It was a very hot summer. Didi and Dudu were taking a nap on a straw mat on the floor. Popo was siting on a rattan chair near the window mending a shirt. Every a few minutes she had to stop to cool herself with a banana leaf fan.
Didi listened to the loud chorus of cicadas and wondered how everything outside would be in the afternoon heat. She slipped out of the door into the garden.
There had been a food shortage those days. Every morning Popo had to go to the market on T street before dawn, and waited in long line to buy rationed food. Popo planted some vegetables in the garden. In a spring day she sowed a few pale green seeds near the fence and Didi watered the patch. Now green vines were all over the fence, and a few lavender colored flowers nodding in the hot breeze.
The dazzling sunshine made Didi squint. A yellow butterfly and some bees were busy flying around. She followed them to the fence and spotted a half moon shaped bean pot hanging from a vine hidden under leaves. It was half green and half purple.
Didi had not seen a bean like this before. She was very excited and ran into the house to tell Popo, there is a bean pot on the vine! Popo asked what shape it was. It was like a half moon. Popo told Didi that was indeed called purple moon bean.
A few days later Popo harvested a small basket of purple moon beans and made a stir-fry of them with black bean sauce. It was delicious.
