Baked Beans: A Narrative Fiction

When my brothers and I were younger, noodles and cottage cheese were a staple food for us. My mom says that they’re a classic in every Jewish household, but she might remember it that way because cottage cheese is another food group for my Bubbie. There’s no telling how much my mom and her siblings must have ate it. But it started a family food tradition, one that my mother put a healthy twist on, as usual: one day, she served the dish with chunks of avocado.

The rain hit the window screen harder and harder with every drop. Well at least, that’s what it sounded like. Or, it could have just been the large amount of heroine I just shot up my arm.

It was just a clear, sunny day in the small town of Searcy, Arkansas. The forecast was predicting a forty percent chance of rain. No one could really predict Arkansas weather because it always changed.

The look that came over her face was inexplicable. Some combination of horror, panic and terror filled her eyes. Her voice dropped to something barely above a whisper—barely audible through the cracking. “No.”

Initially, the film begins with Beans and Baby Boy sitting in a club talking about how unhappy they are with their current monetary/living situation. Eventually they decide to perpetrate a plan to take make their own money by taking over the cities drug trade, to ultimately achieve their target goal of being being the sole richest drug crew in their city.

We got everything in the pot smoothly from then on out. As we stirred everything else in, and the kitchen started filling up with a delicious smell.

The unnamed city of the story is a bleak place, one that offers little opportunity for growth.

“Calm down baby he’s down now we should probably find a new place to put him I guess” Jack said back you could hear how frightened he was.

The pungent smells of unknown roots, dried herbs, and other chinese spices reeked the air as I explored my mom’s deceptively small medicine cabinet. I discovered a tall glass jar filled with marbled pinto beans hidden by bouquets of piquant ginger. Armed with a muffin tin tray stolen from the kitchen, spongy soil from the front of my apartment, and an insatiable curiosity, I began experimenting with planting the beans. Whether fed a diet of sugary water, or grown in artificial light, the results amazed me: some tall, others delicate, and one with streaks of purple all over. The unknown potential of each bean catalyzed my passion for experimentation, science, and self discovery.

Jeanne woke to the smell of beans scorching. Carefully, she worked her way from bed and hobbled into the other room. Using a wooden spoon, she stirred the beans, making sure not to scrape the bottom. The room was chilly, and she added another log to the fire. Not taking the time to find a bowl, she ate from the pot, looking around guiltily. If Henri were here, he would have teased her for standing in her bare feet and dirty gown, eating from the kettle. But she was alone.

Sugar and Spice neighed, lifted themselves into the air slowly. Looking down at Kotori, Eido smiled, waving down to her. Isaac waved at Kotori as she waved at them both, watching the Pegasi fly off in the distance.

Ma had never followed her own advice, unless Pa and the boys were drinking. Alma had never had reason to until the morning Pa hit her. She stared down and stirred the beans. She couldn’t do it, after a minute or so she raised her head and spoke to Gabe. “Don’t have nothing but these beans and bread. Bread’s near done, beans won’t be ready until supper time. Wish I had some meat to fry up with it.”

Michael, Joey, and I bolted to the kitchen. “Mom are you ok?!” The boys and I asked scared half to death.

“What the heck?” said Mr. Jacks look around not believing he was back home. All of a sudden a police man was telling them to stop and stay where they were.

What’s happening in the first scene: The first scene we chose is set inside a bakery, owned by the baker and his wife. When they get a knock on their door, the witch enters and tells them that the reason why the baker’s wife is not pregnant is because she has placed a curse on their house, preventing pregnancy. She explains that long ago, the baker’s mother and father had a little girl whom the witch took from them because the baker’s father tried to steal from the witch. However, he stole her magic beans, so she placed the curse on them insuring that no one in their family could have a baby ever again.