Jelly Beans & Sardines

by Katie Did

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This is a tale

I suppose no one knows.

It's a very strange story

and here's how it goes.

Back when I was six

maybe seven, no wait...

I think I was more

near that smart age of eight,

I lived in a place

and they called it Mud City,

A soggy, wet place,

with a busy committee,

Campaigning and voting

on things to be done.

Like just how to make this

small town have more fun.

The town got its name

from the fact that it rained

a little each day,

and the people complained.

They fussed and they griped.

They whined and they grumbled.

"Just why must it rain every day?"

they all mumbled.

Well, I had a good friend

who lived up in a tree.

In a house that he'd built.

He was older than me.

Now when I say older,

I mean really old.

His age in exact years

had never been told.

He was smart and he said

he taught science at college.

He told me his name

was Professor VanKnowledge.

But no one who lived

in Mud City had heard

of Professor VanKnowledge.

They called him a nerd.

In fact they all said

he was daft and quite wacky.

They said that his manner

of dress was right tacky.

They laughed at the things

which he spent time inventing.

They scoffed and pee-shawed

at his experimenting.

His house in the tree

was a big laboratory.

And I know that you're thinking

I've made up this story.

But believe me, it's true.

And you'll see what I mean.

If you go to this town

and you see what I've seen.

It happened one day,

he spilled green jelly beans

on top of an opened up

can of sardines.

Well those beans and sardines

trickled down in the boiler,

and would have been fine

had they not hit the coiler.

A warning specifically said,

"NO BROWN BEANS!"

But it said nothing of

jelly beans or sardines.

Now I know when all colors

are mixed they turn black.

And I know jelly beans

have some colors they lack,

Like crimson, and egg plant,

and peach tangerine.

And moose juice, and honey dew

blue nectarine.

So I'm guessing when jelly beans

mix and melt down

with sardines, they turn

a quite nice shade of BROWN.

For that coiler and boiler

blew up the compressor.

It blew up his bed,

and his desk and his dresser.

The roof of his house

and most leaves in the tree

blew high in the sky

with Professor and me.

The town was all covered

in brown smoke and goo.

And you'll never believe,

though I swear that it's true,

It started to sprinkle

on top of the goo,

and it changed into red,

orange, pink, yellow and blue.

There was crimson and egg plant

and peach tangerine.

And moose juice and honey dew

blue nectarine.

And even some colors

that I'd never seen.

Then I noticed one missing,

'twas jelly bean green.

But it wasn't just goo

that was lacking the green

Nowhere in the town

was the green to be seen.

In place of the green

was the color of goo,

the color of colorful goo,

yes it's true.

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Join us in January and find out what happens when the town discovers that the color 'green' is missing from Mud City. What do you think would happen if everything in your town that was once green was the 'color of colorful goo'? E-mail Katie with your ideas. Grass? Lizards? Money? Trees? Wouldn't it be strange to find they were no longer green?

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Coming in January, 2000!

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