Once upon a time -- actually, last Tuesday -- in the usually peaceful Afghan town of Baghlan, eighteen strangers came to visit.

The strangers were members of Parliament, and they came to visit the sugar factory that brought the town wealth and happiness.

Townspeople jammed the street to see the lawmakers and schoolchildren lined up to greet them. The children shook the visitors' hands, and one teenager presented them with a bouquet of red and pink roses.

And then a suicide bomber blew them up.

Some survived.

The end.