by Yossi Soika
After she finished her words, she stepped up to her throne pulled a long handle that was next to her right hand and immediately the Court filled with the guards, who stood to a strained attention waiting for her to speak.
“Let’s get to business,” Melanie started. “This man will henceforth be the official Court Jester of the palace and we will name him Danduck. From this moment he has a permission to enter any place in the palace.”
A Madman or a Genius?
Go out and take a look around the city… an excellent idea.
As soon as I left the palace entrance, I stood in my place and loudly announced, “Her Majesty has personally organized itineraries for me around the city. I’m Her Majesty’s Court Jester...” I was beaming from ear to ear and bowed to passersby. “I’m the Court Jester!” I declared loudly again and walked on, amused, to the city streets. In measured steps, I lifted my head, straightened my back and walked through the streets of the City of Dreams, befitting of my new position as the Court Jester.
For a long time I walked through the streets and the pathways of the city, enchanted by the sights that emerged. The city buildings were all made exclusively from the Cosmozom liquid and shone like diamonds in front of a profusion of lights. The Cosmozom liquid! What an amazing thing! Who would believe that a mysterious liquid could work so many miracles – could build houses, bridges and even soldiers and service men that behave like human beings. What a marvelous substance! If only I could smuggle a tiny bit of it to the Outer World I’d be the happiest man in the world.
Then I saw dozens of enclosed giant potted plants hanging from the domed ceiling of the city and flowing down to the streets in spectacular colors. They streamed into the city streets filling it with their intoxicating fragrances. But the most eye-catching view was the butterflies with their little red mustaches. They fluttered among gigantic flower pots, while a big flock of birds, of a kind I had never seen before blanketed the city sky, filling it with their magnificent bird songs.
“Impossible!” I exclaimed incessantly. “This is a paradise! Is it a dream?”
I strolled around the town among the homes, built like tiny palaces, and through its magnificent lavish gardens for a long time. The city was spick and span, polished as if it had just been thoroughly cleaned and it was free of the gas fumes from cars and factory chimneys. The custodians of the city removed the little dust that penetrated it. I strolled for an hour and a half until I arrived at a vast area with three small lakes surrounded by ornamental plants trees and shrubbery that climbed high, as if it had just been awakened from sleep; however soon they all came falling down, they collapsed with a the sounds of crushing, as if they were being harvested with a sickle. For long time I stood thrilled, satisfying my eyes with the breathtaking beauty.
Could I ever share that which I was seeing right now? No one would ever believe me that such a beautiful world exists.
After a long walk, I found a bench near the lakes, settled comfortably on it, and relished with great pleasure the sight of the three blue lakes and the magnificent vegetation surrounding them.
“Hey, you,” I heard a voice behind me. “Who are you?”
“Who wants to know?” I replied instantly and looked around, but I couldn’t see anyone.
“Hey you, tiny wretched man! Don’t look around you; I’m the owl on the treetop behind you!”
I looked back and gingerly located the owl half hidden in a tree, calling to me, “Who are you? Who are you? Why are you disturbing my rest – go back to the city!”
“I’m new in town. I want to tour the world’s most beautiful city. Why are you calling me a tiny wretched man?”
“You’ll know very soon!” the owl screeched in an odd voice.
Did I notice a mocking tone in its laughter? No, that’s impossible; it must be my imagination.
“Why did you enter the city? What brought you here to this terrible place?”
“Terrible place? How can you say such a terrible thing about such a wonderful city?”
“There is no life here, shrunken sir. Everything that meets the eye here, rather than being alive, is Cosmozom-made. Have you seen any babies or children here? You and I are the only living beings here. I came into the city in a brief moment when the doors opened, and now I’m waiting for them to open again so I can escape.
And now, if you’d like to meet an interesting person, please go to the scientist who built this city. His name is Markusha ben-Shusha. He is the greatest scientist and a builder of this city. You might find him very interesting.”
“Where does he live?” My curiosity piqued.
“Each and every citizen of this city knows him. Go to the city and you’ll find him effortlessly.”
I bid the owl goodbye and went to the city to find the scientist.
“Are you sure you want to meet the scientist and city builder?” I met the astonishing replies of the citizens.
One of them pointed to a hefty structure and said, “Sir, you must be careful. Very strange things happen in his house.”
Very strange things… I repeated his words and went straight to his home. When I got very close to his door I heard a voice saying:
“Hello, Mr. Danduck, the Court Jester!”
“My God!” I exclaimed in surprise. “How do you know my name? Where is this voice coming from?”
“Please enter. You are a welcome guest in my home.”
“A welcome guest? How come? We have never met.”
The door swung wide open and a strange-looking person stood in the doorway – a tall thin man with large coal-black eyes, his two ears were bigger than anything I had seen before. His little snout of a nose made him look even stranger and most peculiar was his green hair that had tiny bells woven into it and constantly ringing.
“Welcome to the City of Dreams!” the man started in a strange shrieking noise. Hesitantly, I entered his home. Upon my entrance, the door behind me slammed with such a loud thud that I jumped. A strange feeling crept into my heart, as if I were a mouse stepping into a trap.
