The Drinkables: An open-ended tale of what we drink

At a time, there was a group of people called the drinkables. They lived in containers: some in bottles, some in cartons, some in barrels, some in pouches, some in cups, and some in bodies. They could not choose where they lived, and how they affected others was pretty much based on impulse.

The drinkables had a number of subgroups. Among these were pop, juice, water, and milk. The pop group could get people energetic. The juice group had a sweet refreshing effect on people. The water group also had a refreshing effect on people at times, but they were more fresh than sweet. The milk group felt smooth to others.

The drinkables did not have reproductive systems, yet with help from others they could reproduce. They did not have arms, legs, feet, or hands, yet with help they could move. They could speak to each other, yet others could not distinguish what they were saying. Any one of them by themselves was only a tiny drop, yet their total population was countless. Their entire life as a group or as individuals was moving from one place to another. The drinkables could gain very little knowledge, yet they could teach much more information.

Each subgroup in the drinkables was produced at a type of place. Pop was produced in factories, juice at orchards, water from lakes and rivers, and milk at dairy farms.

One day in some room there were cups where pop, juice, water, and milk were placed. One cup was made of glass. There two pop people were talking, one young and one old, with other pop people listening, and a person about to drink from it.

“Where are we?”, said the young one. “In a glass cup”, replied the old one. “Where are we going?”, asked the young one. “I do not know”, said the old one. Then a mouth opened up and the pop people fell down into it. “Down the drain we go!” shouted a group of them.