An Iconic Fairy Tale

(Without the Fairies)

Once upon a time there was a beautiful garden that stretched from the sea to the horizon. The garden was populated with children of about the age of four. All the children had collected from the furthest reaches of the garden into the center, in which was a huge house made of exotic entwined trees. This was the city of the children. Waterfalls of crystal pure water cascaded in the surroundings such that the children always had drink, succulent fruits fell from trees for food, multicolored birds sang and argued in the branches, and sunshine warmed and illuminated the beings. All was soft, warm, and colorful. All the children smiled. One toddler was the king of the kids. He was not particularly smarter, more handsome, or kinder than the rest. No one could remember why he was king, but that mattered little to children who just knew that they had to do as he said. The king had a huge box of new toys which the other children longed to play with, but his majesty hoarded his treasure. He only allowed one old broken toy to be placed in the garden center for all the rest of the children. This resulted in competition between the toddlers, regarding who would get to play with the toy. Often it was only the bully children who got to handle it and even among them there was considerable squabbling and fighting. The meeker children retreated to the garden edge where they looked longingly at the one old broken toy, and even more sorrowfully at the big box of toys, of which they knew they would never see the inside. Depression slowly overwhelmed these gentler children, and although they were still surrounded by flowers and singing birds, they slipped into a stuporious slump of despair and inaction. Adult people from lands far to the north and over vast seas of unknown size, saw the children in their paradise and were jealous. Their own land was dark and cold, and the ground was covered in bare hard rock. There were so many adults there that all the control and directions had already been decided by their king. There was nothing for anyone to do but to OBEY the rules. Some of the adults, having heard of the beautiful garden, thought to go there to frolic among the smiling children, the beautiful trees, the waterfalls and the birds. During the darkest, coldest time of the year in their stone land they would come. They could do this when their masters allowed them a short interval from all to which they had to Obey. These adults were called Tourrits. They only wanted to enjoy the pleasures of the body. Other adults of the cold land also wanted to go to the garden paradise but were so used to endless labor and obeying, that they believed they needed a special reason to go. These adults were called the Nogos. They could not go just for personal enjoyment like the Tourrits. To enjoy, they reasoned, was a bad and evil thing they called zin. Sometimes, when they had accidentally enjoyed something, they would beat themselves with a stick to try and reverse the zin. The Nogos needed a reason that would please their masters in the cold land so that it did not appear they were zinning. They decided that the children needed direction and control, as they had in the north. They realized that the children were irresponsible and needed a chaperone. These adults banded into groups which had different ideas of how to chaperone the children. They realized that they must chaperone with the permission of the king or the king might have a fit and kill them as a child might with a magnifying glass focused on an ant. Thus it was, that each Nogo group brought new and shiny toys of the latest make that they presented to the kid king in hopes that their wisdom and method of control would be favored over the other Nogos. The king hoarded the new toys in his box along with the rest, but could make no decision about which Nogo was better than any other Nogo. This was because the king was a child and knew nothing of such things. Therefore, he let all the adults do as they pleased, even allotting them sections of garden in

which to operate, large or small depending on how marvelous their gift to the huge toy box was. At first the children were surprised when the Nogos chopped down the flowers and the fruit trees and put cold stone in it's place. Then the chaperone Nogos told the children (that they could catch) to stand only on the stone in a neat orderly line where they could be counted and watched. They recorded numbers and took notes of the small peoples reactions. The Nogos gave the children no toys to play with on the stone, they only told them that they would be struck dead by lightning from above if they did not believe the same as them and did not obey. It was a zin not to obey. The king of the toddlers was impressed with the social order imposed on what had been an unruly mob, fighting and maneuvering to get at the one old toy. He consulted the wisdom of the greatest of the Nogos, the ones who spoke of lighting most vehemently and gave the best and greatest amount of toys. The wise adults advised the king that it would do no good to put any of the new toys out for the multitude of children, as they did not possess the knowledge to appreciate them. Also, that the children were indolent enough without giving them things that the children had not worked for. The kid king did not understand what this second part was about, but quickly forgot about such complications. The Nogos continued what was needed for these children was an education, which would put everything in proper perspective for them. The Nogos said that they had the expertise, the skills and the knowledge necessary to teach the children, with only a small cost to each pupil. The magnificent munchkin king agreed to all the Nogos plans. He enacted a new decree that all wishing to play with the old toy must have a diploma from a Nogo school. So it came to pass that most of the children went off to school on the hard stone platforms of the Nogos. The classes were about proper methods of toy play, who had invented toys, where toys came from, the materials toys were made of, types of toys, and other information that meant nothing to the children. Still they sat slack jawed in class on the hard rocks, and tried to remember the many meaningless facts