The Three Gnomes

Some time last year, in the midst of teaching a middle school math class, I began a story that had no content but began like this: "Once upon a time, there were three gnomes." For some reasons, this story which had no content, acquired a rather existential import for one of the students. Now that student is moving on from my school and preparing to move toward high school, graduating in a sense. So, I finished the story and will give it to him tomorrow. I thought I would share it with you because he is the future, a canary in the coal mine, a picture of childhood attempting to merge into maturity, a modern American cultural prodigy laden with this country's often questionable attributes. I wonder if such things like this help.

     Once upon a time there were three gnomes. They were brothers and lived deep in the earth in a beautiful home their father had built for them from the finest stones and gems in all the earth. Of the three brothers, the oldest was very smart, quick-witted with a sharp sense of humor, but he rarely paid enough attention to what was happening around him to put his superlative intellect to use. The middle brother, on the other hand, was always paying attention, but he was very moody. One minute he could be on top of the world with joy and excitement and the next minute he might barely be able to move so sad and gloomy was he. Finally, the youngest brother may have been the most able all three brothers but he was the laziest gnome anyone in all the land had ever met. He could scarcely be bothered to lift a finger to clean his room, never mind to do chores around the house. But one day, a visitor came to call on the three gnomes. She was a beautiful princess who lived in a  castle up above upon the earth, and she needed the help of the three brothers. She told them her own brother, the prince, had been captured by an evil sorcerer who took the shape of a dragon, and the dragon sorcerer was keeping the prince high high in his guarded tower. The princess said that the sorcerer told her only these three gnomes could save the prince, but they would all need to show a side of themselves they had never shown before. So, entranced by the beauty and elegant language of the princess, the three brothers followed her up to the earth to challenge the sorcerer. When they arrived at the tower, there indeed was the ugliest, loudest, smelliest dragon they could have imagined, and he smiled and hissed with glee to see the three gnomes approaching. “Ah, my three gnomes, I was hoping you would be wiling to give me a bit of sport. Each of you will have to complete a task for me, and if you complete all three, I will release the prince and go off to my own lair within the mountains far far from here, but if you do not, I will eat all three of you and have the prince and princess for dessert!” 

First the eldest had to solve a riddle. As the dragon began to talk, the oldest gnome couldn't be bothered to even pay attention, so his younger brother, very anxious and nervous about the whole ordeal, moody as he was, pinched his elder brother to keep him paying attention. “What is the word that once you say it, it is gone?” “Easy! Silence!” said the eldest gnome much to the dragon’s dismay. Then, to the middle brother the dragon sorcerer said, “For you, I have a special challenge. Before your eyes will flash scenes from the lives of human beings- death and dismay, tragedies and horrific pains, joyous miracles and ecstatic triumphs- and you must not laugh out loud nor shed a tear. I will allow for a smile perhaps and a glistening redding of the eye, a lump in the throat, but no more!” The middle brother was quite afraid, but his younger brother, lazily hoping he might not have to do any trials if his older brothers both passed their tests, gave his older brother great confidence and assured him all would be well, and before he knew it, the middle brother was lost, as if in a dream, immersed in the lives of human beings, full of all the trials, hilarities and amazements a life can hold. He stayed calm, composed, inwardly moved perhaps, but able to hold back tears and stifle outrageous laughter. Suddenly, the scenes were gone, and he was back before the dragon sorcerer who was growing angrier with each gnome’s success. Finally, the youngest gnome, the laziest gnome in all the land, was called to his task. “You, young gnome,” called the sorcerer, “must run full speed around the tower three times before the setting of the sun.” The youngest gnome heaved a weighted sigh, but with seeing the eager faces of his brothers and the pleading looks from the princess, he agreed. Without further warning, “Begin!” called the dragon sorcerer. Off went the gnome running his fastest pace as he saw the sun was dipping oh so close to the horizon. Around the tower once the young gnome made it, but as he began his second lap, he grew tired and the tower seemed to be growing in size! The bottom edge of the sun edged slightly below the horizon as the gnome, slowing nearly to a walking pace, losing all strength of mind and body to carry on and with a cramp growing in his ribs, rounded the tower finally completing his second lap. Now, in his third lap, with a glimpse of his brothers, the frightful dragon and the entrancing princess, he felt a surge of strength pulse through him. But now the tower had grown to an unwieldy size! The gnome could hear the laughing of the dragon sorcerer and the calls of his brothers and the fair princess. The young gnome clenched his jaw and lifted his stride as he circled the ever widening tower. As the sun was about to disappear beneath the wooded horizon, the young gnome crossed before the dragon, collapsed upon the ground and heard the anguished roar of the dragon and the cheers of his brothers, the princess and the prince, now freed from his tower. The dragon sorcerer angrily flew off, back to his lair deep in the hidden mountains, the prince and princess returned to their castle and soon grew to rule their land with justice and grace, and the three gnomes decided to build their own fine home upon the earth, where they could always see the castle in the distance and always remember the day they were asked to be more than they had ever been before.