TAG’s blog series, FORTNIGHTLY TALES, has come to its last episode. This week’s piece by Rémi Le Gallo – Le Manach was inspired by Minecraft.
Rémi has been visiting TAG from France where he studies, draws, writes and makes video games. He is soon returning to France. Good bye Rémi!
THE PRESENTS
Around noon, they were surprised by a loud loud noise, coming from the town square. They all quickly put on some warm clothes, and went out to see what was happening.
Before the fountain, at the foot of the big Christmas tree they’d installed, was an enormous pile of big boxes, all cubic and wrapped with red paper. They were bigger than baby Benoit, the newborn child of the Amaurd family, and after a count, they discovered that there were exactly the same number of boxes as of inhabitants in the little village. There was one box for everyone, including baby Benoit.
It wasn’t even Christmas yet.
The Mayor Dingle wanted everything to be organized. He made the villagers line up to get their box, and one at the time, they would choose one and let the next one take his or her turn. And as he was the Mayor, he’d take the last box to make sure the others would always have the choice. He was a really good mayor.
But someone didn’t agree with his approach: Lalie, the sister of Robert, wanted to be the first to pick her gift. So she pushed her friends, her parents and Luke (who was, actually, the first in the line), and she grabbed a present. She opened it, while her mother shouted angrily at her to apologize to Luke… Bad luck, Lalie! There was only dirt in the cardboard box. She cried and threw it away.
Then, Luke picked his gift. He got black and grey stones, some squared and some rounder. He was quite happy with that, as the stones were beautiful; he made a pile and picked up the little worm that was in Lalie’s dirt, to put it at the top of the pile.
Madeleine, the butcher, received wood planks and used them to make a fire pit. Then she went to her house to get a pig she would cook for everyone.
Baby Benoit received orange wool. He played, dribbled and almost ate some of the wool, but her sister Romane stopped him just in time.
At the same time, she received two glasses of water. She drank one and saved the other for later. The water was fresh and tasted good.
Ham received a box full of gravel. He found a flint sliver in it and helped Madeleine to light the fire, and put the pig above it. The flames quickly began to rise.
Tetsuo Morimoto and Risa Morimoto received a pine log and a birch log. They used them as seats, and got warm with the fire, waiting for the meat to be cooked.
Mister Penguin, the teacher, received a box that looked almost empty… But when he opened it, he found a small but shiny diamond inside! He was very happy.
The little boy, whose name no one ever remembered,received a black suit. He dressed himself and stole the diamond while Mister Penguin looked elsewhere… Nobody saw him and Mister Penguin looked for his gift everywhere, but never found it.
Robert received many many oak leaves. He put them on the fire, trying to be useful, but the flames grew too high. Romane had to use her second glass to extinguish the fire, and they had to burn down the Morimoto’s logs to be able to continue to cook the pig.
Linda, Lalie’s mother, received sand. She gave it to her daughter, who stopped crying and constructed a sand castle, right next to Luke’s pile of stones. They finally played together and laughed.
The Mayor Dingle took the last box and opened it: there were three bones in it… But he didn’t give much thought about it and gave the bones to his dog, Betty.
Together, they ate the grilled pig, accompanied by carrots and potatoes, on the town square. Then the kids continued playing together for two or three hours, and they came back home to do their homework. The little boy whom nobody remembered the name went to another country, sold the diamond and became an actor. The worm on top of the stones pile managed to escape, and fell in love with another worm it encountered. They lived together underground and were very happy, until a chicken ate them both.
