Lumpy arrived at the bus stop, where The Mole was already sitting on the bench. Figuring he didn't want to be alone, Lumpy sat down next to him.

"Hey, Mole," he greeted him.

"Oh, hello, Lumpy," The Mole said. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay. I'm just going over to the cafe to meet up with my friends," Lumpy said.

"That's nice," The Mole said.

The two of them waited for the bus to arrive. As they were sitting on the bench, Lumpy's nose itched, and his nostrils flared up slightly. He sniffled and rubbed his nose on his hand, and the itch slowly went away.

A short time afterwards, a thought occurred to Lumpy. He looked over at The Mole.

"Can I ask you something?" Lumpy asked.

"Sure. What is it?" The Mole responded.

"Um..." Lumpy didn't know how to ask the question that was on his mind, at first. "Do you have any allergies?"

"Yeah, I do," The Mole answered. "Mostly a dust allergy. Every time I feel some get in my face, or anywhere near my nose, I start sneezing."

"I'm allergic, too," Lumpy admitted. "But what about pollen? Are you allergic to that, too?"

"No, not really. But it has made me sneeze before, just not as much as dust."

"Oh, really? Hmm..." Lumpy thought about what he had heard for a while.

"Why do you ask?" The Mole wanted to know.

"Because I have pretty bad allergies..." Lumpy said, sounding guilty as he looked away and blushed. "And I always sneeze a lot when I even smell pollen or dust."

"Have you been taking allergy medicine?"

"Yeah, but it's not really much help..."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

A short time afterwards, the wind blew a small amount of dust into the air, and then blew it towards Lumpy and The Mole. Lumpy saw the dust coming, and put his hands over his nose so he wouldn't sneeze; however, The Mole couldn't see anything, and as a result, couldn't see the dust coming his way.

Luckily, the dust simply passed by the two, and Lumpy managed to avoid getting any in his nose. However, a small amount of dust made it into The Mole's face, and he reacted instantly. Without any buildup, he tilted his neck back, then doubled over, covering his already-covered mouth with his fist.

"Tchhh!" That one sneeze wasn't going to do, however. He tilted his neck back again, giving a slight inhale before he released another sneeze. "Hhh-tchhh!"

Lumpy heard The Mole sneezing, and he immediately turned his head to look at him in concern. He saw that The Mole was going to sneeze again, but he didn't try to stop him.

"Hhh... Hhhhhah-" The Mole gave two inhales, then released a final sneeze, which was slightly bigger and louder than the other two were. "TCHHHHHHH!"

"Ugh..." The Mole sniffled and rubbed his nose with a forefinger.

"Bless you," Lumpy said, politely. He was surprised to hear The Mole sneezing like this, but he didn't have a problem with it.

"Thank you. And excuse me," The Mole said as he continued to rub his nose.

"So... that's how you sneeze, huh?" Lumpy's nostrils had started to flare up again. But he didn't notice that until after he had finished his sentence.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is." The Mole wiped his nose with one of the sleeves on his sweater, despite that his nose wasn't running.

"It's fine. I just didn't think it'd sound like tha-"

Before Lumpy could finish his sentence, the wind blew the dust from the air right into his face. His nose quivered and itched intensely as his nostrils flared up even more than they already had been. He knew what was going to happen; he was going to sneeze. He turned away from The Mole as his breath hitched.

"Aaaaaah... AaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAH..." Lumpy tilted his neck back as he inhaled twice.

The Mole heard the inhales, but since he couldn't see, he didn't understand why Lumpy was emitting them in the first place.

"Lumpy? Are you alright?" The Mole asked, but Lumpy just couldn't answer him. The urge to sneeze was just too strong for him to handle.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-" Lumpy gave a final dramatic gasp, and then exploded. "CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Lumpy shot his neck forwards as he released the sneeze, and a good amount of spray was fired out of his mouth. The sneeze was so loud that The Mole had to put his hands to his ears the moment he heard it. Upon recovering from the sneeze, Lumpy sniffled loudly and rubbed his nose on his forefinger.

"My goodness. Bless you, Lumpy," The Mole said as he uncovered his ears.

"Ugh, thanks. And sorry about that." Lumpy continued to rub his nose, giving another audible sniffle.

"Would you like a tissue?" The Mole reached into his pocket and pulled out a tissue. "Because I have some..."

"Thanks." Lumpy took the tissue from The Mole, held it to his nostrils and blew his nose for one second. Not feeling much relief from that, he wiped his nose with the tissue for a few minutes.

"Again, I'm very sorry about your allergies," The Mole said. "Sounds like you have them worse than I do."

"No kidding." Lumpy was still wiping his nose. "I might have the worst allergies to pollen and dust anybody ever had..." He sighed to himself in sadness. "Let me tell you, there's nothing worse than being allergic to stuff."

"There sure isn't," The Mole responded.