The Princess of the Pond: An American Fairy Tale

 

       She was watching him carefully, her green body suspended in the water.  Her eyes were barely visible on the water line while her legs were extended and her webbed feet were inches above the bottom of the pond.  She had noticed him before and wondered why he made her feel the way he did.  He was a human after all and she saw plenty of humans as they searched for their lost balls in her pond.  But, this was the first one that interested her.  Maybe he was the one she was waiting for.  She had been told stories by the ancient toads of mysterious beginnings and omens portending her greatness.  She was the Princess of the pond, but the stories hinted at more. She was impatient to begin her life and this boy felt as if he might be part of it. 

        He stomped about the pond angrily searching for his special golf ball imbedded with gold leaf.  He had hooked his shot on the 7th tee and watched his ball sail into the pond next to the dark forest surrounding the golf course.  He was angry because this ball had been given to him just last week by his father.  His father wanted to reward his son’s dedication to golf (actually, to anything and since golf was the only thing, it had to do) and he had this ball made especially for his son’s sixteenth birthday.  He had won his first tournament the day after his birthday with the ball,  a truly unusual gift.  Unusual was important to him because the usual was so common and he deplored the commonplace.

Deep and dark inside of me

ready to discover

what I’m meant to be?

I wonder, wonder, wonder.

        She was motionless as he approached the spot where his ball was buried in the mud at the bottom of the pond.  He took his club and began to probe for the ball.  She moved toward him, when he noticed her approach, he spoke to her, “Hey puddle splasher, do you know where my ball is?”  

        She surprised them both when she replied, “Oh human one, I know well where it is, but what will you give me for your orb of gold?”

        They looked at one another with wonder, until the boy recovered his composure and said, “Get me my ball and I will take you to live at my father’s mansion where you shall want for nothing.”  He looked at her and waited for her reply thinking to himself, what beautiful legs, they look delicious.

        Her mother emerged from the woods and hopped up to his golf bag. 

     “Daughter dear, remember the promise of your greatness,  humans only destroy and if you go with him you will be destroyed, just like your father, killed by a golf ball at the hands of the uncaring humans.  I beg you to stay and be patient with your life.”

        “Mother, Mother I will go, you can not stop me now or ever, for I know my mind and have been promised that I will want for nothing.  Is that not what has been foretold for me, to want for nothing, to live as a queen.  Is that not what you are, the Queen.” replied her daughter.

        Staring into her daughters eyes the Queen spoke softly, “Indeed daughter of mine, promises have been made, a future has been foretold, and I am Queen of that which I know.  Go if you must, but the magic you possess is powerful and I know there will be a test.”

        “Hey, what are you two blabbing about, are you going to get my ball or do I have to go hire a backhoe and dig it out myself?” whined the young man while he swung his club in preparation for the next hole.  “If you are going with me get my ball and hop in the pocket of my bag so I can finish this round before dark.”

Get his ball and hop into the pocket she did, ready to begin a life of extravagance and joy.

**********************

        She soon discovered she had been deceived.  The boy’s idea of wanting for nothing was to give her all the flies she could eat.  He would bring bag after bag of dried flies, she remembered the fresh taste of flies on her tongue as she captured them at her mother’s pond.  She was trapped by her own decision.  This was not a place of joy,  she was so unhappy that she stopped talking to the boy.  He became angry and stopped visiting her at the pond in the mansion’s north wing on the second floor. There was plenty to do in her extravagantly furnished room where the pond was located, but she was alone and sat all day at the window staring at the world she missed.

        One day, after a long absence, the boy came to her room.  He looked at her and said, “Puddle splasher, I think I am ready to eat you.  You have stopped talking and that was the most uncommon thing about you.  Now the most uncommon thing is your big fat legs.  Tonight I am going to have them for dinner.”  

        When she heard these words she became angry.  Truly angry for the first time in her life.  Until now she had thought things would get better, but now she realized what a stupid little princess she had been and was angry at herself for not listening to her mother.  She was so angry smoke began to come out of her ears. She felt like she was being boiled.  Her body changed from green to red.  As she gazed at the boy she spoke these dark words from deep within her. 

“You silly fool, 

I am not here for you to eat,

but to find out what makes me great,

I know now that what I want 

is for you to become as me 

and learn to hop.”  

