A bird chirped. The sun rose. A twig fell to the ground and was immediately surrounded by everyone who saw it. A vast assortment of people all began to kneel, bow, contort, moan and basically do anything else that occurred to them. The twig just sat there.

"It's a sign! A Sign From God!!" someone shouted. They all agreed that it was most definitely a Sign From God and began to do the usual sort of thing one does when faced with a sign from God, which mostly seemed to involve a lot of throwing fish at it.

The twig moved slightly, rustling in the wind.

"It's an omen!" they cried. "Surely a sign from God!" By this time, however, they were running rather low on fish, so they had to send their children to find more.

On the whole the children were rather upset about this, and the more they thought about it, the more they agreed that it really wasn't fair that every time there was a Sign From God, they were forced to find the fish, while their parents stayed and wailed and groveled at the latest omen. The reason for this had been explained to them many times, and, although they always seemed to nod off about the time their parents began explaining the strategic mathematics involved in having children get the fish, they understood the basic idea, which was that, as children, they had to get fish. Soon they began to feel that some inherent right to throw fish at Signs From God was being denied them. They had a right, they thought, to have the fun and responsibility of fish-throwing, regardless of their age.

Some of the other children began to preach rebellion. They stood on fish crates, surrounded by gangs of dirty adolescents, eager for the promise of equal rights in the whole fish/Sign From God issue. At last the oppressed youth came to an agreement. They formed a Fish Gatherers Union, and planned to go on strike, but there was nothing to picket. So they decided to write a protest, but none of them was literate. So, in the end, they settled on ... THE PLAN.

Armed with dozens of fish, the brave young rebellion returned to the village, to the leafy branch which was the latest Sign. The eldest among them fanned out, infiltrating the ranks of contorting townspeople.

Suddenly the cry went up, "The fish! The fish! It's a Sign From God." The children had succeeded in step one of THE PLAN. However, they had failed to anticipate the reaction of the crowd. With unthinkable speed, the fish-throwing mob changed its focus and, grabbing all children within reach, proceeded to throw them, wailing, at the stinking piles of fish. And from that day forward, the children were no longer sent to gather fish, for now they themselves were thrown at the Signs From God. n