so that they could pass the test. The course of study took many years to complete. It was long, drawn out, and complicated for no obvious reason. The children could plainly see that there was a toy, and if they could get at it, they could have fun with it, with or without an education. But they could not get at it. When not in school, they had to collect the fallen fruit and bring it to the adults for payment on the bill they were generating for the privilege of going to school. So many students were soon collecting fruit for payments that there became a scarcity to even eat. The students who were not very good collectors began to thin and wane for want of sustenance. Other bully children guarded the best fruit trees, beating others if they came near. Other even more insidious types would hide along a path and rush out on an unsuspecting collector, attacking with a cudgel and robbing the the poor child. Soon, only a few evil children had corralled the fruit supply, which they gluttonously ate in front of others, or even smashed perfectly good fruit on the ground in front of starving children. When the fruit became remarkably scarce, and many of the children were unable to make their payments, the Nogos (who of course had all of the fruit being funneled to them), thought that this was not fair. How could the children learn of honest labor when there was none to be had? The Nogos decided that moving rock would build sufficient character and could be calculated in volume against invoices that the students were generating for their payment. Many more projects were undertaken. New and larger areas were paved over with stones, as well as expansion of existing slabs. The king had a huge area surrounding the central tree house paved. In addition, the Nogos had the children construct buildings of stone. Some Nogos, having paved over their entire allotment, concentrated on making larger and larger stone buildings, which they lived in, to

protect themselves from wild animals they claimed. No one had ever been bitten or attacked by a wild animal in the garden before, but the Nogos felt that this was necessary to protect themselves. The Nogo houses soon reached enormous proportions, with many rooms and hallways. This provided a new source of industry, for now many children were employed to clean and service the stone houses, as this work was beneath the dignity of the Nogos who had more important things to do ... organizing the labor, teaching the classes, and obtaining new toys to present to the king. The Nogos, seeing that there were still many children who needed work to pay off ever increasing debts for schooling and for fruit, (for which the Nogos had raised their price), came up with another idea to employ the children. The new idea was to build dams. The smartest Nogos set up strange toys that measured invisible lines and produced drawings of imaginary impoundments for water. Although the children could not understand what exactly was being built, or why, the rock moving went on. This employed many children. Rock by rock, the imaginary structures rose up out of the creek until they were higher than the waterfalls. The water backed up against this dam and flooded the upstream fall. Where there had once been a crystal pool, now there was a stagnate pond full of floating debris. The impounded water was controlled by the Nogos. A small fee was associated with using water, for any reason, and the Nogos metered it out in a small quantity. If the children needed a drink, they now had to ask for what had been free before. It was said to the king that this would build character and responsibility in the children. The fee for water was added to the other childrens costs, such as education and fruit. Now the children had only enough time to work and be educated. There was no more toy time. After many years of education and development, some of the children eventually did acquire a diploma. But still the children's labors were so large to obtain fruit and water, that they only had an hour or two a week in which to play with the old broken toy. A few of the toddlers who were more clever or persuasive convinced other children to do their share of the work by promising them that they would share their toy time with them ... in the future. Other children hoarded fruit and water and loaned these commodities to children who were expiring from want. The loans would come with a high price, as well as interest, so that the children who took loans, soon became indentured slaves to the others. When a child was so far in debt, they were cut off from all water and fruit. After this, the child's worth was reduced to zero. The angry loaners would gang up and beat the child remorselessly. Often the child died. A few wandered away to the far places of the garden, places where toys had never been, and there they lived like animals among the trees. There was no education, civilization, or character building. The king took notice of the clever children, those who made loans, those who sold stock in their toy time, and those who beat other children to death. The king was impressed with such ingenuity and fortitude. He gathered these few special children around him and awarded them each a new toy from the box. By now, the kings box was overflowing anyway and there were many more toys than the king could ever play with by himself. The adults told the king that these special children were Ministers. They suggested that the Ministers oversee all the various types of work now in progress, and account for amounts produced by individual children, the type of work produced, it's quality, and to keep a close eye on their consumption of fruit and other debts. The Ministers, being clever, proclaimed that each child needed a license to work, (of which a small fee was attached), and then a permit for each specific kind of work. Licenses and permits could only be obtained if a special tracking number was assigned to each child. The special number could only be obtained if documentation was provided that made a clear case why fruit and water was needed by the individual. The Ministers wanted to make sure the applicant was not going to re-sell the commodities, or loan them, or use them to start some other unregulated business of which the Ministers had no part.

