As George listened to these exciting new ideas, he realised he had to come clean with Alice. “Alice, I’ve got something to tell you,” he said nervously. “Two nights ago, I had a terrible dream: I was inside Dragon, seeing the world through his eyes, and that’s how I realised he was addicted to power and that we needed to treat his addiction.”
“Interesting,” said Alice, leaning in and urging him to continue.
“I kept it from you because I felt ashamed,” George confessed. Alice just nodded sympathetically.
“After we gave Dragon our ultimatum, I just couldn’t handle my hypocrisy,” George explained.
“I sort of figured that,” Alice replied calmly, relieved to hear his confession. “I knew you were reluctant to challenge Dragon because, in a way, you admired him. You wanted the sort of control over your life that you believed he had over his. But although he had all that power and could buy whatever he wanted, he never seemed happy, and you never seemed happy either. A week after buying your latest car, you were already thinking about the next one.”
George nodded sadly in agreement.
“What’s more, you knew it was killing the planet but you still couldn’t kick the habit!”
“I know, I know.” Agreed George, sobbing a little.
“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” consoled Alice kindly, “we’re all like that sometimes.”
“Some more than others,” acknowledged George, grateful for Alice’s understanding. “But I tell you what,” he continued, “if you ever catch me looking at new car brochures or staring in a showroom window, remind me I’m an idiot.”
“I will.” Agreed Alice, laughing, “But, chin up,” she said, “now that Dragon has gone, life is gonna get a whole lot better around here.”
The two friends clinked their glasses.
“Cheers to that!” Replied George with a smile.
THE END
While you’ve been reading this silly story, you might have been wondering how these ideas could possibly stack up in the real world. If that’s the case, then take a look the second part of the book. (After all, it’s in your hand already, so you may as well:-)
In it I explore these ideas in more detail while throwing in a few jokes, some of which I thought were funny.
