PIPER’S, Inc.
by
Joaquin De Torres
Edited by:
Dr. Joseph De Torres
Copyright 2015 Joaquin De Torres,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2459-0
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Dedication: This work is dedicated to those in our country who, through no fault of their own, lost much-if not everything of value and meaning-as a result of our government’s arrogance, willfulness, and indifference.
It is for those who once believed in the ‘American Dream’ only to see it stripped down and denuded into a childish wish because of political misrepresentation, machinations, and corruption.
It is particularly for those who were left destitute, unsupported, and forgotten after they came home from worlds away, believing they were fighting for their country, but realized later that they were simply used for the profit of those who sent them.
Thomas Jefferson said: “When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.”
This work is dedicated to our hopeless, our disadvantaged, our segregated, our uneducated, our homeless, our ravaged, and our countless, nameless and faceless heroes whose backs remain unbroken-their spirit, still ablaze with their own measure of hope.
In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it…and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.
Benjamin Franklin
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face…forever.
George Orwell
DISCLAIMER
This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Permission to use actual names of real people who have a relationship with the author, and are characters in the book, was granted beforehand by the actual people via personal correspondence, and/or per their requests.
Any resemblance to actual events, locales, controversies, conspiracies, or real persons– living or dead-is entirely coincidental. Content of this work is protected by the 1st Amendment of the Constitution of the United States:
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press. . .
Forward
Once upon a time . . .
on the banks of a great river in the north of Germany, lay a town called Hamelin. The citizens of Hamelin were honest folk who lived contentedly in their stone houses. As the years went by, the town grew very wealthy from their businesses and trade.
Then one day, something alarming happened to disturb the peace. Hamelin developed a serious rat problem because the rich would throw their excess food out of their windows. They had rats before, but they had never been a danger because the cats had always killed them. With all their wealth, the townspeople never invested any money into eradicating the pests. It grew worse over time, and still the people seemed more occupied with building their wealth. Seemingly, all at once, the rats began to multiply.
In the end, a black sea of rats swarmed over the whole town. First, they attacked the barns and storehouses. Then, for lack of anything better, they gnawed the wood, cloth or anything at all. The terrified citizens flocked to plead with the town councilors to free them from the plague of rats.
“What we need is an army of cats!” said the councilors. But all the cats in the town were dead, killed and eaten by the legions of rats.
“We’ll put down poisoned food then!” But most of the food was already gone, and even poison did not stop the rats which grew stronger, and hungrier.
“It just can’t be done without help!” said the mayor. Just then, while the arguments continued, there was a loud banging on the door. “Who can that be?” the city fathers wondered uneasily, mindful that maybe the angry crowds were going to revolt. They cautiously opened the door. And to their surprise, there stood a tall, thin man dressed in brightly colored clothes, with a long feather in his hat, and waving a gold pipe at them.
“I’ve freed other towns of beetles, spiders and bats,” the stranger announced, “and for a thousand pieces of silver, I’ll rid you of your rats.”
“A thousand pieces?” exclaimed the mayor. “We’ll give you 50,000 if you succeed!”
The stranger responded: “At dawn tomorrow, there won’t be one rat left in Hamelin.”
The sun was still below the horizon, when the sound of a pipe echoed through the streets of Hamelin. The Pied Piper slowly made his way through the streets and alleyways, and behind him flocked the multitudes of rats. Out they scampered from doors, windows and gutters; rats of every size, came out to follow the piper. And as he played his strange tune, the stranger marched to the harbor, and faced the water. The legions of rats, hypnotized by the strange music, followed each other right off the edge of the pier without hesitation. Every last one of them drowned, and was swept away by the current.
By the time the sun was high in the sky, there was not a single rat in the town. There was great celebration at the town hall, until the piper tried to collect his payment.
“The rats are all dead now, and they can never come back,” laughed the mayor. “But you can’t expect us to pay such a huge price for such an easy task, do you? Now that the rats are gone, you can be on your way. We will pay you nothing.”
His eyes igniting with rage, the piper pointed a threatening finger at the mayor. “You’ll bitterly pay for breaking your promise!” he warned. “You will regret not paying the piper!” Then he left, slamming the door behind him. The mayor shrugged and said to his council: “Lads, we’ve just saved ourselves 50,000 pieces of silver!”
That night, freed from the nightmare of the rats, the citizens of Hamelin slept more soundly than ever, already counting the money they would start making the next day. But this time, when the strange sound of piping wafted through the streets at dawn, only the children heard it. Drawn as by magic, they hurried out of their homes while their parents slept. Again, the Pied Piper strolled through the town, and children of all sizes and ages flocked at his heels to the sound of his strange melody.
The long, silent procession left the town and made its way through a misty forest and into a mountain cave where they were never seen again. Only one boy, lamed in the journey and finally falling behind, escaped this fate. It was he who told the mortified citizens what had happened to their 130 children. It was said that the screams of mothers and grandmothers went on for days.
No one suffered the horror more, however, than the mayor, himself. . .the one who refused to pay his debt. He learned shockingly that no injustice goes unanswered, no crime goes unpunished; that no matter how clever you try to hide your sins, you will eventually have to pay the Piper.
And pay dearly he did. His mentality lost, the fabric of his soul forever shredded, he could only