Three Beans & a Sponge


It was a hot day in June just outside a southern town, in a small southern 
state, near it's southernmost border. The bright sun was unhindered by any 
clouds, the heat untouched by the wind.

At the hottest part of the day, just after the noon hour there sat three 
beans on a small rock by the pathway. One was a small black bean. One was a 
large red kidney bean. And one was a spotted pinto bean.

There were no other beans as far as the eye could see or the ears could 
hear. But of course, beans have no real eyes and no real ears, so they can't 
hear much or see very far at all.

The little rock on which the beans sat was very hot. And the beans felt the 
heat of the day working its way into their innermost hearts.

"I'm soaking up heat like a sponge soaks up water." said the little black 
bean.

"What's a sponge?" asked the pinto bean.

"I know what you mean." said the kidney bean. "If I get any hotter, I think 
I will pop right open!"

"So, uh... what's a sponge, anyway?" asked the pinto bean.

"I don't know if beans can really pop," said the black bean, "but I feel 
like I will certainly die, if I have to endure this heat much longer."

"Is it something like a worm or more like a tree?" asked the pinto bean.

No grass moved near the path. No dust was stirred. The air all around the 
beans on the rock just sat there, perfectly still in the midday heat. Not 
even a cricket made a sound. And the frogs in a nearby pond were all silent 
in the heat.

Just heat. That's all there was. Intense heat and radiant heat and more 
heat. It was unbroken, unending and larger than anything else in the whole 
world. And it kept growing and increasing. Or so it seemed to the beans.

The heat bothered the pinto bean. But something else bothered him more. He 
kept trying to crack the mystery of the sponge. What could it be? All he 
knew was that it soaked up water.

The sun kept beating down, and the sky held in the heat, and the air refused 
to move any of the heat away. The rock got hotter, and the beans felt the 
heat grow larger and deeper and heavier -- to the point of crushing out all 
life.

"That's it," said the black bean. "I'm dying. I know I'm dying. I just can't 
take any more of this."

"Whew! You and me both." said the kidney bean. I think my heart is 
shriveling up inside."

Out of the blue, the pinto bean asked, "Is a sponge very big, do you think? 
What color is it?"

And soon it was true. The very heart of the black bean died inside from the 
intense heat. It was just too much heat for him to take. And soon after 
that, the kidney bean also died. The pinto bean was so busy trying to guess 
what a sponge was that he didn