Julian
finally left his village when there was no one left living there. He had never
left his beloved village before, but intrigued by the fact that everyone had
gone to the city, he decided to go and see for himself what wonderful things
those cities had. So he packed a knapsack with a few clothes, put on his best
smile, and off he went to the city.
On
reaching the city, he was given a most unexpected welcome. A couple of
policemen stopped Julian and questioned him in great detail. It turned out that
Julian had seemed 'suspiciously happy' for someone with hardly any possessions.
In the end, the police had to let him go, but they were still suspicious about
this apparently simple and good-natured fellow.
The
first thing Julian noticed about the city was all the rushing around. Everyone
was in such a hurry that he thought that there must be something special
happening that day, which no one wanted to miss. Curious as to what it was,
Julian started following a man who looked like he was hurrying to see whatever
it was that was happening. However, after several hours following him, the man
arrived at a small flat and went inside. He had done or seen nothing of
interest that whole day.
That
night Julian slept in a park. The park was strewn with bits of paper and
plastic. As the bins were completely empty, Julian thought how cool it was that
the city had seemingly invented plants with petals made of paper and plastic.
He only believed this until the following morning, when a man came by and
dropped his chocolate wrapper.
Julian
carried on walking through the city streets, trying to understand what was
going on, when he arrived at a group of big warehouses, which many people were
entering. "This must be the best museum in the world," he thought, on
entering, and seeing all the useless-looking things they had inside. But then
he saw that people were picking these things up, paying for them, and taking
them away.
"Why
would anyone want a watch which doesn't show the minutes?" he wondered to
himself, after seeing a woman very contentedly leaving with the most modern of
watches on her wrist. He thought pretty much the same when seeing a pair of
shoes with impossibly high heels, and then some electronic device which did a
thousand things, and none of them well. Once again, he decided to follow the
lady with the watch. He saw her joy turn into disappointment when her friends
gave her new watch a look of disapproval. Julian started regretting having left
his village, just to come to this place where no one seemed happy.
Then
he saw a few kids playing. Now, they certainly did seem happy, playing, running
about, chasing each other. Except for one child, who seemed troubled by a
little machine they were calling a console. He was hitting it so hard with his
fingers, and making all kinds of faces and angry gestures, that when one of the
other children came over to invite him to play with them, the boy with the
console just rudely walked away. Julian thought that the boy was trying to
destroy that little machine because it was making him so unhappy. He decided to
help the boy. Julian went over, took the console, threw it on the ground,
stamped on it, and looked at the boy with great satisfaction.
At
this the boy flew into a rage, as did all the other children there, and nearly
all the adults. They pursued Julian so relentlessly that he had to run away. He
didn't stop running until he reached the road leading back to his village.
As
he was making his way home he couldn't help wondering whether the whole world
had gone mad.