Most children had no idea of what documentation was. What they saw was something that looked like thin leaves, covered in odd black scratches, over which the Ministers would get alternately very excited, then very serious when addressing the children. Because of this flaw in the children's education, most of them went thirsty and hungry. For each license, permit and document, a Minister administered it's conveyance. No document was valid unless it was stamped with a special symbol and signed by the Minister. Often the Minister was too involved with their new toy and too full of fruit to bother themselves with the puny needs of the miserable children, leaving them to wait and wait, often many days, for a stamp or signature, or any kind of approval. It became a bit of a funny game between Ministers, who could make a child agonize the most over the required approvals. Appointments would be made and the Minister would not show up, but would be looking down from a stone house with their Minister buddies, laughing and betting how many hours the fool child would wait. Should a child confront a Minister with their lackadaisical attitude to their responsibility, demand that the Minister do the job required of them by singing and stamping their documents approvals would be held up indefinitely out of spite, hopelessly delayed, or canceled altogether. By now, there were many grumpy children. First they had been denied the old toy, then forced to become educated on a promise of the old toy, then put to work for food and water which had been free before, and now their debt had increased to the point where they needed to work all the time and suffered greatly. On top of this, they were hounded by an ever increasing storm of regulations, permits, licenses and frustrating permissions that could only be had by obsequating to Ministers. A few of the children exploded in rage and assaulted the Ministers. They were unable to take the debasement any longer. The Ministers would mob together and beat the protesting child to death. The Nogos told the king that this was the proper and just thing to do, as such zin filled children were soon to be struck by lightning anyway and this method of instant beating was more economical and timely for whoever was delivering the bolts from above. But the adults could see that the disgruntlement of the children was spreading like a slow rising tide. They advised the king that he needed security. The king was rapid in his agreement of this. He ordered a huge stone house to be built where the old tree house was. The tree was chopped down and hundreds of children employed to build what was really a stone castle. The king then surrounded himself with the children who were too stupid to be educated and had too much attitude to work. These children often beat other children for their fruit, or got into fights over trivial matters. To these children, he made them swear a personal allegiance to him as king, to obey without question, and protect him at all times. Each was paid a handsome new toy and told not to mix with the common children. They each wore a special uniform. These children were called the Guards. Now, when ever the Ministers had a problem with one or more children, the Guards would happily come to administer a sadistic and often fatal correction of the improper behavior. Moreover, the Guards roamed freely, beating and bulling as they chose to. There was no one to hold them in check and no one made any attempt to admonish them in any way. One day the Guards were hassling a graduate of the school, just because he was out alone, coming home from work with a few pieces of fruit. The Guards snatched the fruit, gluttonously devouring some and smashing the rest. They shoved him around and demanded more. The diploma holder denounced the Guards, shouting that they were nothing more than common thugs. With this announcement, the murderers jumped on him and beat him to death. A crowd gathered and demanded justice. The stone patio around the kings house was packed with shouting fist shaking children who wanted to know why this citizen had died needlessly. The king was terrified and stayed concealed in his castle. One of the adults from the most important Nogo group consulted the king. He said that he had a speech that the king could deliver that would dissipate the mob. This the king did, addressing the assembled crowd,

explaining that the child was really a subversive who had planned destruction of all of the wonderful garden and everybody in it. The Guards had saved everyone, just in time. They had kept things safe. Safety from this terrorist and others like him was of paramount concern to the king he explained, and he vowed to step up security for their benefit to deal with this threat to their society. The children then went away, consoled that the king was doing the right thing and providing for their security. They went back to work believing all was well. But a few wondered if the garden was really still a wonderful place? No one smiled any more, the streams were dammed and fetid, where there had been flowers and birds there was now only rock. Life was hard and now ... scary. These children talked among themselves in secret, away from the ears of the Guards or Ministers. Was there not more of the garden out there, they asked themselves? The king and his Nogos had only infected this small part of the kingdom. There still remained vast lands full of flowers waterfalls and fruit where no one lived. Why do we need this stupid toy, when all we need is all we have ever needed to be happy? A small group of the children decided to leave their debts to the Ministers and Nogos, to forget about their former desire to play with the old toy. These things had only led them to misery and enslavement. The questioning children formed a group and fled deep into the remoter regions of the garden. These children were called Maynots. After a few days of traveling, eating fruits off the trees that were now beyond the reaches of the kings city, they came to a beautiful river of clear water, with waterfalls bedecked with rainbows. Beside the river were very ancient ruins, in the center of which was a huge temple covered in a strange writing that was part picture and part symbols. As they were marveling at this fine workmanship of the ruins, far better built than anything made by the Nogos, and old adult came out of a declivity in the ruins. This alarmed the wanderers, who thought that he must be in collusion with the Guards. They thought that they would all soon be killed. But the old man was alone, toothless, and harmless. He bowed low to the travelers with much humility, saying only .. I have been expecting you. Later, as the children ate roasted fruits and drank the clear water, the old man began to speak. He told them how he had come here as a Tourrit many years ago. Even then it was obvious that the king and the Nogos were destroying all that was beautiful in the garden. He had tried to reason with the king then, explaining that the methods of controlling the children were