The Great Galimatius - Part 2

Yet another time, he got talking to a lady who was sitting on a bench outside her cottage. She drifted off to Slumberland soon after he began droning on about his adventures. He finally realized that he had lost his listener when her snoring began to drown out his voice. So, he wandered off down the winding road in search of other people willing to listen to his fribblefrabble.

About an hour or so later, he happened to be coming back the same way. The woman was still there snoring away - except that now a crowd of people had gathered around her. They had tried to wake her up but were unable to do so.

Of course, the Great Galimatius stopped to see if he could help. Several people in the crowd knew him and so they quickly snuck away, heading in all directions other than the one they expected him to take.

Nevertheless, he had learned that there was an antidote for his ability to put people to sleep with his voice.

He gently pushed his way through the crowd until he was standing right in front of the woman. He turned and smiled at the crowd. Then he turned back to the woman who was still sitting on the bench. In a loud voice, said, “And so that is the end of my story!”

With that, the woman awoke from her sleep, stood up, stretched, and smiled at the crowd. They applauded wildly. “He’s done it again!”

“Oh, I feel so refreshed!” she said. “Lovely story, too. Thank you.”

With that, she wandered up the pathway to her cottage, yawning, and closed the door behind her as she went inside.

Several weeks later, Galimatius happened to be wandering about on the streets of the town of Gnomlagger again. It was a pretty little town with tiny houses, many under giant mushrooms or elephant-ear leaves. This made him remember his family’s house under their giant spotted mushroom. He wondered how they were doing, and a vision of his mother’s delicious mushroom custard pies flashed through his brain. It was vivid in his mind and he could almost smell the delicious aroma of a freshly baked pie.

Ahead of him was an official-looking building and a familiar lady gnome walking hastily towards the front doors.

He called out, “Hello Councillor Rockpounder. Nice to see you again.”

Brenna turned around, realized who it was, waved, smiled, and started scurrying faster towards the doors. She was not fast enough.

“Allow me to get the door for you, Councillor. What a pleasure it is to see you again. How have you been? I am glad I happened to run into you today because there is something that I want to ask you about if I may take but a moment of your time. I know how busy you are so I will be as brief as I can.”

Councillor Brenna rolled her eyes and felt a migraine beginning to form in her head. She was tempted to take off her pointed hat and rub her head but decided it would not look proper for a councillor to do that. Instead, she stopped and smiled at Galimatius.

“Galimouthius, right?”

“Galimatius, Councillor. It is Galimatius.”

“What was it you wanted to ask me, Galimunchius?”

“I happened to a see a notice in the town square saying that the Council is looking for a Spokesgnome. I thought that I might apply for the job.”

“Yes, well, you will have to file an application, of course, and that will go to the council who will interview all applicants.”

“All the applicants? Do you have many of them?”

“I’m afraid I don’t actually know and if I did, I would not be permitted to tell anyone. The best thing to do is to do your best and not to worry about whoever else might be seeking the position.”

“Hmmm. Thank you.”

Councillor Rockpounder went on in while Galimatius walked away deep in thought.

Sometime later in the month, during a council meeting,

“We have one applicant left for the Spokesgnome position. This is a gentlegnome by the name of Galimatius Bletherskate. He has a reputation throughout the kingdom as one who can enthrall an audience and the ability to wake up a crowd. It seems to me that this is just the type of person we need in Gnomlagger. Let us bring him in and see what he has to say for himself.”

Galimatius walked confidently into the room. He looked around at all the pointed hats seated around the table.

He smiled, doffed his own pointed hat and said, “Good morning Councillors. Thank you for the opportunity to address you all today. I must admit that I love to talk and often get so wrapped up in my true, always true, stories that I sometimes go on a bit too long and that sometimes has the unfortunate effect of occasionally causing the odd person an urge to have a mental rest. For example, that often happens when I relate the tale of how I came to be known as Galimatius the Great. You see, one day, I was…”

Twenty minutes or so later, he said. “And so that is when gnomes all over the kingdom started calling me ‘Galimatius the Great’. Thank you.”

As one, the councillors sitting around the table awoke, shook their heads, stood up, clapping their hands as they did, feeling totally refreshed as though they had just had an invigorating nap and unanimously voted for the new Spokesgnome – Galimatius Bletherskate.