Little Lino

[Guest Twink Ho]

A long time ago, in a very small town in the middle of nowhere, there was a very lonely old man whose only wish was to have a little boy of his very own. He was very sad and very much alone. He had no idea where to find such a little boy. The Lonely Old Man looked high and he looked low. Finally he learned of a Wizard, a wise man who could reveal where to find little boys. This Wizard would tell which who were the freshest, the youngest, the smoother, the very best little boys in the whole wide world.

 

The Lonely Old Man just had to get one of his very own so he went to see the Wizard and asked him to help him with his search: "Please, oh please, tell me where are the bestest, the smoothest, the sweetest little boys."

 

"That is not so hard" said the old Wizard. "Plant this pager into the ground and see what happens.”

 

The man gave the Wizard twelve gold coins of the pay pal realm and immediately ran home to find suitable soil in his garden and went about the planting. No sooner was it buried deep within the ground than it started to sprout. A big beautiful fruit tree came up bearing fruit but it was the strangest fruit the Lonely Old Man had ever seen. The fruit looked strangely like brightly colored metallic flowers, so thin, they could fit inside your back pocket.

 

What lovely flowers, thought the Lonely Old Man, as he bent down to inspect the chartreuse colored one. With a snap, it opened and began to ring. A very loud melodic tone. The Lonely Old Man became frightened and wanted it to stop. He started to hit it, to hit what looked like buttons on its surface, until it did stop. He heard a crackling sound and then he heard a beautiful, soft, delicate voice, “Hello. Are you my, daddy?”

 

“Who are you,” said the Lonely Old Man.

 

They call me “Lino” replied the voice.

 

Yes, thought the Lonely Old Man, but who or what, exactly, is a Lino. The man was tired and now very hungry and still felt alone, in spite of his beautiful fruit tree. He ate his simple meal and he laid down and quickly fell to sleep.

 

The next day, the Lonely Old Man heard a very soft, almost tentative knock. Who could this be, he thought to himself, as he opened his door very slowly and carefully. None dare disturb me and no one dare ever visit, for I am a mean, old ugly man.

 

Before him, with long, golden hair that covered much of his face and dressed in very baggy blue jeans that were so big they had to be folded over, not once, not twice, but thrice, was a very, very, very small young boy. The little boy had very fine features, or at least what the Lonely Old Man could see of them, but then the young boy parted his golden locks and the Lonely Old Man saw two very sparkling blue-green eyes which twinkled and looked directly at him. In spite of himself, the Lonely Old Man had to grin and was rewarded with the biggest, most winning smile he had ever seen. Instead of asking what he normally did of unexpected visitors: why are you bothering me, the Lonely Old Man looked at the little boy and said, “Who are you?”

 

The young boy looked the Lonely Old Man straight in the eyes and said, “I am for you. They call me Lino.”

 

He began to twirl and sing more beautifully than anyone had ever sung before. Well, this could not be, thought the Lonely Old Man. I cannot have such a tiny, beautiful, young boy singing and dancing on my front door step, what will the neighbors think. So he brought the little boy inside and said, “Now, see here, I must go to work. You must stop this singing, immediately!”

 

“YES SIR!” said the young boy and immediately stood perfectly still, neither dancing nor singing.

 

The Lonely Old Man walked around him, what fine skin, he thought. He looked him up and down, such nearly flawless features, he marveled, and that voice, why it was beautiful. The Lonely Old Man longed to hear it again and again, why he could hear the whole day long. But he also knew he must open his stall at the marketplace. His clients would already be gathered. They came from near and far for he sold the finest spun yarn in all the land. He told the boy to sit at the table, but not to look out the window or to answer the door, merely wait for him.

 

“YES SIR DADDY SIR!” came the quick response, and the young boy promptly sat down where he was told.

 

The man closed the door behind him, which he normally doubled locked, but this morning he locked the third lock as well and walked briskly to work.

 

He quickly got busy, helping his customers, and finally all but one were done. This one would not leave and kept looking at the Lonely Old Man, not speaking, simply looking.

 

“Old man, why are you smiling?” came the question from his Most Regular Client.

 

“Why, nothing, no reason at all,” replied the Lonely Old Man, smiling still, in spite of himself.

