Writing Adventures

Flash Friday: Red Ball

1st January, 2010 - No Comments

“I don’t want this.” He tossed the red wooded ball back to the jester.

“Of course you do, my boy. You just don’t know it, yet.” The clown dropped it into his empty cup.

“What would I do with it? It’s just a toy.” He sneered at the ball.

“Indeed, just a toy. And you are just a boy. What ever shall we do with you?”

“Stop that. Leave me alone.”

“Keep it, boy. You’ll need it someday.” He turned and cartwheeled away.

The boy, Jim, a very practical child, stuffed the ball into his pocked and turned the opposite direction. Jesters made him nervous, and serious jesters were downright scary. His mother once told him they were the wisest men in the world, for only they could insult kings and bishops. They were also the most dangerous.

Jim had once seen a court fool get a prince thrown in irons and a priest sent to the gallows. Those entertainers went everywhere and knew everything, and they seemed a law unto their own. He had never seen one arrested or thrown out, no matter how horrendous their jesting.

Normally, he would not argue, but a wooden ball was childish and pointless, he was nearly ten. Nothing for it now, he would have to keep it and find out if the clown was right, or just crazy.

Kristoph watched the boy walk away with a grin. The ball was nothing, but he wondered what he would find to do with it. It was never about predicting the future, it was about shaping it. The boy had quite the future ahead of him, Kristoph would make sure of that.