The Village

Once upon a time there was a nice little village. But the village had problems. There was a mean Prince. He had slaves, and ate huge dinners when some of the people were going hungry. He would then walk around in his fancy clothes and expect to treated nicely. Everyone in the village knew something needed to be done.

There were two best friends in the village. Their names were Libby T. and Sacha Leest. They decided they were going to do something about the mean Prince. They went round to his house and stole all his clothes, took all the food, freed the slaves, and kicked the mean Prince on the bottom!

Everyone in the village had a big party, and the mean Prince was so embarrassed he went away and hid. Libby and Sacha drank too much juice and had big bellies.

The next morning Libby and Sacha woke up to knocking on the door. It was some of the villagers. “There’s a problem at the bakery,” shouted one. “My neighbours planted a huge tree just outside my bedroom window,” said another. “Lots of us are really sick, and we’re hungry,” said the oldest man in the village. The man was called Tim. Libby and Sacha always thought he was really nice and felt sorry.

“We don’t know how to help,” Libby quickly said. She seemed worried. But then Sacha stepped forward and spoke to the gathering of villagers. “We will need people to take charge of each of the problems in the village,” she said in her clearest voice. “Someone needs to be in charge of the food. Someone needs to be in charge of the water. Someone needs to be in charge of the medicine. And someone needs to be in charge of the houses.”

Libby wasn’t happy at all, and had a grumpy face. She then spoke to the large crowd that was now forming outside their house. She shouted, “But wait! If we put people in charge they get all bossy. That’s what always happens. Our problems aren’t that great. We can work out how to fix them for ourselves. Surely? We didn’t kick the mean Prince on the bottom for nothing!” Sacha was now looking grumpy. The two friends were looking at each other with confused and slightly angry faces, as if for the first time they didn’t understand what the other one was doing. They had been friends for ages now, and had never disagreed about anything.

One of the villagers, David, decided to break the awkward tension. “Why don’t we all vote each day for who gets to be in charge of the whole village? That way they can make sure nobody gets too bossy about anything, but also we have someone to come to if we need something sorted out.” Libby and Sacha looked at each other and nodded. “OK,” they said, and their friendship resumed. They were both relieved.

Tim, the nice old man, suggested that before anyone else, Libby and Sacha should be in charge for a day each as thanks for kicking the mean Prince on the bottom. Everyone agreed.

CHAPTER 2

The next morning it was Sacha’s turn to be in charge. In traditional Libby and Sacha way, they had tossed a coin to decide who went first. She woke up really early, and before breakfast she got on her bike. She first rode round to the bakery, and spoke to Arnold who was already up making bread rolls. He agreed to be in charge of any problems about food that came up during the day. He was a nice man, and makes excellent crispy bread rolls so Sacha thought this would be a good choice.

She found volunteers for people to be in charge of everything, and put a note on the notice board in the village hall to say who was in charge of what. She then went home, warm bread roll in hand, to have breakfast. But there was already a group of villagers outside her house. “How can I help?” she said in a friendly manner. “How could you put Arnold in charge of food!?” said one. “He’s sleeping most of the day cause he gets up early makin’ bread. What does he know about fish?” Sacha composed herself and said, “Look he obviously doesn’t know much about fish, he’s a baker. But then, I don’t know much about fish either.” She told the crowd to go away because she was hungry, and went inside to eat.

“How strange,” she though, and started pouring some juice. Barely a minute had passed before there was a knock at the door. Realising she was only going to eat on the move today, she grabbed an apple. It was David. “Can I come in?” he said. “Of course,” she replied and led him through to the living room. Libby was sitting in her pyjamas laughing at how busy Sacha was already. “Can I get you a tea?” “No, no,” he said. “The problem is this. Everyone in the village thinks they should be in charge of something. But you put some people in charge of things that other people don’t like.” Libby giggled. “OK,” said Sacha, “what should I do?”

David explained that everyone was going to the village hall and that they should vote on who gets to be in charge of each thing. Food, water, medicine, and houses. So they rushed down to the village hall, and Sacha explained everything. They all started choosing people who might be good at things, and eventually agreed, after much shouting and crying, on who would be the candidates. Then the voting and counting and finally there were new people in charge. Sacha wrote a new note and put it on the notice board.

It was lunchtime already and half the day had been spent deciding who was in charge of things. Also not much had been done in the village, as everyone was involved in deciding who was in charge. Except Arnold, the baker, who was asleep. Sacha then spent the afternoon convincing one villager to replant a tree that was obscuring the view from another villagers bedroom window. By tea time she was tired. She had barely eaten all day, so when she got back home she was happy to see no people outside her house.

