A Very Bad Bad Thing

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A Very Bad Bad Thing John C. Yiannoudis illustrated by Vaggelis Theodoridis

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Some words, mostly for the grownups…

“History is the most boring thing in the world” a kid told me years ago.

Between you and me, that is very correct when referring to some thick, dusty books full of names and numbers.

But, are names and numbers history’s real essence?

Let’s see: what is most important? To know for example the exact date Winston Churchill delivered his famous “we shall fight on the beaches” speech, or to understand HOW and WHY this speech affected over the development of World War II? To me there is no doubt what the correct answer is…

Think. The world we live in has been shaped by the acts of special people. All those people were driven by cleverness, sentiment, passion, vanity, obsessions, whatever. The point is that certain actions of them that greatly affected world’s history, always occurred due to certain reasons: luck, coincidence or even absence of communication, it doesn’t matter.

What matters is that every single such reason, every single such action, is justified by (at least) one big “WHY”. And yet, many of those “WHYs” are kept in the dark for most of us…

Well, it is so exciting to start revealing the “WHYs” and understand where true History lives.

Believe me, it is one of the most fascinating things someone may do, nowadays. And one of the most educational ones – since life always repeats itself.

So for the book you just keep. It is an amusing and fascinating myth based on an unbelievable, almost unknown true story from Greece’s contemporary history. A small story which probably (indirectly) affected Europe’s post war status. Of course, it could be any country’s history. It could be any man’s history. But it really existed sometime, somewhere!

And it’s great to know.

So, among other things let’s face this book as a small clue to where life’s true insights may be. Who knows, may this story lead a couple of kids to get excited and start asking more “WHYs” as searching for the truth.

And that would really mean something to our future, no?

Hope you enjoy reading!

John C. Yiannoudis July 2012

P.S. My strong advice is NOT to read the true story before the myth.

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A Very Bad Bad Thing

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O

nce upon a time, the old times, even before the internet times, there was a king.

He was tall, he was slim and he had a strange nose.

His name was King George.

He ruled a small but beautiful and happy kingdom, right on the edge of the earth.

The name of this kingdom was Hope.

All neighbor countries were jealous of Hope.

Because in Hope sun was always warm, sea was always clean and watermelons were as sweet as nowhere!

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E

verything was rolling smooth in Hope until, one day, neighbor kingdoms decided to fight.

One wanted to eat each other’s watermelons.

A watermelon war was on!

King George knew that sooner or later watermelon war would knock Hope’s door.

And his small and poor army could not prevent greedy enemy soldiers from eating Hope’s sweet watermelons and from swimming in Hope’s clean seas.

But what he could do?

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A

nd so it happened!

One day Bootalia, a neighbor country, attacked Hope.

King George immediately decided to save the most important thing in the whole kingdom: himself!

So, along with his ministers and his beloved treasure box, our King sailed for a faraway country: for the Island of Idle Mist.

King in the Island of Idle Mist was Windy the Great, an uncle of King George, who loved to smoke long cigars and to give endless speeches‌

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T

hat specific day Windy the Great was taking a walk

around island’s port and was most happy to see King George’s ship arrive.

Immediately he jumped aboard and welcomed his nephew in the Island of Idle Mist:

“

I know all about watermelon war. Don’t worry kid, you can stay with me for as long a you desire, until the big war ends… he said and gave an impromptu speech lasting for 2 days and thirteen hours!

”

So, King George remained in the Island of Idle Mist patiently waiting for the watermelon war to end.

Years and years went by, until one day General Mark arrived.

General Mark was Hope’s bravest soldier and King George was most happy to see him.

General Mark got on his knees in front of the king and respectfully said:

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“My Lord, I bring you good news and bad news.

Which ones you want to hear first?”

“The bad news” king said.

“The bad news is that after all these years of watermelon war, our country Hope is heavily damaged. All our watermelons are eaten and our seas are not clean any more…”

“And what is the good news then?”

“The good news is that enemy soldiers are sick because of eating so many watermelons and request to return back home!”

“Great! So I may return too and be again the king of Hope!” King George said full of enthusiasm.

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“I’m not so sure, your majesty” General Mark said.

“You see, we must first repair your palace which was totally destroyed by the enemy’s potato-bombs.

Besides, there is something more, you know…”

“What are you talking about?”

King George shouted angrily.

“Well, I have here a letter for you sent by Despinella, the wise witch. She advices you to read it very-very

carefully…”

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W

ow, that was not good.

