Story Telling Week 9

Candy From a Baby

By Gaz at en.wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

John and his brother Ralph were always competitive with one another. When they were younger they would compete for girls, grade, and athletic acclaim. Though they were competitive, neither one of them wished the other ill. John had ten kids and his brother had five, and John loved his nephews like they were his own children. Their father was retiring and one of them would be chosen to take over the business. John wanted the job, but than that, John’s sons, wanted their father to get the job. John’s sons were jealous of their cousins. There was never any reason for this, but still his sons always envied everything that their cousins had, even though their cousins had worked hard for everything.

It was time for Ralph and John’s father to announce who would take over the company. John was heartbroken when his father chose Ralph instead of him, still

John was happy for his brother. John’s sons on the other hand grew even more jealous of their cousins because now that their uncle was the head boss, their cousins would be promoted ahead of them. John’s sons began to plot against their uncle.

Ralph planned a party for the entire family to come celebrate his new promotion. There would be food, music, and games. It was here that his nephews would execute their plot. In his younger years Ralph had a gambling problem and his new this, so they came up with a plan to cheat Ralph out of all his wealth.

John’s sons took Ralph into a private room. They lit cigars and drank Brandy from warmed sniffers. They toasted their uncle and showered him with compliments about how smart he was and how he was the right man for the job. Ralph loved hearing this because he loved his nephews and was about to tell them that he was going to invite them to join the company and share in the profits so that they could all live in comfort. Before he could tell his nephews the news one of them pulled out a set of dice.

“How bout we roll some dice for old time’s sake,” Steven, his most clever nephew said.

“Oh I don’t know kids, it has been a long time and your aunt would not appreciate me falling back into old habits.”

“C’mon Uncle Ralph. It will be a friendly game of dice. We will do penny bets, besides there is no way we can beat you,” Steven told him.

“A friendly game?”

“Nothing serious. Just a friendly game between family.”

“Well I guess it couldn’t hurt. You roll first Steven.”

Steven rolled. “I win.” He said, “Pay up Uncle.”

Steven continued to roll and continued to win. After losing ten times Steven offered to raise the bet a little more to make the odds a little more interesting.

“I don’t know this was supposed to be a friendly game,” Ralph said.

"Well if you’re afraid?”

“I’m not afraid in the least, here give me the dice.” Steven handed Ralph the dice. “Let’s up the stakes then boys. Let me show you how a real man gambles.” Ralph pulled a hundred dollar bill out of his pocket and placed it on the ground.

“I don’t know Uncle. You may be too rich for my blood.”

“Now who’s scared?” Ralph replied.

“Well when you put it like that.” Steven matched his uncles bet. Ralph rolled, “I win again,” Steven said.

“Double or nothing” Ralph said as he rolled the dice again and again. Each time he would lose.

Steven and his brothers decided to up the stakes even further. “Uncle why don’t we stop? You just can’t beat me. It is ok, you can’t always win, you may be too old to roll the dice properly.”

“I’ll show you old!” Ralph became visibly angered by his nephew’s taunting.

“Well let’s make it interesting then. How bout you throw your car keys into the pot.”

Ralph loved his car, not as much as his house, or his job but he loved his car, still this was a challenge he had to accept. He couldn’t let his nephews beat him in his own house. “Sure. Let’s do it.” Ralph rolled the dice.

“I win again Uncle.”

Ralph’s face turned red. He knew he should quit playing, but once a gambler always a gambler. Besides when he won everything back he was planning to take everything they had to teach them a lesson. “Here is the key to my house.”

“Oh, Uncle you sure about that? I don’t think you can win.”

“This time though you roll the dice.” Ralph felt that maybe the dice were just cursed in his hands.

“No problem.” Steven rolled the dice. “I win.” Steven and his brothers began to laugh and give each other high fives. “Well Uncle looks like the game is over. There is nothing else you have to bet.”

“You have to give me one more chance to win everything back,” Ralph said.

“What could you possibly have that would equal that bet?”

Ralph loved his job. He knew that he could quit playing the game and in a year regain everything he lost. Still he couldn’t walk away a loser and he knew his nephews would jump at the chance to own the company, plus his luck had to change. There is no way that he could lose every time. “I’ll bet the company. Is that rich enough for you?”

“Ok. We have a deal.” Steven rolled the dice. “I win again…..we have everything you own Uncle.”

The sons announced that they were the new owners of the company. They immediately fired their cousins and told their Uncle to leave the house. Later they laughed at how easy it was to steal everything from their Uncle. Steven held up the dice to his brothers and said, “I can’t believe he never realized these were trick dice. It was like taking candy from a baby.

Author's Notes
This is an updated version of the game that Yudhistira and his nephews played. Instead of using family members and a kingdom as the prize I used what would be considered part of a modern day kingdom, or rather things someone may envy about someone else. Also in the book the nephews use Yudhistira's own pride against him so I wanted that to be a part of the story as well. I ended it with the nephews taking over everything because I wanted the readers to create the rest of the story in their mind.

Works Cited

Narayan, R. K. The Mahabharata. New Delhi: V
ision, 1987. Print.