The little general drank the last gulp of tea out of
his teacup and turned off the television. He had been watching his
favorite nature show, "Order
in the Wilderness". Today's episode was about lemmings, little animals that
look like fluffy mice and live in the Arctic. The little general had been admiring
them over his tea and biscuits because the announcer had said that they would
follow anything anywhere. But it was 4 o'clock. Time for battle. The troops would
be waiting.
"Sergeant Samantha" barked the general. "What are we fighting
about today?" Sergeant Samantha got up from her kneeling position
and saluted the general. Her cheeks were the color of the little
general's roses.
"I believe we're fighting about the imagination again," said Sergeant
Samantha.
"The usual position I assume?" asked the general.
"Yes. We don't believe in it. They do." Sergeant Samantha was a tall
lady. Whenever she was around the general she slouched so that she
would seem shorter and as a result she always went home from battle
with a very sore neck.
Across
the way from the Realists was the other army, the Dreamers, though
perhaps the word "army" was not completely accurate. They
didn't wear uniforms. They didn't practice formations and they were
always playing games. One of their favorites was The Bee Game, where
half the army pretended to be flowers and the other half came and
tickled them, pretending to try and get nectar from under their armpits.
Today they seemed to be pretending to have imaginary pets. The commander
was holding an imaginary toucan on his finger-he yelped whenever
he imagined it had bitten him. And his second-in-command appeared
to be riding an imaginary whale and shouting "Whoa!" in
a most annoying manner. |