On Saturn, a planet far, far away lived a large group of Reddenbops
that drooled over anything red.
Their chubby cheeks and furry bellies
could make anyone laugh and their Red Rock Palace was a breathtaking sight
to behold. There lived the King and Queen Reddenbop with all their expensive
red objects and glistening red fur. No one was redder than the King and
Queen and their palace was heaven to the eyes of all the Reddenbops.
Now deep in the rock quarries, away from the cities, the mining Reddenbops
worked very hard. They crushed red-rock to make red-dye, and they chopped
red-rock to make buildings and roads. Any rock not red enough
was discarded and thought worthless. It was as if they would not rest
until all of Saturn was totally red. The truth, however terrible it may seem, was that someday all the red-rock would be totally used up. Oh,
how truly dreadful it would be if the Reddenbops had to endure brown or
orange or yellow or black! Not to mention the horror of blue or green! They
hate blue and green and would never visit Earth for that very
reason.
So the simple truth was that one day, (and it was hard to say
when) the Reddenbops would run out of red. Back in the palace one glistening
red-sunny day, a babe was born to the King and the Queen. Like
all Reddenbop babies, the little son was born without fur.
The nurses
took red-lotion and massaged his new skin so that one day he would have as
red of fur as his mother and father. He would be the heir to Saturn
and so they gave him the very special name of RedFire RedSoul Reddenbop.
True to his name he was a little spitfire; hard to contain and hard to
control.
Only a month after his birth when his fur started to grow, the
palace noticed it was curiously brownish. Now this could not be and they
could scarcely believe their eyes but as the months passed, the fur grew
in more brownish with shades of orange. What’s more is that his tail
became a bright ugly yellow. Afraid and dismayed, the King and Queen ordered
the strongest red-dyes to keep RedFire RedSoul as red as can be.
Time went
on and it became a secret, the heir to Saturn was not a rich red but was dyed
everyday to keep up the royal red look of the prestigious Red
Rock Palace. Soon RedFire RedSoul became a young man and was
very well-liked and known for his smarts. Everyone had forgotten his
baby-brown fur and looked to him with red in their eyes, thinking he was like
his parents; rich red and round.
But RedFire RedSoul was displeased with
the charade and grew tired of continually being dyed and pretending to be
red. Actually, he started to grow tired of red altogether. He began to
question the ways of the Reddenbops and would sneek out of the Great Red
City to wander through the rock quarries. There, he noticed with great
interest, were more Reddenbops with brownish fur and they toiled in
their work day after day. The brownish Reddenbops rarely came into the
cities and seemed content enough, although they were thought of as ugly by everybody
else. RedFire RedSoul began going out at night after his bath in his
natural colors, brownish orange with a bright yellow tail. Only then would
the brownish Reddenbops really speak with him, thinking him one of the
miners and so he learned a great deal.
Many other Reddenbops dyed their fur everyday and pretended to be red.
Redfire Redsoul was far from being the only red pretender and he would often
listen to the miners joke about how fake it all was. "I once saw the Queen herself with a yellowish
tail," one said with a laugh. "The dyer must have missed dyeing it that
day!"
This made RedFire, RedSoul wonder greatly if his mother dyed herself
too. He would have never believed it if it wasn’t for his own yellow
tail. But what made him wonder even more were the depths of the mines and
the abandoned rock quarries. Where was all the red rock going? It seemed
to be less and less; and my goodness, what would the Reddenbops do without
their beloved red?
One night by a very red fire, RedFire RedSoul asked his
brownish friends how much more red rock there was to be found.
"Oh quite a
bit." they assured. "But we are digging deeper and traveling farther and
farther away for it. Us Reddenbops have no worry for a while yet; we
will have our red for many more years. But we thinks one day we will have
to build with other color rock and our glorious red cities will be just a
memory."
This weighed on RedFire Redsoul’s mind for many years and he
continued to watch and observe the ways of the Reddenbops. Every night he
would watch his precious red go down the drain in his nightly bath. "What a
waste," he thought, "If only I could be accepted for the color I am; that
would save so much red-dye from going down the drain."
