Story: Old King Cole

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“Send in my jesters, three!” the man yelled from his throne.

The small door at the end of the hall opened up and in danced three little jesters prancing around in colorful outfits of patchwork purples and greens, occasionally tripping on their long, cloth shoes and giggling madly as they did so.

“What jesters are these?” asked the old man on the throne. “I asked for jesters, three. These are children!”

“Yes, of course,” the younger man standing to the right of the throne said. You asked for jesters, three, so we went and found you three jesters that all happen to be three years old.”

“This is ridiculous!” Old King Cole shouted.

“No it’s what you asked for.” The prince said.

“Well what can they do?” Asked the king.

“Not much. They’re three.”

“I KNOW there are three of them!” The king roared.

“No, I meant they’re three years old,” the young man said.

“I’m going to slap you,” the king said. The Jesters giggled as they watched. They had all taken seats on the floor and were now playing with the long floppy socks on their feet.

“Well you asked for jesters, three and so we found this troupe of triplet jesters that all happened to be three. It’s exactly what you wanted – to the note.”

“No it isn’t!” the king shouted.

“Well they’re here now,” the prince said.

The three young jesters all watched this exchange, rocking back and forth while they laughed.

“Well then I guess I’ll tolerate them. Jesters, show me what you can do! Come on up here. Stand before me and perform!” The jesters jumped up and skipped over in their colorful little onesies and stood right before the old man and the prince. The jesters all looked at the prince as if waiting for something.

“Well go on,” the prince said.

“Grandpa, do you have Minecraft?” one of the jesters said. The prince coughed and broke out into hysterical laughter.

“No guys, do the_” the prince was too busy laughing to finish his sentence. “Do the little dance and finish the scene, you guys!”

“It’s fine. Come on, kids. Give me a big hug. We’ll try acting another time. You’ll have to learn to appreciate the theatre when you’re older.” The old man rose from the chair and the little kids ran up to embrace him. “Now what the jiminy doo dad is Minecraft?”

“It’s a game they all play. You won’t have it,” the younger man said.

“I have plenty of board games,” the old man said.

“It’s not a board game, dad. You’d think they’d be more interested in acting given their lineage.” A door opened at the end of the room and an older woman leaned in.

“Lunch is ready, you guys,” the woman said. The little jesters jumped up and sprinted for the door.

“Well it was worth a shot. Thanks for trying, dad.”

“Of course. I’ll take any chance I get to play with my grandchildren.” The two men smiled at one another in silence for a brief moment.

“I guess we should join them,” the old man said.

“I guess we should,” the younger man said.

Authors Note: You can obviously tell I've deviated quite a bit from the source material on this one. The original rhyme just talks about a jolly old man and his three fiddlers. I enjoy writing intentional misdirection in  my stories quite a bit and so this story is meant to let the reader feel at first their in some sort of medieval time that might fight the original time of the rhyme. I left the name the "Cole" the same and used three jesters instead of fiddlers as it added more comic effect, I felt. I wrote it to seem as if they're acting out a little play made from the nursery rhyme but the kids don't end up playing along, but in the end, everyone is still happy and jolly just as in the original rhyme.

Bibliography: This story is based on the nursery rhyme "Old King Cole" found in "The Nursery Rhyme Book" edited by Andrew Lang