Sit, my children, and I will tell you the tale of the end. It all started manyyears ago, a short time after man first began to inhabit the World. The Worldgave birth to three children. Her children's names were the Sun, the Moon and theStar. The children loved to play games, and their favorite game was chase. So theSun would chase his sister, the Moon, and his brother, the Star.

TheDevil, an enemy of the World, wanted to destroy it. He spent much time trying todevise a way to do just that. Finally, the Devil invented the Wheel of Fortune.The World, through her friends, Judgment, Temperance and Strength, found outabout the Wheel of Fortune. They explained to the World that it was a game whereyou spin the wheel and perform an act of either good or bad fortune.

TheWorld warned her children not to play the Devil's game; they promised theirmother that they would not. Weeks later the Devil appeared to them and tried toget the children to play the game. Twice they turned him down with the reply,"We have promised our mother that we would not play, although it looks likefun."

The Devil looked at the children's faces with their curiositiesrising. He thought for a while. Finally he said, "But, children, my game isfun. Besides, who says your mother will find out?"

The children, withexcitement in their eyes, looked at each other and then at the Devil. At lastthey replied in unison, "Yes, we will play your game as long as our motherdoes not find out."

"Your mother will not find out as long asyou agree to follow my exact rules. There is no turning back once you begin toplay." The children, not knowing what they were truly agreeing too, told theDevil that they would do as he said.

The plan was as follows: they wereto play their usual game of chase and take turns spinning the wheel. So for partof the time, the Sun would be out of view of its mother (this is our day) and therest of the time his sister and brother would be out of their mother's view (thisis our night).

Now when one was in sight of the mother, the other wouldspin the wheel. After the three had spun, after there had been two spins thatwere the same, after they had discussed what to do, the three children performedtheir fortunes. (The period during the day when you see both the sun and moon inthe sky is the time that they discuss what they should do to fulfill theirfortunes.)

The fortunes were to be performed on their mother only. Thecatch to the game, however, was that they could not stop playing the game untilthe Devil said it was okay. The plan of the Devil was to get the children toreach the fortune that called for total destruction; only then could they stopthe game.

For many days the children landed on good fortunes, so theybrought peace and prosperity to the world. Finally, years later, the childrenlanded on destruction. They attempted to plead with the Devil not to do as thefortune said. After all, how could they bring such harm on their mother? However,they had agreed to play the game and follow the rules, so they were not allowedto back out. The children plagued their mother with war and hatred (this wasWorld War I). They finally had the chance to end the war, about three yearslater.

For many years they had days of good fortune and days of bad.Eventually, they landed on "destruction" again. So again they plaguedthe world with war (World War II). The Devil was not going to give up. He keptthe children playing; he was not satisfied. Their mother could not understand whythis was happening.

She questioned her friends, Temperance, Judgment andStrength, about why her children were treating her so badly. As the Devil hadpromised, their mother had not yet found out that they were playing his game. Oneday after all was over, the war, the killings, the hatred, ithappened.

The year, I believe, was 1994. The Devil told the children thatif they were to spin one last time that they could stop the game; however, therewas a catch. They had to go with the fortune that either came up three items, notjust two, or they had to take the one that came up once. So, the children spunthe wheel. Good and good, the first two spins a success; they were sure that thelast fortune would be another good one. Then they could bring a lifetime of peaceto the world. The spin was made and it was ae TOTAL DESTRUCTION. Now what werethey going to do? They had to destroy the World, their mother. The children toldthe Devil that they would not destroy their mother. With fire in his eyes, theDevil shouted at the children, saying they promised to play "his"rules. The children screamed and shouted so loudly that their mother heard. Shehad been talking with her friends, and questioningly, she looked at them andasked, "Why do you think they are crying?" Her friends told her thatthey had been playing the Devil's game. Although the mother was upset with herchildren for not listening, she went to see what the catastrophe was. The Worldconfronted her children and asked, "Why do you all cry so much? Whatever isthe matter with my children?"

With tears in her eyes, the Moon beganto tell her mother that they were playing the Wheel of Fortune with the Devil.Her crying became so bad that her mother could not understand what she wassaying. She looked at her son, the Star, and asked him what his sister was tryingto say. At that moment, the Star felt so bad and was so overwhelmed with guilt atwhat they had done, he burst into a billion pieces and filled the sky.

TheSun, who was trying to hold back the tears, looked at his mother and began toexplain. He told her that they had to destroy her so they could end the game theyhad grown to hate; they had only been trying to have fun.

They asked theirmother if there was anything that she could do to stop the Devil from making themdestroy her. She replied that she could but would not. Although it meant herlife, she would not let her children break their promise, even if it was to theDevil.

The World asked the Devil if he could give them a week in which todecide what they would do. He agreed and said he would return in a week. So, theyall got together and started planning how they would do it, so they would nothave to kill her all at once.

A week later, as promised, the Devilreturned. The children told him they decided to make their mother's sufferingbefore they would completely destroy her. This type of thinking is what the Devilthrived on.

He thought that he had totally corrupted the World's children.Why else would they want their mother to suffer. Little did he know what theywere truly up to.

"We will plague our mother with death, war,violence, disease, hunger, poverty, and many other trials and tribulations,"the children told him. "This way it will seem as if she simplyself-destructed and the gods will not go after anyone for her death. We have onecondition, if, perchance, she pulls through all the hardships we will put on her,then she is to live - AGREED?"

The Devil agreed to their condition aslong as they did not help her. So, this is how it was. The children still playtheir game of chase and will continue to do so as long as their mother is alive.The question is how long will she survive the destruction that has already begun?