When she went inside, Libby was waiting with some food so they sat down to eat. “Tomorrow I’m going to say nobody is in charge,” said Libby. Sacha was shocked! “But you will be in charge. If you don’t have somebody looking after things like food, water, medicine and houses then you would have to be in charge of all of it. You would be too busy.” Libby laughed. “What? Like you’re not too busy today? Bet there’s a knock at the door any minute.” There was a knock at the door. Both girls jumped.

It was Tim, the nice old man, this time. He said that Henry, who had won the vote to be in charge of food had put his friend Tony in charge of fish. Now there had been a theft at the fish mongers and John, one fish monger, was blaming Tony, another fish monger. “Some villagers are saying it’s your fault,” he said. “How is it my fault?!” snapped Sacha. She was not enjoying her day, and enjoyed Libby’s sarcastic smile even less.

At the village hall Sacha sat in front of a group of fish mongers and explained that it wasn’t her fault their fish was stolen. But they were angry and wanted someone to blame so she accepted responsibility as she was in charge of the village. She went home sad.

CHAPTER 3

Next morning Libby woke up early and cycled down to the village hall. She put up a sign. She had spent the whole of the previous day making it so it looked really pretty. It simply said, “NOBODY IS IN CHARGE.” As she got home for breakfast she was pleased to see nobody waiting outside of her house. She was able to enjoy her breakfast in peace. Sacha was still in bed too. Bliss.

BOOM!

“What was that?!” thought Libby. She ran out of the house and saw a crowd of people gathering at the end of the road near the bridge. “It’s fallen in the river,” someone told her as she ran down to see. Sure enough the bridge had completely collapsed, and the only road in and out of the village was closed.

The villagers started to get worried. “How will we get food and medicine?” one said, already panicking. “How could something like this have happened?” another roared. Suddenly everyone was directing questions at Libby, and this got louder until she said, “STOP! Everyone stay calm. We know what we have to do. We have to fix the bridge, we have to make sure we share what food and medicine we have until it is fixed, and we need to investigate what happened.”

“Who’s in charge?” asked one villager. “I know I said nobody is in charge this morning, but this is important so I will be in charge.” Libby was nervous but she knew she was doing the right thing. “I will need volunteers to help.” Many hands went up. Libby was happy about that, and soon she was busy talking with many people organising everything. Before long people were working on lots of different bits of what needed to be done.

By lunchtime good work was happening. Then David came to speak to Libby. He had volunteered to look at why the bridge had collapsed. “I’m not finished my investigation yet, but it’s quite clear to me that the main reason why the bridge collapsed was because it was poorly maintained. I recommend that you put someone in charge of making sure it is in future.” “But nobody is in charge,” she replied. “Look at what happened yesterday. Sacha put people in charge of things and everyone got jealous.” “Then have a vote,” he responded. Libby was getting cross. “She tried that too, but Henry just put Tony in charge of fish and he messed it up. Then everyone blamed her.”

Libby went home to see Sacha. Both of them had grumpy faces. “I wish we had never kicked the Prince on the bottom,” Sacha wept. “You don’t really think that. He was mean,” said Libby. “I wish people could take responsibility for themselves,” Libby then complained. “Who was in charge of checking the bridge yesterday?” she asked Sacha. “I don’t know,” was all Sacha could say. “Well someone needs to be in charge of checking it in the future but I have no idea how to choose the right person.”

Sacha offered Libby a juice. It was good to be friends again. There was a knock at the door.

CHAPTER 4

The mean Prince stood in front of Libby and Sacha’s house waiting for the door to open. He was a little bit worried, as he was only wearing underpants, and last time he saw them they were kicking him on the bottom. The door opened. “Ah, Sacha. And Libby. I have an offer for you. If you let me have my clothes and food back I’ll be in charge of making sure the bridge doesn’t collapse. It never collapsed when I was in charge before.” “BOG OFF!” shouted Sacha and slammed the door.

“What cheek!” said Libby. “How dare he come here after we kicked him on the bottom.” Sacha was really angry now and storming up and down their small living room. After they had calmed down they decided to call a meeting at the village hall.

That evening the two girls sat in front of everyone and explained what happened. Most of the villagers were happy they had told him to bog off, but one villager shouted out, “He kept the bridge safe. You shouldn’t have asked him to go. We need him.” Some villagers murmured their agreement.

Sacha spoke first. “Look, he didn’t keep the bridge safe. He paid one of you to do it while he ate big dinners.” Libby then continued, “And, we are all responsible for making sure the bridge is safe, just like we are all responsible when someone steals a load of fish.” She looked at Tony with a face that said, “I know it was you.” Tony had a grumpy face.

Tim, the nice old man, then stood up and said, “They are right. I’ve been here the longest, and I remember before the mean Prince. We used to do things for ourselves and each other. We didn’t just blame others.” David agreed. Arnold too. Eventually everyone  agreed, and the village was nice again.