The Jack of Jelly Beans Part 2

Continuing where we left off, Jack's quest had led him to the dentist's office. Jack had hopes of fulfilling his quest by finding the Cavity Creeps and slaying those foul villains while redeeming the reputation of his fellow Jelly Beans. He would return to Candyland a hero!

"I am on a quest" said Jack to the dentist.

"What kind of quest?" asked the dentist. As Jack explained his problem the dentist nodded. When he finished the dentist paused awhile in deep thought.

"Ive got it!"said the dentist, raising his hand suddenly. "What we need is to make jelly beans healthy for teeth."

Jack looked at the dentist doubtfully. "How are you going to do that. We are full of sugar. That's why we are so sweet." he said.

"Aha! That's where we make the change. You can still be sweet, but we will put some toothpaste into the Jelly Bean mix." said the dentist.

"I'm not sure, but I suppose it is worth a try," said Jack, although he didn't believe it would work. The dentist told Jack to return the next day. His wife, who loved baking, would make five jelly beans. The dentist had many flavors of toothpaste and his wife was good at mixing different flavors. She would mix different flavors of toothpaste into the jelly beans, and they would see which one the kids liked best.

Oliver interrupted the story. "I want to pick the flavors Daddy!" he said. "Let's pick some gross ones first" I suggested. Oliver earerly agreed.

The next day Jack watched as the dentist finished with his first kid. "Here you go" he said, handing the boy a white jelly bean. The boy chewed it and quickly spit it out. "Yuck! plain toothpaste with jelly beans!" he said. Jack looked at the dentist and they both shook their heads. The dentist drew an "X" through the first line on his pad. The next boy got a green jelly bean. "Broccoli jelly beans?!?" he said, almost choking. Jack gave the dentist a thumbs down. Only three more beans to go. The next kid was a girl and she got a red bean. She chewed for a moment, and suddenly her face turned red and she screamed for water. "Hot sauce jelly beans, that's mean!" she said, when she finally finished gulping glasses of water.

"There's only one more kid to see today" said the dentist, looking at his last two jelly beans sitting on the tray. One was yellow with red spots, and the other was dark brown. His last patient was a teenage boy, and when the dentist was done cleaning his teeth he gave him the yellow jelly bean with red spots. The boy chewed and his eyes grew big and he exclaimed "Pepperoni Pizza! Excellent! Do you have any more?" The dentist smiled and handed him the dark brown jelly bean.

The teenager said "Chocolate! No way! You're the best dude. Score me some more of those when you get a chance." He then walked out of the room, saying, "Hey mom, how soon can I come back to the dentist? This place is great."

Jack gave the dentist a high five. They had found a way to make jelly beans actually help clean kids' teeth. The cavity creeps were defeated, and the jelly beans' reputation was restored. Jack returned to Candyland a hero, and he helped the dentist find exciting new flavors for kids all over the world. What are some flavors you would like?

Candy Wars I: The Jack of Jelly Beans Part 1

Oliver and I have done several bedtime stories on Candy Wars. Here is how it all started.

The King of Jelly Beans was worried. With all these dieticians, dentists and parents warning about the dangers of eating too much sugary candy it seemed that Jelly Beans were becoming downright unpopular. Production was scaled back and his kingdom shrank. There was even a commercial on TV showing Jelly Beans working with nefarious villains called Cavity Creeps to put holes in Kid's teeth. His Majesty was outraged, and it was in this grave time that the King turned to his son, the Jack of Jelly Beans, to go on a quest.

"My son, you must go on a quest and seek out a way to save the Jelly Beans." charged the King. "You must find a way to disassociate ourselves with these Cavity Creeps and restore our good name." Lifting his Royal Scepter (a candy cane) and touching it solemnly on the young Bean's head, he wished his son well on his quest.

Jack set out to find the Cavity Creeps but it proved difficult. After searching several candy stores, he spied a boy who let out a wail when his mother said they were going to a dentist, to get a "cavity" filled. Jack was cheered and jumped in the boy's pocket. After a short ride, they arrived at the dentist's office. Jack heard the sound of drilling and a groan or two from the boy. Once it stopped the boy rose from the chair, put his hand to his jaw and grimaced. Jack jumped out of the boy's pocket onto a tray.

"Remember to avoid those sweets." a voice said. The boy left, and a man in a white coat started putting away some gleaming silver instruments. After awhile, the man noticed Jack.

"What do we have here?" the man said, reaching down towards Jack.
"My name is Jack." said Jack. The man was startled for a moment.

The Lonely Vitamin, by Oliver and Daddy

Here is one from New Years Eve, 2007. Oliver had overindulged during the holidays and lay in bed after having become sick in his stomach. It was his first case of stomach troubles and he had not eaten all day. He took a vitamin and laid down.

"Tell me a story Daddy?" Oliver asked.
I remembered that Oliver was interested in an illustrated kid's book on anatomy that explained the digestive system.

I began the story:

Once upon a time there was a lonely vitamin in Oliver's stomach. It was a dark and empty place. Oliver had a stomach ache and he had thrown up seven times in two days. (Oliver's ears perked up and he smiled.)

"I sure could use some company in here" said Vitamin. "A chicken nugget or a cracker would be nice" he said.

