Fools in a Jar

FOOLS IN A JAR

By I.W. Theophilus

"Samantha, what if I told you that the world has a shape of a triangle?" Mike, my seven year old brother asked me.

"I would slap you" I replied jokingly.

"Why though?" He asked.

"Because you would be a shame to your teachers and parents" I said.

"But, why can't the world have a triangle shape?" He asked again.

Before I answered him, a strange voice coming from under the bed said "Oh, the world is triangular in shape of course"

In a shock, I jumped off my bed while Mike run towards the door in panic. The voice was strange, it did not sound like anyone's voice I knew. And yet my parents were both at work, Mike and I were the only children and the only ones home now.

"Samantha! What is it?" Mike cried trying to reach out for the door handle which was way higher than him.

"Don't be afraid little boy" the voice came again. 

I got hold of a broomstick, ready to hit anything that was about to come out. "Hey! Who are you?" I shouted

A hand appeared. But it wasn't a normal one, it was green in color. It had short fingers like that of a child except they looked old. After a few seconds, another hand appeared, until the full creature finally crawled from under the bed. It was a short creature, about one meter tall. It was all green in color, with big yellowish eyes and pointed ears, having about five or six strands of hair on its head. It was a dwarf with a funny face, which made it seem less scary. Though when that kind of a creature appears in your room, it does not really look funny, I was almost frozen to death. With an adrenaline rush, I lifted my broomstick and swung it in the direction of the green dwarf.

But just the instant when the broomstick was about to hit it, the creature disappeared, so that the broomstick only hit the floor.

"It is at your back" Mike yelled, pointing at my back. I turn around but before I even swung the broomstick, the little creature disappeared again.

"Where is it? Where is it?" I panicked.

"It's gone... I think it's scared" Mike answered, now with some courage.

We glanced around the room but the green creature was nowhere to be seen. Until when we heard the sound of someone sobbing but it was coming from above. The green creature was hiding in the attic.

"Nobody loves me!" He sobbed "Because am ugly"

I felt pit on the poor creature. We tried to attack it and yet it did not do us any harm. I shook off my guilt, considering that we had been freaked out by it.

"Let him come down" my little brother said, surely struck with sympathy too.

"We won't hurt you” I added.

After several minutes of persuading it, the green dwarf appeared on the bed in a ping. His eyes were dropped down, with a forlorn look.

“You are not ugly, little one” I coaxed him.

“Is that true?” he asked while looking up at us with fear

“Yes, you can be our friend” Mike replied.

“I have never had a friend” he started sobbing again “I have never played my favorite game with a friend”

“We are your friends now” I said with a kind tone “I am Samantha, and this is my little brother Mike. And you are…?”

“Quigleesh,” he replied. “My name is Quigleesh”

“We can play your favorite game with you Quigleesh” Mike smiled at the creature.

“Thank you… Mike and Samantha” Quigleesh said, wiping out his tears. “You are the only kind people I have met”

He put his small hand in his pocket and slowly moved it around for a while until he got two coins out of it. They were gold coins, but not like any I have ever seen.

“I call my game ‘Toss Me a Coin’” he said “I toss the coin in the air, if you catch it, you win and if you don’t, then you lose.”

“That’s wonderful, let’s play it” I said, trying to be kind.

Quigleesh tossed the two gold coins high in the air, Mike and I reached out for them. And when we just got hold of the coins, we found that things around us started getting big. It looked like the house was expanding.

“Samantha… what’s happening to me?” Mike cried.

The house was not expanding, we were actually shrinking. We kept on decreasing in size until we were almost the size of table spoons. My pencils on the table looked almost like huge poles.

At that instant, Quigleesh started laughing out loud. He had a very happy face as if he hadn’t even been crying just a few minutes ago.

“Didn’t your mom, tell you not to trust anyone?” He laughed “Fool! I tricked ya!”

Now that we had been shrunk, he looked like a big giant before us. He took a glass jar and put it just next to us, which now looked as big as a water tank. Before we could even run away, Quigleesh picked us with his hand and put us in the glass jar.

He laughed again. “In case you are wondering, I am a goblin, a pixie, a dwarf and most notably… The trickster!”

“You are a fool!” I shouted.

He laughed again. “Oh, but fools are in a jar. All fools think that they can’t be fooled. And oh, I have to finish my business”. Having said that, he started opening drawers and wardrobes, taking everything that was made of gold or silver, starting from my earrings, necklaces, bracelets and everything shiny.

At last he got us out of the jar and snapped his fingers. At instant we grew bigger again to our normal sizes. He said “One piece of advice kids... People are willing to do anything for you, and yet just to fulfil their selfish needs. Know who and when to trust. Well, am very wise, as you can see. But my advice is not for free, that's why I took these shiny jewelleries. Thank you... Am welcome of course” With that he disappeared, leaving behind an echo of laughter.