once upon a time there were two kingdoms.
a kingdom of tall blue buildings under a bright orange sun.
and a kingdom of short red buildings under a pale green sun.
the land of blue buildings was ruled by a brave king who had a clever son and an ugly daughter.
the land of red buildings was ruled by a cowardly king who had a foolish son and a beautiful daughter.
the brave blue king proposed to the cowardly red king that their sons and daughters marry.
the vizier of the red king pointed out to the vizier of the blue king that this meant that the blue kingdom would in time be ruled by a clever king and a beautiful queen, and the red kingdom by a foolish king and an ugly queen.
the vizier of the blue king agreed that this was so but proposed to give the vizier of the red king two bags of gold if he would help arrange the matches,
the two weddings were arranged, and the vizier of the red king took his two bags of gold and sailed away to the capital of the purple empire.
he fell into the clutches of a floozy with an insatiable desire for cocaine and fancy clothes, and his two bags of gold were quickly depleted.
lying on the thin mattress in a seedy room in an abandoned flophouse, the floozy pointed out to the former vizier that the empire was paying good money for the betrayal of small kingdoms.
the vizier went to the local police station and betrayed the blue kingdom and the red kingdom, but received much less than two bags of gold, much to the disgust of the floozy.
the red kingdom and the blue kingdom were bombed and invaded by the empire, which found their flat surfaces suitable for the building of interstellar landing fields.
the brave king and the cowardly king , the clever prince and the beautiful princess, the foolish prince and the ugly princess, were all taken captive and brought to the empire, where they quickly melted into the faceless swarm of the capital.
the two kings found employment stocking the shelves of a huge supermarket which never closed.
the clever prince found a job devising puzzles and trivia quizzes for a small free newspaper distributed to the employees of an interstellar travel agency.
the beautiful princess tried her hand at various enterprises, finally settling on straightforward panhandling as the easiest and most efficient.
the foolish prince was hired by a telemarketing firm on the verge of bankruptcy, and found himself swept up in an indictment of the firm and sent to prison.
the ugly princess attempted to start a new political movement, but was not very successful.
one day the ugly princess was standing on a street corner in the rain handing out pamphlets when she was approached by a gentlemen wearing a camel hair coat.
look here, said the man in the camel hair coat, how would like to do me a favor?
perhaps, sir, the princess replied. what might the favor be?
go over to that coffee shop there and get me a large cold foam cappuccino.
the princess glanced back at the coffee shop. why can’t you get it yourself? she asked the man.
they know me there, he answered cryptically.
all right, why not, the princess replied.
here is twenty dollars, the man told her. the cappuccino is eighteen fifty. you can keep the change for yourself, or leave it as a tip, it is up to you.
the princess took the twenty dollar bill, put her pamphlets in her pocket, crossed the street, and entered the coffee shop.
she was never seen or heard from again.
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