Fairy Tale

"Where have you been," you might well ask. Well, I'll tell you.

I go every morning to le palais du bureaucracie. It is a great and prominent building, with long colonnades and high walls. Inside, the passageways are made of gorgeous marble, flawlessly set so that patterns repeat themselves down hallways that seem to never end. There are huge paintings and mosaics intersperced among the stone, by many famous artists, lit cleverly with recessed lights.

I have le palais almost to myself, but I cannot linger too long. I must daily do a task, without the completion of which many powerful men and women would be brought low, and would become confused and powerless. My task is to stare into a glowing glass and conjure words out of the ether - I must direct these words hither and yon, and countless mandarins hang on every one. Moreover, these words concern the life and death of millions of people, and their stories are indeed a heavy burden.

Alas, I may only enter le palais du bureaucracie under the cover of darkness - if I failed to do so, I would be banished from the palace for ever.