THE WOODEN SWORDS CHAPTER 4. - MEETING AFTER SCHOOL

We were all there. George, Adam, James, Perry, his sister Anne, Ralph, Timmy and me. All the knights of the King’s Road!

- Does anybody know these boys?

- No, they are from Elm Tree School.

- Do they have girls as well?

- Have you seen them?

- They were at the candy shop on Pine Street.

- Are they strong?

- Do they have weapons?

- How old are they?

- How many girls are there?

- Yes, I don’t know, maybe, three, a bit…what?

We stopped. We had asked Anne too questions and she had become confused. I doubt if any of us even could remember what question we had asked.

We were in James’ back garden drinking fresh orange juice made by James’ mother and we were definitely driving Anne mad.

I decided to ask the first question because I am the leader.

- Anne, how many are there?

- I don’t know! I saw four of them, plus two were girls.

Now it was George’s turn to ask his question.

- Do they carry weapons?

- The boys had cowboy pistols, but the girls had nothing.

- Aha! Cowboy pistols! Any swords?

- No, just pistols!

George gave me a nod; he was satisfied with the answer. It was Adam’s turn now.

- How old are they?

- I don’t know. The boys looked the same age as you, but the girls were my age, but I’m not sure.

- Aha!

It was Adam’s turn to say ‘aha’ and look at me. James was next, but he took a moment to consider his question before asking Anne.

- Were there others waiting for them outside?

- No, I’m sure not!

- Aha!

I didn’t really understand why James exclaimed ‘aha’ after every answer, but he must have had his own reasons. We were waiting for Perry to ask his sister a question when Ralph jumped in with his own. Obviously it was an important one because he couldn’t wait for his turn.

- What kind of candies did they buy?

- Hey, Ralph! You will never change!

- This is a very important question.

- What’s important about the type of candies they bought?

- Perry, it is very important.

- Ok, Anne, let’s hear the vital answer.

- Butter candies!

- You see!

I have to admit that I could not see the importance of butter candies, but I was confident my second-in-command had his reason for asking. We all waited for Ralph to explain the meaning of butter candies.

- Butter candies! Butter candies! Can’t you see it?

None of us could see it.

- See what, Ralph?

- They are getting ready for a war!

- What? How do know that from butter candies?

We were all looking at Ralph wanting to do how he reached this conclusion.

- Look, it is simple! If they bought chocolate that would mean that they had a meeting, macaroons mean that they are going for a visit, marshmallows mean a present for somebody much younger, cake means a present for somebody older or a birthday, but butter candies means war. They are easy to keep in your pocket and they last for a long time in your mouth.

We could all feel the buttery taste in our mouths as he spoke.

- Butter candies mean war!

We didn’t say anything. We didn’t know what to say. Ralph definitely had a point in what he said and that's why he was second-in-command. We were in trouble. We had invaders and obviously they were preparing for war. Everybody was waiting for me to provide the solution.

- Why has this problem started now?

That was Timmy. Timmy once had the idea that he will be the Knight of Switzerland. Switzerland is neutral in all wars and helps the weak. Being neutral, he is the pacifist of our Knighthood and refuses to fight. Timmy always has these strange ideas because he reads the encyclopedia.

He started last year. He randomly picked one book from the whole series and chose ‘S’. He has been reading one word after the other and their explanation, so now he knows all these new words and their explanation, but only if they begin with the letter ‘S’. Sahara, sergeant, silicon, sorcery, suede, synagogue and many more, if there is a word that starts with ‘S’ and we don’t know what it means, we ask Timmy. I should have asked him about shields.

- The problem has started now because they came now.

- Why don’t I go and see if we can reach a settlement with them?

- A settlement?

- I can negotiate peace between us.

- Peace? But we haven’t started the war yet!

- Ok! I just wanted to be sure!

That’s Timmy, always the same, but Perry still had his question to ask.

- So, what are we doing now?

They all turned to me again.

- As we learned in history today, we have to secure our borders!

Everybody liked my idea. James even clapped his hands and shouted ‘Aha!’

- What borders do we have?

I was embarrassed to admit that I hadn’t thought about that. I remembered from the history lesson that borders were drawn on maps.

- We need a map!

- A map?

- Tomorrow morning you must all come to my house and we will draw a map of our area, then we can make the borders.

Everybody was in agreement.

- Will your mum make cherry cake again?

- I don’t know, Ralph. I’ll tell her how much you like it and see if she can bake another one.

- Fantastic!