higher up in the pantry." Arnold did just that later that night. He also put radishes in the salad for dinner. That had been what Chocolate Boy used for a little while as a chocolate substitute. Maybe it would work for Amber.
Memories of his youth in Hillwood had become a blur to Arnold while he had lived abroad. As much of a blur as growing up in Derry could be 27 years between appearances by Pennywise the clown. But ever since he had returned to Hillwood, got back together with Helga for good and started a family, memories like those of Chocolate Boy had come flooding back.
That time when Chocolate Boy snuck on to a field trip to the chocolate factory and dived into a vat. The time when school bully Wolfgang and his cronies, seeing Chocolate Boy as a circus freak, had dared him to give up his favorite food. He wasn't much help to Arnold, Harold and Eugene when the they were stuck in a tree.
Birthday cakes had been what initially reminded Arnold of Chocolate Boy. Seeing Amber and her brother Phil chow down on the cakes Helga baked for them on their birthdays. Arnold cherished those moments with parental pride. But at the same time, the image of frosting on the cheeks of Phil and Amber, prior to it being cleaned up with napkins, Arnold saw as evocative of Chocolate Boy and the chocolate goatee he kept in his crazed state. That was what gave him the idea of the no sweets during the week rule, other than it being standard parental practice. He didn't want Phil or Amber turning into Chocolate Boy. So he had plans to convey this once an incident like the one with Amber came up.
Arnold wondered what had happened to Chocolate Boy. He would be Chocolate Man by now. He was two years younger than Arnold and his posse. He didn't go to the same junior high or high school that Arnold, Helga or any of their friends did.
Gerald, who like Arnold had made his way back to Hillwood after a few years away, had no knowledge of Chocolate Boy/Man's whereabouts. He had, however, told the same story to his son Gerald Jr. and daughters Ellie and Kellie to rein in their junk food consumption. But Gerald made Chocolate Boy/Man out to be a spookier figure, an urban legend much like the tales he told of Stoop Kid and Wheezin' Ed.
Three months or so after the cookie jar incident, Arnold was on his way home from a trip to Berman's, the butcher shop and convenience store run by Harold and Big Patty. Upon turning the street corner he noticed a new establishment that had popped up. The words Chocolate Man, underneath a chocolate-colored marijuana leaf displayed on the awning. It was the grand opening of a new dispensary that specialized in cannabis-infused chocolate.
Arnold had smoked a little weed back in his early 20s when he wandered around Europe. Most often when he stayed in Amsterdam a few times. Those days were long gone. But out of curiosity, he peaked through the window past the line. Behind the counter he saw what had to have been Chocolate Man. Dark brown hair with a cowlick and the rim of his mouth covered in chocolate. This was his place.
As he walked home, Arnold texted Gerald to tell him about what he had just seen. Gerald replied, "he didn't like radishes that much, did he?"