"Stop Fool!"
Dan wasn't going to like this. I stood outside Dan's door and took a breath before stepping threw. He hadn't quite gotten out of bed yet, he was sitting there, rubbing his eyes since in his eagerness, he hadn't slept well.
I asked how was his sleep, not really knowing how to start my advice.
"Well enough," said he, "Is the girl ready?"
"Well, almost, but that isn't why I'm here," and before he could protest I continued, "I've told you that marrying a woman isn't a proper plan, but now I'm begging. It will only bring ruin."
"Ruin? Don't be a fool, there is nothing wrong with a king wanting a queen for himself."
"You've said that, but Dan, this morning I saw the priests huddled around each other, whispering. They kept their voices low and watched me as I passed. Not even Billy Fish is aware of what it is. And he warned me--"
"Stop it with your warnings. I will have a wife and our Kingdom will last centuries."
"That is true, it has been done over and over again," started I, "but they were human. Our people, the priests and chiefs, they believe us to be gods. It may be peculiar that a god should desire a bride, what else explains the reactions of the poor girl last night, the priests this morning and the hesitation of the chiefs and priests when you made your desires known," said I.
Dan's head had begun to turn red and he fumed. In all our time together as kings, he had included me as equal parts as him, and he had always been kind to me, even if it was him the people loved. But now that I was trying to dissuade him, nearly standing in his way, he could hardly think lower of me. He didn't say anything, it was all in his eyes. He felt like the peak of the tallest mountain, and he felt as though I was trying to bring him down.
When a priest came to fetch him for the wedding ceremony, his anger lifted and he was back to the delighted self he had been the night before at the thought of having a wife. When I left his room I wished there was more I could say to convince him that this was a horrible idea. But he was king and he felt that no one should stand in his way, not even a fellow king.
By: Elie Wiesel and the Jedi Knights.
ReplyDeleteThey were cheering above him. They believed he was dead. “Idiots.” There was a burning feeling back in the cord of his neck and he was having difficulty twisting it too look back up at peachy, but was sure that he could if he would only try harder. “Ah Peachey, poor soul. I can’t imagine you shall escape your fate as well as I have mine. I’m sorry, friend”. He had condemned him. He had put Peachey to death even in the face of his begging him not to. Of course that begging came in the form of Peachey’s caring for the man who now lay with peculiar sensation of forming in his lungs.
“Even as far as kings go I am quite the bastard. What shame it is that I should live and he die, that good man.”
His organs, he found, were growing very heavy. Perhaps too heavy to hold up for much longer, especially with the fire ants stinging all about in his hands and his feet and the sun going down in the quickest, most peculiar manner our man had ever seen.
“Good. The night will come and under its sweet protection I shall slink my injured form away. They’ll suppose the hyena dragged me away and never know that I have survived. Ahhh but what a plan I could concoct! If only I hide away long enough for my bones to un-bruise and my cuts and scrapes to heal-- perhaps some found implements used as make-up so as to shorten the time of hiatus—and I can make my triumphant return!” He smiled greatly at himself. “Then, indeed, we shall see what is a god!”
Well done! I can hear some of Kipling's language in your version.
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