THE WICKED BOY OF IVANDIA: A Short Story

[Rev. Jim Cunningham]

THE WICKED BOY OF IVANDIA
A Short Story by Rev. Jim Cunningham

In the land of Ivandia there lived a young man named Korin. He was nineteen, of good health, and was looked upon as handsome.

He was a good boy.

He never spoke an unkind word to anyone. He never gossiped.

He cared for his elderly parents, now that his brothers and sisters had married and moved away.

He wasn’t rich, and he wasn’t poor, but he always had enough to share with the little homeless girl in the alley, and with the old Widow Sorcha who lived in the small hut down by the river, and with the man who lost his hand and leg in the war against Rheano and Dovan, the nations that surrounded and harassed Korin’s tiny homeland.

Korin delivered breads to the neighbors for the town Baker for a good pay of 10 cents a day.

Korin never disobeyed his parents or the law.

Everyone loved him.

Everyone with a daughter wanted theirs to marry him some day.

He was a good boy.

When Korin was not working hard, he was studying, and when he was not studying he was offering help to a friend or neighbor or stranger.

The town loved him so very much that they had a day of celebration. The town elder even placed a paper crown upon his head, and the men held him aloft upon their shoulders and paraded him thru the streets of the little town.

Everyone cheered good Korin and all the good he did.

Then one day, while delivering bread to the Parson’s home, he noticed that there were some new people to the town who were moving in across the street.

“Those are the Tinsils,” said the Parson. “Just arrived from the capitol city.”

“Sir, perhaps I should offer them a welcoming gift of a pumpernickel loaf.”

“Such a good lad you are, Korin!”

Korin approached the home and greeted Mr. and Mrs. Tinsil. They were unloading the horse-cart of their belongings and he offered to help, and they gladly accepted.

Suddenly a young man, about Korin’s age, stepped out from behind the cart carrying a small crate.

Korin froze.

His heart beat rose and he became strangely breathless.

The other boy noticed that Korin stared at him and he shyly looked down to the ground.

He introduced himself to Korin. His name was Tefin. He was the Tinsil’s only child.

From that day on, after he had completed his work for the Baker, and cared for his father and mother, and looked in on little orphan Tisha in the alley, Korin would spend all of his time with Tefin.

Two years later they were known as the best of friends.

They often went into the woods and would sit and talk and talk. About everything. Their families, the king in the capitol, the people, the town.

Tefin was a kind young man, and he was smart. The people liked him well, and some of the ladies said that Korin’s goodness must have rubbed off on him. Everyone was always delighted to see the two boys.

Wherever Korin went, Tefin followed. Where Tefin went, Korin followed.

On one cool evening Tevla, the inn keeper, went for a stroll in the peaceful woods. After a time he heard voices in the distance. A-fearing the possibilities of spies from Dovan which lay across the border of the town, he crept up quietly and peered out from behind a tree. He saw two young men.

But he knew instantly that they were no spies from Dovan; they were none other than good Korin and kind Tefin.

They were sitting next to one another against a large tree, their legs spread out upon the leaves. Books and papers lay spread out around them, for Tefin had been teaching Korin how to read and write.

The old inn keeper smiled and was about to step out from behind the trees to greet them.

But old Tevla stopped and looked in surprise as Korin leaned over to Tefin and passionately kissed him (for none had known that the two had fallen deeply in love from the first day they had met).

“Ahh!” screamed Tevla at the sight, rushing forward from among the trees and grabbing them both by their arms. “You wicked, evil boys! I saw what you did, and I will take you before the elders for judgment!”

Korin and Tefin obediently and fearfully allowed Tevla to force them onward, for they were goodly young men and would not fight him.

As Tevla dragged them to the center of the little town, he shouted greatly in every direction for all to hear, “Alarm! Vile creatures in our midst! Alarm! Alarm! O my fellows, come forth to hear of the villainy! Parson! Justice Ether! Come, all! Alarm! Alarm!”

