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.
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.
