“Yeah.”

“Tell me.”

“It’s stupid.”

“No,” Peters said, leaning forward again. “I’ll bet it’s anything but stupid. Tell me.”

“There was a town by the edge of the woods. And everybody who lived there was happy, you know, like in all fairy stories before the bad shit happens. People walking down the street, singing, going to market, having dinner with their families. Then one day these two big bears walked out of the woods and stood at the edge of town with their heads down and it sounded like they were whispering to each other.

“At first nobody paid any attention then little by little the people stopped what they were doing and tried to hear what the bears were saying. But nobody could. That night the bears went back into the forest. And the townspeople stood around and one woman said she knew what they were whispering about-they were making fun of the people in the village. And then everybody started noticing how everybody else walked funny or talked funny’ or looked stupid and they all ended up laughing at each other, and everybody got mad and there were all kinds of fights in town.

“Okay, then the next day the bears came out of the forest again and started whispering, blah, blah, blah, you get the picture. Then that night they went back into the woods. And this time some old man said he knew what they were talking about. They were gossiping about the people in town. And so everybody figured that everybody else knew all their secrets and so they went home and closed all their windows and doors and they were afraid to go out in public.

“Then-the third day-the bears came out again. And it was the same thing, only this time the duke or mayor or somebody said, ‘I know what they’re saying! They’re making plans to attack the village.’ And they went to get torches to scare away the bears but they accidentally set a house on fire and the fire spread and the whole town burned down.”