From shops and homes all about the people came out in startled response to the call of the inn keeper. Some men brought weapons, thinking an attack from Dovan had come to Ivandia again.

Seeing Korin and Tefin in his grasp and forcing them before the people with a shove, the Parson came forward and shouted, “Ahoy there! Of what villainy do you speak? Unhand the good young men at once. For Tefin hath proved himself honorable among us, and Korin is known as the very delight of our eyes. Beware, Tevla!”

“Indeed, Parson,” said Tevla, “We all have loved them for their feigned goodness; but they have revealed themselves to be evil beasts before my very eyes! For I have caught them this day in yonder woods, doing unspeakably that which death alone must surely be rewarded them!”

“Death?” screamed the crowd in dismay. “Not Korin!” “Not Tefin!”

Appalled at the inn keeper’s charge against the beloved boys, Justice Ether stormed in among the people. “What madness, this? How do you dare declare a thing against these two; righteous to the core they are! What good deed of theirs deserves death to them, old man?”

Tevla boldly told the crowd of his venture to the woods and of what sight he came upon.

The crowd gasped in confusion and shock.

“No, not true!” cried the Baker, “Korin has been my good servant these many years and I attest to his purity. Korin, tell us the inn keeper bears a false witness against you!”

“Yes, tell us,” put forth the crowd, ready to tear old Tevla to shreds. “We know ‘tis not the truth the inn keeper speaks!”

“Tell us he is mistaken, Korin,” replied the Parson. “Do not be a-feared; we will all believe you, and Tevla shall be cast away from among us as a great liar.”

All became quiet.

Everyone strained to hear the young men vindicate themselves, for none believed the inn keeper’s words.

“The inn keeper has spoken true,” answered the honest Tefin. “I will not lie and condemn the goodly inn keeper.”

The townsfolk reeled in amazement; gasps of dismay rang out.

“Is this true, Korin?” asserted Justice Ether. “You have the right to deny this if the both have lied so viciously against you. Tell us they have conspired against you and even now we shall believe you.”

Above the chattering of the people that followed the Justice’s sureties to his safety, Korin spoke out loudly.

“They have the both of them spoken truth. For I do love Tefin with my whole heart and my whole soul; and we two did show our love, as the inn keeper has testified before you. And I am not ashamed.”

Shouts of anger and outrage burst forth from the men. Fainting spells befell the women. Loud sobbing came from the young ladies.

“How could you, you devils!” they all screeched. “Away with them! The inn keeper has revealed the matter in truth, and they admit to it themselves! Did we not hear it from their own mouths? Death they deserve!”

Korin looked to the Parson, hoping for support or a kind word. The Parson would not meet his eyes but instead set his chin with a fierce gaze away from him.

Horrified, almost speechless, and too grieved to speak with any force, Justice Ether quietly spoke.

“They have spoken their own doom. They shall be stoned with stones until… until…” his voice failed him. O sweet and good Korin, he thought to himself while he struggled for his voice, what great and wicked deed is this that you have done that cannot be washed away for all your good! “…until they are… dead.”

With a roar of the violent mob they with one accord rushed upon Korin and Tefin, driving them to the stone perimeter wall of the town.

In the madness, none did see when Mr. and Mrs. Tinsil whisked away their son from the riotous throng, and immediately forsook their new home and fled from the town.

“My dear boy,” said Mrs. Tinsil as their wagon crossed the border, “my sweet Tefin. Come, cry upon my shoulder for Korin, as you also wept for Tiros when we fled the capitol. One day we will come to a place that will not seek to kill you, my dear, where they will love you as your papa and I love you.”

As Tefin cried upon his mother, Korin was thrown against the perimeter wall while the crowd jeered him and screamed curses at him. Those who once carried him upon their shoulders in celebration now broke off stones from the wall to hurl at him.

As the first stone struck him on the leg as he cowered by the wall, he thought of poor little Tisha and how she’ll get by when he’s gone.

