A Tale of Castles and a Kid

It all started when a boy was stealing some CDs from a music store.  On the way out of the store a cop came by and arrested Cris for stealing. When they got to the station Cris had to call his parents, who were so angry with him that he had to go to juvenile hall.

Cris had to go to a school almost like boot camp.  When and if they had free time they had to go to classes to learn about the law and all the penalties for breaking the law.

That night, while Cris was lying in his bunk, a weird-looking man came up to the window. “Hey you, wanna get outta here?”

 “Heck, yeah.”

 “Then follow me.”

 “I can’t just walk outta here!”

 “Yes you can.”

 “How?”

 “Just start walking towards me and don’t stop.”

 “That’s crazy, I’ll run right into the wall.”

 “If you want to get out of here you will have to trust me.”

 “I’ll do it just to get out of here.” As he was walking towards the wall he started disappearing. “Hey what the heck is happening to me?”

“Don’t worry, just keep walking.”  As soon as he was through the wall he started to reappear.

 “Now that I’m out of here, take me home.”

 “Hold it, you can’t just go home.”

 “What? I can still go home.”

 “No you can’t.  Your mom and dad will send you back and you will have to stay with all the other kids at juvenile for a longer period of time.”

 “What about me.”

 “What about you.”

 “The guards will notice me gone.”

 “Don’t worry about that.  I can make a clone of you.  The clone will do whatever it needs to stay out of trouble.  Plus it will go to all it needs to go to for three weeks.”

 “So what do we do for three weeks?”

 “You have to stay with me unless you want to go back.”

“No way!”

 “Okay then, get in the car.”

 As soon as he got in and sat in the back seat, a seatbelt strapped over Cris without him touching it. “Hey, what the heck is going on?”

 “Don’t worry, it’s just to protect you from flying through the back window.”

 “What are you talking about?”

 “It won’t happen, so shut up.”  On the inside of the car there were a lot of buttons and switches in the front.

 “Why are there so many buttons and switches up there?”

 “This car is a time machine.”

 “Then if this is actually a time machine, can we go back to the time of Al Capone?”

 “No!  We are going to the time Kidwelly castle was a very high ruling castle.”

 “Why are we going to a castle?”

 “To teach you about crime and helping other people instead of getting into trouble all the time.”

 As they started out of the alley the weird-looking guy began punching buttons, then letters and numbers started appearing on the windshield.  When they started gaining speed, the front of the car caught on fire.

 ‘Hey! The front of the car is on fire.”

 “No it’s not. Now be quiet.” In front of the car a blue circle appeared.  Almost exactly at the same time the car practically jumped into a portal.

 “Hey, what happened?”

 “We jumped into a portal to get to Kidwelly castle.”

 “Oh.  What’s your name, anyway?”

 “Mac.” “It’s not my name, but call me Mac anyway.”

 “How long will it take us to get to Kidsmelly?”

 “It’s Kidwelly, and I don’t know how long it will take.” As soon as he finished talking, they were in Kidwelly in the middle of a joust.

 

“They’re gonna run right over us!”

 “No they won’t; the horses will be so frightened they will stop dead in their tracks.”  And they did. As Cris and Mac were getting out of the car the jousters began charging them again.

 “They’re gonna hit us.”

 “No, they won’t, because I have a gun.”

 “What are you going to do, shoot them?”

 “Maybe.  Just watch and see.” Instead of shooting the jousters like Cris thought he would, he just shot up in the air and the jousters on their horses started running away from Cris and Mac.  Right after he shot the gun, the King stood up and proclaimed, “I pronounce you the victors of the jousting match.”

 

“You are now Sir…”

 “Cris”

 “Sir Cris and Sir…”

 “Mac”

 “Sir Mac.  I invite you to attend our annual jousting celebration dinner tonight.”

While Cris and Mac were standing in front of the constables and the King, he ordered the constables to show Cris and Mac to their rooms, which were adjoining.  Each of the rooms had a fireplace, and a table with a huge bowl of fruit in the middle of it.  After about two hours in the rooms, a butler brought them each something to drink.  About an hour after that a constable came into the rooms and told them to come to the jousters banquet.

