Fleertup the Happy PigFleertup the Happy Pig was walking home from the market.
"I have rasins, and carrots, and green beans, and black beans! I also have
cleaning supplies, like ScotchBrite Pads, to make my pans shiny! Oh, I am a
happy pig! I have ammonia, and benzene, and sulfuric acid, and plutonium and a
NEW BOX of Crayons!"
He was truly a happy pig. So happy was he, that he decided that right after
dinner, he would clean the WHOLE kitchen, and make everything neat and orderly.
"Order is good!", Fleertup thought happily. "With order I can find things, and
nothing is sticky in the morning!"
Yes, Fleertup thought order was good, and he kept thinking it all the way home.
This allowed him too make an instant evaluation of his home when he got there.
His happy little orderly home had been ransacked by a mob searching for Elvis,
and everything was very disorderly.
"BAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDD!" Wailed Fleertup. "OHMYOHMYOHMYOHMY!" Cried Fleertup. "What
ever shall I do?" blubbered Fleertup. Just than a Beautiful woman appeared in
front of Fleertup. She had most Beautiful eyes, a brilliant smile, and held an
apple in her hand.
"Who are You???" Sobbed Fleertup, still thinking "ordergoodwreckedhousebad".
"Oh, just a passerby. I saw what the mob did to your home, and I am here to tell
you, don't bother cleaning it up. Build a new house, over there a bit, and make
it out of something stronger. Try wood."
"But my things, my pots and pans..." Fleertup complained.
"I'll help you get them over to your new place." The Beautiful woman said, and
with that she threw the apple into the wrecked home. It bounced around wrecking
more things, but kicking Fleertup's cookery and other kitchen goodies into a
pile at his feet.
"MY! That's amazing!" Fleertup shook his head in wonder.
The Beautiful woman smiled at Fleertup. "Tell me something I don't already know.
I must go now, I have a party to attend."
Fleertup waved happily at her as she faded from view, then went into the forest
and gather wood, which he stacked and daubed mud on to make a fine home. It was
late when he finished, so he built a fire and cooked his vegetables, and ate
them, and then shined all his pots, and went to bed.
The next day, Fleertup went to the store again. Coming home he chattered
excitedly about his new possesions, to no one in particular.
"I have some paper for my crayons, and some cleaning brushes, and some comix
about a small grey aardvark! I am so happy! I like my new home! I wonder when
that woman will appear again? When I get home I shall make my lunch, and then
tidy up, because tidiness is neat!"
He continued to think "Neat tidiness, tidy neatness, Neat Neatness, tidy
tidiness..."
When he got home, though, his state of mind was again phase reversed. Another
mob had run over his home, on their way to the Elvis concert.
"DOUBLE-PLUS-NOT-NEAT!!!!" Screeched Fleertup the recently not so happy.
"OHMYOHMYOHMY!" sobbed Fleertup. Two homes in two days. What would he ever do?
Just then, the Beautiful woman appeared again, in a spiffy tennis outfit. She
was bouncing her apple on the racket. "Hello, again. I was passing by again,
when I saw the wreck. Why don't you build a new house, over the other way a bit.
Make it out of bricks and mortar. I'm off to the courts."
"Oh! O.K." Fleertup waved again as she faded, and then got to work. First he
made some brick forms, and a huge fire to kiln the bricks in. When he had made
enough of them, he dug into the earth until he found the calcium carbonate that
he needed, along with more clay and sand. Kilning the calcium carbonate to make
lime, he mixed them together to make cement. Then he built his new home,
carefully lining up the bricks to make neat rows, staggering each subsequent
row, because it looked nice. He finshed with the chimney.
He moved all of his things into the new house, made a meal, played with his
crayons and paper, and read about the aardvark until he got sleepy, then went to
bed.
The next day, Fleertup the happy Pig awoke from his nap to a thumping sound
outside his nice new home. He looked out the double-paned insulated glass
windows that he had made early that morning, to see thousands of drunken men in
white suits with large collars, stumbling around, and occassionally running into
the house. They bounced off.
"Oh, goody, no-one is wrecking my home and making it disorderly!"
Just then, there was a glow in his peripheral vision, and Fleertup turned to see
that The Beautful woman had come back.
"Oh, hello, Beautiful Woman! No one has wrecked my nice new home, everything is
nice and orderly!"
"No, no it's not." She smiled. She ran her finger across one of the table,
picking up a few grains of dust. She showed it to Fleertup.
"Even when you clean and clean and clean, the dust will come back. Even when you
clean up some dust, when you shake out the rags outside, the dust goes into the
air and some goes onto your clothes, to be carried back inside. Even when you
shine you pots, the dirt mixes with the water and cleanser to make something
even more chaotic than before. Every act of putting things in order leaves a
little trail of disorder behind it."
Her Eyes shined. "And it's all because of me!"
Fleertup, being the order seeking pig he was, couldn't take this anymore. His
little mind snapped, and he ran to the kitchen to shine the pots. He shined and
shined, until eventually, he wore the pots away to nothing. Then he started
washing his hands...