“Hmmmm,” he hummed a little and continued, “this time I have found the rarest animal of all in my net.
“I’m very glad to see you within such a short time. I’ve been waiting for you impatiently since we met near the three lakes.”
“Met near the three lakes?” I repeated, “I’ve never met you before.”
“Well, that’s almost true but not quite accurate,” the man screamed harshly in a whistling voice. “You and I met, but you don’t recognize me in my new look, please use your Lilliputian brain to think it over, and tell me who you talked to at the lakes?”
“Who I happened to talk to? Truthfully… I spoke with an owl that sat on a treetop.”
“Ayyye,” the man started with odd-sounding shrieks. “That, my shrunken friend… that is where we met.”
“I don’t believe that you have any affinity to the owl I met in the garden.”
“Yes, my shrunken friend! You said ‘affinity’ – that’s a nice word, and I want to tell you that I also have great affinity with the owl… great affinity… listen well! I’m the owl you met in the garden. And if you don’t believe me, please enter the witchcraft room and see how I do it with your own eyes.”
Still hesitant, I followed his footsteps and entered a spacious room with many odd-looking devices.
“Do you see the big chair in the middle of the room? Please sit on it and you’ll see many extremely interesting things.”
The sight of the chair sent a shudder down my spine, but I dared not say anything. The moment I sat I felt a strong current running down my body. I wanted to stand up I couldn’t: a tremendous force of mega-power pressed my body against the chair.”
“Court Jester, don’t worry, I will do you no harm. To tell you the truth – I’m going to share my greatest secret with you and at the end of
my story I’m going to make a small copy, and you will be released safe and sound.
“What do you mean?” I asked hesitantly and suspiciously.
“My undersized friend, you have nothing to fear. I’m a well-known scientist. I’m going to perform a perfect job. Your body will feel no pain, and you, my dear friend, will not suffer at all.”
“What are you planning to do to my body?” I exclaimed fearfully.
“Mr. Dan, the deflated, short man, do not worry! Your body will come to no harm. It’s a simple process. I’m projecting copy waves into your body, to copy your image. In the end we will be like two drops of water. But first let me take you back to your original form.”
“I don’t want to be gorilla again!”
“Don’t worry. You are not going to be a gorilla!”
“Why do you want to copy my image?”
“You are a an excellent student, and you ask many wise questions. And now I will tell you who I am and what my goal is. Well, my undersized, learned friend, I’ve been following your deeds and your girlfriend Melanie’s ever since you entered the Third World.”
“I don’t believe it! How did you know when we arrived?”
“It was quite an easy task – you were very noisy and I could easily locate you. You are not aware of the many times I had to protect you. I’m capable of transforming my shape to any shape so I also penetrated the underwater city and followed your footsteps closely. And of course it was me who pulled up the diving bell and allowed your escape.”
“That’s impossible,” I interrupted. You followed my exploits and even helped me escape from the underwater world? Why did you go to so much trouble for me?”
“For you?! Mua-ha-ha – you are funny. I’m not doing it for you; I’m doing it only for my own sake. And now my friend, the undersized, listen well. We have met many times before. You are probably not aware of all the forms in which I appeared before you. But let me jog your memory. Do you remember the flying wasps that ensnared you with their steel threads and put you in an underground store room? Well, my learned friend, no inhabitant of the Third World has ever escaped from those strings before. But now you can boast that with my help you escaped a fundamentally lethal death trap. You may also remember your meeting with a small turtle near the brook? That time I had the pleasure of guiding you on your way to the City of Dreams.”
“Oh, that’s incredible. I still remember well my meeting with you on the bank of the stream, and you even told me that Melanie is the Queen of the City.”
“I’m the one that saved you from the deconstruction of your body by the Cosman, and without my involvement your body would had been deconstructed and a glittering glass body would had been reconstructed instead. And of course I’m not interested in copying a Cosmozom-made body. Mua-ha-ha…” he added and broke into loud laughter. “I’m not copying my body to Cosmozom.”
“You are a very funny man. I really don’t understand why are you protecting me and want to copy my image? And why aren’t you telling the citizens of the city that Melanie, their queen, is not a holy spirit but only a girl from the Outer World?”
“My short-minded and short-statured friend, pay attention for a while and I will confide my secret to you. Not so many years ago I built the AfulaMagen. That was one of the strangest machines I ever built in my whole life. For three years I conducted my experiments in secret, for fear of the response of the Ten Tribes’ scientists. With strenuous work I achieved an amazing breakthrough. Many days after my scientific breakthrough I was like a sleepwalker and couldn’t regain my peace of mind. The day I deconstructed a mouse in my laboratory and reconstructed a rabbit out of it was the greatest one in my life – I felt like I had broken some indestructible borders. Just picture to yourself what happens to a mouse that turns into a rabbit or for that matter into any other known natural animal – in its soul and thoughts it would continue to behave like a mouse...
