A Man Who Likes to Point at People

Among the other creatures in the Orchard, the Owl is the wisest. She has the most stories to tell. Though she is always sleepy during the day, she is very much alive after dusk. The Owl flies through cities and town, learning human after they take off their masks of images that they wear during the day. At night, The Owl collects stories of wisdom to tell to the young little gnomes. The gnome kids gather around her in the afternoon, after she wakes up from her nap.

The followings are one of her most important stories, that she tells to the young little gnomes, who are clean and bathed, who have gathered under her cherry tree.

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There was a merchant who was really bad-tempered and arrogant. The merchant was an old man with big tummy, but his legs were not long or wide enough to balance his shape. This unfortunate pair of legs could only hold his enormous body and support his cunning head, and from time to time those legs were trembled for the weight. The merchant’s hair was thick, but the roots were already white. His eyebrow and moustache were thick too, the roots were white but the tips were still tinged with reddish black.

The merchant lived with his thin, tall wife. The wife’s body seemed to grow taller and taller every now and then, as she grew her long patience that was needed to live with such a husband. In that house also lived a cook girl who also serviced as an every-business-maid, and a man who was the merchant’s assistant, who also serviced as an every-business-servant when his master wanted him to.

It was undeniable that the three of them; the wife, the cook, and the assistant; did not like their Master due to his bad-tempered nature, and due to the tone of his voice which was always arrogant and underestimated his fellow human. Moreover, Master Merchant liked pointing at people. Maybe when he was young his mother never told him that pointing at people is not polite.

With his fat fingers, Master Merchant pointed at people, showed their mistakes, and announced their failures as something to laugh at. His tongue was sharp and his mouth always thrust and pricked, cruel words explained what cannot be explained by his mute fingers, accompanied with cruel laughter. Strangely, Master Merchant always pointed at people with his five fingers of his right hand. Apparently, Master Merchant was a man who believed at the aphorism, “When you point at people with your index finger, your other four fingers will point at yourself.” Master Merchant decided that to get away from the aphorism was to point at people using his five fingers when he wanted to point at people. It became a habit within him. Master Merchant felt free from his four fingers which will point at himself by pointing the person he wanted to humiliate, in a private room as well as in public. It was true that he did that to give a critical suggestions, but most likely, he did it just for his hilarious entertainment.

This bad way of humor annoyed The Assistant the most. He was bored and even nauseated when Master Merchant pointed at him with his five fat fingers before humiliating him in front of his business partners or customers. Master Merchant’s favorite joke was about his hair or skin. The Assistant was a migrant worker from the east whose skin was dark and whose hair was curly and reddish, different from Master Merchant’s silky hair and fair skin. To make his appearance less contrastive, The Assistant spent some of his wage to buy Skin Whitening Elixir and Silk-Straight Hair Elixir, which were on sale in their shop.

In the fourteenth year of his duty as a merchant’s assistant, The Assistant was humiliated by Master Merchant in front of The King of North East who came by to export some goods. The King of North East was a man with wild red skin and a bush of messy, wavy hair. With a bundle of nauseating politeness, Master Merchant offered him his best Skin Whitening Elixir and Silk-Straight Hair Elixir. “The best bottles of elixirs you can get, Your Majesty. 99 of 100 people who tried the elixirs get their skin fair as the sun and their hair silky as the finest silk fiber. However, Your Majesty, please do not see what happened to my poor Assistant. He is the unlucky 1 from the 100 people who used the Elixirs.” His five fat fingers pointed at The Assistant.

The red-skinned King was fat with laughter. Seeing that the King liked his joke, Master Merchant continued his mean words and pointed at The Assistant’s physical ugliness. With his fat fingers, he pulled The poor Assistant closer. The fingers then ran at the bushy thick hair, showed the King how curly the hair of this kind of human had. He also mentioned that The Assistant used to have a lot of dandruff and how his hair was redder than thick essence of areca nut, before Master Merchant commanded him to apply Silk-Straight Hair Elixir. “Look, this bushy messy hair was such a progress, Your Majesty, compared to how it was before. And look at his cream-coffee-color tone of his skin. It used to be as black as coffee without cream, Your Majesty.”