unnecessary, that the ways of the garden should be lived in in harmony, not in opposition, not in slavery. The king was confused with this thinking, as well as annoyed. He referred the man to talk to the Nogos, who were even more annoyed with this subversive talk than the king. They could not kill him outright, as he had come from the same land as themselves, so they turned him over to the Ministers to decide what to do with him. The Ministers also wanted to kill him, but were restrained by the politics of such an action. So they banished him. They told him to leave the garden. The man left, but did not go far, only deep into the uninhabited parts of the garden where he found the temple. Here he had stayed for many years, watching the increasing brutality in the central city of the king. The old man explained to the travelers that he had left his own country for the same reasons. The people there had wanted him to work for no reason, pay all he made of no reason, and tried to teach him that toys were the greatest thing he could ever attain. He did not feel this. Nor did he like to work. His father was the most overbearing of all, telling him that he was a worthless bum who would never amount to anything. Inside, the old man believed this, that he was worthless. All he dreamed of was to live simply in the garden, eating fruit and being one of the children. He wanted more than anything to

be one of the free children, living with the birds in the beauty of the garden. He did not want toys, and all that came with them. He wanted only to give the Maynots the knowledge that the children's way was actually the true path to happiness. This is what the old man told himself to cover over his guilt of leaving the toy oriented society, to assuage his guilt of failing his father. The old man was from a family that sought to control everything. Control all the toys, the toy manufacturers, the toy materials, the workers who made the toys, the type of toys, and so on. Even though the old man rejected these principals, deep down inside he had learned that to exist it was necessary to control. He had been forged in the fires of control. Though he preached the opposite, he could do nothing other than try to control, while preaching that he was an innocent like the other children. He held tightly to the idea that his knowledge was the best. The Maynots did not really know what was good for them, he reasoned. Although he did not conform to the toy society plan, he had another plan, a secret plan that would save the children from all evils. He further reasoned that when he put his plan in action, the children would flock to him as their hero, their savior, their king. This wannabe king was called Chat. Together the Maynots and Chat lived in harmony deep in the garden. The children swam in the sparkling water, ate all the fruit they needed, and were in want of little. Their life was uncomplicated. Their life was one of continuous party. But Chat knew better. He knew that the children really needed toys and the cures and the science of the particularly brainy adults. They needed to have their own control over each other, the kid king, and the opinions of all the adults in the world. The children did not know this or particularly care. So to help the Maynots out, Chat revealed his plan. The plan was for the children to directly bring Tourrits directly deep into the garden where they lived. Here the Tourrits would pay the Maynots with new toys which would make their life better. They would have control over their own toys. Chat told them that they had to work making a special tree house for the Tourrits. This work was not for him, he explained, but in the best interest of the Maynots. The Maynots did not really have any ideas of their own, because they were children and already had what they needed, but they went along with this plan to please the old man Chat. And Chat was pleased, for now he really did feel like a king who was in control. Soon word spread among the Tourrits in the cold land that there was a fine place to go deep in the garden where the birds still sang and the waterfalls were still beautiful. Many came to visit there, after giving the proper amount of toys to the king back in the city ... just to pass through. The kid king's city was now a desolation of stone and ruined children. Garbage was everywhere, pawed through by dogs covered in mange. The broken children littered the streets, begging for a scrap of fruit, beating each other and being beaten by the Guards. The city was not a pleasant place for a Tourrit anymore. The beggars hung desperately on their clothes and had to be dragged after them. Thief children would steal anything they set down for just a moment. Greedy Guards would grab a Tourrit from time to time and throw them in a stone crypt until they paid for their freedom. Eventually, there were no more Tourrits in the kid kings city. They all headed directly to the deep garden, the lands of the Maynots. Chat was very pleased by the flow of Tourrits into the land of the Maynots. They never stayed more than a few weeks and left behind all manner of toys which were shared among the children. Chat supervised the Maynots building a big house for the Tourrits on the side of the temple. The house was a mixture of stone and trees, in which the flowers grew through the windows and the birds sang in the rooms. The Tourrits loved it, and they told other potential Tourrits when they went back north. Chat also organized other activities for the Tourrits, such as playing in the waterfalls, picking fruit, or teaching children how to play with the various toys the Tourrits brought. He said that he was not the

one doing this, and to prove his point he assigned various children to lead the Tourrits around, help them cook fruit, clean up after them and other tasks. Chat kept adding more tasks and more Maynots to his plan, some to oversee others, some to calculate and record everything. But the Maynots had seen this type of organization before and to them is smelled quite similar to what they had escaped from in the kid kingdom. So they did not follow Chats plan. When they had gotten a new toy from one of the Tourrits, they would go hide and play with it, forgetting all the appointments and responsibilities Chat had designed for them. This made Chat furious. He talked and talked to them about their errors until he became a droning background noise which really wasn't very interesting and did not hold the children's attention at all. They wandered away from him, back to the waterfall or anywhere else, oblivious to his ranting at a higher and higher level of fanaticism. Chat said that they needed leaders to lead the Maynots in organization and direction for the good of all. He himself organized elections of leaders, making posters and giving speeches. This was a fun game for the Maynots, but once everyone had voted, and various Maynots were declared leaders, the leaders decided the game was boring and wandered off to pick fruit, leaving no one to perform all the various tasks and duties