Posted by Tuehrin on January 14, 2000 at 18:32:00:

-Here's something I made up on the spot at the Inn. It's influenced
by the Book's of Bokonon.

My story begins on a ship, an ordinary ship destined for a faraway
city. Many people looked expectantly for their destination, although
it lay weeks away, they were ever hopeful. But, as it goes, storms
tore through the area, ripping the mast down, and casting the boat
upside-down. All died, drowning, bloated, to be devoured by fish and
crabs, except two.

The two, a father and a son, managed to float on a box of provisions,
and floated to a deserted island. Both were happy to be alive, but the
father took stock of the situation and soon saw that the island was
deserted, they would only live as long as the provisions would last.
And he could see that his son saw this as well, and hope began to flee
both of them.

One night, the father made a decision, one to save his child. And the
next morning he separted what sweet fruit and pastries were in the box,
leaving the bland bread and announced to his son that they would not
eat the pastries, that he was reserving the good food for himself. The
boy was agast, he began to cry, for the bread was dry, and the
remaining water was dirty, the fruit was all that remained that tasted
good. The father kept the fruit hidden under a pile of stones he
created one morning, and broke a plank off the crate for a weapon.
Whenever his son tried to steal the fruit, and he often did, the father
would savagely beat him, in extremely painful ways.

And so, the son lived a life of pain and tyranny for his last remaining
weeks. But every night the father smiled and knew he was doing his son
a favor, something he would never be thanked for in his life or
afterlife. The boy lived for his attempts to eat the fruit, his eyes
mischevious with different ideas of how to steal them, they all failed
and resulted in savage beatings.

Finally the day came when the dry bread ran out, and the father and son
soon knew the agony of starvation and the beating sun. And when he
knew both his son and he would die within moments he smiled as he saw
his little boy crawl over to the fruit, smiling with all of his
desiccated heart.

And the father smiled, and died.

Tuehrin

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