 

That night, the young boy was sitting, perfectly still, looking directly at the door, so the first thing the Lonely Old Man saw, after he undid all the locks and stepped inside, were those sparkling blue-green eyes looking directly back at him.

 

The young boy smiled. “You are home, my daddy has come home. I am so glad, so very, very glad.” Then he stood up from his stool, began to twirl, and as the Lonely Old Man moved closer, he opened his mouth and the most beautiful sound again came out.

 

The Lonely Old Man smiled again, in spite of himself.

 

That night, the Lonely Old Man slept, not knowing that his Most Regular Client had followed him home, had seen the little boy dance and had heard that beautiful voice. As the little boy stood watching over him, the Lonely Old Man slept. So he did not hear when his Most Regular Customer came through the window. But the little boy turned and saw him. He was frightened. The man was big and sweaty, smelly and ugly.

 

The Most Regular Client came to where the young boy was and thought, this is far too great a prize for that Lonely Old Man but he will make a lovely treat for me. He grabbed the little boy, leapt out through the window and into the garden, and walked out into the street, past the fruit tree, without stopping to look at any of the strange, metallic fruit.

 

The Most Regular Client lived on the banks of the stream, in an old ugly wooden house boat, the water all around which was strewn with trash, as was the deck of the boat it was a wonder it did not sink. The house was also dark and dank. Near the boat, nothing could live, but several miles out into the water, was a small island where there grew many water lilies. All their leaves seemed to float upon the water. Upon this island the Most Regular Client brought little Lino. When he put him down, the little boy cried out, “I want my daddy!”

 

But there was nothing he could do, there was no way to get to shore, and the little boy began to cry bitterly. He cried all the rest of that night and well into the morning.

 

The Most Regular Client began the next day feeling fully alive and awake. He did something he had never done before, he decided to clean his house boat, meaning to make it pretty for the little boy. He wanted to make a very nice home for them both. After he had done as much as he could, he swam out to the island to fetch the young boy. “I will be your new daddy. We will both live very happily in my house boat.”

 

In that, wondered the little boy, frighten and feeling very much afraid. He sat down and wept, for he did not want to live with this smelly, sweaty ugly old man.

 

This stream was very wide and very deep; the young men of the town found it a perfect place to run, to hide, to swim, to play. Several of them were swimming by the island at this very moment and they heard the weeping. They poked their heads out of the water and took a good look at the little boy. When they saw his beauty, it made them sad to think of him with the sweaty, ugly old man in his dark and dank boat. They decided they should do something and went to rescue the young boy and carried him on top of them as they went further down stream.

 

Lino was happy and began to sing.

 

Farther and farther they swam down the stream, taking the little boy to strange new lands.

 

A tall, dark man on a black stallion was soon following them. He had been watching from the shore. He had taken a fancy to little Lino. The young boy was laughing and singing for he was happy to have escaped from the Most Regular Client.

 

The Tall Dark Man rode into the water with his horse and plucked the little boy from the shoulders of the young men and placed him on the back of his black stallion and rode away. Lino was terrified of what would happen next. The Tall, Dark Man put Lino in his long, black and shiny convertible and gave him something sweet to drink. He told Lino that he was the prettiest thing he had ever seen. Soon all the other tall dark men came calling on their little visitor. Two of them looked him up and down and loudly said, "Look at him. Look at how pale he is. How white. How disgusting!"

 

All the other tall dark men agreed. The Tall Dark Man who had found the young boy and meant to keep him still thought he was lovely, but as the others kept saying how ugly he was, he soon believed it as well. Now he didn't want the little boy anymore, and drove to the corner of busy intersection and told him, “Get out. Get out of my car.”

 

Poor Lino cried. The thought of being ugly was more than he could stand.

 

All summer long, the young boy lived alone on the streets. He made a bed out of grass and slept under a tree, so it would not rain on him when he slept. He ate what he could and lived day by day. But he was happy because he could feel the warmth of the sun and he could sing along with the birds. Every day, he would pick fresh flowers for his bed, so he could smell their fragrance as he slept under the clear sky.

 

Autumn passed. Then came winter. It was long and cold. All the birds flew away, the flowers died and the trees lost their leaves. The little boy was terribly cold. His clothes were in tatters and he became ever thinner and more delicate.

