A BALIBO CHRISTMAS TALE.(Short Story)

ONCE UPON A TIME in a little place that nobody really cared about a terrible thing happened. Some nasty men found some good men trying to prove their goodness by showing just how nasty the others were. The nasty men killed the good men. Everyone said that was truly nasty. Everyone, that is, except the good men who couldn't speak any more because they were dead. But that only went to show how good they really were.

Then a funny thing happened. Lots and lots of people began to point their fingers at the King saying, "You should have told those nasty men not to kill those good men. You didn't, so you must be a nasty king."

The King was puzzled and indeed a little hurt. He said out loud, "I told the nasty men not to be so nasty. If I'd told them about the good men they would have killed them even quicker."

Few believed the King, and some cried out, "You knew those good men were there and you didn't do anything about it. What's the point of having you as our King? No one takes any notice of you, especially us."

The King tried one more time, "But the good men didn't tell me where they were going. I had no idea they were there."

"Oh pull the other one!" someone yelled and the people booed the King and threw apples and rotten eggs at him. "We know everything that happened," said one of their leaders, "so you must too."

"But I don't, I don't," pleaded the King as his courtiers led him back inside the palace. There they had a long discussion that went on for many years. Outside they could hear the people muttering and cursing and some of them calling the King a liar and a cheat. They even said that if he loved the nasty, people that much he should go and live with them and let everyone else get on with the business of being good which they did so well. One small girl wrote to the King saying she wanted to be the goodest person in the world but didn't see how she could while he was still King. The King showed the letter to his wife that night and they were both very upset.