The King nearly rolled over the floor by the way he laughed. When he and his lot left the place, they took a carriage full of Elixirs and gave a chest full of gold as well as his country’s signature sword plated with diamonds as the payment.

The Assistant was not as happy as his master for the successful transaction. In the contrary, his chest contained a terrible grudge within him. The grudge became worse when Master Merchant replayed the joke in the dinner table later that evening because he thought that his wife and The Cook considered it as an extraordinary funny joke as well. The two women could only give a fake laughter while they took a pitying glance at The Assistant when Master Merchant told the humiliating story all over again and insulted The Assistant.

After dinner, The Cook cleared the table and washed the dishes while the merchant’s wife entered her office to put a note about the big transaction of the day in her ledger. Master Merchant entered his room and lied on his bed with a feeling of exhaustion but also content. Not long after that The Assistant, who was blind with grudge and fury, entered the room. Master Merchant had been asleep and was having a nice dream when The Assistant took the sword plated with diamond from its place on the wall. The Assistant then cut the five fat fingers which had ripped away his dignity.

Master Merchant’s scream was heard to the entire village. His wife and his cook ran to him immediately and helped him, while the village authorities came and caught The Assistant. The Assistant came willingly with them.

“Let me cut off your mean fingers, Master, so that your soul will not be dragged into hell by their sins!” was his last words to his Master before the authorities put him into jail.

In the hearing, The Assistant admitted his faults and accepted his punishment quietly. The Judge decided to punish this dangerous man by drowning him into the depth of a lake. The Assistant prayed before being drowned, “Let my soul be held by God, and if He put me back into this world, let me be a fair-skinned, straight-haired man without mean fingers to point and insult people with.”

And drowned he was into the depth of the lake.

In the mean time, Master Merchant was healed fast, thanks for the good treatment paid by his wife and The Cook. He had lost his right hand’s fingers, and now he had to teach his left hand the right hand skills, such as writing, using fork to eat, and counting using a wooden calculator. Those five fingers were too busy without being used to pointing at people and laugh at them, but Master Merchant was a clever man. He used his chin to point at people. And moreover, as the matter of fact, the chin and the lips were placed closer, therefore it was easier for them to work together. The insults were becoming crueler and his words were becoming meaner. Master Merchant liked to insult at his loyal wife and The Cook, who had cooked him nutritious food so that he was healed faster.

The Cook apparently was shorter in patience compared to Master Merchant’s wife. It was a year after Master Merchant’s fingers had been cut off and now he was totally healed. Master Judge came by for dinner and to finish the administration business about The Assistant’s case. The Cook was to cook fabulous menus to greet Master Judge. She was also to open the door when Master Judge came, to keep his coat and shoes, and to serve them the meals.

Master Judge knocked politely when he came. The Cook opened the door politely also, and kept his shoes and coat. “Mistress, Master Judge is here.” She said while taking Master Judge to the dining room. The Mistress, who was putting on the butter plate, greeted Master Judge and told him to sit down next to Master Merchant, who was pointing with his chin the meals he wants to eat.

The dinner was cheerful. The Mistress put heavy meals on everybody’s plate. The Cook added more wine to their goblets. At the time, the conversation was pointing to The Assistant who had cut off Master Merchant’s fingers the year before.

“A real unfortunate. Such a good boy, he was, actually.” said Master Merchant. “But surely we cannot predict what happened in his mind, can we? And apparently he was mad. Good for you, eh, Cook?”

The Cook who was pouring wine into The Mistress’s goblet was surprised. “I beg your pardon, Master.” she said. “But what does Master mean?”

“It’s a real fortune to you that we figured out that The Assistant was a real mad man, just before you two madly flee to a wedding, right? Oh, it would be madly embarrassing.”

“What does Master mean with that statement? I completely do not understand. ”said The Cook.