that chat believed were so necessary. Chat retreated into the underground rooms of the temple and sulked. As he sulked, he wondered at the strange writings on the walls, and wondered further who these ancient long gone Maynots might have been. One day a Tourrit came with a entourage of other northerners. The Tourrit said he was a Scitest, which was a special kind of Tourrit who could understand who had built the temple and what the walls said. The other adults with him were Scitests also, but not as brainy or experienced. The Scitest said he needed more information which he could only get by digging. Chat assigned a few dozen Maynots to help the northern adults and soon they were digging holes around the temple, into the temple, and into the walls underground. The top Scitest made many notes and drawings of the old writings and carvings. The digging was hard work. Soon the Maynots that Chat had assigned lost interest and went back to playing, while the fat weak adults from the north kept at it. After a few weeks of this, the diggers came across a big hole that was covered by a large slab of rock. After moving the rock slab, they could see that the hole was full of many things. There were pots, and chairs, and beautiful clothing with bones inside. On and around the bones was jewelry made of translucent green stone and yellow metal. The chief Scitest said that all this had to be collected and taken back with them to the north for further study. He noticed that the arm bones pointed to a hole in the side of the chamber. Reaching into this declivity, he withdrew a human skull carved out of pure crystal rock. When taken outside, this treasure shot forth a dozen rays of pure colored light. Forgetting the flowers and the rainbows, the adults and the Maynots said this was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. The Scitest took Chat aside one day, telling him that he could read the walls. He told Chat that the walls said that the world would end and be re-born in the year of which they were in. The details of this coming event were not specific, but the date was, and that date was no more than a few months away. This made Chat very excited, as here was a coming calamity with which he could rally the Maynots around. The Scitest told Chat not to tell anyone about this, as he was going to write a book and become famous because over it. Chat halfheartedly agreed, but as soon as he could, he told others about it, who told others, and soon the news of the end of time spread all around the world, from the north to the south, and across the vast oceans to other lands. So it happened that the news of the end of the world reached the kid king, his Ministers, and the Nogos who loitered around his city. The Nogos said that this was all ridiculous, that there was nothing

described about this in the books regarding their beliefs, and that it was just silly talk of the children. But they cautioned that the children could become violent if they had hopes of something new. Steps needed to be taken to insure security. The Nogos consulted their own king in the far north who sent guns and bombs to the imp king in the garden city. Then they also sent some of their own guards to teach the guards of the kid king how to use all this weponary. Between all the boxes of bombs and bullets was a large cage. The king opened this cage and out sprange a huge dog with a metal studded collar. This was a special present for the kid king from the king of the north. The garden Guards were transported in joy to have the guns. The guns were not toys, but the guards thought that they were. They shot up street signs, shot wildly in the air, and shot a few of each other. Soon they went through the streets, shooting who they pleased in the interest of security, but really just for fun. The dog lay at the kid kings feet on a thick chain and barked whenever a shot was fired. The Nogo king in the north said that there was also a white powder that they used in the North to make people happy, particularly those who were without toys or resources. These destitute adults had a tendency to not obey properly and might otherwise engage in terrorist activities such as stealing food or toys. Actually, more than half the population was in this condition because the Nago king said they were lazy, but really it was because the Nogo king had taken everything away for them. He said that a similar condition existed in the garden. The method to make the bad lazy terrorists happy was to give a few of the terrorists big bales of white powder, telling them that it was bad to have it, whereupon the bad adults passed it out to all the other bad adults for a small fee. The small fees added up to quite a lot of toys by the time the bales were gone. Then the Nogo king would come and collect what was now a huge fee. The white powder did make the adults happy, but it also made them want more and more of it. When they could not get it, they became sick. Then they would rob and kill to get more. This was also a good thing for the Nogo king, to have the criminals killing each other. So the kid king in the garden had many bales brought in from lands far to the south at the request of the Nogo king. The adults in the far south made the powder and were called Guats. The way this operated was that the Northern king would let the kid king have a share, and the rest was shipped through the garden to the north. The kid king did very well, shipping in bales from the Guats to the south, taking one in ten, and sending the other nine off to the north. With just the one bale every month or so, the imperial imp managed to get all the destitute children in his city addicted. Everyone was so addicted to the white powder that even the Ministers and of course the Guards all became addicted. The kid king also started using the stuff, and did find that it made him much happier as long as the supply stayed constant. One month, his majesty had his Ministers steal two extra bales from the Guats, so now he had 12 bales, of which he kept three. The king had decided to sell the extra bales for greater profit and insure his own supply. The Guats were furious and demanded that the king give back the bales, but the king avowed that he knew noting about it, but would look into it. The malignant majesty rounded up a half dozen Ministers and a few Guards and proclaimed that these were the ones to blame. He proceeded to torture the Ministers to get them to reveal where the stolen white powder was. Of course the Ministers knew it was in the kings toy box and when they said so, they were executed. After the king had executed all the guilty parties involved, the king proclaimed to the Guats that he had done all that could be done. The Guats knew he was lying and said that they would soon invade his realm to reclaim what was theirs. They had superior guns and Guards, and had been in the business of killing each other much longer than the kid king had been abusing and killing his own children. Given their superior experience and firepower, they were sure to overrun the garden.

