Furwaggle Chapter 13

Chapter 13

King Day

It’s a special day in this fictitious dreamland, called, Furwaggle. Today is the Kings day holiday. This once a year event starts at sunrise and continues until sundown with the election of a Furwaggle King for a day. On this great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire by campaigning for the only elected office not requiring any special talents or superior quality at all. Sorta like in the real world.
There are celebrations, partying, merry making and fun for all. Well maybe not all, Wiggles finds this event a total waste of time and is the only one who doesn’t throw his hat into this popularity race. Fluffy also doesn’t campaign either but that is because he takes advantage of one of the special extraordinary activities offered this holiday. Food is served from dawn to dusk without stop or interruption. Fluffy has been noted to say, “I don’t like to cook, but I like to eat, enough said, now please pass the vittles”.
Wiggles starts to walk out of the barnyard hoping to find some Peace and Quite. But the mouse brothers, Mickey and Icky, stop him. “Hold on there”, “Where do you think you’re going?” The brothers said in unison. Wiggles was surprised and popped out with, “Ok, what kind of a campaign promise are you two going to make and not keep?” “Look, old dull eyes, we hear that you’re not running for King today”, said Mickey. “And if not we want you to do something.” added Icky. “Now look you two, I’m not going to do anything illegal”, snapped Wiggles. “No, No, we don’t do that kind of thing anymore”, chimed in the brothers in unison. “You see we are responsible for the talent contest and we need someone who is honest, upright, trustworthy….”. Wiggles butted in with, “Ok, Ok, I get the idea, you want some fool to stand up on that stage and do the MC bit, right?” “Yea, kinda sorta, something like that”, said Icky. “You are the only one not in the running. By the way where is Fluffy?”, asked Mickey. With surprise Wiggles asks, “You mean that everyone is running in the King for a day contest?” “That’s right you’re the only one that’s not running, now where did you say Fluffy is? We need to do a little campaigning on him.”, said Icky. With a smile Wiggles said, “Won’t do you any good, he is in the chuck house eating.” “Well we will just wait for him and then give our pitch on how we are going to make his world all better and….”. Again Wiggles said, “I told you that it won’t do you any good, the only way he is going to stop his eating is for them to turn out the lights and lock the chuck house door with him on the outside.”
Against his will Wiggles let himself be dragged along to the barn where every thing was set up for the voting and the talent show. Once inside Wiggles asked, “how is the voting going to take place and where?” “Here is how it goes, we have a big old pickle barrel set up in the middle of the barn and each voter marks a card with his choice for King and drops it into the barrel.”, instructed Icky. “Won’t the ballets get all wet and mushy?”, asked Wiggles. With some pride Mickey said, “On the contrary, oh dim eyed one, we thought of that so we emptied out all the pickles and juice.” “What”, said Wiggles. “You threw away all those pickles?”. “No, there you go again, thinking the worst of us. We put them into the pig’s trough until the voting is over then we will put them back.”, mocked Icky. Wiggles thought to himself, “Got to remember not to eat any pickles or at least wait until they open a new barrel”. Wiggles then said, “With everyone who is in the running doing a talent act it will take forever, and ever before this thing is over with. It will be into next week before all this talent is rung out”. “Not to worry, it’s the same for everyone, two minutes is all the time each contest gets”, said Mickey. Wiggles protested, “It will take Slimly Snail longer than that to just get onto the stage let along perform”. Together Mickey and Icky prompted, “We said that it was the same for everyone, we didn’t say it was fair to everyone”.
The rest of the evening went about as you would expect, the talent stage hosted dance, song and speeches. Wiggles was glad when that part of the events was over with. Now all that remained was the counting of the votes and the crowning of the King, which should go smooth and fast. Little did he know what was in store for him…. The vote counting did move along fast and then came the long awaited announcement. The head of the holiday committee took the stage and in a clear voice said, “There are 432 contestants and having counted 432 votes, we have a 432 first place tie.” A hush came over the barnyard crowd. Wiggles was the only one not surprised. He grabbed the microphone and said, “I knew it, I knew it, each one of you egotists voted for yourself.” Then from the crowd was yelled, “How about Fluffy’s vote?” The head of the holiday committee answered, “He voted early and it was for the cook.” Someone yelled out, “But the cook isn’t even in the running.” “Don’t matter, it counts”, replied the committee head. He then went on to say, “The only one that didn’t voted is Wiggles”. The crowd got extremely excited at this point and began to chant, “Make him vote, Make him vote….”. The rafters began to shake and Wiggles was sure he was in for a lynching. Then he realized that it was more of a cheer for him. Then the committee head raised his arms for quite and the crowd settled down. And he said, “Wiggles here is a voting card and a marker, you have one vote and one vote only to settle this tie for the title of King.” With a smile Wiggles took the voting material and turned his back for privacy while considering his choices. He rubbed his chin and the only sound he made was a soft, “Hmmmm.”. After a few minutes he started to make marks on the card, then turned and dropped it into the pickle barrel and said, “Okay, I'm Done”. With all the shouting and such, what had slipped under the radar was that the mouse brothers, who had been eager to do their jobs, had put the pickles and juice back into the voting barrel. So when the committee head removed Wiggles voting card, it was all soaking wet and squishy with the vote blurred and unreadable. With that the assembly went into a real tizzy. Wiggles was again sure that this was going to turn into a lynch mob. But again he was wrong, they were yelling at each other, “It was me”, “No, I’m the winner”, Have him vote again”, and so on. At this point the committee head proclaimed, “No, he gets one vote only and that was it. So that’s the end of King for a day holiday.” With sullen faces and an occasional whimper everyone began to slowly leave the barn.
At about that time Fluffy showed up and asked Wiggles, “is it all over? Did I miss anything? ” Wiggles replied, “That was one of the most difficult thing I ever have experienced.” Then Fluffy asked, “Who won?” With a smile Wiggles said, “I’m not telling.”
So ends another normal day in this fictitious dreamland, called, Furwaggle.
My tiny mind thinks that politics and talent is best if it is left to the egotist.
Continued… (maybe).
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Here is a simple little teaser for you:
Maze