“After a while, after my emotional storm passed, I began a long series of deconstructions. Animals that wandered near my home went through a deconstruction process and were turned into new creatures. Sometimes I transformed them twice and trice. My great success blinded me and interfered with my logical thoughtfulness and one day I persuaded my fiancé, a member of the Ten Tribes, to go through such a transformation and then to be transformed back. In that way I easily turned her into a fox, but unfortunately the disastrous result came when I failed to return her to her previous form. Many times I reconstructed her into many varied images, but never achieved my principal mission to return her to her original form.
“The failure struck me like a bolt of thunder and for a number of years I kept away from the AfulaMagen. After five years of total idleness I resolved to again explore what I was doing wrong. This time I reverse engineered the AfulaMagen and reassembled it and currently I have an excellent machine with which I can perform many activities with great success. I rejoiced when I got the opportunity to meet the Son of the Planets here who imparted me with a highly important substance, the Cosmozom liquid. And thus, with a tiny amount of this liquid I built the City of Dreams and its marvelous gardens. But the greatest thing of all was the changes I performed on my own body. With only a few amazing trials I transformed my body to any form of life I desired, and I soon returned to my original form. When the building of the city and its gardens was accomplished I transmitted the AfulaMagen together with one tiny drop of this fabulous substance, to the hands of the city scientists. Today they continue to build it and to transform newcomers to the city. The Cosmozom liquid is such an amazingly powerful substance that only a microscopic particle of it can transform much of the life on Earth.
“Yet my great dream is still in its nascent. I want to help all human beings with no exception. The wretchedness of our world is unbearable and I feel I must decrease humans’ suffering and reform their life entirely. With the Cosmozom liquid I will build a home for whoever wants one. And there is something else I want to confide in you: today I’m working on a new formula! If my efforts are successful I’ll make a global revolution with the Cosmozom liquid I will be able to provide first-rate food worldwide but the cost will be negligible. The Cosmozom liquid has enormous power. Should this substance fall to the hands of a crazy ruler, the world may be destroyed with no way of rehabilitating it.
“But now, my shrunken friend! My crowning glory, to duplicate you... and to leave this place accompanied by your girlfriend, Melanie, the Queen of the City of Dreams; don’t worry my friend. I’m going to wear two of your hats, both of your father and your girlfriend. I must unite the world – no more regimes, monarchs, or dictators. No one knows me in the Outer World and your image will provide me with the appropriate cover. With my new version of the AfulaMagen I’m going to establish a new army consisting of worldwide guards. Using the Cosmozom Army I’ll entirely remove all the wretched corrupted rulers of the world, those who corrupt the souls of people, animals and plants, and pollute the Earth and seas. If I fail to stop these human animals, there will be nothing left on Earth for future generations. And so by doing this I’ll atone for the mistakes of my forefathers over many years.
“How are you going to stop the rampant crime in the world?”
“Every man who commits a crime will be sentenced and the penalty will be one and only one – to be transformed into a Cosmozom and to serve as a public servant. And now, my shrunken friend it’s time for the bad news: and I beg your pardon in advance. You cannot leave this place; you are going to stay here for many years.”
“No! I don’t believe it!” I yelled, surprised and angered. “I simply can’t believe it – you are crazy! And what are you going to do to me?”
“Don’t worry, my twin brother. Take my word for it, you have nothing to fear. In three days some temporary servants will come here to take care of my home. I will leave them directions to let you go and feed you with everything you want. In three days Melanie and I
will be in the Outer World and not long after that I will start thinking about my next moves to change the world. Unfortunately we shall not meet again. You, my friend, will receive a little gift – the Invisible Necklace – wear it around your neck and you will become the king of the City of Dreams and replace your charming girlfriend, Melanie.
And thus, on the day that you are elected king of the city, I’ll be busy rebuilding the Outer World. And now, please forgive me; I’m in a hurry; I must go to the palace and persuade Melanie that her life is in danger, and that the time has come for her to return to the Outer World; however, there is something else, something nice that I want to share with you before we part as identical twins. I’m going to reconstruct you, you will go back to your normal shape – you won’t be small anymore – I don’t want to duplicate a small person.”
Markusha ben-Shusha climbed onto a tiny platform, stood in front of a big white screen, lifted his hand and pointed it toward the screen. Intensive heat waves suddenly swept over my body, and for a moment I believed my end was near. Suddenly, the intensive heat was replaced by a deep freeze that penetrated my body, chilling it to the marrow. Time ran fast and all at once I saw my duplicated body, standing in front of me.
“That’s impossible! It’s crazy!” I exclaimed.
“From now on, my home is your home, and you are going to be the landlord…I don’t need it anymore; and for the time being just sit there and calm down.”
The moment I sat on the chair three straps appeared from within it, encircled my body and pressed me to the chair..
I don’t believe it, what a mistake! I fell into a fool-trap. The crazy scientist will run away with Melanie, and I’ll be stuck here forever! What an awful mistake! What should I do next? The servants will only be here in three days… three days... his words still reverberated over and over in my head. I must find a way out of here fast… I must warn Melanie. If I don’t leave here soon, I’m done for.