The Imperial Imp was terrified and appealed to the Nogo king to protect himself and the garden. The kid king paid the Nogo king 9 bales for his sympathy. The northern king agreed with out difficulty, as he needed the garden as part of the route to bring the substance to the north. The northern king sent a small army of 50 adults, all bristling with guns and bombs to combat the Guats. The Guats also launched a platoon of 50 to overrun the punk prince and slaughter everyone in the garden city. Meanwhile, Chat was euphoric about the coming rapture on the specific date that was rapidly approaching. Other visiting Scitests, who's brains were exceeding large because of all the information they had stuffed in, told Chat that reason the world would end was that all the planets in the galaxy were going to line up and create a gravitational lens. The force of this lens would tear a hole in the sun, which would in turn disgorge a fire hose of elemental particles, like leptons, photons, glueons, and axilions. These would wash up the galactic line of planets, laying wast to anything electrical. The age of toys would be over. Some Scitests also though the planet would be torn apart, but most did not believe to this extreme. The Nogos did not believe any of it because it was children's nonsense and the only thing that could happen is that the purveyors of such a story would be blasted with lightning for their zin of lying. Chat organized numerous Tourrits to help him write up the true organization of the way the world would be after the end of time, the rapture, the Apocalypse. The young adult Tourrits simply called this coming event the the Pok. Chat made an office in the temple in which a dozen Young Tourrits wrote and compared papers, made charts, and wrote up the new rules of organization for the world. They were very ambitious and proud of their work. Chat wandered among them, encouraging them, criticizing them, and all the while talking , talking , talking of things to come. When an assistant had completed a document and was preparing to send it along, Chat would review it carefully, making numerous corrections. Because of this, no document was ever finished. As soon as completion neared, Chat would expand the concept, change the concept, or re-direct the efforts on to something else. No one knew, not even Chat, that he had a secret phobia about finishing anything. His secret mind told him to prevent finishing anything, because if he did, he would be betraying his father. His father had made it clear to him that he would amount to nothing, so Chat was compelled to fail at every possible endeavor so that he could please his father. The young Tourrits contacted their friends in the north and over the great seas about what they were doing, informing them that they should come here. Here, at the temple in the garden, was where everything would be decided. Where all would take place. This was the focus of all the cosmic energy that was soon to happen, and those who were here would benefit the most. Their friends told their friends. The excitement spread. Soon all manner of people were packing up to come to the garden temple, old people, disillusioned people, people who had no work, others who thought to get rich, some who were advisers to kings in far away lands. Artists and musicians also flocked to the temple. The most popular musician in the world vowed to come, along with his band, the Zocketts, and 100 assistants. When other bands heard that the Zocketts were coming, they also wanted to come to the Pok and be associated with the famous band. Soon the word spread that Zocketts and many other bands were coming to the Pok to make music for a new beginning. Now hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world were packing, hitchhiking, flying, driving and boating to the temple in the garden for the great Pok event. Meanwhile, the munchkin majesty was in a rage. Vexed, he called it. Chat had circumnavigated his city with the Tourrits, funneling all the great and new toys of the north into the temple village. He wanted revenge. Not being particularly smart, the tiny ruler could think of nothing else to do than to charge

into the temple town and murder everyone with his Guards. Revealing his plan with a high pitched voice, the Guards scrambled to collect their guns and supplies for a siege. But the top Nogo adviser who was stationed in the garden to supervise the shipment of toys from his country recommended otherwise. He suggested that instead of making a public mess of things and loosing favor with northern countries, he should instead sell the trees in all the land of the temple to a distant country who wished to make pressed sawdust boards out of it. This plan, the Nogo advised, would humiliate Chat and the Maynots, destroy the beauty of the garden around the temple .. essentially ruining the Tourrit business there... and make the king a tidy profit in the process. Furthermore, the king need do nothing, as the distant country of the Yaps would supply all the machines and effort for the destruction. Being of simple mind, the king readily agreed. Within a few weeks, this plan came to action. Huge machines crashed through the garden, laying waste to everything in their path. The machines surrounded the temple and commenced grinding all the trees, flowers, birds, and animals into sawdust. Chat ran about yelling and screaming, waving obscure and meaningless half finished documents at the machine operators. This was of no consequence to the big machines though, who completely ignored him as they went about their business. Chat had no idea what to do. By now, many thousands of people from all over the world had arrived to witness the Pok. Their tents were scattered all through the garden, their community kitchens, outhouses, communication centers, and meeting areas. The Tourrits had more experience than Chat in these matters, having gone through similar environmental attacks in the countries whre they came from. Without consulting Chat, the Tourrits with the help of the Maynots poured sugar into the fuel tanks, loosened bolts, cut wires and effectively disabled the machines. All destruction of the garden stopped. The Yaps were craized in anger but highly outnumbered. They had no choice but to flee back to their distant country, by a band of furious Maynots. The king of the Yaps demanded restitution from the punk prince. They wanted boxes of toys to compensate them for the wrecked machines and the loss of the vast amount of toys they would have received from all the sawdust. The king of the Yaps said they would invade the garden and take what was owed them if the kid king did not pay up. This further drove his imperialness crazy. He ordered his original plan into action, of which, he himself would lead the guards into the nest of terrorists. He vowed to kill Chat with his bare hands. The little junkie also had another ulterior motive, which was to sell the bales of white powder to the Zocketts, who were enormously rich, and known to consume vast quantities of the stuff. This was the answer, destroying Chat and his followers and getting massive amounts of toys to pay off the distant country with much left over. He petted his chained dog, who gave him a reproachful look, snarling under it's breath. The eve of the great Pok was a brilliant night. The full moon moved into alignment with the other planets and the universe behind the earth. All the animals, insects and birds of the forest howled and buzzed and squacked in an interpenetrateable din. Chat had a new plan that had come to him while feeding the chickens. The rooster had crowed to him in such a way that he felt it was telling him of his new mission. In the shadows, Chat cut a hole in the side of the chief Scitest's tent, crawled through, and stole the crystal skull. With this, he reasoned, he would be able to channel the power of the Pok, proving that he was the true king of the garden. No other system of government would be able to compare to the clarity, the purity of the plan in Chat's mind. All the Maynot children would now follow Chat's plan with the power of the crystal skull as he led them into a utopic world of understanding. Farming, construction, eco-tourritism, and labor would be for the benefit of everyone. Other countries would follow his plan and also become liberated from the old system of enslavement. The only thing that was needed was total devotion and dedication to the plan, to Chat, to giving up all the childlike ways and obeying the thousands of work projects of the plan. This was enlightenment, although to the Maynots, it appeared to be enslavement. This childlike notion showed how badly the Maynot needed the plan to obey.