 

He was bound to freeze to death. It started to snow and the snowflakes were big and heavy upon him. He pulled his tattered clothes around him, but it gave him no warmth. The little boy shivered in the cold.

 

Not far from the center of town was a big park, with snow covering the ground. He wondered into the park and came to a long, low shack. It was the home of a small, thin old man, so old, no one knew exactly how old. He never looked you in the eyes, so no one really quite knew what he looked like. Deep in his shack, he lived in lived in warmth and comfort. Like a beggar, the little boy knocked on the door and asked for something to eat. He had not eaten for days.

 

Poor little boy, thought the Small, Thin Old Man, for he had a very kind heart. "Come on into my warm home and dine with me."

 

The Small, Thin Old Man thought Lino a fine little boy. "You can stay for the whole winter," he said. "But you must keep the house tidy and neat and you must also tell me a story every day, for I like a good story." The little boy did as the Small, Thin Old Man asked.

 

"Soon we shall have a visitor," said the Small, Thin Old Man. "Once a month my friend comes to visit me. He lives even better than I do. He has a great big house and wears the most exquisite clothes. If only he would take to you, then you would be well-cared for. He won't be able to see you, for he is blind, so you will have to tell him the very best of your stories."

 

But the little boy did not want to marry the friend of Thin Old Man for he was a troll. The next day, the Troll came visiting dressed in his fine black coat. The Small, Thin Old Man had said that he was both rich and wise. His house was twenty times the size of the shack. But the little boy did not care. For the Troll did not like the things that the little boy knew were good. He could not see the flowers or the sun, and it did not matter to him how pretty they were thought by others to be.

 

"Abominable!" he would say because he could not see them. Lino sang for him and he did fall in love with the young boy but not because of his delicate features or sparkling blue-green eyes but because of his voice. The Troll never showed his feeling though because he was clearheaded and never made a spectacle of himself.

 

But eventually he did propose that the little boy move in with him, “I have all this room, after all, where you have hardly none,” he said to the Small, Thin Old Man, who quickly acquiesced.

 

The little boy thought the Troll was dull and he did not love him. Every day, at sunrise and at sunset, he walked outside the shack where he could see as much of blue sky as possible. He thought of how beautiful it was out there and he longed for a friend.

 

Spring soon came and the snow thawed. "In ten days you will have a new home!" cried the Small, Thin Old Man. Lino wept and said he did not want to be with the boring old Troll.

 

"Don't be stubborn or I will spank you. The Troll is rich and smart and will make you very happy indeed!"

 

The big day soon arrived but the little boy was still very sad.

 

"Farewell, you beautiful sun!" Lino lifted his hands toward the sky and stepped out upon the field. He touched a lonely red flower that grew in the hard ground.

 

A gentle breeze touched his shoulder and he heard a sound. Laughing and talking. It was the young men who had rescued him in the stream. The young men were older and taller, but they remembered how the little boy had such a beautiful voice and they were smiling at him.

 

The little boy looked up. They smiled at Lino.

 

“We are leaving, will you not come with us?” they cried.

 

"Yes, I will!" Lino excitedly replied.

 

As they walked away, they all talked and sang and danced and were all very happy.

[Guest RushNY]

You're not Stephen King in disguise are you.........:+

 

if not Piers Anthony's Xanth series of novels come to mind....

[Guest Thunderbuns]

RE: Little Lino - what a bunch of crap

 

Wow - I can't believe that someone actually took the time to type all this crap.

 

And I also can't believe I actually took the time to read it!

 

Thunderbuns

[Bilbo]

RE: Little Lino - what a bunch of crap

 

Rush liked it and I liked it. I did wish that the story had come full circle and that the young faery had somehow found the first old man again, but it seemed to express many things that Twink Ho must feel and think, and it did it in what I found an entertaining way. So be off with you - you have no power here - or I will throw a bucket of water on you! (Better than your cold, wet blanket!)

[Guest Thunderbuns]

RE: Little Lino - what a bunch of crap

 

or I will throw a bucket of water on

>you! (Better than your cold, wet blanket!)

 

Sounds like another wet jockey shorts contest - I love it!

 

Thunderbuns

[Uncle Bill]

Can't wait for the sequel.

[scott90746]

CORN