Miles never expected that his perfect older brother could hate him this much. And for what? A silly app that he made? Edward was already rich from his military career, and well known and respected for it. Why did he need to be better at this one skill Miles had? This was worse than the sibling rivalry they’d had when they were kids. How had they gone from fighting over bikes and video games to putting each other in real danger?
“You don’t have to do this,” he begged. The gruff-looking group of men who had appeared from off the dark park path didn’t reply. They manhandled him off the pathway and away from the halo of light on the bench he’d agreed to meet Edward at. Miles glanced back, hoping to see his brother coming up the path. But his hopes were dashed as he heard the men joke about this being their first fratricide contract.
Miles struggled to get away, wishing he’d never made that phone game. Turnip Princess had been a bigger hit than anyone expected, an overnight success. The money he’d made from the sale had set him up for life, and he’d been careful to invest it wisely. It wasn’t his fault that Eddy failed when he tried to copy him. Miles could have told him that no one would pay twenty bucks for an app about horses.
The men shoved him face-first into a burlap sack and hung it on a strong tree branch. His stomach dropped. He’d seen the bats laying around on the ground and knew how they planned to kill him. What a way to go…
But as they were about to bust open his skull like a pinata, Miles’ luck changed. His pleas for mercy stopped as they all paused to hear the bawdy singing coming towards them. From inside the sack, Miles heard the thud of the bats being dropped to the ground.
“Forget this,” the leader of the group growled. “He’s not paying us enough to risk getting caught.” Heavy footsteps faded as the men dispersed into the trees, and Miles sighed in relief.
As quickly as he could, Miles wiggled his way upright and shoved his head out of the top of the sack. But, though there was enough space to poke his head out, it was tied too tightly to get his hands through, making escape much more difficult. The singer was getting closer, and so Miles twisted to look down the park path.
Soon a drunk young man came into view. He was weaving down the path and looked to be recording a terrible video of his attempt at some classic rock tunes. If he wasn’t suspended and left for dead, Miles would have cringed at the kid’s off-key falsetto.
“Hey!” Miles yelled, trying to catch the young man's attention. “Hey, kid! Yeah, over here!” The young man looked around, bewildered until he finally spotted the sack and Miles inside it.
Laughing, the young man stumbled off the path and over to where Miles hung.
“This is going to make the best viral video,” he crowed as he turned the phone’s camera on Miles. “Hey! Hey! How’s it hanging old man?” Miles tried not to roll his eyes, instead smiled down at the drunk young man. If he wasn’t careful Miles had the feeling this guy would leave him hanging instead of helping him. Not wanting to spook the kid, he decided not to mention the goons who’d just left. So he chuckled and started complimenting the kid.
“Ha, good one..good one...What’s your name kid?” Miles tried to ignore the camera in his face. He’d started hating them as his fame grew. People just didn’t know when to back off and stop treating him like a monkey in a zoo.
“Jake,” the young drunk replied. “Man, how’d you get up there? Why are you in a sack?” Miles flinched as the phone was shoved almost into his mouth as Jake swayed and tried to film. Miles hoped he was at least sober enough to undo the knots on the sack, he could worry about getting that video later.
“I’m Miles Morales. As for the sack-”
“Miles Morales? The Miles Morales? Holy shit! Oh man, I’m going to make so much money on this video!”
Miles felt irritated. He’d never liked being taken advantage of. So, with some glee, he decided to teach this kid a lesson. Feigning upset he begged him.
“No, please! No one can find out about my idea sack! They’ll steal all my best ideas and get rich!” Jake stopped laughing and started eyeing the sack Miles was in, and Miles knew he had him.
“Idea sack? How does it work?” Showing a little foresight, for the first time that night, Jake stopped recording and put his phone away.
“No, no...I can’t tell you. I can’t let you sit in my idea sack.” Miles looked away, acting reluctant to hook Jake deeper.
But Jake scowled and looked around for an idea. The discarded bats caught his eye and he scooped one up. With a wicked grin, he held it up for Miles to see.
“If you don’t let me use that thing, I’m going to beat you until you fall out of it!” Any guilt Miles felt for tricking Jake vanished. After a few well-timed groans and pleas, he agreed to tell the drunkard how the sack worked.
“The fibers were spun from the finest...himilayan beetroots.” Miles wondered if he was laying it on a little thick, but Jake was just drunk enough not to question the story he invented. “If you climb in the sack and suspend yourself like I am you’ll...become smarter. The longer you stay in the sack the smarter you’ll become. It’s how I got the idea for my game. Using this sack made me rich and smart.”
Jake was practically salivating with greed, imagining the life of fame and fortune that was before him. Gesturing with the bat he ordered Miles out of the sack. Once Miles agreed Jake untied the sack from the tree, letting him fall the couple of feet to the ground. Once he was out of it Jake shoved him away and went to step into the sack. But something made him pause and he turned to threaten Miles once more.
“If you lied to me about how this sack works I’ll post that video of you everywhere! I’ll ruin your reputation!” Miles doubted one video of him hanging from a tree would ruin him, but he held up his hands and stuttered.
“O-okay! Please, delete that video! I swear, once you leave that bag you’ll be wiser than when you went in. But there’s one last step. You have to go in upside down.”
“I knew you were holding out on me!” Jake stepped out and turned to crawl inside the bag, his phone falling out of his back pocket as he did. “Hang me in the tree! Hurry!” Miles tied the top of the sack and pulled the rope until Jake was hanging a few feet above the ground.
Miles scooped up the discarded phone and turned it on. His luck seemed to be turning, there was no lock on the home screen. Smiling, Miles opened the camera on the phone and started filming.
“How’s it going in there, Jake? Do you feel smarter?” Jake wiggled around, trying to get comfy as he hung upside down.
“I think so! My head is pounding!” Miles walked a circle around the bag as he filmed.
“That means it’s working. You have to stay like that for at least an hour. I’ll let you down then.” He chuckled as he stepped back. “I promise once you get out of the sack you’ll be smarter than when you went into it.”
Miles stopped filming. He took a moment to delete the video of himself in the sack, then posted the video of Jake to every social media account he could find on the phone. Jake really should have had some sort of password or lock on his accounts. Hopefully, this experience would deflate his oversized ego. “Yep, much smarter than when you went into it. I’ll let the cops know where you’re ‘hanging’ out...in a while.”
Miles walked out of the park back to his car. He had a brother to visit.
The End
#forgottenfairtales #theturnip #grimmfairytales #modernfairytales #howsithanging #siblingrivalry #shortstories #oldtaleswithanewtwist
*If you want to read the original Grimm story click on this link to check it out: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/114.txt
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