A Nighttime Story: A Narrative

Alex Lee
H Block

“When the wells dry, they know the worth of water” - Benjamin Franklin, “The Way to Wealth”

          On the corner of Oak Street and Thoreau Street, there was a little red house. In that particular red house, the usually energetic children were getting ready to go to bed when they begged their grandfather to tell them another bedtime story. The old man, whom they affectionately called “Grandpa!” relented and told them to sit down around the armchair while he told them his story.
        “Once upon a time, there was a group of people called the Naras. At first, they were only a small tribe of people in a land of many other similar tribes. Life was simple back then; some people in the tribe hunted for wild animals in the forest, some people farmed for simple plants, some people went fishing, and they all sat together and ate their spoils at the end. School did not exist, because back then nobody had time for it. People didn’t fight with each other since there was nothing to fight about. All of the tribes got along peacefully, but there were bad countries near them that constantly bullied the people. Now the bad countries were mean bullies, but the tribes were too small to do anything about it. That is, until the Naras chose a new leader -  James Buchard.

He was charismatic, and persuasive, and he went around to each tribe and convinced them to join in an alliance. When the alliance was mighty enough, he brilliantly led his people into battle and victory after victory, with his lands growing more and more with each triumph. After a really long and grueling  battle, the mean countries signed a treaty to stop bullying the Naras and James Buchard was hailed as a hero. But all good things eventually end, and he died. His successors, the Buchards, succeeded in creating the largest empire known, with vast forestlands filled with animals and beautiful oceans bursting with fish...”

The old man paused to take a drink of milk.

        “Grandpa, what happened next?” asked the youngest child in front of him.         He replied, “Well Sammy, what would you do if you were in charge of the largest empire in the world?”
        After thinking for a while, the child replied, “I would probably try to make everyone in my empire happy!”
        The old man smiled.

“Good answer Sammy, and that’s exactly what the rulers of Nara did. They put down their swords and weapons to pick up the tools of growth. Halting dreams of conquest, they turned inwards to help their people. Now back then, life was very hard. If you wanted to go to your school, what do you do?”

        A child answered, “We’d go out and wait for the bus, Grandpa.”
        “Well back then, you would have to walk all the way to school by yourself, which would take a really long time! But now, when we want water, all we have to do is turn the sink on, and if we are scared of the dark, all we have to do is turn the lights on. Back then, none of those things existed. Do you like playing with toys and watching TV? Those were unknown luxuries back then, too.”
        The same child said, “That doesn’t sound fun!”
        The old man responded, “You’re very right Johnathan, it was not very fun. People also had no time to do anything. To fix that, the people of Nara started to develop technology. The scientists made advances in leaps and bounds, creating cars and trains for people to get to where they needed faster, discovered electricity and made it easier to do just about anything. This cause the people in Nara to grow, and as the population-”
        Sammy interjected “What does that mean?”
        “Population means the number of people, honey. Now, the population of Nara was growing because life was easier. That soon became a problem when the people of Nara needed more land. To fix that problem, the rulers of Nara ordered that the vast forestlands be cut down and people move in. Then there came the issue of food. The Naras originally grew their own food on farms, but with the growing number of people, they needed to find another source of food. The leaders turned to the oceans, which were full of fish, to feed their people. That sounds smart right?”
The children said in unison, “Yes”
The old man grinned “Wrong! What ended up happening was that the population only grew more and more, and the people wanted more and more food. The soil was getting eroded-”
Sammy started to ask “Wha-”
“Eroded means gradually wearing down something by using it too much,” the old man interjected with a knowing smile. “The Naras farmed, fished, and hunted more intensely and more frequently to support the growing population. Eventually, the fish weren’t there anymore. Suddenly, the beasts in the forest disappeared, and whenever you planted something, it didn’t grow. The population of Nara suddenly had nothing to eat, and the people were not too happy about that. They grew more and more angry at the leaders of Nara and eventually rebelled, tearing the nation apart,” the old man paused, exhausted from telling the story. “Now kids, can you tell me the reason the Naras fell apart?”
Jonathan answered “Because they had no food, right Grandpa? You just told us.”
“Well that is true, but the main reason they had no food was because the foolish leaders of Nara assumed that they would always have certain things from their environment, and abused the lands they were living in. The moral of the story is: never take anything for granted, even the things that you think are always going to be at your side. So remember to recycle that next newspaper or that next bottle of milk,” noticing the children were tired, he said “Now Grandpa’s tired, run along and go to bed! Good night and sweet dreams!”