I’ve been thinking about the boy with his thumb in the dike—the one who saved the whole village. He’s been on my mind for a while now. I keep seeing this picture of this happy, blond boy with his thumb in a cracked wall of clay-like concrete. Villagers are all around him, cheering, laughing, and clapping. But he’s stuck with his thumb in the wall.I have to get him out.
So I’m going to finish the story.
The boy’s best friends, Vincent and Inga, couldn’t see what everyone had to celebrate. René was standing there stuck with his thumb in the dike, for Godsake. Sure the village was saved, but if they didn’t work quickly, he would be stuck there until his thumb fell off from gangrene. Hadn’t anyone thought of that?
Together the two young teens, brother and sister both tall and lean, ran to their farm. Vincent went to the kitchen to grab a bowl, while Inga scooped up sand and gravel to put in it. Then they went to the schoolhouse and took some chalk. In front of the old schoolhouse step, they used a rock to pound the chalk into dust and added it to the sand and gravel. They mixed all three together and added water to make a rough concrete.
Vin and Inga ran back to the dike.
“We’re here, René.” they called, running up.
“Did you bring a chair? Or something to eat?” René was cheerful, just like the story said.
“No, we brought something better.”
In no time at all, Vincent and Inga pushed the grown-ups out of the way, freed their friend, and plugged the hole in the dike. Then they handed the rest of their concrete mix to two men. The teenagers suggested that they get some friends and get to work repairing the crack before the dike breaks again.
The kids headed off to find something to eat and three chairs.
A little while later the Pied Piper of Hamlin came by, led some rats over the dike into the water where the rats drowned. The Pied Piper swam back to safety.
But that’s a different story.
—me strauss Letting me be
10 comments:
That's so great. The architect in me was applauding the kids.
So what's with the Pied Piper!! And the rats!!
Thanks for the laugh.
Hi Jennifer,
Great to see you. I'm glad you caught this one. I can see how the architect in you would like. Poor kid stuck in the dike-=-maybe til his thumb fell off. It was bothering me.
That Pied Piper was jealous he wanted in on the story. What could I do?
I'm easy.
Liz
No, no, no,...
This is how it ended.
The towns people gathered arouned and cheered. They applauded and chanted the boys name, non of them thinking at the moment how cruel they had all been to the boy while he grew. So he watched within his smiling eyes as the last of the townsfolk arrived to gaze upon their fortune as the youth had calculated. That's when the boy pulled his finger from the dike, causing a chain reaction collapse of the whole barrier that happened so fast that non could escape. There were no survivors.
I must be one sick puppy...
p.s. Did you know your blog shows no comments when actually there are three (well, now four).
Oh, Ozymandiaz, you're doing the Quentin Taratino version. That would fun. Would the boy be played by Uma Thurman then?
I think it takes them a weird bit of time to catch up for some reason. Sometimes my answer gets there before the comment I'm responding.
Thanks for telling me.
I need to know such things.
Liz
Heavy sigh of relief here.
Now what about ol' jack and jill? Heh.
Jack and Jill?
I'll have to give that some thought. Oh man, they weren't bothering me until you brought them up . . .
For years I have been trying to find out what the little boy's name was and you came up with Rene, where did that come from? First of all it was supposed to be a little Dutch boy and as far as I've been able to find out, the boy in the story has no name !
Bob
Hi Bob!
The only Rene I've ever known is a Dutch boy.
As far as the story goes. I don't think the boy in the original story had a name, but since I was taking the story on, I wanted the boy to have a name.
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