The Jester

Its 1802 in a small country in Europe, there was a little boy dressed in a pair of old rags; his family didn’t earn make much money those days. His father was a knight who died years ago, so now it was only him and his mother. They did odd jobs so they could afford to live. At this time the boy just helped Paul the barber sweep up his shop and earned five copper coins.

With his new earned money the boy went walking down the street of downtown, it was a Saturday afternoon. The shop keepers where outside yelling out sales on their goods to the people. The boy looked up and there was John the baker yelling out loud “Fresh baked cookies, get them while their hot.” The little boy walked up, and tugged on John’s apron, because he was too short to be seen. John looked down and saw the little boy and smiled, “If it isn’t my favorite little customer.” He said cheerfully. The little boy started to smile as John went and picked up a large sugar cookie “Here you go your favorite.” The boy then reached into his worn out pocket in his pants and pulled out a small copper coin he just earned and went to hand it to John. John smiled and said, “This one is on me.” and handed the little boy the sugar cookie. The boy nodded his head and said “Thank you.” as he walked away.

As the boy walked down the street he saw the toy store, he ran up to the store window, looking at the painted wooden figure of a knight in the window. Under the figure was a sign that said 10 copper coins, he looked at the 5 coins in his hand and sighed. As the boy started to walk away a creaky voice came out from the dark ally, “Is someone there?” The boy was startled and started to shake where he was standing. A dark old figure came out of the shadows, it was a man. He wore an outfit almost like what a clown would wear, but they have become dull old rags with faint patches of red and yellow showing. On top of his head he had an old strange hat that the boy had never seen anything like before, it split into 4 points, which fell to the side of his head, at the tip of each one was a short piece of string that looked like the other ends have broken off. Then the man’s shoes look extremely worn out, the front of them where just a big hole with his toes showing out of them.

The boy walked back a few steps and answered the man’s question with his voice still shaking “…Ye…s…” the man looked around and saw the little boy with the cookie in his hand still. “How old are you little boy?” muttered the man, it sounded like he hasn’t used his voice in years. The boy now more scared then before said “eleven” without trying to cry in fear. The man stood there staring at him pondering, after about a minute of silence his voice broke though the thick air again sending a chill down the boys back, “Don’t be scared little guy.” as he reached out his bony hand towards him. The boy lifted his small arms in front of his face to protect himself. The ditty hand reached behind the boy’s right ear and he pulled out a small red ball. The kid let his guard down and smiled at the trick the grubby old man did, the man then said, “Just wait.” as he took the ball and threw it into the air. The ball then magically exploded into a puff of smoke and out of the smoke flew a white dove. The boy smiled as he started to clap. Next the magical man bowed down and a small sliver metal pendent flopped out of his tattered up shirt. The young boy walked over and picked up the sliver metal with his small grimy hands, it was aged and worn and the words impressed on it where worn out so they couldn’t be read. There was a small hole at the top where it looked like it was a necklace at one time.

The man looked up and looked at the boy and smiled, “I take it you are wondering what this is.” The boy nodded his head. “Well, how about we make a little deal. You give me half of that cookie you got there, and I will tell you a story from long before you where born from where that pendent came from and what it means.” The boy being interested broke his cookie into half and gave a piece to the odd man.

“Alright” Said the man as he took a bite from the cookie and pulled up a wooden crate lying on the wall, and used it as a seat. The boy sat down on the ground and looked up to the man, like how kids would sit on the floor when the grandparents where about to tell a story to them. He picked up the pendent and then spoke, “Always do what your heart feels right. That’s what this use to say, it was given to me by my mother right before she died.” The man’s face became sad as he started to remember memories about his mother, “I never really knew what it meant till I started working at the castle.” The man looked down the street where you could see a partly destroyed gate with the remains of what seemed to be a large building. He lifted his hand and pointed to where the gate was.

“That’s where it all started, where I meet that man that changed my life. It was a nice sunny day like this one, kids where out playing in the street, merchants selling their goods. You could even smell the cookies the bakery was baking that day. I was standing by that gate there, as a poor traveling street performer. I was doing some magic tricks with some of the kids that where out that day. That’s when he showed up; he shouted to me with a harsh voice “You there!” which scared the kids that I was entertaining away. Now with me and this mystery man who was wearing all black stood there alone. Everyone in the shops didn’t bother to look towards us, the awkward silence started to scare me so I said “Yes, what would you like? How about a little change?” as I put my hand behind his ear and pulled out a coin. He smirked and sarcastically said “Very funny.” He then looked at the two guards and nodded. The two guards then jumped forward and pointed their spears at me.”