"I hope my medicine will help because I don't want to throw up again." said Oliver-in-the-story to the Vitamin.

Oliver:
"Maybe I'll try a cracker." said Oliver-in-the-story. He went downstairs and Daddy gave him a cracker.

"Here goes" said Oliver, taking a bite of the cracker. Crunch! The cracker tasted so good. Oliver had not eaten anything in a whole day.

Daddy:
"Look out below!" said Oliver-in-the-story to Vitamin. Cracker said "Cowabunga!" as it slid down Oliver's throat.

"Ouch!" said Vitamin as Cracker cracked into his head. "They don't call me Cracker for nothing" he said in a tough salty voice. Oliver's stomach rumbled but then he felt better.

Vitamin rubbed its head and said "Nice to meet you" to Cracker.

"Nice to meet you too. Are there any more cool slides we can go on?" asked Cracker.

"Sure, over by the swimming pool" said Vitamin. Cracker looked at the pool and sure enough there was a big twisty gnarly slide at the end.

"Let's go!" said Cracker "I love water slides."

Oliver:
That's my stomach acid, and the slide is my intestines!

Daddy:
That's right! Back to the story.

Cracker jumped in the pool. "Come on in, the acid's fine." he said, waving at Vitamin.

Daddy to Oliver: Vitamin was scared. What do you think he said?

Oliver:
"I don't know if I have the guts."

Daddy:
Good one! Back again to the story.

Vitamin slowly waded in, and they both paddled across the pool. Oliver-in-the-story asked "Daddy, can I have a glass of water?" Daddy said yes and he took a sip. Gulp! A big wave came crashing down Oliver's throat into his stomach.

"Surf's up dude!" said Cracker. "Oh no!" said Vitamin, who jumped on Cracker in fright and started surfing the wave.

"You have to become one with the wave dude!" advised Cracker. They did, melting into the wave as they shot down the tubular slide.

Oliver sighed and patted his stomach. "Daddy, can I have another Cracker?" he asked.

How The Easter Bunny Tricked Godzilla

On the night before Easter, Oliver asked for a sleep time story. I decided that the Easter Bunny would have to be in it. But who would be the bad guy? Why not Godzilla? Here is how the Easter Bunny tricked Godzilla.

Daddy:

Once upon a time, the Easter Bunny was going all around the world to deliver chocolate, marshmellows and Easter eggs for the children. He made it all the way to Japan when he noticed something strange. A big monster, Godzilla, was following behind him and eating all of the chocolate that he had left for the boys and girls. It seemed that Godzilla loved chocolate.

The tiny Easter Bunny twitched his whiskers and thought for a minute. He came up with a plan. He got his longest piece of licorice and spread it out as he hopped all the way to Scotland. There he stopped at a certain lake, called Loch Ness. The Easter Bunny knew that a big monster who lived in the bottom of the lake loved candy but she did not like chocolate that much. The Easter Bunny took the other end of the licorice and let it out down to the deepest part of the lake and waited.

At the bottom of the lake, Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, stuck her nose out of her cave and sniffed.

"Is that licorice I smell?" she asked. "It is!" she cried.

She swam up to the end of the licorice and started sucking it in and chewing it, rising towards the surface of Loch Ness. Little did she know, that on the other end of the licorice, Godzilla was chomping happily as he followed the long black string towards Loch Ness. They grew closer and closer, still unaware of each other. The Easter Bunny hid behind a tree and watched.

Godzilla finally reached the shores of Loch Ness, with the black string of licorice dangling from his teeth. Nessie neared the surface of Loch Ness, following the licorice towards the sun. Just as Nessie broke the surface of the water, Godzilla reached his head down towards the lapping waves. The small length of licorice between their reaching lips suddenly disappeared, and they met in with a surprised gasp.

Oliver laughed "Daddy, this isn't going to get all mushy?"

Daddy: "Okay Oliver, you tell the rest of the story."

Oliver:

Finally they met each other and then they argued and argued until Nessie went down back in the water so fast and in a flash she came back up with her makeup on. Then, Godzilla looked at Nessie, and his eyes got big and hearts appeared in them. Then Croagunk appeared and he used poison jab on Godzilla. He fainted so long, that the Easter Bunny could deliver all the chocolate to the children's houses again and when they woke up they had Easter parties and Easter egg hunts. That's how the Easter Bunny tricked Godzilla.

The End

Daddy's note to readers: Pokemon knowledge is required to fully follow Oliver's ending. He equates Godzilla to Brock, a character who goes crazy around girls until his faithful Pokemon sidekick Croagunk knocks him out before he can make too big a scene.

An experiment in imagination

Almost every night, this forty-something Dad is called upon to tell stories to his sometimes sleepy six year old son. On many nights my desire to keep my mind flexible and full of imagination has caused me to put aside the books.

"What kind of story would you like to hear?" I ask my boy.

Often, he gets to select the protaganist and the villain, drawn from the Disney Channel, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon pantheon. I then get to make up the story. As with any writer's work, some of them work and some of them don't. Regardless he eventually falls asleep.

Other times, I will read a book, or we will lay down and listen to an audiobook or story together, and talk about it. This blog will chronicle out adventures in Sleep Time Stories.