Sympathy for the Devils: A Simple Act of Kindness
On the corner of Third and Horn Street, a few blocks away from the school is a small diner, Friz's Café. Friz's was a diner that catered specifically to program members, who only paid a small entrance fee and then otherwise received free food as a courtesy to the teachers and staff. In addition it also prided itself on community service, hosting canned food drives, soup kitchens, and limited free food to the surrounding homeless and disenfranchised. The diner, in comparison to the school, was well kept and clean, despite both of them being part of the program and in part funded by Disney Corporation.
The diner was run in part by Horace, when he wasn't working at the school on weekends and some holidays; and in part by Remy the rat, who decided for public relations purposes, as well as to potentially expand his business, to assist the Possibility Initiative. As the afternoon began to wind down and the school let out the students, Remy began to receive his business.
Every day, at approximately 3:45, Ursula, accompanied by Scar, and Archdeacon Claude Frollo, knocked on the windowpanes of Friz's, their respective tentacles, paws and hands outstretched in charity. Remy, every day, would walk up to the door and turn them away.
"Paying customers only the first two hours of business" Remy said, not bothering to open the door, "Come back later!"
Still they persisted, their faces of defeat and hunger, yet resilient. Ursula, taking it upon herself to speak for the group turned to Archdeacon Frollo and motioned for his coin purse. Frollo, taking it, proceeded to the count the money, only for Ursula to take it from him and slam it against the window. Her face screamed of desperation and despair, the last weeks having been unkind and difficult. Scar, mane grey and claws dull, though still healthy by lion standards, was stricken with pain and guilt, unable to put money forth because he had none to speak of, having never had need of it in the African savannah.
"Please" Ursula exclaimed, "It's not much, but it's all we have."
Remy still shook his head, for on this particular day they already had an account that was expensive enough to burn down Friz's, rebuild it, and burn it down just because they could. It would be cruel, Remy thought, to continue giving them handouts when they incurred bad credit that they would never be able to repay; if they did not pay then they would never be able to secure stable jobs and never be able to have a normal life. That being said, Ursula, only being recently fired, still had her last few paychecks to fall back on, so she was considerably more well off than the others- Scar, who had come to the area with the hope of joining the Initiative only to be turned away; Claude Frollo, on the other hand, had moved to the area after leaving France, and then St. Canard, in an attempt to live a simpler life, one that is not bound by politics or government. Until recently, Frollo had been doing well for himself, having found a position at the local Catholic Church, only to be dismissed when his past was discovered.
"Go away" Remy continued, "I can't let you do this to yourselves. I'm sorry but bad credit is worse than no credit. You want food, you'll have to talk to the school, see if they'll let you have their leftovers."
Scar, at this point, resisted the urge to leap through the glass and maul the mouse, and instead, remembering his advice from his psychotherapist, breathed in and out, thinking of happier times, most of which ironically enough, involved Ursula.
"Come on" Scar said, half disgusted and half annoyed, "He's not going to help us. We'd have better luck shifting through garbage."
Frollo, who had not said much, nodded in agreement and began to walk down the street, Ursula however, stood her ground.
"No!" she cried, "I won't do it, I won't rummage through garbage like an animal!"
Scar raised his eyebrows at this, for he was very much an animal, growling at the prospect of being insulted.
"Don't say something you're going to regret" Scar exclaimed, "You're liable to lose more than you could ever hope to gain."
Remy, who could only look on this scene for so long, had retreated back into the diner, just as Robin Hood, Oswald, and Rafiki, always the first to arrive, came to the door. Ursula, Scar, and Frollo, upon seeing them could only hang their heads in shame.
"Don't bother yourselves with us" Scar declared, being closer to them, "Enjoy your meal. We were just leaving anyway."
Robin Hood stopped and looked up, calculating in his head the amount of money it would take for the simplest of meals. Whistling casually, at the same time calling Oswald over, the mathematician, Robin pulled out his wallet, glanced over at the pitiful villains and then back at Oswald.
"How much will it take?" Robin asked, whispering as so to avoid any protest from the villains.
Oswald, after a quick addition plus tax, came up with 10.25 to pay for the simplest of meals. Robin nodded and fished out a fifty, giving it to Oswald.
"Get whatever the most expensive is on the menu" Robin continued, "If it's more than fifty, I'll give you more."
Oswald nodded, understanding the instructions but confused as to why he given them. The fox, not wanting to air his concern in front, gestured towards the door. Oswald, getting the hint, opened it and the both of them walked into the diner, leaving Ursula, Scar, and Frollo on the street.
Frollo, curiosity getting the better of him, casually made his way back to the window to look in. He couldn't the conversation but he could tell that whatever it was they were talking about it was intense, Robin waving his arms around as if he were a mad man and Oswald, in turn, complementing him, his ears doing most of the talking in terms of expression, pointing straight up and stiff as board. Scar and Ursula meanwhile, simply picked up where they left off.
"Why are you here?" Scar began, repeating himself, "You have no reason to be here, you still have a place to go home to, so why do you stay?"
Ursula did not answer directly, the real reason being complicated and rather complex on an emotional level, instead deciding to give Scar the silent treatment. Ursula did not move, not wanting to leave and yet at the same time, not wanting to stay; she was not afraid of what she was going to say, but afraid of what she would not say. Both the same answer and both equally damning, to answer the question honestly would clear her conscious but at the same time potentially ostracize her from what little community she maintained.
