Chimera: Short Stories and Tall Tales by Fotis Dousos - HTML preview

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The Jester

 

Quite unexpectedly the king’s jester fell into disfavour.

 

Nobody knows to what is due this sudden change of the sovereign, given that neither a war is about to burst nor a financial catastrophe has occurred. In the meantime, all the new jokes, the funny faces and the salacious pranks go unnoticed. The King is always sullen and nothing can make him laugh. He stands still constantly staring at the void.

 

This entire situation has emotionally affected the jester who for the first time in his life is facing an existential problem. What is the point in being a jester if he cannot make people laugh anymore? 

 

So, the funny little man decided to deliver one last performance at the finale of which he would commit suicide before the very eyes of his master. 

 

The performance was delivered without hearing the slightest laugh. At the end, just like he had planned, the jester took a gun, put it into his mouth and blew his head off. The king did not react, not even then. 

 

Some claim that he had been dead and embalmed for a long time now.