The boy began to get worried, the man smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I’m still here. Now back to where I was. So one of the guards yelled, “You are under arrests” I turned to the man and asked, “What? Who are you?” the man laughed and said. “You don’t know who your king is, you are quite a fool.” One of the guards took out a piece of rope and started to tie my hands behind my back. The king began to say that street performers that don’t amuse him aren’t allowed. As he got done I laughed and said, “Watch this, your majesty.” as I untied my hands behind my back. “Impressive. Guards kill him.” said the king. As the two guards attacked me I jumped behind them and took the rope that they used to tie me up with and tied the two together. I then pulled out a small jar of paint and began to paint their faces. I made one a little bunny and the other a cute puppy.”

The boy started to giggle as a small girl ran over to pick up a ball her and her sister were playing with, she turned to the boy and asked “What’s so funny?” the boy turned to her and said, “This man’s story” without trying to laugh more. The young girl turned to the man and asked “May my sister and I listen in too?” the man smiled and told them they where welcomed to. “So where were we?” muttered the man as the two girls sat down to listen, the boy replayed “You just talked about how you painted the guards faces.”

“Ah yes. So now with the guard’s faces painted the king began to giggle like a little kid, he then looked up at me and said “You know what? I think I like you. Why don’t you come work at the castle as a Jester?” I looked strangely into his eyes and could see his hatred for me was gone and asked him “Why would I want to work for a man who just tried to get me killed?” The king smirked and said “Because if you don’t I still don’t mind having you killed.” At that time I looked down and saw my mother’s pendent hanging from my neck and thought to my self, maybe I can clear this man’s evil heart with my entertainment. “Alright” I said to the king.”

One of the little girls then asked, “What is your mother’s pendent?” the little boy then answered “He got it when his mother died, what did it say again sir?” the man took the pendent out and showed it to the little girls while saying “Always do what your heart feels right.” He put it back in his shirt pocket and continued with his story.

“So after that event I started to work as a jester, I meet many people when I started. One I can recall was named Michelangelo he was the king’s head man, but very unlike the king he was kind hearted and was very entertaining. We both became friends very quickly, then one night Michelangelo took me out with the king and we ended up at a little pub in town where we weren’t know. That night the king looked at me and said “Haven’t we meet before?” Michelangelo, knowing what happen nudged my arm and whispered “Don’t have him recall what happened before.” So I said to the king “I work as a jester at the castle so you have most likely seen me around.” Michelangelo then shouted, “Aright time to have a drink.” As the night went on we all talked and drank to the point that all three of us could barley sit in our seats. The king happen to fall over on this one really big guy, the guy pushed him off and yelled at him “Who do you think you are?” the king said in a drunken blur “I’m the damn king, you unworthy scum.” The man stood up and had to be at lest six foot eight and said “Your just a damn drunk” as he cracked his knuckles. The bartender shouted “Take it out--” But the huge man didn’t listen to what the bartender was saying and threw a right punch right at the king, knocking down onto the table breaking it. Michelangelo went to bend down to his boot and pull out his hidden knife as I said “Let me take care of him” Michelangelo look at me confused and said “Can you even stand?” I laughed and just nodded at him; the large man looked at me and yelled, “You want to get the shit beat out of you too?” I said back sarcastically “I already took my shit today.” The man charged forward with a wild punch yelling, “You cocky little bastard.” I slipped under his punch and threw a right hook right in to his kidney causing him to fall to the ground then said, “That’s cocky little jester to you.” The bartender started to yell but he quickly shut up when Michelangelo threw him a small bag of gold coins for all our trouble.”

One of the girls then asked, “Wait, what happen to the king? Was he alright?” The man looked at her and laughed “It would take more then that to take down that damn fool. So the three of us walked out of the pub, it was pitch black night and pouring, and the three of us just feel to our knees and started to laugh. That was the begging of our friendship.” The young boy then yelled “You became friends with that mean king!?” as an old woman from down the road walked over and asked “What’s all the commotion about?” one of the young girls turned to the elderly lady who was holding herself up by her cane and said “This kind man is telling us a story.” The woman replay “Oh, about what?” the other girl began to speak saying “It’s about him knowing the king.” The old woman looked at the man and said “You knew that twisted man?” the man looked at the lady “Yes I did.” The old woman looked at the man from head to toe and her mouth dropped open, “You are—” The man smirked “Now we can’t spoil the story for these kids now can we?” The old woman looked at him and smiled “Little boy, could you help me move my rocker from over there so I can also listen?” The boy stood up and nodded his head and brought the elderly lady her chair. As the woman sat down she told the man to continue his story.

The man licked his lips and started telling his story again “Well now that me and the king have become good friends I started to be around the king’s area more and more. Many people visited the king asking for many things and such not. There was also many young women that meet with him, I knew a few of them and became friends with two of them. One was named Jenelle, a very young beautiful and smart woman; she would always had her head in the clouds daydreaming every time I saw her, I always had a slight thing for her. The other one was Colette who was a few years older then me, she was also very beautiful and had a heart of gold I soon became very close friends with her and we always talked about everything and anything. I never really knew what business they had with the king, but it was never my concern so I never asked them. Then one day while I was speaking with Colette she mentioned that she has started a relationship with the king.”

