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“I have no idea,” says KristalClear, “I’m sixteen. It’s going to be a long time before I have to retire.”
—o—
“How much is enough,” asks NutJob, “and then what?”
“What are you talking about?” asks KristalClear, “you’re the second person today talking to me in riddles.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that! I was talking about HopAlong, about farming, about business. Your dad’s a businessman isn’t he? He runs a shop?”
“Yeah? So?”
“My dad works in a bank. It’s his job to help businesses with loans, and he’s always asking about the end game. He likes to tell me the story of Thomas Mann.”
“What does it mean end game? Who’s Thomas Mann?”
“How will HopAlong know when he has enough money to retire? How will your dad know? My dad goes on about this all the time. The end game. Retirement. I’ve heard this story a dozen times!”
“Mine never talks to me about money, or retirement,” says KristalClear, “he just tells me I always have to put something aside for a rainy day, save something out of my weekly wages!”
NutJob emphasises the question again, “so how much is enough, and then what? It’s a story about greed.”
“I thought we were all just trying to survive,” says KristalClear, “to have enough money to be able to cope, that’s all.”
NutJob tells the story of the ten year old boy in the cake shop. As told by somebody called Thomas Mann from the 1930s.
It’s a story about a grandfather who takes a little boy to a luxury cake shop for a special treat on his tenth birthday. He was told that he can have a small cake or two, but that he must eat the cakes while he’s still inside the café. In fact, he could have more than two. He could have as many cakes as he liked,
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