All day long Albert was bending down to put shoes on female feet. He found that his old dreams of the desert were now quite tiring. Albert wanted someone to look up to him, for a change.

"My husband wants me to buy my own gift," said the fat lady as she smoked, "Males never know about shoes." She saw then that Albert was a male, too. But she did not see that Albert was in another world.

It was only a quarter of an hour until he could search in his pocket to get money for food. If he could only make it to his break. It was time to be a king -- right now, in his mind.

"Perform, Fool!" said King Albert. In Albert's other world, the Fool now delivered a wild dance to satisfy the king.

"Sir," said one of the generals at his long table. "We know you are king by birth. But we must defend our nation. Enemies are threatening us. If we don't have a victory tomorrow, it will be terrible. We will all be slaves."

King Albert was shocked. He had just come from the shoe store and it was his first time as King Albert. "This is not just your politics again?" King Albert said. "You generals always tell us of our enemies so you can build your army with our money."

 "No, sir," said the general "This time the risk is great. We may not succeed. We won't be able to keep them away."

"What can we do?" King Albert asked, to all the generals surrounding him at the table.

"We are all going to pray now," said another general.

"Wait a minute," said King Albert.

"What?" said the fat woman. He brought the loose shoe so he could slide it past the joint of her foot, at an angle. Albert was back to earning a living.

"I said: Wait a minute. I think I have a good color for you…yellow."

"Yellow?" she said, "No one in the universe wears yellow in the winter."

"I'll be right back and show you." Albert went to hide in the back room.  He explored through the yellow shoes for some large ones. And then he became King Albert again.

The Fool stopped dancing because all of the generals were  praying now.  He didn't want to feel foolish...

"Doesn't anyone have an idea?" said King Albert. 

"We're praying for one," said another general, looking up from his silence.

"I have an idea," said the Fool.

All the generals stopped praying and started laughing.  "I suspect that an idea from the brain of a Fool will not save us," said one general. He looked down his nose at the Fool.

"Well," said King Albert, holding his hand up. "Let's not waste a minute. Out with it, then, fool, or we will put you in chains."

"The idea is: We will all act like fools," the Fool said calmly.

"I think we will have plenty of fools here," said King Albert, looking to both sides at the table. "All my generals are praying instead of fighting."

"Do you have my shoes" said the fat lady, bringing Albert back to the store.

"Yes I do," Albert brought out two pairs of yellow shoes.

"Yellow?" she said. "That's for summer. Our winter is severe. Everyone is freezing and happy to have a roof over their heads."

"That's the idea," said Albert. "Everyone will think you are just visiting from your hot winters by the sea in Mexico."

The woman considered the possibility.

At the same time, the Fool had the attention of King Albert and his generals. For one minute...

"And now you will tell us how that will save us," said King Albert, wetting his lips with wine from his gold cup.

"Because this enemy is afraid of fools. They think fools are sick in the head. And they don't want to catch the disease."

"Can you -- please -- teach us how to appear like fools?" said one general.

"I will teach you all to dance like fools in one hour. And then we will go out and save the nation. Now," said the Fool to King Albert. "Could you give me a cup of that wine before we start?"

In the shoe store, the fat lady looked strangely at the yellow shoes on her feet. Albert was worried she might not buy them. Just then, a young woman walked into the store. She saw the fat woman's shoes and said "Those are great shoes. You are probably going to a warm place while we all freeze here," she laughed.

"Yes, they are nice," the fat lady said.  Minutes later, she took her new yellow shoes out the door.

"I'm so happy you came in," said Albert. "To be honest, I was feeling like a fool."

"Well, don't stop for me," the young woman said.

"Well…OK...Here goes..." said Albert, "Could you tell me your name?"

"Margo."

"Would you like to have a drink with me, Margo?"

"Well…perhaps, after you show me some shoes."

Ready-to-Use

a.      birth: give birth  "He gave birth to his new business that year."

b.     hide: hide away  "We must hide her away from the townspeople."

c.      satisfy: to be satisfied with something  "I can be satisfied with a million dollars a year."

d.     risk: take a risk  "We always take a risk if we fall in love."

e.      earn: earn money "My job is the way I earn money."

f.      surround: to be surrounded with/by something "In my job, I am surrounded with fools."

g.     silence: to be in silence  " I always suffer in silence."

h.     pocket: pickpocket, or pick one’s pocket  "The robbers at the fair picked the pockets of the farm boys."

i.       calm: calm down "My mother read stories to calm the kids down before bedtime."