 

When they got to the banquet they were in a huge room with one long table covered with more food than Cris had ever seen in his life.  The constable showed them to their seats, which were right next to the King’s and were very comfortable.

 The banquet lasted two or three hours, during which time there were jugglers, jesters and minstrels between food courses.  After the banquet was completely over, Cris and Mac were escorted back to their rooms.

 In the fireplaces the fires had been lit.  The beds were even more comfortable than the one he had at home.

 The next day Cris was awakened by loud noises and people screaming.  Cris ran to the King’s quarters and pounded on the door but nobody answered.  Next he went to Mac’s room and pounded on the door.  Mac came running to the door. “What’s the matter?”

 “Don’t you hear all the noises?”

 “Yeah so we’re under attack – what’s the big deal?”

 “What’s the big deal! We could die!”

 “We will not die if we stay in the castle.” Just as he said, “castle”, a constable came running and told Mac to come and suit up.

 “I don’t need to suit up.  I have a gun to shoot the enemy.”

 “It’s your choice, but I sug-“

 “Suggest nothing.  I do not need to suit up.”

 “Mac, I want to come with you.”

 “You may come with me under one condition.”

 “What?”

 “Don’t get hurt!”

 “Yes sir, captain, sir.”

 Mac took a spot in an arrow loop from which to shoot his gun at the enemies.  Cris was watching all the dying and dead brave and noble knights who had risked their lives to defend their castle.  Just as it started getting dark, Mac was shot by an arrow that he didn’t see coming.

 “Mac! Don’t die on me now.”

 “If I die the instructions to the time machine are in the glove box in the front.”

 “Somebody help me, quick.“ Just then a couple of knights picked Mac up and carried him away.

 “Where are you taking him?”

 “To the physician to see if he can keep him alive.”

 Over the next few days the battle raged on.  After about a week and a half it finally stopped.  Over that week and a half Mac was recovering well.  “Mac, how long will you be here?”

 “Not too much longer.””

 “Okay.”  That night Mac was back in his own room alive and well.

 The next day Mac and Cris went into town to see what the people outside the castle were like.  Cris was watching everybody very carefully’ then he saw somebody steal some food and that reminded him about stealing things.  He thought that if he stole coins and jewels and brought them home, he could sell them for lots of money.  The next day he got up really early, went into the town, and started grabbing priceless gems and other items that would be priceless in the future.  The next day he woke up at the same time to return to town and began taking gems and jewels again.  All of a sudden a guard yelled at him to stop. Cris started running but the guard caught him and brought him before the king. The King was very surprised to see that Cris was stealing from his Kingdom. “For the rest of your time here I sentence you to manual labor.”

 “Manual labor? What kind of manual labor?”

 “Shining armor, shoveling horse manure, sewing dresses for the ladies.”

 “SEW! I don’t know how to sew.”

 “Sorry. You will have to deal with it or get executed.”

 For the next few days he had to do whatever the King ordered. On his last day of the trip he went to the King and asked if he could leave. “Yes, you can leave, you have done an exceptional job at what you had to do, so I am now excusing you to leave with Mac to your home village.”

 “Thank you, your Majesty. Where’s Mac?”

 “He is in the courtyard getting ready for the trip home.”

 “Maybe we will see each other again sometime.  Oh, and thank you.”

 “You’re welcome and we’ll see each other again.”

 When Cris got to the car Mac was packing and fueling the car with garbage for the trip home. “Get in quickly so we can leave.”

 “Okay, coming.” After they got back and resolved everything with his parents, Cris became a time traveler and took over the car when Mac passed away.

 THE END

 

This story was written by my son Max when he was in middle school. It was before the Harry Potter books were written, which is interesting given the way that Cris escapes from the juvenile facility. It reminds me of the train station in Harry Potter and getting to the train that goes to the school. The story was certainly influenced by the movie Back to the Future.

Hope you enjoyed it.

 

Back to food blogging soon, I hope.