Diplomacy

There was a valley. A wide, flat, ancient river valley. In the valley was a small town called Crick. Not far from it was another small town called Dram. The two towns farmed the flood plain and fished the river and mined the hills. Times were good; the people multiplied and the towns grew larger, until one day a thought occurred to the mayor of Crick.

"If Dram continues to expand," he thought, "They will soon attack us and take our farmland and fisheries and mines."

So he ordered his artisans to construct a defensive wall around the town.

When the mayor of Dram saw this wall he called his advisors to him.

"Crick has built a wall," he told them, "What does this mean?"

"They mean to attack us," his advisors told him, "Why else would they feel the need to prepare defences?"

So the mayor of Dram ordered his artisans to build a wall around the town.

"Only it must be bigger than their wall," he said, "We cannot afford to be seen to be weak."

When the mayor of Crick saw the new wall he called his council into an emergency session.

"Our worst fears are confirmed," he said, "Dram is preparing for war. We have little choice but to show our strength and respond in kind. Only deterrence can prevent conflict."

So he ordered his artisans to build another wall outside the first wall, but bigger and thicker than before.

The mayor of Dram was understandably concerned when news of the new wall came down to him from his watchtowers.

"One wall was not enough," he said, "We must build another."

And so time passed and walls sprung up around Crick and Dram like the layers of an onion, and each time, the people of the towns built houses between the old walls and the new walls, until the point was reached at which Crick's latest wall touched Dram's latest wall. At this, the mayor of Crick called for a meeting with the mayor of Dram.

"We do not want to go to war with you," said the mayor of Crick, "But we will fight if we have to."

"We don't want war with you either," said the mayor of Dram, "But we will fight if you force our hand."

"Why don't we simply not go to war, then?"

"I thought you wanted to attack us."

"No...I thought you wanted to attack us."

"Not at all."

They laughed and embraced like brothers, and jointly decreed that the ugly defensive walls be torn down and the stone be used to build a new wall around the outside of both Crick and Dram, to celebrate and signify the newfound peace and unity between the two towns.

And so they did.

A short way up the river, the mayor of Sill stood in his watchtower and looked at the new wall being built around Crick and Dram.

"This can only mean one thing," he said, and called his council to session.