Subversive Action 101

Three little boys played with cardboard bricks.

Little A liked to build tall structures with the bricks.

Little B would help little A to build but as soon as the tower or structure tumbled, he would fall upon it, giggling.

Little C liked to quietly undermine the structure of the towers by kicking or pushing the cardboard bricks located at the base.

And when the structure fell, little B would fall upon it.

"Little B!" Little A exclaimed. "Don't break my tower!"

Little A's misguided accusation may have added an unexpected twist of fun to little C's subversive action...

Soon enough, tempers became heated. Little A was prepared to protect his tower's sanctity from little B's attacks even though little B kept saying, "I didn't break it!"

When Simone stepped in to take little B out of the fray before matters dissolved into a less verbal battle, little C announced to the other mothers present, "Little B is in trouble because he kept breaking the castle."

The other mothers, who'd been engrossed in their conversation, had no idea whether this was true or not and did not question the statement's veracity: after all, little B HAD been witnessed doing a bonzai jump on every falling structure. Simone felt compelled to say, "Little B isn't in trouble. But you make sure you keep your hands and feet off the tower now, little C. Little A is getting angry."

Unfortunately, little C failed to read his Subversive Action 101 pamphlet, or he would have known that any further covert action on his part at this point would betray his position and jeopardize the mission. When little A built another tower, little C kicked it over, with a roomful of mothers now intent on the drama.

Little C's mother asked, "Okay, so who broke that tower, little C?"

His eyes wide and apparently guileless, little C replied, "Little B broke the tower!"

Laughing, she insisted, "I mean just now, little C. Who broke the tower?"

Little C pointed to little B, firmly ensconced in Simone's lap and nowhere within arm's reach of the cardboard bricks. "Little B..." His attention was diverted before he could finish his sentence: little A had built another tower in the interim...