Once upon a time there was a class of happy schoolchildren. These schoolchildren generally got along pretty well. They were happy to go to school, they learned a lot, and they played many interesting games on the playground.
Their favorite game to play on the playground was dodgeball. When they played dodgeball, they divided themselves into two teams, called the Gnomes and the Ogres. The Gnomes and the Ogres were basically the same, except that the Gnomes had decided that the best strategy was to increase team morale by passing ball around evenly (so everybody got a shot), and the Ogres had decided that the best strategy was to scare the other team by throwing the ball really hard. So the Gnomes would pass, and the Ogres would throw wildly. They had many interesting and enjoyable games against each other, and all was well on the playground.
One day, a Bully came along, picked up the ball, and gave a black eye to one Gnome, and a black eye to one Ogre. He then ran away and hid himself in a place where none of the schoolchildren could find him.
All of the schoolchildren were very upset. The Bully had been very mean to them, and they were afraid he would come back and be mean again. They had to decide what to do about the Bully!
The Ogres said, “First, we need to protect our playground!” The Ogres declared that all Bullies who entered the playground would immediately be given black eyes! The only problem was that they couldn’t tell who was a Nice Person, and who was a Bully. So, they made up a test to give to all the people who came on the playground, to figure out if they were Bullies or not. It gave them less play time, but they all felt safer.
The Ogres said, “Now, we need to hunt him down and make sure that he doesn’t do that again! We need to give *him* a black eye!” The Gnomes, being basically the same, agreed, and said “OK, just make sure that everybody gets a chance to do it.”
Maybe some of the schoolchildren disagreed, but they didn’t want to upset anybody or get in trouble by arguing. They all took the playground-entry test quietly, and then went and had fun playing dodgeball on the playground. They also helped the Ogres look for the Bully. After all, they didn’t feel safe with a Bully running around!
The first place that they looked for the Bully was in an old, abandoned playground. They met some quiet children there, and the Gnomes said to them, “Do you know where the Bully is? We’d really like it if you’d tell us.” The quiet children knew where the Bully was, but once upon a time the Bully had protected them from other Bullies, so they wanted to protect the Bully. The quiet children said, “No, we don’t have any idea where the Bully is.”
The Ogres were very mad. They said, “Give those quiet children a black eye!” They threw dodgeballs at the quiet children very hard, and gave them black eyes. Eventually, all the quiet children ran away. The Ogres said, “Good! Now we feel safe, because there are no friends of the Bully anymore on this old, abandoned playground.” All the schoolchildren nodded their heads and went back to their playground.
Then, the Ogres decided that to look for more quiet children, because maybe other quiet children would also know about the Bully. They searched out another old playground, and they found some older quiet children there.
The Gnomes tried to talk to the older quiet children for a long time. They said, “Where is the Bully?” The older quiet children didn’t know, so they said, “We don’t know.” Then the Gnomes asked again, and the older quiet children said, “Go away, we don’t know anything about the Bully. And anyway, you annoy us. We wouldn’t tell you even if we did know.”
The Ogres saw a small box next to one of the older children’s feet. They said, “You’re hiding the Bully’s dodgeball in there!” (Some of the Gnomes muttered, “But… the Bully used our dodgeball…”) The older children said, “Go away. You’re annoying us. Go back and play on your playground.” This made the Ogres so mad that they shouted, “Give those older children a black eye!” They threw dodgeballs very hard at the older children, and gave them many black eyes. It was mean, but they all felt safer because they had protected themselves against the older children, who might have had a Bully’s dodgeball.
Afterward, the Gnomes walked up to the box, and they opened it. They found that it was one of the older children’s lunch. It had some good cookies in it, so they all shared it between themselves. They were safe, and they were happy because they had eaten some good cookies.
All the schoolchildren went back to the playground, and they started to play a game of dodgeball. Of course, it took them a while to all take the test to get onto the playground, and they were all very worried that the Bully might come back.
While they were playing, the Ogres realized something. They said, “Gnomes! We must protect you! You do too much sharing, and not enough throwing! If the Bully comes back, you won’t be able to give him a black eye fast enough!” So, they changed the way that they played dodgeball, so that the Ogres were always in a big circle outside, and the Gnomes were in a small circle inside.
They never did catch the Bully. But they did find some more quiet children and give them black eyes, from time to time. And the Ogres always won at dodgeball from then on, because of the changes on the playground.
But it was OK, because everybody felt safer.
-Max
Max Kanat-Alexander 