Today, I'm going to take it a little easy. I'll take a trot to the Yucho (postal bank) nearby to replenish some of yesterday's expenses. From tomorrow's forecast, I see the temperatures start going up again (it was so nice yesterday--thank YOU Father!), and after that, it looks like it's going to be "stay-indoors weather" for a while again.
Anybody for a story? This one that was originally in Japanese. I was talking with my husband about how some customs might've gotten started, like taking flowers to sick folk, and this "maybe" story unfolded. Here it is, in English, illustrated with drawings from last year.
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A boy, going up the mountain to do his goat-herding work each morning, heard out a cabin window the plaintive sighing of a little girl, "I wish I could see the flowers, the trees, the sky..."
One day, he determined he would do something about that. While watching the goats, he picked flowers, the prettiest he could find--and up here, where they grew wild, they were big, strong, bursting with color. His heart was bursting with happiness too, imagining her surprised pleasure with the ones he had gathered.
He whistled all the way back down the hill, then realized when he got to the cabin, he hadn't thought about how he would get the flowers to the little girl. He looked around and saw the windowsill. He made sure no one was looking, then he hopped over and dumped his floral treasure onto the wooden platform and raced home.
The next day, the soles of his shoes barely touched the ground as he ran to work...well, to the cabin on the way up the mountain to work. How had she responded?
She had noticed! And liked them!
Alonso--that is the name of our Good Samarian--smiled all morning. The next day he would not stop at flowers. He went to his secret brook and looked for his favorite rocks. Some of them had been water-polished for centuries and gleamed like opal. Their mysterious milky mixings of color and design would, no doubt, hold her spellbound, he felt. And all girls liked diamonds and rubies, like the crystals he knew he could find. Strange...the hours of work seemed to fly by for Alonso now.
Again, in the evening, he deposited his find on the windowsill and ran home. The next day, he was thrilled to see them decorating "his cup" and the area around it, and...there were two more pieces of handmade caramel set out for him too!
Alonso's heart felt like it would explode with happiness. He would show Brigita the golden lichen that grew on the walls of his secret canyon. She was his friend now. Surely, she wouldn't tell anybody. For that day's route, Alonso took the goats to the pass, and found a flat rock the right size he could take to Brigita. That evening, he carefully placed that mossy stone on the wooden windowsill and went home.
The next day was Alonso's day to see Brigita's grandfather about getting paid for his goat-herding job for the month. Of course, on his way to the front door though, he passed by the windowsill. The flat moss-covered rock had been placed right under the cup with the flowers, making it look like a stand with a golden doily. Brook rocks cascaded tastefully all over, around it...except for several places where there were two handmade caramels!
"Oh, Grandfather? This month, instead of pay, you know what I'd really like? A birdcage."
"A what?"
"A birdcage. It doesn't have to be fancy. Just wood or even twigs is fine. Held together with twine, doesn't have to be painted or anything." Alonso said to a rather perplexed Grandfather.
"See, what I want to do next..." then, looking around and lowering his voice, Alonso told grandfather he wanted to catch a pretty bird he'd seen for Brigita "but I can't set a bird on the windowsill now, can I?" Would Grandfather be good enough to make a small cage for him?
"Well, why didn't you say so?" Grandfather shuffled off to the shed to pound and cut and fix up a cozy little box with perch and feeding dish, twine looped at the top for handling/hanging.
"Just a little something I threw together. Will this do?"
It had taken Grandfather less than an hour to build the cage. But catching the bird took Alonso a great deal more tiime than that. Several weeks later and no closer to getting the bird, Alonso gave up and caught another slower, small bird. It wasn't anything special to look at, but he always thought it had the most pristine singing voice in the forest.
Almost as an apology, he decorated the cage with flowers from the fields; put a small golden-moss covered rock in the corner, and added shiny pebbles from the creek. Maybe she wouldn't be too disappointed. With these additions made, Alonso set the cage on the windowsill and went home.
Alonso trudged to work the next day, wondering if he would see two caramels on the windowsill, or if there would be no more candy for him.
But almost before he saw the windowsill, he saw Brigita...standing at the window!
Embarrassed, he tried to hide.
"Alonso! Are you there? Come here my dear boy, so I can thank you!" Brigita was calling to him.
Alonso came out from behind the bushes and went out toward the windowsill, but as he got up towards Brigita, he realized she was reaching out towards him, with both her arms outstretched...she was blind!
These are the most wonderful gifts I have ever, ever received. However did you think of them?" She was feeling his face now. "Why Alonso, you are crying! Why?"
Alonso, desperately praying for the right words, answered, "Have you not heard of tears of joy? I am so glad you liked them, Brigita."
The highlight of that day however, was when Brigita announced:
"Grandfather, do you remember the doctor said he wanted to try an experiment and thought I'd be able to see again? I said no, because I was scared if I tried and if it didn't succeed, I'd be disappointed. But I think now at least I must try. I want to be able to see my Grandfather and Alonso."
When the two cried this time, it wasn't because they were sad.
END
