Fiction: The Beautiful Plant

My friend, Craig Butler, has written a storybook for children with the blood disorder thalassemia. The stories are geared toward helping them deal in some way with the challenges surrounding this disorder, but they are also easily accessible to those who do NOT have thalassemia. This is one of the stories, by his permission.

THE BEAUTIFUL PLANT

Once, before the wind had learned to whisper and the sea had lost her anger, there lived a poor farmer whose land was rough and rocky. Though he and his wife watered the land and cared for the seeds with the greatest care, their crops never amounted to much. When corn did grow, most of it was eaten by crows. If squash somehow appeared, it was small and lumpy, and was as much brown as it was yellow. Peas, carrots, potatoes – great amounts of each were planted, but little made its way onto their table or to the market.

One day, when the sun wanted to show just how hot he could make the day, an old woman stopped by the farmer’s cottage. She told the wife she was on a long journey and asked if she might have a tiny sip of water. The wife fetched a large cup and filled it to the brim and, though she had little in the cottage in the way of food, offered the old woman the stale bread and cheese she had been saving for her own lunch.

“That’s kind of you,” the old woman answered with a smile, “but you have already given me my heart’s true desire – a cup of water on a hot day.” She then placed one wrinkled hand upon the wife and asked, “And I wonder what would be your own true heart’s desire, Dearie?”

The wife opened her mouth to speak, but paused before finding the words. “It is foolish to wish,” she said, “but if our land could only grow a good supply of food…”

The old woman gazed into the wife’s eyes before shaking her head. “No,” she said, standing and moving to the doorway, “that is not your own true heart’s desire, whether you know it or not. But I thank you for your kindness.”

As the old woman stepped outside, she turned her cup upside down, and a large drop of water fell into the brown grass to the left of the door. She then returned the cup to the wife and resumed her journey, though what that journey was and where it led her remains a mystery.

When the farmer returned to the cottage, the wife asked him if he had seen the old woman, who had walked in the direction of their field. But he remarked that he had seen no one, and the two gave no more thought to their odd visitor.

The next morning, as the wife was sweeping out the kitchen, she noticed that a small patch of grass by the side of the door was a very pleasing shade of green, though all the grass around it remained brown. She studied this spot whenever she passed by, and toward the end of the day, she noticed that a small green shoot had also appeared.
When her husband returned, she told him of the grass and the shoot. “It is a pity the same cannot be said of our fields,” he said, “but perhaps it means the rest of our crops will grow so well, too.”

The next morning, the wife saw that the shoot had grown considerably overnight. As the days passed, she carefully watered and cared for it, and it continued to grow. As it grew, it started to look rather strange and wonderful. The farmer admitted he had never quite seen a plant like this one, although exactly what it was about the plant that was so different he could not say. He also could not say why the plant was growing here, when the crops in the field were not.

“But it is so very unusual,” he said. “When it is fully grown, I shall take it to market. Such a special plant shall surely bring a hefty price.” He thought of the seeds he might buy with that money, and his wife dreamed of having enough food to satisfy their needs and more.

As the plant grew, a large flower bud appeared at the top. The bud grew larger and larger, and when the wife pointed it out to the farmer, he exclaimed, “Surely the flower of such an unusual plant will be equally unusual.” He thought of how such a flower might increase his asking price when he took the plant to market and wondered if perhaps he might have enough money to purchase a chicken to raise. For her part, the wife wondered if she might be able to obtain material to make new clothes or a blanket to keep them warm through the winter.

One morning as he left to work the fields, the farmer examined the plant closely and told his wife, “I believe today is the day the flower shall open. If so, I shall take the plant to market tomorrow.”

The wife was excited, though also a bit sad that the beautiful plant would no longer be near her. She watched the plant throughout the day, waiting to see the bud turn to a flower.

When the husband returned for lunch, the wife saw the bud was unfolding, and she quickly drew her husband’s attention to this fact.

“What will this flower look like?” the farmer said, wondering at the same time if he could possibly fetch enough money for the plant to buy a horse to make the plowing easier.

“It has almost opened,” the wife exclaimed, and she hoped they could earn enough money to buy a cow to replace the old goat that gave them so little milk.

They looked eagerly at the flower bud as its petals slowly fell away, wondering what changes lay ahead and how their lives would be improved by the strange good fortune of this most unusual plant.

At last the petals opened, and the farmer and his wife gasped at the sight.

There, in the center of the flower, lay a tiny baby.

The farmer looked at his wife. The wife looked at the farmer.

Then they both put out their hands and gently, tenderly, plucked the baby from the center of the flower.

Immediately upon doing so, a great shiver went up through the plant, causing it to shake violently and fall into tiny pieces.

The farmer and his wife looked at the plant, which was ruined and would no longer bring them any of the things of which they had dreamed.

And then they looked at the tiny baby, who was gurgling softly and sweetly. This was not at all what they had expected. What is more, they knew that such a tiny thing, so different from other babies, would require special, tender care.

But they did not care that things had worked out quite differently than they had anticipated. All they knew is that they both felt very, very happy.

And so they smiled, and looked down at their new baby and knew in their hearts that this was a greater gift than any they could have purchased with money.

They then stepped into their simple house where the three of them would live happily ever after, and quietly closed the door.