Invention 3: Rainbow Drops
'That's impossible...'

'Hah, Oi can get moine further!'

Tom swallowed the remainder of his cherry, prepared, aimed, and fired. The stone sailed over the freshly mown hay and plopped down a good three feet further than Jimmy's. His friend groaned. 'Aww, pathetic! Oi can beat that.'

'Go on then, beat it, spit fifty feet!'

'That's nay fifty feet.' Jimmy munched his cherry, juice dribbling down his chin, swallowed, then stood up.

'Hey! Sitting only!'

'New rules,' shot back Jimmy, around his stone. He spat, but he must have done it wrong, because the stone simply dropped down his shirt and rolled under a twig.

Tom rolled over laughing. 'Aww, pathetic!' he mimicked.

There was a small phut from behind the two farmhands, and something sailed over their heads and disappeared into the unmown hay that lay a decent distance away. A high, fluty voice drifted over the hill. 'Yeah! A new record!'

Tom sat up, grass clinging to his back, and replaced the strap of his braces that had fallen off his shoulder. 'That is a good spit, Jim! Jimmy?'

Jimmy wasn't listening; he had walked away from the farm to the brow of the hill. Tom crammed the remainder of his pasty into his mouth and followed.

He stood beside his friend and stared. The tall, thin man in the expensive velvet coat was fishing in a small cellophane packet, which held the last of what resembled brightly coloured fruit drops. He looked up briefly and then addressed them whilst struggling with the bag. 'If you two wanna come down here, I'd like you to try something out for me.'

Tom started down the hill, but Jimmy grabbed his sleeve. ''Ave you lost your moind? 'E could be anybody!'

Tom shook himself free. ''E's a good spitter. That means 'e's all roight. Are you coming?'

Jimmy shook his head. 'Oi'm watching from up 'ere, where it's safe.'

'Suit yourself.' Tom ran down the hill and jogged to a halt a safe distance from the man. Close to, they were in fact about the same height The man had progressed from struggling to near full-on wrestling with the cellophane.

'I always wonder why I bother with this stuff,' he said, agitated. 'I mean, what's wrong with paper bags?'

'Why don't you just tip it out into your 'and?' asked Tom, feeling this was the blindingly obvious solution to the problem.

The man paused, 'Hey, you know what? That's a really good idea!' His pale face split into a toothy grin, and he emptied the little packet into his hand. The little drops glistened with sugar in the hot sun. 'Now. These are Rainbow Drops, but not just any Rainbow Drops. These are my Fabulous Spitting Rainbow Drops!' He stepped closer. 'You suck on one of these, and in five seconds, you'll be able to spit in all colors of the rainbow!' He giggled, a sound that made the hairs on Tom's neck stand on end. It was far too high for a real man...

He looked him over: the coat and the boots and the short dark hair, the top hat and the huge sunglasses that obscured half his face, the gloved hand holding the top of what appeared to be a life-size candy cane, the other hand holding out the harmless-looking sweets. If this was some kind of harvest gremlin, it was one with a strange dress sense.

He chewed his lip in thought, and the man pulled a face. 'You don't want to eat yourself! Try these!' He shoved the hand under Tom's nose.

Tom took a step back, then, ignoring Jimmy's cry of protest, plucked a yellow drop from the small pile. The strange man withdrew his hand, looking delighted. 'Now eat it!' he said encouragingly.

Tom tossed the drop into the air and caught it in his open mouth. Fortunately he didn't choke on it, like he had with Lizzy's grape (oh, that had been embarrassing...), and as he cracked it open a rush of lemony bittersweet-ness roared over his tongue. The inside of the sweet was liquid, and he supposed that was the spitting part. He chewed and swallowed the rest of the drop, his jaws aching with the bitterness, and prepared to spit.

He wouldn't spit high this time: he wanted to see if the man had been telling the truth about the rainbow colours. He cupped his hands and spat.

The stranger recoiled in disgust, his fingers twitching, but Tom was staring fixedly at the pool of spittle. 'Wow,' he breathed, turning his hands this way and that. The liquid really was in all colours of the rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. 'That's impossible...'

The man was grinning again, 'Isn't it? And if you eat one of each color, you can spit a rainbow! Try it, try it!'

Tom wiped his hands on his trousers and took another handful of the drops, crunching them up hurriedly. The flavours were more intense than the real thing: strawberry vied with orange for sweetness, lemon and lime clamoured at the back for bitterness, and two types of blackcurrant exploded somewhere in the middle.

Soon enough, the mixture in his mouth was devoid of the hard exterior of the drops, and he threw back his head and spat. A rainbow fountain shot from his mouth and curved over to the ground, glittering in the sunlight. Tom's eyes bulged. Up on the hill, Jimmy gasped in wonder. The strange man giggled again and clapped his hands together, scattering the few drops left onto the grass. 'You see? It works!'

Tom spat what was left as hard as he could, and it just crested the hill. 'New record for me too,' he observed.

The man dived into a pocket and produced a notebook and pencil. He licked the nib and flicked through the book to a blank page. He scribbled something; on the page facing him, Tom could see several noughts-and-crosses games and a hangman with a top hat. 'That's very interesting... It would appear that my Fabulous Spitting Rainbow Drops also increase the average distance one can spit...' He licked the end of the pencil again and smacked his lips a couple of times. 'Cherry...'

'Y'what?'

'Eatable pencil for schoolchildren. I tried making a biro, but the ink stained my tester's tongue, so that one's on the shelf at the moment.' He chewed the rubber on the end thoughtfully. 'Perhaps I should put sherbet in it...'

'Erm, Sir? Are these going to be in ee shops at some point?'

'Why of course they will! And as a special thanks to you for helping me test them, here!'

Tom took the cellophane packet with a grin. 'Are these...'

'Yep! All for you! Well thank you again, my friend, but I really must be going now.' He stowed the notebook and pencil in his pocket again and shook Tom's hand vigorously. 'All the best!'

He turned and minced away across the field.

Tom turned the little packet in his hand as Jimmy thundered down the hill and nearly collided with him. 'What was that stuff?'

'Fantastic Spitting Rainbow Drops. Come on, Oi'll show you 'ow to spit properly.'

fin