JÜRGEN JANKOFSKY

 

Anna Hood

 

 

One

 

"Unjust", Anna shouted, "that is mean, so mean!"

On television a refugee waded out of the sea. He carried a child, a dead one. Carefully, almost tenderly, he bedded it on the beach, kneeled down, gazed towards the sky. Tourists in bathing-suits, children, too, came closer, gawping. No, not a movie, the news, all for real, just happening.

Anna covered her eyes and shook her head. But the images stayed. And in the sea more refugees were floating. And at the horizon another boat keeled over.

Of course she did not see such images for the first time, but today it just was more than she could take.

The newsreader said, that one could donate, at any time, if wanting to help.

Anna ran to her room to fetch her piggy bank. Just yesterday she got lots of money from her grandma and grandpa to spend on holiday. "Godspeed! Much fun!" Unthinkable that she and her mum and dad would lie under palm-trees and the things she saw on television would happen... No! Please not!

She lifted her piggy bank high above her head and - bam! -

smashed it on the floor. Coins rolled around.

"What is going on here?" Mum came running out of the kitchen. "What are you doing?"

"I want to donate", said Anna, pointing at the television. "Will you help me?"

"Yes, but..."

"Mean", said Anna, "some lie in the sun, where others die - this has to stop, finally has to stop!"

 

 

Two

 

Robin smacked the gum-ball machine with his hand. "Damn it!" he swore, "How much do I have to put in there? Why does nothing come out?"

Anna watched Robin angrily rummaging in his pockets. But before he could put another coin into the machine, she shouted: "Wait!"

Anna already asked all the other children in her class, if they would be willing to do something for more justice in our world, against hardship, misery and suffering. But all of them had an excuse: some forgot their wallet, some had no time, urgently had to learn something, others had to ask their parents first and others claimed to do something tomorrow, maybe.

Robin curiously looked at the piece of gum, which Anna managed to find in her school-bag, a little dirty, but at least something. And patiently he listened to what Anna told him, how unbearable the images on television are and so on. And indeed Robin gave his coin to Anna as one of the donation-coins.

 

 

Three

 

Anna also donated the money her dad gave her for the A she got in that hard mathematics-test. And she asked her uncle and aunt, her cousins, the neighbours, even her teachers and strangers in the streets to do as she does.

But still the images stayed, these horrible scenes on the news. If anything even more not less such scenes and images occurred on a daily basis getting even more horrible: more and more boats keeling over, more and more dead people, more and more gawpers.

 

 

Four

 

Robin asked Anna, if she knew, that he had a famous namesake: always dressed in green, a good shot with bow and arrow, a hero, brave and smart, who stole money from the rich to give it to the poor.

"Robin Hood?"

"Right!" confirmed Robin.

 

 

Five

 

Anna pondered.

"You mean", she finally asked, "If the rich today would give money to the poor, enough that they could eat, drink, go to school and find work, could live in peace, nobody would have to flee?

"Don't know.", said Robin.

"The poor would not leave their home-countries, to come to wealthier countries on dangerous trips over sea, through deserts, over mountains, despite barbed-wire-borders?"

"Don't know.", said Robin.

"Where can I learn archery?"

 

 

Six

 

Robin noticed, how Anna changed her outfit day by day: At first, she had green bow in her hair, then green nail-polish, and she wore a green sweater, then a green skirt and green shoes and finally she wore green lipstick and eyeshadow, got a green school-bag as well as green bracelet, necklaces and rings.

Well, the greener she got the more withdrawn she became, seemed to ponder a lot, did not laugh anymore, kept out of everybody's way, hardly spoke to Robin.

Probably she would not have noticed, that Robin suddenly wore a green base-cap to school, if the teachers did not always request to get rid of it at least during the lessons.

"Green suits you well!" said Anna.

"It suits you, too", said Robin.

Both grinned.

"Robin Hood was always cheerful", said Robin, "always responsive, always in a good mood."

"How do you know that?"

I read a little, on the internet and so on."

"Good", said Anna, "and now what?"

"Alone, Robin Hood would not have been able to accomplish anything, absolutely nothing, without his followers, without his gang, he never would have gotten any gold, could not have fought for justice, no, never!"

"Um", Anna thought, You mean...?"

"Sure!" said Robin.

"Okay then", said Anna and gave one of her green rings to Robin,

"Welcome to the Anna-Hood-Gang!"

 

 

Seven

 

When Anna searched the internet herself, she found out, that Robin Hood and his abiders were called outlaws. And the law of the outlaws was to give the poor, what you took from the rich. Then she found out, that they only took half of the gold and money and jewellery to make sure the rich would not become poor themselves.