“Oh yes, Master Judge,” said Master Merchant, his chin sharply pointed The Cook’s face. “The dim-witted Cook had been assured that The Assistant was madly falling in love with her, I knew that the two had been in a relationship for so long. They spent their time in the orchard, in the prairie, in the backyard of the barn. You two had kept the secret of your dumb love affair, and this stupid girl had given herself to the mad curly-haired. I know they planned to wed and flee the country. Oh I knew it. But then the mad man cut off my fingers, and left the dumb girl without a word! Ha ha ha ha…” Master Merchant laughed . “More wine, Dumb Girl! Ha ha ha ha…”

The Cook’s cheek blushed heavily. Of course, what Master Merchant had said was all true, but she had kept the secret with her life. Never had she shed a tear, never had she complain after her lover died in the lake. Remembering all of these put aflame a terrible grudge within her heart, just like the grudge within The Assistant’s heart in the night he cut off Master Merchant’s fingers. With a black cloud covering her heart, she continued serving her masters and her mistress. Not a word slipped from her lips to reply the insult.

That night, the good-hearted Master Judge went home after saying some comforting words to The Cook when she handed him his coat and shoes, “Please don’t let any of his words bother you, My Girl. Being ill and handicapped can turn everybody emotional.” The Cook only replied “Yes, Master. Safe journey, Master.” though her heart was still bleeding from her master’s fierce words.

After the table was cleared, The Mistress entered her office to put the case files from Master Judge into neat folders. Master Merchant walked into his room. The Cook washed the dishes. However, she washed the dishes quickly, as fast as she can. She also wiped the dishes in the speed of light. Afterwards, she took her biggest butcher knife. Tip-toeing, she walked into Master Merchant’s room. He was deeply asleep. And she cut off Master Merchant’s chin with that butcher knife.

Master Merchant’s scream was so terribly loud. The Mistress hurried into the room and helped her bleeding husband. In a blink of an eye, the village’s authorities, including Master Judge who was still in his way home, came to the house. They captured The Cook and put her in jail.

Master Judge himself became a witness of the defense in the hearing, because he was there to watch how cruel the bloody chin was to explore The Cook’s embarrassing love affair. He didn’t have the heart to punish the girl who was actually good-hearted. However, the society didn’t want an evil cook walk around with a butcher knife in her hand to cut people’s chin off. So they punished her by putting her afire in an oven.

“I cut off his chin so that his soul won’t be dragged to hell by the sin of the chin,” said The Cook. “But I think I will now fall into hell for my heart and my hands’ sins. May the Good Lord forgive my soul!”

And aflame she was inside a fire oven.

Master Judge’s feeling was ripped for he cannot do anything to help the girl. So he sold all of his possessions and took his family to move house abroad, in a far away country, where people were all polite to each other.

Now The Mistress and Master Merchant were left in their home. Just as predictable, Master Merchant didn’t throw away his horrible habit of pointing and insulting people. His mouth was still fierce and insidious to explore anything bad from other people. Now that he had lost his fingers and his chin, he used his two eyeballs to point at people. He found that eyeballs were magnificent instruments to point and insult, to perforate and investigate the mistakes, failures, and stains of other people. Apparently eyeballs were able to be meanly flashing, sharply glancing, and naughtily blinking to stress the points of his cruel jokes and mean critics.

The Mistress was an amazing woman, her body was stretched so tall for her long patience, and she became much slimmer too because she had a lot of works to be done. She was now a merchant’s assistant and also the cook for the household. Even, now she was also the Mistress Merchant, replacing Master Merchant who had lost his fingers and his chin. He now spent his time behind the cashier desk near the entrance door. The Mistress had replaced him to offer goods, explain the goods’ functions, price bargain, and correspond with business partners who spread all over the world.

Master Merchant, whose activity was now just to receive money and give change, often threw mean words or nasty jokes to wherever corner of the room where his wife was serving a buyer. His eyes always followed his wife’s movement. When Master Merchant wanted his wife to go there, he yelled and pointed there with his eyes. When he wanted his wife to go here, he yelled and pointed here with his eyes. Slow but sure, his buyers became sick of his attitude to his wife. Master Merchant was a boaster and he liked to show his wife’s weakness in public. The buyers cannot stand anymore to see a wife, who had became so tall for her loyalty, be insulted under their noses. In the end, nobody came to their shop anymore. The buyers prefer another shop which was smaller and humbler, but the owners were polite and friendly.