"We're Disney" Ursula exclaimed, speaking the truth, "We have to stick together."
Scar nodded, reading into Ursula's words and smiling at the hidden meaning that only he, Ursula, Frollo, Iago, and Pete understood. For Scar though, it had a second, personal meaning, one that transcended all others, entering the spiritual and eternal; a promise that if made would defy logic and reason on an intellectual level and yet completely fulfill it at the same time. Moving closer, Scar hung his head, a small tear coming from his eye and landing on his whisker.
"I can't let you do this, not for me." Scar whispered, "Get out of here while you still can. Leave this city behind -"
He paused, not really sure what to say or it if was appropriate. After a few seconds of silence, Scar went against his better judgement. With the intensity of a melodrama, reducing himself to the emotional level of a confused yet well-meaning teenager who read nothing but romantic novels and recited playwrights like Shakespeare and Hemmingway as if they were the only writers on the subject lacking all context and thereby perverting its meaning, Scar continued with one of the most cliché and overused statements in the history of mankind.
Robin Hood, at this point, had just about had enough; he had been arguing with Oswald for the past ten minutes about the ethics of paying for food only for it to be given to those such as Ursula, Scar, and Frollo. Robin maintained that the status of their former lives did not matter, the fact that they were villains was insignificant compared to the present, in his mind to judge someone based on the past was a greater sin than any which could have possibly been committed. Oswald believed, as most did, that the villains, particularly those who had performed heinous crimes (murder, treason or homicidal rampage specifically) should be incarcerated or otherwise eliminated.
"Have you no forgiveness?" Robin asked, amazed that Oswald would take such a position, "Can you not see that they are on their last legs?"
Oswald huffed, for it was typical of Robin to sympathize with the downtrodden, such was his nature, for Robin failed to see past the poverty and completely ignore the circumstances that brought them to such a state to begin with. Oswald had pointed out time and time again that their villainy had led them down the road to destruction, that their criminal behavior had gone uncorrected for too long for any kind of rehabilitation to occur. They were no longer possessed of human characteristics that warranted sympathy, instead producing only ridicule and general scorn.
"Are you blind that you cannot see what they are?" Oswald retorted, "They've killed people, destroyed our lives, ruined our towns and cities. They are everything that is wrong with the world, the Devil personified, each one a different incarnation, but all serving the same goal and working for the same purpose-the misery of everyone around them, including themselves."
The fox, although seeing Oswald's logic could not deny his own humanity by agreeing to it. Snatching the fifty from Oswald's hand, Robin walked over to the counter, ordered the meals, and walked towards the door.
"If what you say is true" Robin said, turning around slightly, "All the more reason for us to show compassion, lest we stoop down to their level."
Walking outside, Robin was faced with two realities, one- Frollo, who had been eyeing ever since he had come to the window, and two- Scar and Ursula, who were in their current predicament of deciding what to do with themselves. Turning to Frollo first, being the closest, Robin smiled and gave a friendly handshake.
"Here you are Archdeacon" Robin said, patting Frollo's back, "May happiness and fortune find you."
Frollo nodded, returning the handshake, saying nothing, humbly taking his seat as he began to eat. Robin, satisfied, made his way to Scar and Ursula, their conversation getting louder and more heated the longer it progressed.
"Greetings friends" Robin exclaimed, trying to be as warm as possible, "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
Scar and Ursula, upon seeing Robin with his plates of food, could only stare at him in confusion. It took them a few moments to put things together, for they were still inside of themselves, having gone blind to the world in their discussion. Scar, quickly and without hesitation, turned back to Ursula, for to be interrupted at such a pivotal moment was completely unorthodox.
"We need to think about the future" Scar continued, "You and I both know we can't keep doing this. It's either we end it or we fight it."
Robin, making an educated guess, assumed that Scar was talking about love. He did not openly declare it of course, lest he upset them, but he still could not help but think it all the same. The more Robin thought about it, specifically about Scar and Ursula, the more he was able to see- they were both alone, misunderstood creatures; they were both searching for something, whether it was to fill some kind of void or to further their own ends, Robin did not know. He had to, for the sake of his own belief if nothing, assume that they were better than that, that the relationship was genuine, built on time, empathy, a transcendent feeling of total completeness that could not explained by anything else.
Ursula shook her head and without warning embraced Scar as tight as she could, wrapping all her appendages around him, nearly suffocating him in the process, at the same time giving him her answer. Robin, in order not to intrude on the moment more than he already had, smiled and gently sat the plates down on the ground before them.
"If thine enemy hunger, feed him" Robin said to himself, reciting from Romans as authored by Paul, the apostle, "If he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."
With this, Robin left them, saying nothing more nor looking them in the eye, instead thinking to himself and wondering if the act was worth the effort.
Author's Note: Robin is quoting Romans 12:20-21, American Standard Version.
In case you haven't figured it out by now this is a very human story and because it is a human story it must make some attempt at discussing larger issues without becoming preaching. By inserting hints of various issues into the piece, like the Romans verse, it is hoped that the message is conveyed without the suffering of the story, either in plot or entertainment value.