And finally she read, that in England hundreds of years ago, there were Robin-Hood-Festivals, where there was singing, dancing, recitals, acrobatics, balancing and magic-acts and where the rich willingly gave money to the poor, even a lot. Robin-Hood-Festivals always took place on Robin-Hood-day, always on May the 1st.

 

 

Eight

 

"Terrific", Robin shouted, "today is the first of May, come!"

"Where do want to go?"

"Where the rich always have to go, where the money is, to the bank!"

And he took Anna's hand and ran with her through the city.

In front of the bank old men and old women already stood, waving red flags, showing red banners and whistled earspiercingly with their red whistles. On the other side stood hardly younger men and women with black flags and banners shouting at the warblers. Police in between. And when all of them took a deep breath, an old speaker on a stage spoke about the power of money the working men had to overcome and read more sentences from a piece of paper, stuttering, which Anna and Robin did not understand, absolutely did not understand.

Before the two could sing, dance, recite, gurn, juggle, balance or do magic tricks, they rudely got chased away:

"This is no place to play around!"

"This is the first of May - Labour-Day!"

"Got it?"  

 

 

Nine

 

Attention, children! Anna wrote on the internet: Who is against Injustice? Who is for the law of the outlaws? We have founded the Anna-Hood-Gang! Will you join? Just get in touch!

 

 

Ten

 

It did not take long and Anna got online-mail from all over the world.

Otto was the first to answer: I am joining!

Then Achmed, Armen, Amo, Sovanni and Akira.

Maria wanted to know, if she could translate Anna's message into another language.

Sure!

Svetlana wanted to know, if she could forward Anna's message to other children.

Sure!

Indira wanted to know, if the translated message could be translated into yet other languages and be forwarded, too.

Sure! Sure! Sure!

Snowball-effect: Now Giso and Zlatko, Haile, Bageshree, Manon and Thijs, Agneta, Eylül and Sarah, José, John, György and Giovanni, Ling, Rui, Dschingis, Malaika, Vainö, Xabi, Yaala, Hrafnhildur, Bintang, Odysseus and Waluyo, Naira, Mowan, Ernesto and Janko, Jeanette and Yasmin, Karamba, Patrick, Reto, Nanuq, Ngunoue, Sven, Zachary, Narumol, Hoa, Gabija, Radu, Tenzin and Soo-Jung wanted to join, too.

Welcome!

 

 

Eleven

 

“Have you read”, asked Robin, “what ideas our new gang-members have? What we should do?”

“Sure”, said Anna, “Let's see, what we can do!”

It was suggested, that all children, who have to go school without any breakfast, should be invited to lunch by the rich children, Three courses at least: soup, main course, desert. Immediately!

Or all children would go on strike until a tax for the rich is introduced, worldwide, yeah, and all the children would do their homework, write tests and take part in class only when those, who do not earn their money by working but by money itself would always give half their profits. Bam!

Or all people just would get money for being human, regardless if young or old, female or male, thick or thin, yellow, brown, white or black, poor or rich, the same amount of money every month for everybody in every country, just enough so nobody would have to die of thirst or to starve, that everybody would have a place to live, can go to school and have a good job, that pays a decent salary to fulfil all the wishes he has, where he is at home.

All the wealth of world should be enough for all the people, everywhere, okay?

 

 

Twelve

 

“Cheese!”

Robin engineered Anna to and fro, who stood in front of the bank in all her green clothes.

“Another step forward. Yes. And one to the middle, good, very good!”

And then Robin put his green base-cap on Anna's head and Click! And Click! And Click! Robin again and again took a picture of Anna.

And he posted the best one online: With best regards from Anna Hood!

At home Anna added: Soon it is the first of June – Children's Day. From this instant our day should be known as Robin-Hood-Day! We should wear green – everybody has something green for sure: a green stocking or a green band or a green pencil or a green palm leaf or a simple leave of grass – so on Robin-Hood-Day we go where the money is, to the banks, wearing green or to rich people's homes, just where we dare to go on Halloween, too! But there will be no trick-or-treat, no charity, but justice! Yes, for everyone! And who laughs at us or chases us away, will be photographed and exposed on the internet – so the next Robin-Hood-Day more, many more children in green will demand justice – and on the next Robin-Hood-Day even more and more again the Robin-Hood-Day after that! Snowball effect!

Robin asked Anna, if he could write something, too.

"All right!"

So he wrote: Don`t forget, we grow older - and then we will govern the world!

Quickly children from all countries wrote: Yes, yes, yes - We will join in!

Some wanted to know, if green glasses were allowed, too, if they might paint banners or shoot a film.

Yes, yes, yes!

On June the 1st, Robin-Hood-Day, Anna just simply wrote:

Get started!

 

 

Übersetzung /Translation: Marco Organo