The Christmas Pig
A Fable
CHAPTER ONE
Where Are Feinberg's Shoes?
He was a good king but he was in a bad mood. Christmas was only a month away and he still had not commissioned an artist to paint the traditional nativity scene to be unveiled at the conclusion of the midnight mass.
"I've crushed whole armies for not celebrating Christmas," complained the king to his chief advisor, Feinberg. "Now I can't even properly celebrate it myself. Is there not an artist left in the kingdom? Have they all been burned at the stake?"
"Nay, my liege," said Feinberg. "They certainly have not all been burned at the stake. Some of them have merely starved to death."
"I see," said the king, which, of course, was unlikely. That was because he was a king and not an artist.
Still, he was a good king, as kings go. His name was Jonjo Mayo the First, and, as fate would have it, he would also be the last. As history marched inexorably by, his tiny kingdom would be gobbled up and spit out repeatedly by the Pagans, the Vandals, the Arabs, and eventually, that group ... read full excerpt from The Christmas Pig: A Fable ebook