And father and mother – will they be driven out of the town in their old age and infirmities?

And his beloved Tefin, his first and last love, now gone forever. And now Korin stood alone at the wall.

He was glad that Tefin had gotten away. He was glad when, through the crowd, he spied the Tinsils throwing a blanket over his head as they smuggled him out from the murderous mob. And he was glad to have loved, and to have been loved.

“Filthy dog!” was the last thing Korin heard in this world.

* * * * * * *

56 years came and passed.

The world had endured a global war centered in the heart of Europa. Distant countries on far away continents suffered what people were calling a great depression.

Tefin, now old, now wealthy from the much land owned by his late Papa Tinsil, made his way back to his one-time home town in Ivandia where once upon a time he loved a young man.

The town was all but deserted. He found the cemetery at the edge of the woods, grown over from neglect.

All day Tefin cleared away grave stones, but none said “Korin”.

What did they do to him? Had they not even the decency to place his body in a grave?

“Got family buried here, have ya?” asked the old lady with a cane that passed by when Tefin stepped out of the cemetery.

“Oh, just someone I cared for long ago. But I could not find his stone. You wouldn’t know his name; t’was Korin.”

“Korin? The young man who was stoned for love against the wall so many years hence? Why, I haven’t heard his name since that very day, for we were commanded not to speak his name again. Yes, I knew him. And I did cry for him. He died for love, and I lived never knowing love.”

“I find no stone to mark his grave,” asked Tefin, “Did they deprive him of that as well? Where is he lain?”

“Oh, not here, to be sure; but by the wall, where I saw him die. Was a sight of terror, it was. Korin was a good boy. He did not deserve to die for loving that young man… O what was his name…?”

“Tefin,” said Tefin.

“Yes! Tefin! Tefin Tinsil. What a beautiful boy he was. So very smart. They were well suited together. Go to the wall and you will find Korin’s stone there.”

Tefin went down to the wall. He saw the stone marker right off but he paused to look around before reading it. Here Korin stood alone while the crowd called him horrid names and ended his life. Now it was lonely and quiet.

Tefin had always felt guilty that he did not die with Korin that night, that he let his parents take him away.

Tefin sat on the ground and placed his hand on the grass that grew on Korin’s grave.

How even now, after so long a time, did he ache for Korin, to once again sit under the trees and talk for hours, to hear his voice again, to look into his honest eyes again, to hold his hand again, to breath in again his fresh smell while they held one another.

What did they, the self-righteous murderers, say of him in the end, he wondered; and so he leaned forward to read Korin’s stone:

A great good boy
He pretended to be,
But a great good liar
As discovered was he,
Full of wickedness he was
As any could see.
Death and Hell for the Evil -
For this wicked boy of Ivandia.

Weeping.

Weeping and weeping.

Tefin lay out his whole body over Korin’s grave, weeping.

Weeping became heaving sobs, then wracking gasps. Then he turned aside and was sick upon the grass. His elderly body trembled.

Lunch hour passed.

A church bell rung from somewhere beyond the wall in what was once the land of Dovan.

The sun set.

Quietness.

Little bugs flitted by.

A tiny flower bloomed by Korin’s grave. Tefin picked it with his now arthritic fingers.

“Korin. I miss you. I always will, as I will always love you. I am going away to Europa, to a country there. I wanted to tell you because I am too old now to come back here again. This will be the last time I am with you, here on earth.”

Tefin stood up and looked down at the grave.

“There may finally be a hope in that new country to which I go, as Mama once said would one day be, where I will be free to live free. You see, the land I go to is a Republic. The people are free from the rule of kings, and they have just elected their new leader. He seems wise, and the world hails him as a rescuer of that ravaged land. Maybe, when he takes upon himself his elected office next month, he might do many great and wonderful things, especially for the oppressed. I hope that he will bring peace and goodness to those like us. They call his name Adolfo Hitler. Farewell, my beloved Korin.”

[prettyman59]

I read this, very good!