RedFire RedSoul
worked very hard at the Red Rock Palace and gained the respect of the
people. Soon his father, the King, began to tire early and left
many duties for RedFire to attend to. But his mind was always heavy on
how to change the red-crazed culture of the Reddenbops.
One day, deep in
thought, he said to himself, "The very thing we love, we will lose if we keep
living in such red-excess. We are so into red that we are now afraid of
anything different and we change ourselves to red to be more well-liked by
everyone else who changes themselves into red. Well, we are stuck and by
my yellow tail, I think I know what I am going to do."
RedFire RedSoul put
together a Red-ball at the Red Rock Palace where the Reddenbops could dance
and eat and lose themselves in the joy of all things red. All were
anxious to hear the speeches of the Red-ball that would be said by RedFire
RedSoul, their beloved Red Prince, and his parents. He had even placed
a beautiful red fountain in the center of the red court yard with flowing
clear water that caught the light of all the red and reflected it
perfectly. One could almost think the water was red itself.
The Red-ball
was amazing and all were filled with red-joy, the most sought after feeling
of all. It came time for speeches so the Queen gave hers and then the King
as well. Then RedFire RedSoul began his speech which would change the
Reddenbops forever.
"How many of you are actually red?" He asked to
the astonishment of the red crowd. "I’ve been spending time in the mines
and in the quarries where many brownish Reddenbops live. They are a hard
working people and I like them very much." RedFire RedSoul smiled his red
charming smile and the crowd glanced at one another, scarcely believing their
red ears.
"Well, it has come to my attention that there is only so much
red rock on Saturn, and if we are to keep using it like we are, we will
surely run out. If not us, our children, if not our children, our
children’s children. I tell you, my heart has been heavy for sometime
about our future. I love red as we all do but I think that all things don’t
have to be red, especially if it means wasting it day after day."
"For
example,…" and RedFire Redsoul walked to the beautiful red-rock fountain
and stepped into its shining red-glimmering clear water. He bathed
himself in front of hundreds of shocked Reddenbops. It was like he was
naked although Reddenbops aren’t really naked. He stood up all wet and
chubby and shook himself off. Red-dye just faintly colored the water but
it was hard to tell for sure if it was just the reflections. There were
gasps all around as people saw that their precious Red Prince was brownish
orange with an ugly yellow tail.
"This is my commitment," RedFire,
RedSoul boldly continued, "In order to save red for my children and my
children’s children, I will stop wasting it so excessively on myself." This
caused great murmuring in the crowd.
"And what’s more, " he continued, "I do
not think it is right to pretend we are red when we are not. It has made
us full of fear as to what we will think of each other and Red has actually
had a strong control over us. Well, my fellow Reddenbops, I love my
brownish friends of the mines and the quarries, and we have begun planning
a more balanced future. I hope you are with me and do not shun my true
colors or my funny yellow tail."
This made everybody laugh. And although
they wanted to cheer because most of them were so relieved by
hearing RedFire RedSoul’s words, they remained quite quiet. But very
slowly a few washed themselves off in the fountain and then some started
saying, "I am not red either," but it was all done very shyly. Then it was
like a wave of freedom washed over the Reddenbops and a tumult started
jumping into the fountain washing off their pretend redness. Giggles were
heard and shouts too as everyone was truly revealed in their
natural color.
The speech of RedFire RedSoul and the humiliating act of
washing off the red dye was a changing day for the Reddenbops and Saturn. The
King said that his son did what he could not do and he also admitted that he
had always secretly loved his wife’s yellow tail. He then later admitted
he had also been secretly pleased that RedFire RedSoul was born with one
too.
By all means, Saturn became a much happier planet as it was no longer
being ravaged for the sake of red. It definitely became more balanced and
RedFire RedSoul continued to be a great leader. His yellow tail actually
became quite famous and silly as it seems a few Reddenbops began dyeing their
tails yellow just to be like him. But it never got too out of hand;
it just seems that Reddenbops are sort of like that.
THE END