Despinella was the oldest and most frightening witch still living in Hope. She was 517 years old and she knew all the magic words to turn anyone into an ant or an elephant.

King George had always been afraid of Despinella.

You see, as a kid he broke her precious bats’ jar.

Despinella got very upset and if not being the future King she would have definitely transformed him into a pig or a monkey.

Having all these in mind, King George opened the closed envelope very very carefully.

Thankfully, not any frog legs or rat tails popped out. Only a stretched piece of paper was in, covered by some funny red letters:

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Well, well, well. Here comes the day you wish to return to our country, you chicken hearted king!

You know, all these years your people have been fighting hard against the enemy but you preferred to enjoy a happy life in the Island of Idle Mist.

So, now, if you really want to return home, you must do something brave! You must prove to all of us that you still deserve to be our king.

On your way back you must stop by the isolated Olive Island where the Ancient Iron Monster Dino lives and you have to feed him a carrot by your own bare hands!

Otherwise, if you return in Hope without doing that, a very bad bad thing will happen to you in exactly six months‌

Beware!

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K

ing George read the letter once, read it twice, and then started laughing!

“Well, well, well, Despinella must believe I’m completely stupid!

Ancient Iron Monster Dino is 50 meter tall and big and hates us all. Anyone stopping by its place is lost!

Thanks God it cannot leave Olive island because the water will make its iron body rust and die.

Despinella hates me and wants to get rid of me by sending me to feed Dino. But I’m not that stupid!

General Mark, listen what you have to do: go back to Hope, repair all damages and then come and pick me up.

This is your king’s decision and you must obey”.

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A

nd so it happened!

General Mark went back to Hope, repaired all damages and some months later returned once again in the Island of Idle Mist to pick up King George.

“Your Majesty, we rebuilt your palace as you ordered and our new watermelons have started to grow. Everything is set for you to return. Only one thing is left….”

“What thing?”

“You know, Despinella… She insists that you have to stop over Olive Island and feed the Ancient Iron Monster Dino.

Otherwise….”

“Otherwise what?” “…Otherwise a very bad bad thing will happen to you after six months, she says”.

King George got furious:

“General Mark, I’m the glorious king of Hope and I assure you that all bad things will happen to Despinella when I see her.

Get set, we stop nowhere, we leave straight ahead for Hope!”

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A

nd so it happened!

King George finally returned in Hope on the first day of October of the year 9146.

Of course he hadn’t stopped over Olive Island.

All Hope’s citizens (except Despinella) were out in the streets cheering for his return.

OK, to be honest some of them would prefer to throw him rotten tomatoes and smelly eggs in return for all the years of his absence.

But no one dared to do something like that, because General Mark was right behind his King looking around with such a scaring eye!

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S

o, King George returned and started dealing again with everyday life in Hope.

Every morning he was having breakfast under a huge palm tree in the palace’s garden.

Afterwards, he used to visit his barber. He was having a haircut – but only one hair per day was cut, so the process was never ending!

After returning from his barber, each citizen of Hope was able to visit him in the palace and complain about anything - or just ask for favors.

King George was patiently listening to every request and then was making his decision, based of the dream he had last night: he was either throwing the poor asking man in jail, or giving him a candy and sending him home!

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O

ccupied with all these interesting activities, King George of Hope was having a really good time – until the last day of March 9147 arrived.

That was the day Despinella had warned him about, the day that six months after his return in Hope were completed.

Of course, he had forgotten everything about it.

That specific day King George woke up in a really good mood! He had a dream about eating pancakes – his favorite breakfast.

So, getting out of bed he went directly to the palace’s kitchen. He would love to have some hot pancakes with honey and cinnamon! Yum! But, as he entered the kitchen dressed into his favorite red pyjamas, realized that everybody around was very upset.

Despinella had just called to warn that “a very big,

very bad bad thing would shortly appear into the kitchen” and everyone should be prepared to handle it…

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s hearing the news King, George turned blue and yellow.

He just remembered Despinella’s “very-bad-bad-thing” warning…

He immediately decided to count days passed after his return by adding toothpicks, one beside the other.

And, after half an hour that he finished counting, he was sure: the day of his return was before exactly six months…

That could be a disaster!

What if Despinella was right and “a very bad bad thing” would happen to him just because he hadn’t visited the Olive Island on his way back?

On the spot, he made his decision: he would return back to his bed and sleep very very deeply for hours and hours, until that cursed day would be over.

Unfortunately, it was too late...

