The Cheese

Life in Bajankík was peaceful. In Bajankík everyone was happy because there was little work needed to be done since the trees always provided enough fruit. For anything else you could always rely on a neighbor to give you a helping hand. In Bajankík the grass was always green, the lakes were always crystal-clear, and there were flowers of every color known to man, that is, until Edward the wizard came.

You see, in the land of Bajankík, chocolate was the highest of all delicacies. When Edward came with a machine that made chocolate from rocks, everyone gathered around to hear what he had to say.

He spoke: “I see great potential in this village; you all are hard working people. However, you have a major flaw. You are all lack discipline and organization. Lucky for you though, I have created plans for work camps to be made to mine rock. With the discipline and efficiency we can get out of the work camps we can make vast amounts of chocolate, FOR EVERYONE!!”

The villagers roared ecstatically at the end of Edward’s speech, so, with a smirk on his face, he went on to set up the work camps. He promised that everyone in Bajankík would get a fair share, but in the end only a few of the chosen ones got all the chocolate. Once people started figuring out what was going on, they started asking questions. [When will I get the chocolate I deserve?] Edward saw these questions as troublesome so he started an institution called the “leisure house.” Everyone was forced to go to the leisure house for 14 years. There they would learn to work hard, and that Edward was always right because he was the one that had the idea for the work camps and the leisure house, and because he had a lot of chocolate. Edward’s minions would make sure to stamp out any ideas that Edward didn’t like. Anyone that spoke out was ridiculed.

As the years passed almost all the questions were stamped out, and people started going to the work camps voluntarily again, even though most knew deep down they would never obtain the promised chocolate. Parents even started forcing their own sons and daughters to go the leisure houses and then the work camps.

Edward, however, was not immortal; he died in his sleep one afternoon. One of his disciples, Alione saw this as an opportunity. He convinced everyone that Edward was just in a deep sleep and that one day he would wake up. When he woke up he would give the promised chocolate to all those that remained devoted to work and imprison all those who did not. This was easy to do because Edward enchanted himself long ago so his skin would not age. This same enchantment prevented his skin from decaying after death.

As generations passed everyone forgot what life was like before Edward the wizard came. All thought that Edward would wake up in their generation, so Alione and those that came after him became immensely rich from all the chocolate given to Edward as tribute. The richest and most brutal of all these rulers was Maylmene the Second; under his rule was a boy named Rollie.

Rollie wasn’t the hardest working person in the leisure house, but he was very bright. He would always figure out a way to leave the leisure house early or finish his work before everyone else. He didn’t tell his parents about this though so he would spend the time from when he got out until everyone else got out taking walks in the forbidden forest. There were no guards in the forbidden forest because there were rumors of all kinds of horrible beasts living in there. Rollie knew the rumors weren’t true, of course. What he did find in the forest, however, were fruits; so many fruits, fruits of all shape and sizes. But he didn’t know what they were for at the time. He never imagined putting one in his mouth and chewing it, for all the fruits looked gray and dull. What he was used to eating was the sustenance goo that they gave him back in the leisure house.

One day while walking his usual trail he heard a noise. The noise got louder. Whatever it was, it was coming in his direction. He quickly hid thinking it was a guard who had found out he was going to the forbidden forest every day. But when he looked up, it was a woman.

She was tall and had almost no hair on one side of her head, on the other side she had long violet hair that went down almost to her knee. She rode a large beast whom she controlled by its teeth with a leather rope.

“Don’t be afraid” she spoke with tenderness in her voice. “My name is Pliara, what is yours?”

“My name is Rollie”

“Here, do you want some cheese?” she held out a cube.

Rollie hesitated for this “cheese” (whatever it was) smelled a bit odd. Rollie tried to get over this and he took the cheese out of politeness.

“Go ahead, eat it.” She recommended.

He hesitantly put the cheese in his mouth and slowly savored it. It was so soft, yet it had a sharp taste. Rollie closed his eyes blocking out everything around him. He felt the cheese dissolve away in his mouth. When he finished the cheese Rollie slowly opened his eyes. Everything was different. The grass, the trees and the shrubs turned from a dull gray into a luscious green. The sky turned from a dark and dreadful brown to a shining blue. The fruits changed into bright reds, oranges, purples and blues. Rollie could not believe his eyes. Everything was just so much better. His mind was so much clearer.

In that moment he did something that would’ve never crossed his mind. He ate one of the fruits. It was almost as good as the cheese. He tried another and then another and then another…

Slowly however the feeling of that this cheese gave faded away. The fruits slowly turned dull again, the grass, trees and the shrubs turned gray. His head filled with many questions. Why aren’t the grass and the trees green? Why don't the fruits taste as good without the cheese? Why isn’t the sky always blue? Rollie started questioning the process of the leisure house, the work camps. He why he didn’t get the promised chocolate while the guards and Maylmene the Second did. He started asking to himself why his PARENTS after working so long and hard on those camps didn’t get the chocolate that they deserved. He asked himself why he, and the all the other villagers, worked so hard in the camps and the leisure house for the slight chance of getting chocolate, if there was probably enough fruit in the forest for everyone to eat, even if it was dull and gray. He was frustrated with knowing he could not do anything about these problems, yet he was happy. For all his life, he had been taught to be ashamed of himself if he did not like something with way things are, but the cheese revealed a new truth, a new light. He wanted more.

“Could I please have more of this cheese?” he asked Pliara.

“Well, I can not just give it to you; it is all I have to eat.”

At that moment Rollie quickly climbed a nearby tree a picked six stems of berries. He went back down and handed the fruit to Pliara.

Pliara smiled, accepted the fruit and gave Rollie a large block of cheese.

The next day, he hesitated in going to the leisure house, but he knew he had to go; he had to share his discovery with everybody else. First he tried talking to his work-mate, Tomomo, but he couldn’t express the ideas in words. He could never explain the feeling the cheese gave him.

So he did the only thing that had even the slightest chance of getting his feelings through, he asked Tomomo and 10 other workers from his sector to go the forbidden forest. Most of them, and with good reason, were scared, but in the end Rollie, Tomomo and four others persisted. Once there, Rollie gave each of them a piece of the cheese and had some himself. The grass, the trees and the shrubs turned from a dull gray into a luscious green. The sky turned from a dark and dreadful brown into a shining blue, and they all had the epiphany Rollie had the first time he tried the cheese.

Slowly, but surely, the word of the cheese spread and Rollie started taking more and more people to the forbidden forest to eat the cheese. Rollie even took his own parents one day.

The guards started catching on, and one day Maylmene the Second ordered that all rations be withheld until the villagers relinquished the cheese.

At any other point in the history of Bajankík, the villagers would have simply given up, but Tomomo had other plans.

He got all his work tools, went outside, threw them at the feet of a guard, and walked out to the forbidden forest.

“HALT!!” the guard commanded, but Tomomo kept walking. He was soon followed by Rollie, then by both of their parent, then those within Rollie’s work sector and soon the whole village began walking into the forbidden forest. The guards were not sure what to do for nothing like this has ever happened before. Even if they could think of something, they were too much in awe to actually take action. The villagers all walked to the forest at a steady pace to the sound of Maylmene, his guards, his minions, and his disciple yelling in frustration.

At that moment, the grass, the trees and the shrubs turned from a dull gray into a luscious green, The sky turned from a dark and dreadful purple to a shining blue, and the fruit tasted better than ever.