The Queen and the Jester

After my last Blog my younger brother asked me if I remembered The Queen Sankskeny . To which I replied - WTF was that all about ?

Allow me to explain; I was the older brother so I must accept responsibility. We shared the back bedroom when we were very young. I created a character called Queen Sankskeny - I'm sure I made the name up – it sounded like a pompous and puffed up royal personage. She was also very hungry. My Brother was the Court Jester...what else!

Of a weekend morning I would lay in the my bed and demand food from my jester – who would bring me pillows and blankets and anything to hand – these I would stuff under the bed clothes -creating my every growing tummy. More food Jester! I would cry as my small head was disappearing behind my huge extended stomach.

Then I was unfortunately sick – hurling the bedding about the room – the two of us would race round the room “The sick...The sick is rising!" I would bellow – as we leapt upon our beds to escape the rising tide of the Queens Puke. Such fun!

Meanwhile in the attic lived a Witch called Barberaba. She was a hostile and evil being; along with Barberaba's sister and Barberarba's cat. Barberaba's sister was a very tall thin lady with a wheeling basket. Is that why I have still have an intense dislike of shopping trolleys?

Barbaraba left notes in red ink for my brother about the house, or under his pillow but never for me – saying things like. “I will GET YOU soon and GOBBLE YOU UP” – signed Barberaba. My brother even found his teddy bear hung by the neck behind the bedroom curtains – Barberaba again!

I also had special powers – I could grant my brother portions of LUCK. If I wanted something from him -like some of his sweets- I would offer him LUCK in exchange. How much LUCK he would ask me? "Oh from here to the end of the garden", I would say – however inflation took hold so over time I had to increase the amount – from here to to Cornwall! But then the distances got silly -so I used up all LUCK I could dispense.

We would raid the red ants nests in the garden – they were the baddies; with a nasty sting. The black ants were the good guys. We made miniature cannons out of tin foil and charged them with powder scrapped of match heads. My brother reminded me that I suggested adding sugar to the cannons to emulate molten oil – it was all rather medieval.

Since I do have some kind of reputation to consider I must say that this psychopathic behaviour didn't last, and I had many pets and was always caring about my animals and loved nature deeply. I was so concerned about feeding my grass snake that I convinced my brother that his baby frogs would be fine sharing my snake's home knowing that they would provide tasty morsels for my hungry snake – well he did have to eat.