A Story for Bean
/(My dearest Bean, this is what is known as an allegory. Please gentle readers, VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!)
Once upon a time there was an evil dog who had food bowl. The bowl was sculpted of gold, encrusted with diamonds, and the size of a large bathtub. Every morning the food bowl would yell and wake up the dog.
The bowl had a deep resonant stabbing voice. No matter where the dog slept - inside the house, across the garden, in a different continent, he could hear the rumble. The bowl was with him and he was with the bowl.
“FEED ME. I am HUNGRY! If you don’t feed me, I will tell everyone that you don’t deserve this gold diamond encrusted bowl! If you don’t feed me, the world will know your deepest fears and they will laugh at you! FEED ME you worthless sack of bones and blood! Without me you are nothing!”
Every morning of his life, the dog had been awoken by this beautiful shining bowl. Every morning he had walked over to the bowl and picked up the knife just as his father had taught him. Every morning, the dog exposed his heart and carved it out. Then he threw his plucked heart into the golden diamond bowl.
“YEEESSSSSS. Take a diamond you worthless dog and feel my power in you.” Rejoined the bowl.
The dog scratched a diamond from the edge of the bowl and threw it into the gaping hole in his chest. The diamond expanded and filled the space - sealing the skin and soothing the pain. The impervious crystal shards coursed through the dog’s body. The dog licked his lips. It was time to begin the day. It was time to share the ruthless food from the bowl with the world.
He went into the world, this evil dog and he created harsh, brutal, and terrible waves from his diamond heart. The waves reached such a fever pitch they disturbed the repose of the beautiful, the super cute, the magical cat.
From her deep slumber under the mountains of the sun the cat had dozed for many years. The cascading cacophony from many lives trampled and trammeled by the evil dog woke her. She peered through her magic glasses to determine why all of these voices were calling her name.
Her magic glasses could see through walls. Her magic glasses allowed her to listen. Through her magic glasses she learned of the evil dog’s morning routine with the food bowl and she saw too inside of the bowl.
She saw the innards of the food bowl. She saw the chained troll bent with age and fury. She saw the chain binding him to the task of digging up diamonds for eternity from the moon. She saw his anger and his loneliness and his despair.
She saw the way forward.
The beautiful, the super cute, the magical cat plucked a whisker from her cheek and threw it to the evening owl - one of her many friends.
“Fly true my dear. You know what to do.”
The owl had been waiting for her chance. For she too had heard the cries of the world. She took the whisker - clutched tightly in her talons - and traveled to the dog’s lair.
The dog’s lair was a series of mazes, gates, locks, tall walls, forbidding chins, and scowling guards. The owl knew she would need to be quick and she would need to be precise. She circled above the walls and listened for the dog to snore.
Snore in.
Snore out.
Snore in.
Snore out.
The owl darted down to the open window and released the whisker.
Snore in - the dog inhaled the beautiful, the super cute, the magical cat’s whisker into his room. The whisker flew to the food bowl and floated gently down into its depths.
And sank.
The whisker became one with the golden food bowl, became one with the diamonds, became one with the troll condemned to mine the moon. The whisker caused all to slowly, gently, quietly melt into the shining moon.
First to dissolve was the troll - grateful for a rest. Then the gold liquified and sank. Finally, the diamonds, mined so assiduously by the troll, were released back to the sparkling moon.
That morning the dog was not yelled awake. That morning the dog did not carve out his heart. That morning the dog did not spread ripples of fear and hatred. That morning everything changed.
