Baa Baa Black Sheep

Meet the Black Sheep of Hell.

Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool?

Yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full;

One for the master and one for the dame,

And one for the little boy who lives down the lane.

There were three siblings, Robert, Anne and Maurice. The former two were twins, while the latter was their half-brother whose mother was just a concubine. Everyone in their family hated Maurice and considered him as a black sheep. Their father was a powerful merchant in the wool trade. When he died, Robert and Anne, being older and more cunning, got rid of their gullible half-brother from the mansion, who then lived among the bums and alley cats down the cold dark lane.

One day, Robert and Anne were tending to their father’s business, until a visitor came to them. He was a dark and gigantic stranger who had twirled ram horns and surrounded by a sinister aura. “I’m a close friend of your father,” he said, “I helped him with his success in the business.” He then showed them three suitcases that contained their inheritance. He gave one to Master Robert and another to Dame Anne. They opened their own and found lots and lots of dirty money. The twins then asked to whom belonged the third suitcase. The stranger said that it was for the merchant’s third child, and asked Robert and Anne to give it to him. He then left with a smog.

Robert spent his inheritance in expanding their wool trade around the country, and buying more fleecy sheep. Anne spent hers in buying designer-labeled clothes, and starting her own fashion line using the wool in their business. With all the riches that gave them happiness, the twins forgot about the third suitcase. Suddenly, their luck turned around. Robert received numerous debts from the export taxes on wool imposed in the business. A famine hit the farm and stables, that the sheep no longer grew fine fleece. Anne was sued when her fashion designs caused itchy skin. And their mansion was totally burned when one of her expensive clothes caught fire in her huge closet.

The twins were penniless and their suitcases were empty. Then, they remembered about Maurice’s suitcase, which miraculously survived the fire. But greed overcame the brother and sister. Just for that single suitcase, they would not share. Anne suffocated Robert to death with a wool rag. She was about to run away with the suitcase, but she slipped on the same wool rag and banged her head. The horned man collected their souls, shook his head, took the suitcase, and said to the twins, “You should have known the value of sharing.”

He went down the lane where Maurice was trying to warm his self with a hobo fire. He was frightened by the sight of the Devil, but the Devil only gave him the suitcase and left without a word. Maurice opened the suitcase, and with all joy, he found a wool jacket perfect to warm his self.

Author's Note

I based the story on an episode of the Simpsons entitled, Double, Double, Boy in Trouble where Bart's double, Simon, is a rich kid whom his half brother and sister wanted to kill because Simon is blocking their inheritance. The names of Robert, Anne and Maurice came from Pramoedya Ananta Toer's novel This Earth of Mankind. In the novel, it was Maurice who was the eldest and the legal son of their rich father.