Ole!

It's the year 1696. Frick and Slick come across an unpublished manuscript.

"Just written," grins Frick.

"How can you tell?? Slick scratches his chin.

"Still wet," Frick points to the ink and smears a pinky on the corner of a page.

Frick begins to read each page out loud, scoffing at each word.

"Rubbish, I tell ya, rubbish, it'll never sell," Frick guffaws.

"Why not? grimaces Slick.

Frick rubs his belly and ponders the question.

"It's not believable. Man and beast together is never going to work," Frick chuckles.

Frick and Slick stare at the neatly stacked pages on the top shelf.

"But I'll tell you what, I'm gonna prove it to you. Fire up the ol' girl," motions Frick.

Slick hops into their futuristic time travel machine, a fuber named Fanny.

Slick hops in the captains seat and cranks Fanny the ol' girl as she spits and chugs.

"Oh, come on, Fanny don't fail me now!" Slick frets as he sweats.

Frick and Slick buck back and forth in their seats like a carnival ride about to fizzle out.

They travel into the future to the year 2030. Invisible to all others, they head to a store in a strip mall with hoards of customers hustling in and out of the store.

"What's that?" shouts Frick.

They both stare at the enormous building and crowds.

"The Ten Dollar Bush? Let me punch it into our Fizz Finder for more information," Slick booms over Fanny's fire engine landing gear as they scream down on the pavement.

"Says The Ten Dollar Bush, formerly called The One Dollar Tree, but due to inflation, it shot up to the Ten Dollar Bush. Everything's ten dollars," blurts Slick, as he proudly grins at his prized gadget the Fizz Finder.

"Ten Dollars! I wonder how much gas is. It's a good thing Fanny runs on farts, else we'd be stranded here," Frick shakes his head as he captures his gas into a flatulence flask, fresh for the ride back.

They prepare for Fanny's final landing and strap their seat belts across their laps as they buck up and down.

They head into the store perusing each aisle up and down and up again.

"What are we looking for Frick? Slick whispers.

"Why that book, the one with man and beast, I told you it would never sell."

Suddenly, on the end, in a one dollar bin...

"There it is!" Slick points.

"Good God! I told you, a buck. It was a failure!"

They each pick up a version of the book.

"Originally published 1697...puhhh, please, look at the piles of junk this story left behind. What year was your book published?" Frick sneers.

Slick flips to the front of his book to look for a copyright, "1812."

"Rubbish, just rubbish. Why do you think there are so many? Well, failures, of course, my good friend, failures."

"Failures?"

"You see, in 1697, when this book was first published, there were no copyright laws, therefore, anyone could write or rewrite this story, and it looks like they did, from this pile of rubbish," Frick and Slick stare at the stacks of different books with different illustrations on the covers, as the customers seem to bypass the big bin of books.

"1697, 1812, 1857, the list goes on and on. And what about the publishers? Why would they even attempt to revive a piece of rubbish like this. Anyone can see from history that this book was doomed to fail, no matter how many times it has been rewritten. And by the looks of these bins full of books, it's been rewritten a lot. Clearly the fools of publishers accepting the rubbish of a story like this kept trying to "win the jackpot" with this piece of trash! Fools, nothing but fools!" Frick shakes his head, along with his belly, and has a hearty laugh at them.

"Apparently, they kept trying to write and rewrite the story, and failed each time. I feel sorry for them. Why do you think they kept going and encouraged each other rather than stopped the madness, Frick?" Slick asks, as he shakes his head in pity.

Frick looks around the store and heads down another aisle. They stare at more stacks of other books. Then they head down another aisle and stare at the assortment of glass dishes and goblets and items for candles. Then they head to the back of the store and peruse the glass encased items. They place their hands on the outside of the glass and then jump back.

"Cold!" exclaims Slick.

They head down the aisle with the tall canisters of potato chips and cookies and crackers, bags of popcorn and pretzels.

"Perhaps they were just bored, and had nothing else to do, so year after year the poor fools kept trying to revive a lost cause of a book that was doomed to fail, I tell you, doomed to fail!" Frick cackles as he squeezes a package of bread.

Finally they had down to the candy aisle. They pick up box after box of candy and shake each one gingerly, as though the boxes were going to break with a shake. Then they get to the soft candy and gently pick up package after package of the candy and squeeze them like a tiny toy doll to see if their heads will pop off.

"Well, I've seen enough, at least we got our answer today, Slick," Frick grins from ear to ear.

They slam down their books and head for Fanny their fuber. 

As they walk back, Frick shakes his head,"they should have called it The Book of Bull, and it would have been more believable if the bull were chasing a little girl in a red cape...

Olé! Frick and Slick declare in unison.

"But a beast chasing a little girl, just because she's wearing a red hood...a flop from the get-go!"

They share a good, hearty, belly chuckle, and then exclaim in unison:

"Olé!"

"Olé!"