        As soon as she uttered the curse, the boy became a big, dark green, handsome bull frog sitting next to her on the floor.  She quickly hopped out the open door and he followed, out of the house, across the lawn, and eventually they arrived at her mother’s pond.  There was her Mother sitting on a lilly pad in the middle of the pond.  Next to her were the ancient toads and all the frogs of the pond watching as the two newcomers approached.  When the toads realized who it was, they began to sing.

  

“Hail O Princess, 

Hail to thee, 

Welcome Home, 

What is it you will be?”

        The princess and the new frog jumped into the water and swam to the lilly pad next to the Queen.  

The princess announced to all, 

I have returned and plan to stay,  

for this is where my greatness lay, 

not in the human world, 

for sure that is a terrible place to stay. 

The magic in me is becoming strong and 

I have brought a human who is now a frog  

She realized there was much to learn about how to handle her magic, but right now she had a lot to teach this new frog who would become the King when her mother retired and they became the rulers of the pond.  

               The new frog sat on his lilly pad and thought to himself, “This is truly unusual.”  He sighed and jumped into the water to test his webbed feet wondering to himself, “If I eat frog’s legs, am I a cannibal?  

               As far as I know, they are still there to this day, living a life of extravagance and joy together.

 

 

Albert: The Dancer With One Hand

   

 Once there was a young man and a young woman who loved each other so much that they conceived a child outside the sanctity of marriage. They were overjoyed with their child and named him Albert. He was a beautiful child who was born with a deformity. He had no right hand. This did not matter to the young couple who loved Albert and treated him as if he were whole.The young couple had to work hard to make ends meet and because they begantheir family earlier than most it was more difficult. This did not bother them as they knew their love and confidence in their future would see them through the difficult times.

And slowly but surely they began to accumulate small comforts and join the middle class of their community. Albert was not aware of the problems his early arrival had caused because it did not matter to his mother and father who spent their free time together as a family.

 As Albert grew he learned to love dancing because it made him feel whole. At night before bed his Mother and Father would watch him dance and laugh and applaud as he twirled and jumped in front of them. He truly loved the way it felt to spin and balance his body first on one foot and then another. He loved the beat of the music andthe way his body felt as it throbbed inside him.

When he started to school other kids would stare at his missing hand and sometimes they would make remarks that were not very nice. Albert knew he was different and didnʼt care what they thought about his hand. It didnʼt keep him from dancing and that was what mattered to him. But, as he grew older the other kids beganto notice that he didnʼt play sports and when music was playing Albert would spin andtwirl around. The other boys called him a girl with no hand and laughed at him. Albert ignored their laughing and teasing and when he was at home his mother and father loved him and he knew he was whole.

Then one day when Albert was in the fifth grade he was called out of class to see the principal. There in the principalʼs office sat his father who looked very sad and had tears in his eyes. He told Albert that they needed to go home and when they were in the car he told Albert his mother had been in an automobile accident and was on her

way to heaven. Albert did not know what to think could only look straight ahead and think about his mother and how much she loved his dancing and how much he would miss her.

As time went by and Albert and his father learned how to live without the love of their lives. At first Albert could not dance through his sadness, but his father reminded him how much his mother loved his dancing and how sad she would be if he stopped dancing. So, he began to dance again and found that it eased the pain of missing his

Mother and made him feel whole again.

  

After a while Albert realized his father was dating. At first he was hurt, mostly because his Father spent less time with him, but he was growing older and understood his father needed to have other people in his life. Albert had some friends and he still loved to dance. He was becoming very good at dancing and in his dance classes he

was the only boy. The boys in school still teased him and called him a girl with no hand but,   he loved dancing so much that it still did not matter to him what they said. When he

was dancing he was a whole Albert.

 When Albert was in eigth grade his father remarried. Albertʼs stepmother had two boys of her own who were one year and two years older than him. They called Albert a girl with no hand and teased him like the other kids at school. Now home was no longer a safe place for Albert. Not only did his Dad remarry,  his new wife wanted a bigger house, a newer car and more expensive things in the house. So, Albertʼs Father took a

job as a traveling salesman. Now he was gone all the time. Albertʼs stepmother and stepbrothers did not pay any attention to him and his home was no longer filled with love. Albert no longer felt whole.

He began going for long walks in the desert outside his community. He would watch the sunset, imagine music in his head, and dance. He would stand on a hill overlooking the Rio Puerco and twirl and jump until the sun was gone. Then he would feel whole. When he got home he went straight to his bedroom to stay away from the

people who lived in his house. He began to look for a way to leave home and began to  apply to dance schools. Even though he wasnʼt yet old enough to drive, he wished thathe could leave home and feel whole.