As Chat lay in the chamber under the temple that night, clutching the crystal skull, the Guats gathered on the edge of the encampment. The kid king with his hoard of Guards and Ministers hurried through the night to the gathering. The northern Nogo troops gathered behind the temple scraping ticks off each other after days of crossing the wild garden. The Yap troops convened near the entrance where they hoped to surprise the kid King and extract their payment. The animals, bugs and birds continued their cacophony, keeping all awake and irritable. The morning was clear and hot. Groggy people wandered between the tents and kitchens, looking for coffee or a free breakfast. On the temple were hundreds of people, looking to the sky, waiting for the Pok. Over the murmur of the masses, the loud buzz of insects droned in the background. The generators started throughout the acres of encampment, and soon music of many kinds could be heard conflicting with each other, blaring in selfish control with their nearby sound waves. The sun rose higher and hotter over the masses, until there was almost no shadow excepting a black spot directly beneath each pilgrims feet. Large groups of Tourrits chanted sonorously, others held hands and swayed methodically, some groups held seminars concerning what it was all about. Nogo groups lectured loudly of lighting and destruction, about how zinners would burn forever. Many Nogos were beating themselves with sticks to prevent their enjoyment. So many Nogos were zinning in enjoyment that they were even beating each other, which they thought was enjoyable. Large groups of young Tourrits lounged almost on top of each other, smoking hallucinogenic herbs, drinking mind altering liquids, laughing or crying and passing out. The kid king pushed his way through the people, his huge dog almost as tall as himself, growling and snarling on the chain as it bumped into legs and shoulders. The kings Guard followed behind in ragged formation, clubbing anyone who was too slow to make a path for them. After pushing a mile through the crowd, the king finally spotted the temple in the center of it all. Beside the towering stairs was the encampment of the Zocketts, with a large stage erected for performances. At this time, a less popular band was blaring on the stage, a misconstrued music of 105 decibels to a dancing and hollering crowd. The sun hung bare in the sky like a floodlight in a white room. The kid king pushed his way up to the leader of the Zocketts, who's own body guards were held back at imperial gunpoint. A great bag was thrown on the deck from which a colorfully wrapped suitcase sized package was extracted. A big huddle formed over the package as the Zockett leader sampled the white powder. Then the king and many of the guards had a few samples also. Things were seeming much better now to the king, particularly as he watched the big chests of toys being brought out from the Zockett tent. All that remained to do was to catch Chat and wring his scrawny neck. Suddenly some shots rang out. Two of his Guards where struck to the ground. The kings Guards returned fire, back into the crowd at an advancing brown throng of Guats. More fire was returned from both sides in rapid succession. Some Guats fell, more Guards went to the ground, the king cowered behind a toy chest, the Zockett leader vanished in the crowd with the colored package. The crowd was screaming, pushing and panicking in every direction. Then additional machine gun fire erupted from the flank. This was the small army of the Yaps who proclaimed to be paid back for the logging debacle. The Guats and the guards now had to swivel their guns in two directions and were shooting wildly. Tourrits could be seen getting shot and crumpling in the mayhem of the frantic crowd. Then, from above on the side of the temple, another burst of gunfire sprayed the Guats and the Yaps. The northern Nogo troops were protecting their investment in the white powder bales as well as the other Nogo groups who were in attendance. Confused Guards of the king, addled by the white powder, began shooting anybody they could hit. Some Guats and Yaps fell, but also they shot Nogo's, other Guards,

and screaming fleeing Tourrits. The band on stage cased to play as the bullets flew, but yelled into the microphones for the shooting to stop. Machine gun fire raked the stage, hitting many of the electronic instruments that sent up a howl of frenetic frequency noise. The screaming and shooting and flailing of the attacked people had everything swirling in a vortex of confusion. Although some managed to get away, others were rushing into the gunfire not understanding which was a safe direction. There seemed no safe way to run. The kayos and pandemonium was anarchistically perfect. All at once, the generators became silent, and with this the horrible whining of the electronic instruments. Whatever lights and other machines that had been on went dark and quiet. A loud buzzing sound filled the air, as though a bees nest had been thrown into a room. A few more shots rang out but then the guns were quiet. Black columns of swirling bugs rose up out of the crowd. Every bug and bird rotated in little cyclones of millions of bugs while the birds spun around them all. The sky darkened with the teeming trillions, rising hundreds of feet from the ground. The buzzing began to pulse, now loud, then softening, then loud again. The humans had stopped shooting and running. They stood agape at the natural phenomena. Some tried to take pictures but nothing worked. The masses in the air merged into vast ribbons of bugs and birds, waving over and through the crowd, pulsing the over bearing drone with each frequency of the wave. The sun began to disappear as a total eclipse chewed a crescent in the disk of the star. A twilight softened the light of the land. A shouting voice broke the spell of magic, although it could barely be heard. Chat stood halfway up the temple holding the crystal skull high above his head. His eyes were wild with mania and his jaw gyrated in muffled sound. The people were now chanting Ohmm, Ohmm to the rhythm of the insect waves, providing a blanket of sound