Lets continue the story.
Well they brought Arnold to court and it was decided that as he didn´t really exist and anyway no real harm was done. Little Tommy was safe and he had learned a valuable lesson in that going off with strangers even if they are friendly and cuddly and green is never a wise move.
Now Tommy gives football classes to Arnold and I heard Arnold is teaching Tommy how to cook, vegetarian dishes.
The real end.
If you believe Arnold really exists read on.
If you think this is just a story read Arnold (9) and skip this bit.
Can you do exactly that or are you going to read both?
Well lets continue the story.
So Arnold was in a right pickle but luckily for him the missionaries had established some sort of thing called law which previously to their visit wasn´t needed at all. This meant that Arnold could have a fair trial.
Unfortunately for Arnold the judge and jury was quite religious as it was made up of the locals with their own religion and the missionaries w¡ith theirs and when Arnold´s defence said they couldn´t even bring Arnold to court as he was a fictional creature the rest of the people in the courtroom argued that if we thought god was a fictional creature like Arnold the world would be in a right old mess. Arnold´s lawyer said the world could be in a right old mess with or without a god depending on whether the dominant species i.e. humans decided to take responsibility for their actions. He also said it might be a good idea to stop using god as a scapegoat and mature a bit.
He was thrown out of court and Arnold was hanged.
Little Tommy is now a social recluse.
The end.
He ran to the operation theatre in the hospital. A cranky doctor with a walking stick hobbled by ignoring him. “Hmm, he looks familiar.” said Arnold as he entered the operating room. “Open me up.” he yelled. The doctors obliged.
Out popped a very ragged looking Tommy with bits of grass and carrot in his hair. He was furious. His ears were billowing smoke. “You tricked me.” he screamed.
The villagers became furious too on hearing the news. However, they still had some disbelief that this creature really existed as he kept fading in and out of sight as they decided what to do with him. They didn´t realise it was their disbelief that caused this optical illusion. Eventually they threw pink and orange dyes over him to keep him in focus. Finally, they voted on sacrificing him at noon in honour of the return of little Tommy. Arnold groaned and felt the stitches on his tummy. What a blooming disaster.
“Oh gosh”, thought Arnold. “Perhaps that wasn`t the best thing at all to do, I didn´t really think that one through. How will his mammy and daddy feel without Tommy giggling around the house? Never mind that, how is Tommy feeling right now? Maybe I should only eat bad kids.”
And with this sudden thought trickles of tears streamed down his fuzzy face. The smell of wet wool made him even more upset.
A few hours passed and Arnold could stand it no more. He was sketching pictures of little Tommy and talking to them. He even managed to create a life size cardboard cutout of him but if didn´t do Tommy much justice.
The following day he strolled down to the local psychiatrist. There was quite a queue waiting to see her. With the depression he now had he didn´t think much of the severe indigestion he had but while flicking through a woman´s magazine in the waiting room he realised the indigestion and the depression were more than likely related. Who needs psychiatrists he thought as he stormed out of the room, magazines are a fountain of knowledge. Then he realised he wouldn`t have landed in this mess if it hadn´t been for magazines and he was glad he hadn`t said that aloud.
The good news was that this uncomfortable stomach feeling meant that he was not made or had not evolved to eat meat. The bad news was that Tommy was still in his tummy. Luckily he hadn´t moved from his food storing belly to his food digesting belly so there was still time to get his sixth stomach pumped.