The Archfornicator of Canterbury

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Jeb Peterson waved a stack of typewritten sheets triumphantly at the editor of the Royal National Herald.

"Here it is Boss. If this came out in America it would be a shoe-in for the Pulitzer Prize."

"Any sign of the kid."

"He's making himself useful in the dark room."

"Fantastic. Let's see it. The Cathedral of Nuevo Saunabad was built yada yada yada. Yesterday evening yada yada yada. Huge explosion, lots of rubble, Lower Bulimian separatists suspected, and so on et cetera. I think this will do nicely. Especially if the photos are any good. Goes without saying this will be the front page tomorrow. How do you like CATHEDRAL DESTROYED BY TERRORISTS for the title."

"I'm partial to LANDMARK BLOWN UP - THOUSANDS FEARED MISSING myself."

"Isn't that a slight exaggeration. You yourself are saying in the article that only the Archbishop is likely to have been in the building at the time of the explosion."

"It's hardly as catchy to say AN OLD DRUNKARD FEARED MISSING now is it."

"No it's not but us journalists have an obligation to deliver the objective truth to the public. I think I read that somewhere."

"How about CATHEDRAL OF NUEVO SAUNABAD DESTROYED IN EXPLOSION. Or is that too long."

"Let's just put CATHEDRAL DESTROYED IN EXPLOSION. It's not as if there are any other cathedrals in the country."

"I'm fine with that."

"Good. Take this down to Typesetting along with a few of the kid's photos. Maybe a before-after kind of thing would work here. He did take both didn't he."

"I'm sure he did. Do we have anything else for tomorrow."

"The Squonks lost. Again."

"Better crank up the old generator then."

"Will do. Cheers."

The Archfornicator of Canterbury by Olli-Pekka Rinta-Koski
is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.