as the rain beat on the roof of the inn, and the wind rattled the windows, the fool dreamed that he was alexander the great, and that he was following an albatross across the atlantic ocean on his mighty steed pope innocent v.
the albatross looked back at alexander and laughed as the waves began to come up to pope innocent v’s knees.
alexander shook his sword at the albatross.
the albatross looked back and laughed again as the waves came up to alexander's waist.
alexander tried to shake his sword at the albatross again but the sword had turned into his old family bible.
the albatross laughed again and there fool/alexander was a five year old child battling the waves. pope innocent v had disappeared.
the child swam on to a sandy island.
the albatross was waiting for him, seated on a rock.. the albatross was also the empress of atlantis and gazed balefully at the child.
grant me three wishes, gasped the child.
no, said the albatross/empress, i am going to grant myself three wishes.
my first wish is that you fall off your horse.
but i am not on a horse, answered the the child/fool/alexander.
my second wish, continued the albatross, is that you fall off your camel.
but i am not on a camel, said the child, looking around at the barren sand of the island.
and my third wish, said the empress, is that you fall out of -
but, cried alexander, do you have no wishes of your own? do you wish nothing for yourself, but only to confound and torment me?
the empress laughed like the wind and the rain, and the fool found himself back in the bed on the top floor of the inn on the road to the wicked city.
he heard the door off the room open.
and there in the doorway, her shadow thrown by the light of a small candle in her hand, stood the innkeeper’s beautiful daughter!
have i awakened, thought the fool, or am i still trapped within a dream!
the maiden approached the bed, holding her candle high.
listen, she whispered to the fool, for i am going to tell you a story. do not interrupt, and listen closely, for i am not going to repeat myself...
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