The Princess, The Witch And The Pearl

A fable about when what is accepted as good turns out to not be, and what is seen as terrible really isn't.

Once upon a time, there was a wise and beautiful fairy princess who was loved all throughout the land. Everyone came to her for advice and she was very kind and very friendly to them. 

Also in the kingdom was an ugly, old witch, who was hated by everyone, because she was very mean and had always been so. Everyone avoided the witch because she was so unpleasant. 

One day, the witch decided to do something good, but had no idea how to perform such a deed, as she had never in her life been kind to anyone. She decided the only way to even come close to such a task was to simply let the fairy princess decide how it should be done. 

The witch went to a secret compartment in her house, and took out a handful of five precious pearls. She had them as long as she could remember and looked at them for how beautiful they were. Since she had no idea how to be nice, she would give these beautiful and valuable pearls to the fairy princess to tend to. 

So the witch started walking down from the rolling hill where she lived, with her pearls in hand, but did not realize she dropped a pearl, which landed in the grass on the side of the road. 

The witch came to the fairy princess' beautiful palace and held out her gnarled hand with her precious pearls in her palm, giving them to the fairy princess. 

The fairy princess generously accepted the kind gesture. The witch, not sure of what else she could possibly do, turned and left. If she had truly done something good for a change, the fairy princess would surely tell her some day. 

The fairy princess examined the beautiful, precious pearls, which were worth a great deal of money, and decided since they came from the mean old witch, they surely had little importance. A terrible person like the old witch could never have such splendor in her possession. 

The fairy princess took the pearls and set them on the window sill, where they eventually dropped off into the muddy river below. 

The fairy princess gave no regard to the pearls anymore, instead focusing on her own creation; dried up leaves ground into a fine powder for people to eat. They could either make it into a dough with water, or they could make it into a paste and spread it on bread, like a jam. 

The fairy princess thought her treat was something everyone simply must enjoy, as she felt it was healthy and she insisted it tasted very good. 

But when people bought the powder, they found it to have a bad taste, and no matter how much they mixed it with water or milk or eggs or butter, it still tasted bad. 

People began kindly refusing the fairy princess' offer of the powder mix, and if they didn't feel like being so polite all the time, they began avoiding her, just so they wouldn't have to worry about hurting her feelings. 

Eventually it became so bad, no matter how much people tried to focus on other things, the fairy princess would still slip in why they should have some of her dried up leaf powder and they'd either refuse her offer, or they'd kindly accept the powder.  

Meanwhile, the one pearl that had landed on the side of the road on the rolling hill was found by the local medicine man. He was astonished to find such a valuable and beautiful object just randomly in the grass. 

The medicine man took the pearl to the village treasurer, who said the pearl was indeed very valuable and reimbursed the medicine man for its worth. 

The medicine man took the money from the pearl and used it to build a great medical center for people to use, far and wide, for when they were sick or hurt. His medical center was very successful; so successful, he decided to name his center The Rolling Hill Pearl Medical Center, since he found the pearl on the rolling hill. 

When the fairy princess heard the story about the pearl found on the rolling hill, she realized the pearl must have been dropped by the mean old witch, who would have come from that way when the witch brought the fairy princess those valuable pearls. 

The fairy princess tried to recall what she had done with the other pearls, but she couldn't remember. The ugly old witch had given the fairy princess a generous treasure the fairy princess could work with, since the witch did not know how to be kind, but the fairy princess relied on the witch being unable to be nice over the offering of the gift. 

The fairy princess wondered if she had thrown the pearls in the trash. Had birds flown in and taken them? She looked at her window sill and wondered if that had something to do with the missing pearls. She looked into the muddy river below and saw no signs of the valuable pearls in the dirty water. She simply could not remember what she had done with the witch's pearls. 

The fairy princess took a jar of her dried up leaf powder to the successful medicine man to see if he would be interested in it, but he told her he didn't find the leaf powder very exciting and wouldn't need it right now. 

The fairy princess was dejected. She took her leaf powder and left. She began reaching out to people less and less. Soon, she didn't talk to anyone about her leaf powder. 

Eventually, people simply didn't go to the fairy princess for wisdom anymore. Instead they went to the Rolling Hill Pearl Medical Center, funded by the mean old witch wanting to be kind, but didn't know how to do so. 

And the greatest irony was no one ever heard  from the fairy princess or the mean old witch ever again.   

Reviews

[Samuel Dickens]

This is very good--an honest-to-goodness fable or fairy tale or whatever you want to call it. Just like in real life, the bad sometimes do good and the good sometimes do bad.