Hello, it's been a long time since I posted my last story. But then, I bought some jelly beans...
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JELLY BEANS
"See this one? Tastes like pop corn!"
"What's pop corn?"
"Ha.. That's some kind of grain and you warm it up 'til it pops, then you add butter and salt. Tastes like that. Try it"
"Hmm, good!"
"Told ya"
"I like the blue ones"
"Yeah? What they taste?"
"I don't know. They are pretty"
"Let's try one of them. Mmm, raspberry ya think?"
"Mmm… Maybe.. Jennifer Hopkins at school says all girls love pink and blue is for boys"
"She said that eh?"
"Is that true Jack?"
"You like blue Cass'?"
"Oh yes! that's my favorite color!"
"And you're a girl, right?"
"Of course I am" Cassie giggled.
"There you are! You're a girl, and you like blue. Girls can like blue!"
"Jennifer Hop.."
"Obviously Jennifer's got it all wrong! It's OK to like whatever you want. Here, try a yellow one!"
"Mmm… lemon?"
"Yeah I think so. You know what's great with those? You eat two of two different colors, and they combine to give a new taste!"
"Really?"
"Yeah! Try it! Choose two colors!"
"Yellow… and white?"
"Good choice! So? "
"…Yeah! I don't know what the taste is, but it's different. And good!"
"Told ya!"
"Your turn! Here! Blue and green!"
"Yummi! Oh.. actually I think that tastes a little like soap now"
"Gross!" Cassie said, wrinkling her nose.
"And now, plenty of them!"
"That much?"
"Oh yeah! Look! …. A shee?" Jack was struggling to articulate, his mouth filled with candy.
"Jack!" the little girl giggled.
"A twy"
"What?"
"Ha.. A twy!" Jack said, offering the girl a hand full of jelly beans.
"Colonel! What are you teaching this girl?" Janet yelled as she took in the scene in her adoptive daughter's room.
Taken by surprise, Jack inhaled sharply and choked on the candy. Coughing while trying not to spit jelly beans all over the comforter, he could hardly breath, his sugar-coated throat refusing to comply to his attempts to inhale. Cassie was trying to help by tapping on his back with her little hand.
Keeping a straight face despite a grin that threatened, Janet picked the paper bin from under Cassie's desk and held it in front of the Colonel until he had emptied his mouth. Struggling to catch his breath, the man protested:
"Geez doc! Are you trying to give me a heart attack, dropping in on us and yelling like that?!"
"And YOU were stuffing Cassie with candy!"
"Someone has to introduce her to these things ya know! Her cover-up will blow in no time if she says they don't have those in Toronto!"
"Still! You don't have to give her the lot"
"That's jelly beans! You HAVE to eat loads of them!"
"Well Colonel, I happen to disagree with you" Janet said with her stern doctor voice "What's with the jelly beans anyway?"
"I wanted to know what they were" Cassie explained.
"How did you even know the name?" Janet wanted to know.
"There was that song on the radio when Jack picked me up from school today"
"A song? What song?"
"Billie Jean" Jack answered, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
"And?"
"Jack said his son used to sing "Jelly Beans" instead when he was little, and when I didn't know what that was, he said he'd show me"
The Colonel looked so smug and pleased with himself, Janet threw her hands in the air and left the room, laughing to herself.
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The end
