Читать книгу PIPER'S, Inc. - Joaquin De Torres - Страница 4

Once upon a time . . .

on the banks of a great river in the north of Germany, lay a town called Hamelin. The citizens of Hamelin were honest folk who lived contentedly in their stone houses. As the years went by, the town grew very wealthy from their businesses and trade.

Then one day, something alarming happened to disturb the peace. Hamelin developed a serious rat problem because the rich would throw their excess food out of their windows. They had rats before, but they had never been a danger because the cats had always killed them. With all their wealth, the townspeople never invested any money into eradicating the pests. It grew worse over time, and still the people seemed more occupied with building their wealth. Seemingly, all at once, the rats began to multiply.

In the end, a black sea of rats swarmed over the whole town. First, they attacked the barns and storehouses. Then, for lack of anything better, they gnawed the wood, cloth or anything at all. The terrified citizens flocked to plead with the town councilors to free them from the plague of rats.

“What we need is an army of cats!” said the councilors. But all the cats in the town were dead, killed and eaten by the legions of rats.

“We’ll put down poisoned food then!” But most of the food was already gone, and even poison did not stop the rats which grew stronger, and hungrier.

“It just can’t be done without help!” said the mayor. Just then, while the arguments continued, there was a loud banging on the door. “Who can that be?” the city fathers wondered uneasily, mindful that maybe the angry crowds were going to revolt. They cautiously opened the door. And to their surprise, there stood a tall, thin man dressed in brightly colored clothes, with a long feather in his hat, and waving a gold pipe at them.

“I’ve freed other towns of beetles, spiders and bats,” the stranger announced, “and for a thousand pieces of silver, I’ll rid you of your rats.”

“A thousand pieces?” exclaimed the mayor. “We’ll give you 50,000 if you succeed!”

The stranger responded: “At dawn tomorrow, there won’t be one rat left in Hamelin.”

The sun was still below the horizon, when the sound of a pipe echoed through the streets of Hamelin. The Pied Piper slowly made his way through the streets and alleyways, and behind him flocked the multitudes of rats. Out they scampered from doors, windows and gutters; rats of every size, came out to follow the piper. And as he played his strange tune, the stranger marched to the harbor, and faced the water. The legions of rats, hypnotized by the strange music, followed each other right off the edge of the pier without hesitation. Every last one of them drowned, and was swept away by the current.

By the time the sun was high in the sky, there was not a single rat in the town. There was great celebration at the town hall, until the piper tried to collect his payment.

“The rats are all dead now, and they can never come back,” laughed the mayor. “But you can’t expect us to pay such a huge price for such an easy task, do you? Now that the rats are gone, you can be on your way. We will pay you nothing.”

His eyes igniting with rage, the piper pointed a threatening finger at the mayor. “You’ll bitterly pay for breaking your promise!” he warned. “You will regret not paying the piper!” Then he left, slamming the door behind him. The mayor shrugged and said to his council: “Lads, we’ve just saved ourselves 50,000 pieces of silver!”

That night, freed from the nightmare of the rats, the citizens of Hamelin slept more soundly than ever, already counting the money they would start making the next day. But this time, when the strange sound of piping wafted through the streets at dawn, only the children heard it. Drawn as by magic, they hurried out of their homes while their parents slept. Again, the Pied Piper strolled through the town, and children of all sizes and ages flocked at his heels to the sound of his strange melody.

The long, silent procession left the town and made its way through a misty forest and into a mountain cave where they were never seen again. Only one boy, lamed in the journey and finally falling behind, escaped this fate. It was he who told the mortified citizens what had happened to their 130 children. It was said that the screams of mothers and grandmothers went on for days.

No one suffered the horror more, however, than the mayor, himself. . .the one who refused to pay his debt. He learned shockingly that no injustice goes unanswered, no crime goes unpunished; that no matter how clever you try to hide your sins, you will eventually have to pay the Piper.

And pay dearly he did. His mentality lost, the fabric of his soul forever shredded, he could only stare at the empty beds of his three daughters whom he would never see again. With his left hand, he raised into the air a satchel of silver coins, 50,000 of them, and flung it into the licking flames of his roaring fireplace.

With his right hand, he brought a blade up, and sliced open his throat.