MediaPlay

Once upon a time, in a land far away, wise men came to a king and said, “For our relief from famine, disease, and rampant job loss, a child must be birthed in the Pool of the Moon tomorrow and then promptly killed.”

“And where shall we find such a sacrifice?” the King asked.

“The Queen is with child, your excellency. She’s scheduled for birth tomorrow. Remember the famine, the disease, and all the unemployed.”

“I decree it so, though it saddens me,” the King said.

The wise men said, “Such a birth will bring the kingdom good luck. The child must be killed and the blood must turn the face of the moon red.”

“I get it,” said the King. “Inform the Queen.”

The Queen, who had spies everywhere, fooled the wise men and her husband by having birth induced in the morning. She paid a mysterious traveller to rush the child from the kingdom, wrapped in a colorful serape, and to safety.

“Do you have it?” she asked a maid, once the child was gone.

“Yes,” her maid said, bringing a piglet.

The Queen hid the piglet under her clothes, went into the water covered in a black cloth, as the ritual required, and pretended to give birth under water, and when her screams grew loudest, she raised a knife and stabbed the piglet underwater, who had already drowned. The King and the wise men saw the moon turn pink and were satisfied, murmured the proper prayers, and departed the Pool of the Moon, proclaiming an end to the kingdom’s sorrows.

The mysterious traveller rode all day and all night, indeed for all of several weeks, and entered a neighboring kingdom, which was known as the Enemy Kingdom, and gave the child to that kingdom’s Queen, who had no children.

“This is my enemy’s child. How could we raise such a beast,” the Enemy King said.

The Enemy Queen, who loved the child, told the King, “Think of the revenge. Years to come this child will kill his father, your enemy. To make things even better, he might even marry his mother, and have sex with her that they will both enjoy, thus making knowledge of such sex a bitter pill indeed.”

“As always, you are a genius,” said the Enemy King.

But the Enemy Queen could not imagine her son having sex with his real mother as she saw, as he grew into a man, a boy whose face meditated over the flowers, a boy more given to Jazz music than incest and fratricide.

On his sixteenth birthday, the Enemy Queen told her son that he must flee the kingdom with his Quartet.

“But mother,” he said. “I have gigs in town.”

“My son, you must depart, and flee your father, who will soon send you to the Enemy Kingdom to make war with the King there and murder him.”

“Then we must make peace with our enemy,” the Son said. “It’s simple.”

“Peace is an unknown concept to us,” the Queen said.

The King, who had his spies everywhere, learned of his Son’s plans for peace. “Then he shall be killed, the traitor, if that’s his intent.”

Early morning, the Queen said, “Did you bring it?”

“Yes,” the Son said, “A goat for slaughter. Do you think this will work, mother?”

“Blood is blood,” the Queen said, “and these Kings, they’re never very bight.”

“Where will I go?” the Son asked.

“Anywhere but here,” the Queen said.

Just as the King and the guards burst into the Son’s room to murder him, the Queen screamed, swung her sword, sliced through a body covered by a white sheet, and kicked her son out the big window and into a rushing river below.

“I’ve murdered our Son for his treacherous thoughts,” she said, her arm sleeved in blood. “His heart was too full of peace.”

“Your deeds will be sung for years to come,” the King said. “While my means of revenge have gone into the river, at least we know that the Enemy King’s son is no more.”

The son was guided into the kingdom of the enemy by a mysterious traveller. This traveller told the son, “You must hide in the Enemy Kingdom, take on a new identity, and never reveal it.”

The Son with his Quartet found an apartment and lay low. The wind blew hot and the streets were covered in dust. They walked the city dressed as merchants. The Son, growing bored, asked at a local tavern if they could entertain the night customers.

“How will you entertain them? This is a rowdy bunch, and you, you are so young and small.”

The Son, now known as the Band Leader, called his crew together and they played a short song by building a rhythm on dirty glasses, beer kegs, and utensils. The tavern keeper said, “This is amazing. You shall play tonight and we shall see what comes to pass.”

“Huzzah,” said the drummer.

“What he said,” said the Son. “We are but poor players and we shall serve you, Tavern Keeper.”

The first night, the crowd settled into the music after grumbling and then refused to leave the tavern, they so loved this new sound. “What is this music?” they wanted to know. “It refuses to leave our ears. It’s like birds, stones, and water all wrapped into one sound. It reminds us of love, disaster, and the fact that we don’t have jobs and our children have disease.”

Soon word spread throughout the Kingdom and to the ears of the King and Queen, who ruled without children, the Queen refusing the King’s advances as she feared his wise men.

“Bring the musicians,” the King said. “I would have a royal concert. My people have come awake. And new markets have been created. What are these music machines, these turn tables? What are these iPods, laser disks, these warehouses for storing goods, and inventions that have cured disease. My people are working, inventing, and spreading their ideas throughout the world, even into the Enemy Kingdom.”

“They bring immorality,” the wise men said. “Lust for music is the same as lust for the unwed and these inventions are the inventions of demons.”

“Bull shit,” said the King. “Bring the players.”

The Quartet was brought. The Band Leader’s players huddled about their equipment. The Son whispered, “Play like you’ve never played before.”

And they did. The King and the Queen and even the Wise men shook in their chairs and followed the beat with their chins. The King and the Queen danced, and after the performance, the King declared the band leader his son and the other members of the band his new Son’s brothers.

“You,” said the King, “shall inherit this land, Band Leader, for I have no one else to provision it to.”

“Yes,” the Queen said. “I shall love you as only a mother can.”

“I will love you like a father and you like a mother,” said the Band Leader.

“And now, guards,” said the King, “inform the wise men that they come to the Pool of the Moon tomorrow, for we have much to discuss with them.”