that nothing could penetrate. There he is shouted the kid king Kill him! Kill Him! A few guards pointed their guns at the raving skull weilder, but no shots were fired. Darker the air became, now with a greenish tinge to everything. Chat could hardly be seen through the curtains of wavering insects, the deepening dark, and the greenish light, although he still pranced and raved and waved the crystal skull maniacally. The skull seemed to hold the light, as though illuminated from within, a coherent argon green light pulsed from the carving. A green fog seeped out of the cracks between the stones of the temple, engulfing the lunatic Chat in his manic gesticulations. Then the fog seemed to be coming out of the ground everywhere. Now the eclipse was almost complete, the darkness made darker by the enveloping green fog. The pulsing of the bugs and people grew louder to fill the fog to a feeling of being bathed in a vibrating syrup. From the temple all that could be seen was a brilliant green laser light emanating form the crystal skull, cutting through the fog, dimming and brightening with the rhythm of the envrion, sweeping the masses below with a pulsating beam. Thicker still the fog became, until the people next to each other began to blur. A weariness overcame the people, and as the fog and dark became absolute, the chanting slowed,became a low moan, and stopped altogether. The people and the Maynots, the Guats and the Yaps, the Nogos and the Tourrits all fell to the green earth in a great exhaustion. With a great collective sigh, they slept. The air was clear when they awoke. The sky was empty of the curtains of bugs. All was quiet save for the rustling of the waking, then the quiet murmurings of wonder. Chat rose stiffly from the stone stairs and noticed that he had dropped the crystal skull and broken it in half. This did not seem to bother him. His pants fell to his ankles, for his belt buckle had disappeared. The kid king awoke with his face buried in dog fur. A big smile of contentment filled his face from the joy of the warm soft fur, the smell of dog in his nose. He could see Chat on the temple and remembered that he knew him, but only as a friend that he hadn't seen for a long time. He waved at Chat, who waved back in a broad grin, clutching his pants around his waist. People were rising up off the ground all around. The guards were helping the Guats up, the Yaps assisting the Nogos, the Tourrits helping each other and anyone else. All was

soft and friendly. Everyone was smiling. The feeling was as if all were on the return bus ride from the religious retreat. No one could remember what all the yelling and anger and fear and anxiety had been about. Where was the angst? But this question too was not important. Good will and love filled the air. A few soldiers fumbled for their guns but could only find large rust spots where they had been. Their knives too were gone, as well as their zippers, clips and buttons that had been made of metal. Many were cinching and tightening their draping clothes with string and vines. Tourrits groped fingers in their mouths at the now prominent gaps that had been their fillings, astonishment filling their expressions. A Zocketts technician went to re-start the generators, but found only a pile of assorted plastic and rubber parts in a pool of rust. Where cars had been, there was only tires and plastic. The toy boxes were empty except for polyethylene rubble. Nothing made of metal seemed to have survived the Pok. A clear and beautiful singing began in a far corner of the dazzled people, the voice of a beautiful young Tourrit. Another joined in the song, melodious, transporting. A young man tapped two sticks together, then a log, and then another log knocker took up the beat. Soon there was music throughout the garden, rich voices and rhythms resonating among them all. The kid king turned to his huge dog who now had no collar or chain on it. The dog said Why do you chain me? I am happy to stay with you as a friend and protector without being disrespected and enslaved. Don't do that to me again. Aghast at the talking dog, the king could only nod in agreement, but he felt so close to the animal that he spontaneously hugged the creature tightly about the neck. This was his spirit animal. Other animals could now be seen coming close to the other adults and children. A frog sat on the shoulder of a Yap and whispered in his ear. A brightly colored bird landed on the arm of the singing girl and joined her chorus. A fistful of ants clustered on the wound of a shot Maynot, pinching the hole closed and excreting a clear fluid over the damage. Lizards sat atop heads, mice crawled in peoples pockets, racoons waddled behind others, snakes wound around legs creating no fear, dragonflies bedecked the fingers of some, and pigs asked their human friends if they would like to go dig worms. All the adults and children had an animal or insect friend. Each embraced each other in mutual love, friendship, and communication. The Pok had not rent the land into Armageddon, but changed living things back into the continuum of consciousness between animal and man that had existed 10,000 years before. There would be no gunfire, murder and war now. Each was at peace and longing to help one another, longing to love one another. All toys were irrelevant and all had become dust. The material quest of the humans was over. Love blanketed the world. As Chat stumbled to the bottom of the temple steps, the rooster he had met the previous evening was waiting for him. Chat the rooster said I could use some help in the chicken yard. Would you like a job? Chat was overjoyed that someone still wanted him, even though he had really been wanted as a friend all along. He acquiesced quickly and followed the rooster to the hen house. There he found many to talk with and listen to him continuously day after day. Chat discussed many plans to enact with the chickens, which were discussed endlessly but never enacted. And that was OK, as the talk of the plans was sufficient. He had peace in his soul at last among his many feathered friends. Chat was king of the chickens. Everyone lived happily ever after.