Susie Bandoni And The Mystery Beans

Susie Bandoni was at a cool, one-of-a-kind museum when she approached a very tall vending machine. Gazing up at it, she saw products she’d never seen anywhere else. After reading all of the labels twice, Susie chose a box labeled Mystery Beans.

     "How mysterious could they be?” she thought.

Susie put 7 quarters into the slot, which was fortunately located near the bottom and within reach. She pushed the button for the top shelf, third slot from the left.

After a slow 26 seconds, pink lights flashed, a whirring sound began, and a bell chimed. Finally, a colorful box of Mystery Beans dropped into the tray just below the coin slot.

Susie felt a little anxious opening the box. The back claimed that the beans had magic powers, and although she knew that was just a joke, she still felt nervous. Based on the pictures on the box, Susie picked a shrinking jelly bean as her first one. It tasted even better than she’d imagined—like fruity cream covered in rainbow sprinkles.

As soon as she swallowed the bean, there was a sudden burst of blue powder and Susie started squeaking.

     "Help! Help! Help!”

An employee walked by and held out his hand for her to step on, then lifted her up to his eye level.

     “Sorry, miss,” he said. “Those shrinking beans really shrink!”

     “I thought they were a joke!” said Susie.

     "No jokes here," said the man. "Everything in this museum is real."

“What do I do now?” wined Susie.

     "Simple,” he said. “Choose another bean.”

He read off the options from the box.

     "There’s one that makes you itch, one for dancing, one for flying and oh, here is one of the red ones that makes you grow.”

     "Red, please,” said Susie. “But it’s huge- like a strawberry! I’ll eat it, but it’s going to take a minute.”

     "Take your time, miss,” said the employee. “This happens a few times a day. I'm used to it.”

As Susie started returning to her regular size, the man lowered his hand, and soon she stepped off. She felt like herself again.

     "I’m finished with this vending machine,” she said. “Thanks for your help, sir—but I’m throwing away the rest of these Mystery Beans.”

As she left the museum, Susie heard someone behind her talking about buying a can of magic potato chips.

“I’m not even going to see what those do,” she muttered. “I’m out of here.”

And with that, Susie opened the door, turned onto the sidewalk, and never looked back.

The End.