306 The Sceptre of Marriage

When I was young, I played a lot with a local girl in the grasslands near home. My favourite thing to do was chasing and her favourite thing to do was wrestling, mostly because she was bigger and stronger than me.

One day a strange figure appeared and it was watching us from afar. We knew it was there, we told our parents it was there too but they said it was okay as long as we stuck together.

So we kept playing in the fields. The grass was becoming long and it was fun to play in. It was fun to wrestle in because it was soft, but it became more difficult to play chase. It also became much more difficult to spot strange figures that may have been watching us...

Then it happened. One day on the way to see my friend, I saw her in the distance. I started running through the long grass happily to go see her, but then the figure rose out of the grass right behind her. I stopped dead in my tracks. The figure then raised its arms, holding something with a long handle. I opened my mouth to scream but it was too late. The figure brought its weapon down on my friend, knocking her down.

I tore through the long grass, tripping along the way. I didn't care anymore. I had to save my friend!

I came to a clearing and found her there, lying on the ground. She was smiling up at me. Her body looked different. She beckoned me over. I ran up to her and asked her if she was ok. Then I heard something behind me.

I turned around and the figure was right behind me! It was a woman wearing strange clothes and a very large and strange hat to match. Above her head she held a sceptre in her hands. When I made eye contact with her she declared loudly: "I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU HUSBAND AND WIFE!" before bringing down her sceptre on top of my head, knocking me out cold. The last thing I felt were my friend's arms as I fell into them.

I woke up in the living room, surrounded by my children. "Dad! Dinner's ready!" they said, trying to stir me awake. I got up and we all walked into the dining room, where my friend, who was now my wife, had dinner laid out for us. It looked good. We all sat down and had our meal together.