The boy stood from his dinner table, raised his spoon above his head and said, “I want to be a king.”
His mother and father looked at one another and smiled, thinking the boy’s imagination is getting away from him again. “Please sit down,” said the boy's mother.
“But I am…I…want to be a king.”
For a moment, just a split moment, the boy’s father looked down at his plate, the salmon and asparagus made by the maid, Luisa, and he wondered if perhaps he had spoiled his son? Has he given him too much without making him earn it?
The boy went to school later that day and proclaimed to his classmates, “I am king!” The teacher overheard him but just laughed, figuring he was pretending again, but she did pause for a moment and wonder if she should talk to the boy about telling his ambitions so forcefully to the other kids? She didn’t and instead said, “Class, it’s time for recess.”
The boy had gathered many students around the merry-go-round and he stood in the middle as another student, a younger one, pushed the boy very slowly as he spoke to the crowd.
“I am now your king,” said the boy. A few of the students left the moment the boy said this. They went to play catch in the field. As they did, the boy yelled to them, “You will be banned from my kingdom!”
There were about ten students left, waiting for the boy to talk more about his new position as king. One boy who always had a finger up his nose said, “What’s in it for us?”
The boy thought for a moment. He did not expect such a question, and wanted to tell the nose picking boy that this was not about him. It was his kingdom after all. However, the little boy was conniving. He wanted them to follow him so he said, “I will demand that you all get better grades, more recess time, better tasting lunches, trophies for showing up to school, and less class work and more games.” The crowd cheered.
“When will this start?” asked a girl from the crowd.
“Today!” The boy yelled without giving it much thought.
One girl, who had worn down, dirty clothes, and was very thin, clapped the loudest when she heard about lunch. The girl came from a very poor family and always seemed hungry. She raised her hand to the boy as he went slowly in a circle so he could talk to all of them. “Can I get extra milk?”
The boy thought about this for a moment, “Well, in my kingdom, you can have extra of everything, but…” He put his foot down on the ground to stop the spinning and face the girl. He then looked at the other students. “You have to do what I say and never question me.”
“What?” A boy in the crowd raised his voice, “That doesn’t sound like a good deal for us.”
The boy stepped in closer and faced the questioner. He was bigger than this boy and wanted to try to show his strength, “I told you what I would give you, but you have to give back to me.”
The questioner said, “You really think you can convince the teachers to give us all of that? You think you can tell the school to make better lunches. That’s a bunch of bull.”
“If you don’t want a better school, then maybe you should leave it,” said the boy.
“I go to this school just like you,” said the questioner.
“Not like me,” said the boy. “Do you have a maid? Do you have a big house with a room that is just for you to play in? Did your dad drop you off this morning in his expensive car? No! I saw your mom drop you off in some little car that barely fit you and your sister. You are not like me at all. I am better and you are less, and that’s why I am king!”
The questioner paused for a moment, his fingers squeezed into a ball, and he thought of punching the boy, but instead he walked away with his head down. Maybe the boy was right, he is less.
The bell rang and the remaining kids looked at the boy. They waited for him to say that their recess would be longer and they did not need to return to class. When the teacher called, none of them moved, but when the teacher raised her voice and said, “You will all be staying after school if you don’t come now!” The boy darted off the merry-go-round and into the school.
The teacher started to pass out the assignment shortly after the kids sat down. It was math and everyone moaned, not wanting to do it. They looked at the boy and waited for him to demand from the teacher that they get time to play and no assignment. The boy saw their stares and he froze, not sure what to do, so he looked down at the math problems and started to do them.
After math class, it was lunch. The students all shuffled through the lunch line. They received one milk, a dried out hot dog and bun, and a side of baked beans. They shuffled by the boy, who sat eating a lunch that was prepared by his maid. It looked delicious and he had vanilla cake for dessert.
The boy sat by himself that day, all except for the little girl who wanted two milks and the questioner. They waited for the boy to do what he said and give them a better lunch, more milk, a longer recess, and no class assignments. They waited for a trophy. They waited all day, and the next, and the next after that.
Each day, when the boy came to school, he stood on the merry-go-round and proclaimed he was king, but he had to push himself around by himself, and he talked to the wind as the other kids played and laughed.
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