Among the buyers, a loyal buyer stayed. A little girl with a pair of cheeks in the color of pink cherry blossom. She came everyday to buy a bar of ginger candy for a half of silver coin. A half of silver coin was her daily pocket money, and she spent that half coin for her favorite ginger candy. She always came to the shop because it was the only place where she can find ginger candy in her favorite taste. It was a real unfortunate that Master Merchant’s cruel eyeballs found the only buyer as a tasty target to insult. Probably he did that because there was no other person to humiliate so he did that to a flawless little girl who came to him with a half of silver coin to buy a bar of ginger candy.

The humiliation, fierce words, and insults pointed at the little girl were too mean to write. Shortly, that day the girl sobbed terribly after Master Merchant humiliated her. Master Merchant laughed uproariously so loud that his big tummy shook up and down behind the cashier table. The little girl was still sobbing when put her half of silver coin on Master Merchant’s table and took her bar of ginger candy.

The Mistress watched the whole scene from the corner of the room and she felt pity for the little girl. While Master Merchant still laughed so loud that his eyes shut for laughter and his tears dropped heavily for the amusement, The Mistress took the big jar containing ginger candy bars and ran after the little girl. She gave the jar full of ginger candy bar to the little girl and apologized for her husband’s impudence. The little girl, still sobbing, accepted the jar of ginger candy and thanked the good-hearted woman.

The Mistress walked back into her deserted shop, took a pencil from her accounting book, and walked to the cashier table. “Master, please look at me,” she said to the still laughing Master Merchant. Master Merchant, still grinning amusedly, opened his eyes to look at his wife. Immediately, The Mistress thrust the pencil into Master Merchant’s two eyeballs that were still gleaming in laughter.

Master Merchant screamed so loud. But The Mistress quickly grabbed a wound bandage cloth from the shelf and bandaged it to Master Merchant’s cruel mouth. Now Master Merchant cannot see, talk, or point at people.

The village’s authorities immediately came to see what caused the disturbance and they caught The good-hearted and patient Mistress. The Mistress came quietly. Poor Master Merchant, though the village’s authorities had captured the criminal who pierced his eyes, none of the villagers came to help or to take care of Master Merchant, none of them came to open the bandage that shut his mouth, or to take him out from his deserted shop.

The society decided that The Mistress was a dangerous person because she was proven has the ability to thrust people’s eyes without mercy and furthermore to bandage her victim’s mouth so that the victim cannot scream for help. They decided that the best punishment is to drink poison. The Mistress spoke no words in public before she drank her poison. Probably she prayed in her heart, and praying in one’s heart is indeed the best way to pray.

And die did The good-hearted and long-lasting patient Mistress for a bowl of poison.

Meanwhile, Master Merchant now only had five fingers in his left hand, he had no chin, his eyes were blind, and his mouth was bandaged with cloth. He managed to crawl out of his deserted shop. He lived on his shop’s veranda and he lived as a mute man for the rest of his life. He cannot train the leftover of his body to point and to insult. The society did not open the bandage cloth in his mouth. They felt that it was the best. Master Merchant lived from other people’s mercy who threw him some pieces of food and some silver. The society now called him The Beggar.

Gisa, Yogyakarta, 3 Agustus 2011

The translation done in Yogyakarta, 22 August 2011

***

"Such a creepy story,"says Pipo, his eyes are still wide open for his fear. Baby powder he applies on his face are wet and messy because of his sweat.

"But I like it very much!"says Dodo, the fat boy pretending to be muscular, he is fond of making swords out of straws to teas his friends.

"Are you going to look for other stories, Owl?"Lila and Fusia ask. They are sweet little gnome girls who are easily frightened, but they like it when they are told creepy stories.

"Perhaps,"says the Owl. She combs the feather of her wings, getting ready for another midnight flight through other towns. Looking for hidden stories to retell.

When the sun sets, the little young gnomes go home together to their mushroom houses under the giant yew tree. The Owl flies through the night under the silver moonlight.