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E

ven before exiting the kitchen, King’s belly started to grow and grow and grow and his feet started to shrink and shrink and shrink so fast, that within seconds his body had turned into a big-big ball rolling smoothly over kitchen’s floor.

He was now round and blown like a big red balloon with a small-small tail at the edge…

At the same time, his hair and his hands started to get long and thin, looking like slim-slim cables, while his head started to shrink and shrink and shrink until it turned into a small tennis ball absorbed by his huge rounded body, which was now rolling over palace’s big hall.

It rolled and rolled and rolled until it reached the big stairs leading into second floor. And there it stopped.

No feet were available any more to take

King upstairs!

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W

ow! Within seconds,

poor King was turned into a

big red beetroot with a small green tail and hundreds of thin red spinners spreading through its golden crown, the crown that used to sit on King George’s head!

All palace staff immediately gathered around the big, red, ex-King beetroot.

Everyone’s mouth was widely open.

No one had ever seen something like that before!

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nd everybody remained like that for the whole day, until the royal fruit-man arrived in the afternoon.

He brought a big trailer, placed the beetroot on and drove it straight into palace’s big refrigerator to keep it cold and fresh and safe, away from palace’s rats.

Then, he phoned to Despinella, himself: Hey, Despinella, guess what? King George was transformed into a big red beetroot! Unbelievable, isn’t it? Do you have any idea how we can turn the beetroot back into a King?

“

”

What do you think guys?

Will Despinella make it to turn the beetroot back into a King?

Tell us what you believe that happened next in

king.beetroot@gmail.com

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The True Story The myth you just read is based on a true story from the Greek Contemporary History, the so called “Diella incident” that took place in Athens in the spring of 1946.

This strange incident was revealed for the first time by Spyros Markezinis, a famous Greek politician (prime minister in 1973) and historian, involved in the incident himself along with his close friend and associate Panayotis Sifneos. The incident is published in the book “Contemporary Political History of Greece (1936-1975)” by Spyros Markezinis, Vol. II (1944-1951), Papyros Publications 1994, Athens, pages 302-304.

It’s up to anyone of us to accept or reject the story. But it’s great to know.

The story is as follows: In April of 1946 a young brunette girl named Elli Diella visits Panayotis Sifneos, then director of the Greek State Radio Station, and informs him that a Greek nun named Despina has a very important message for King George II of Greece.

At that time, King George still lives in London. He had left Greece in 1941 when Germans invaded the country during World War II. King’s potential return is an open issue of constant debate between the Allies and the Greek political parties, due to the intensive opposition of almost half of the Greek population. By the spring of 1946, chances for King George to return in Greece are negative.

After hearing to Diella’s request Sifneos decides to visit nun Despina himself and learn what it’s all about. Indeed, next day he visits Despina’s home downtown Athens (Ploutarhou street). Nun Despina, a black-dressed slim woman in her sixties, welcomes Sifneos and tells him the following words: “ Our Lady Virgin Mary wants you to pass the following message to the King: King George II will return in Greece. But before coming in Athens, he must stop over the Island of Tinos in the Aegean Sea and worship the Sacred Icon of our Blessed Mother Mary. If not doing so, he will die six months after he returns. Please deliver this message immediately” Sifneos asks for Markezinis’ advice. Markezinis, King’s trusted Legal Advisor, agrees that King George has to know and enforces Sifneos to deliver the message through Raul Rossetis, King’s personal secretary. Rossetis’ reply is quick and keen but clearly shows that King George didn’t pay any attention to the message.

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Apart from Sifneos, nun Despina approaches ex-archbishop Chrysanthos for the same reason. Chrysanthos, a man of great respect, discreetly contacts Markezinis and asks him to send Diella to London to directly pass the message to the King.

Indeed, Markezinis, a man of great power at the time, arranges for Diella to visit London.

However, she does not make it to see the King himself and speaks again with Rossetis, his secretary. Next day Rossetis delivers King’s final answer: “King George II does not pay any attention to such issues”.

King George II finally returned in Greece on September 27, 1946.

Of course he didn’t stop over Tinos Island.

He died exactly after six months and four days, on April 1st, 1947, in the age of 57.

His death was sudden, quick and totally unexpected. The official medical report was “instant heart failure caused by blocked arteries due to thrombosis”.

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WRITTEN BY

John C. Yiannoudis ILLUSTRATED BY

Vaggelis Theodoridis LAYOUT & DESIGN BY

Until Sunday, Italy

First published in 2012.

Copyright Š J.C. Yiannoudis & V. Theodoridis All rights reserved. No part of this pubblication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the writer.

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