CHAPTER 17

Mark

Mark isn’t just the most handsome kid in class, he’s also pretty smart. When he became king, he thought of a fantastic new law:

“Two days for a weekend are not enough,” he declared. “So I’m reversing the week. Weekdays are now only Monday and Tuesday—the rest of the days are now the weekend!!”

The nation went wild. Everyone cheered. He was quickly nominated as “Best! King! Ever!”

King Mark went further. He announced weekly parties called TGIT—“Thank Goodness It’s Tuesday!” He also insisted all schools be closed for the “New Weekend,” meaning Wednesday, Thursday, Fartday, Saturday, and Sunday.

(What’s that? What do you mean I misspelled Friday? No, I didn’t. You’re crazy. No, I’m not. You are!)

The people were ecstatic (that’s a fancy word for “super happy”)…

…but only at first. See, no one was working anymore. Everyone was off for five days of the week. That meant the mail didn’t arrive on time, pizza parlors were closed all the time, and garbage started to pile up on the streets.

With everyone only working two days a week, things started to fall apart. Businesses didn’t make money. So they stopped paying people. That meant parents didn’t have money for the kids, and that meant no money for zoos, pools, skating rinks, amusement parks, movie theaters, or anything fun.…

People had five days off, but nothing to do. The nation started to crumble. And everyone blamed Mark. They decided to revoke his law and take away his crown.

“No, not my crown! It looks so perfect and beautiful on my head!” he cried. He had to think of a new law, and fast. King Mark declared, “Monday is the worst. It’s the day after a weekend, and the first day of the rest of the week. But no more! I am declaring every Monday a national holiday! They can be called Mark Mondays!”

But it was too late. They’d taken his crown, and he had no power to make laws anymore.

It’s too bad. I think Mark had a really great idea. A four-day week and a three-day weekend sounds pretty nice to me. What do you think?