One of the little girls interrupted “Wait, isn’t the king a mean man and didn’t you say that she had a heart of gold, how does that work out?” the man chuckled and said “Just listen and you will find out, so after finding out what Colette said the king told me the same thing. The three of us talked together all the time and the two of them deicide to help me get with someone, both of them knowing they deicide to help getting me together with Jenelle. So after a month Colette and I where still very close friends who would talk all the time, we would talk about everything and it got to a point where the king started to become raged with jealousy and threw me out of the castle and banned Colette to speak to me ever again. It made me very angry to think of what my friends just did to me, I tried to talk to Jenelle since she happen to know the king well, but soon she didn’t talk to me much. At that time there wasn’t much I could do so I stayed with an older friend of mine till one day they announced a big ball. So my friends and I deiced to go to this big ball, it was a grand ball and I happen to see the king there, no one happen to know it was the king that night so everyone acted normal to him. I stayed away from him the whole night. After the ball everyone split up to different places for little parties I went back with my friends.” The old woman then asked the man “Was that the ball they call the Truth Ball now?” a shopkeeper in the back of the ally taking out some boxes from his store overheard and came over and said “The Truth Ball? I remember the hearing about the Truth Ball when I was a little kid.”

“Yes, yes it was the legendary Truth Ball. The truth is not much happened there, it was more what happened after that gave the ball its name.” The man spoke, while the interested shopkeeper leaned against the wall to listen to what the man had to say. “I do not know every detail that happened that night, considering that I was kicked out of the castle months before and did not know the current events that have been happening there, but I still had friend there, I found one of my friends who was a low servant but happen to know much about the people that came to the castle, his name was Mathias one of the few people I could really trust at the castle. When I found Mathias he was with Jenelle and another woman I knew named Maria. The three of the informed me on current things happening in the castle and that we needed to save the kingdom before it is destroyed from corruption.”

The shopkeeper asked the man “Wait what was happening in the castle? I was never told when I was a small kid.” The man sighed and started to speak “Well many things where happening, many of the head officials where corrupted by the king’s thoughts. We found out that the king had been lying to his people and using them and the kingdom to destroy its self for his personal glory. He was also manipulating many people for self pleasure, my self included. He figured out how to pull my stings and make me act like one of his many puppets.” The old woman then asked “If he had you controlled like one of his puppets then why did he make you leave?” the man laughed “I guess you can say he gave my strings too much lack and I got involved with just the right people to destroy what he was worked so hard for. Truth is I really almost did destroy all that he had worked for. I found out when I left the castle he told many that I was a disloyal liar who was trying to get the best for myself.” The little boy then said “Isn’t that what the king was himself.” The man chuckled lightly “Yes, a man who was so hidden behind his own lies he plastered them onto other people.” One of the young girls asked “What happen to the king?”

“Well soon the word got out to the people and a revolution started, the leaders of it where Maria, Mathias, Jenelle, myself and a few others. Once we had all our men ready to attack we headed to the castle and charged in. We searched the whole castle but never found the king, we even burnt it down to the ground. We soon found out that he had left once he heard that his people had betrayed him with his newest lover.” The young boy then asked “What has happened with everyone else?” The man responded “Well we all became good friends; we have all traveled our different paths now. I still see them now and then when the times are good.”

The old woman stood up and yawned as she said “Well it’s starting to get late I must be getting back.” The shopkeeper then said “I must be getting back to work too, here miss I’ll help you with your chair.” As the shopkeeper walked off with the old woman one of the girls said “Why do you still wear your jester clothes?” Then man then said, “Well I put them on once every year and hang out around the gate to remind me of the day I meet the king.” The other girl then asked curiously “How long ago was that?” Then man took a second to think “It’s been seventeen years since that little event has happened.” Then out from the street you could hear a woman yell “Girls where are you.” The girls stood up and said “We have to go, that’s our mother.” The two girls ran on down the street to their mother.

The young boy then asked “Did you always do what your heart said?” the man smiled and responded “There has not been one day since seventeen years ago that I have not always done what my heart said.” The man took his pendent and placed it in the boy’s hand, then put his hand on his head “Here you go.” The boy looked at him and said “But this is your mother’s--” the man interrupted and said “It’s time to pass it on to someone new.” The boy smiled and said “Thank you.” The man stood up and said, “It’s late I better walked you home.” On the way to the boy’s house, the boy asked many question about everyone in the story, and how they all where now. Once they got to the boy lived the boy turned to the man and asked “Sir, what’s your name?” the man smiled and said “Just call me The Jester.”