Till's Story

After all the tricksters moved outside, a large stage emerged from the ground and three large chairs appeared on stage. The three tricksters all took a seat as Loki leapt up onto the stage.

Suddenly, a mic appeared in Loki’s hand and he began to speak. “As I was the one that suggested the competition, I will be your host for the entirety of the competition. Now, who amongst you three would like to go first?”

Confident in his tricks, Till stood up and grabbed the mic. “I’ll go so we can start off on a good note.” And so, the story began.

“At the time I played this trick, I was already twenty years old, and I was looking for a job. I had a lot of previous jobs, but I had to leave them as I had played so many tricks on my coworkers and bosses that I feared for my life. I thought to myself and realized that if I can’t get hired by going around and asking, I might as well make them come to me. Thus, I thought of a brilliant idea and placed posters advertising myself as a famous miracle doctor on every door and pillar in the grand city of Nuremburg, Germany. Of course, I was not even close to a real doctor but the people there didn’t need to know that.”

“Where? I’ve never even heard of Nuremburg. Are you sure you just didn’t make it up?” said Coyote sarcastically.

Till looked at Coyote and scoffed. “Maybe if you were more educated then you might know where it is.” Coyote rolled his eyes in silence and Till continued with his story.

“It was not even an hour later when the director of the Hospital of the Holy Ghost found me and asked me to solve the overcrowding issue at their hospital. Apparently, there were too many people that had long-term sicknesses and they wanted advice on how to heal them as they took up too much space in the hospital. I told the director that I would need no less than two hundred guilders for my services which was an outrageous amount at the time. The director looked hesitant so I decided to make up a complete lie and said that I would heal all the patients in the hospital if they gave me the amount that I asked for originally. The director, believing my lie, agreed immediately and led me to the hospital. On my way to the hospital, I couldn’t help but smile thinking about the amount of money I was about to run off with. Upon arrival, the foolish director led me to the second floor of the hospital where all the patients were held and introduced me to the patients, telling them to listen to my every word. After the director had left, I went to every patient bed by bed and quietly told them about my amazing cure.”

“Oh, I just can’t WAIT to hear about your cure, Mr. Amazing,” said a voice from the audience as some snickers could be heard.

“Well, if you would just shut up and listen then maybe you would learn,” said Till. The audience became riled up at this statement and began to get rowdy.

Loki stood up out of his chair. “Now now, ladies and gentlemen, please settle down or I might be forced to do something I don’t want to do.” Upon Loki’s subtle threat, the audience began to quiet down. “You may continue, Mr. Till,” said Loki. Thankful, Till once again began to speak.

“I told each patient that the cure is a mixture made from the burned ashes of one person and that I had already decided that the sickest person would be the one that I would burn. I warned them that the director would come in half an hour later and ask everyone who is not sick to leave the hospital. The last person to leave would be considered the sickest and I would have them burned to a crisp until only their ashes remain. After making sure I had told this to every patient on the floor, I went downstairs and told the director that I had finished and that all he had to do was ask the people that had been cured to leave. The director then went up to the second floor and announced in a loud voice that the people that were healed were cleared to leave. I could barely hold in my laughter as I watched the patients push, shove, and limp their way out of the hospital as fast as they could. That idiot of a director thanked me and even gave me an extra twenty guilders on top of the original two hundred for my help. After I got my money, I booked it out of town before the patients would return the next day. As I went to the next town holding my bag of guilders, I could only laugh as I imagined the director’s face when everyone returned the next morning.”

After Till had finished his story, everyone started clapping except for two people.

Anansi pretended to wake up from sleeping and yawned. “Booorrring. You didn’t even do much. You’re so not fun.”

“How could you even count that as a trick?” said Coyote. “All you did was get some fool to give you some money. Even as a kid, I was playing better tricks than that.”

Till offered the mic to Coyote. “Well, if you’re so confident in your tricks, Coyote, why don’t you go next?”

Coyote got up and grabbed the mic. “Don’t mind if I do. I’ll show the both of you what a real trick is.” And so, Coyote began to tell his story.