    

One evening while he was twirling and jumping to the sunset he heard a mournful howl, as if an animal was in pain. When he began looking around he came to a deep arroyo full of cactus and saw a coyote who had tried to run between cactus that were too close together. The coyote was trapped so that when he moved it caused him

to howl in pain. Albert walked right down to the coyote and not even thinking the coyote might be dangerous he began pulling the cactus away from the coyote. This caused his fingers and stump to bleed but he persisted until the coyote was free.

The coyote jumped away from the cactus and turned to look at Albert. He said, “You are the dancing boy with one hand. You have given us much joy with your sunset performances.” Albert was dumfounded that the coyote could talk, he could only nod his head in agreement. The coyote looked him in the eye and continued, “You are a very brave boy to set me free in this manner. I am so grateful that I will give you a wish.”

Albert thought the only thing he truly wanted was to have his house be full of love and figured that if his step mom got some money this would make her happy and then they would all be happy. So he said, “Let me have some money to make my stepmother happy.” The coyote turned around and ran away and at Albertʼs feet was a fat wallet. He picked it up and put it in his pocket then ran home to give it to his stepmother. When he got home he handed her the wallet and explained what had happened. Instead of being happy she looked in the wallet and said, “There is only $1000 in here. How could this make me happy. This is nothing. Certainly that coyoteʼs freedom is worth more than a measly thousand dollars. Go back to the arroyo and ask him for more, tell him I want $10,000.”

   

Albert was not sure he could find the coyote and he was certain his request would not make the coyote happy.  He knew how unhappy he would be if he didnʼt at least try to do what his stepmother asked. He returned to the Arroyo and in the fullness of the moon he called for the coyote. He called and called and to his surprise he heard, “What do you want Albert?” There was the coyote standing right in front of him his eyes reflecting the moonlight. Albert explained his predicament and told the coyote what his stepmother had said. “Tsk, Tsk”, said the coyote. “You must be living in a terrible home, why donʼt you ask something for yourself?”

    

Albert explained that all he wanted was a happy home and the freedom to dance. If his stepmother was happy he would be happy. The coyote ran away and there at Albertʼs feet was a big fat wallet stuffed with money.

He ran home as quickly as he could and gave his stepmother the money. This time she looked at the money carefully and was quiet for some time. The she looked at Albert and said, “If he gave you $10,000 he will give you more. Go back and tell him you want as much as he can give you.”

    

This did not make Albert happy, but he walked back to the Arroyo and called for the coyote one more time. When the coyote appeared this time he was not very happy, his eyes were now pools of darkness. “What is it this time?”, he asked in a very annoyed tone of voice.

   

 Albert told him that his stepmother wanted all that he would give. The coyote looked at him and went, “tsk, tsk.” Then the coyote ran away and this time there was no wallet just an envelope at Albertʼs feet. When Albert picked it up he saw that it was from the dance school he was wished to attend. He opened the envelope and there was

letter telling him to come immediately. AHis tuition, room, board, spending money, and a plane ticket would all be covered by a scholarship.

    

His joy was unbounded, he ran home and entered the home. His stepmother asked what had happened and he told her that nothing had happened there was not another wallet and there was no money. She began cursing and screaming at him and soon her sons had joined in the fray.

    

Albert did not care, he went to his room packed his bag and left the home that nolonger contained any love. He never returned and became renowned as the dancerwith one hand. When he had child he taught him to dance and filled his home with love.

Rochester and the Alien Zoo

        When I was a young man, I had a beautiful black dog named Rochester. He was a pure black, 90 pound shepherd labrador mix with pointed ears, a huge tail and a great personality. He was obedient and very intelligent. Whenever I would call him, he would come.

We like to go out to the West Mesa during sunset, sit on the sand dunes and watch the beautiful colors in the New Mexico sky. From the sand dunes you could look across the valley and see for miles. Rochester liked to run into the valley.

        He would run down the dune, across arroyos, around cactus and up hills. As he ran, he would become smaller and smaller until he was only a dot in my eyes. Then I would stand up and call,

“ROCHESTER!”

My voice would echo across the valley and Rochester would turn around and come running back. He would get bigger and bigger until he was right on top of me! Panting and slobbering from his long run.

        One day as we were watching the sunset, Rochester ran into the valley. He became smaller and smaller and then, suddenly, he disappeared! I called for him.

“ROCHESTER!!”

He did not reappear!! This worried me because Rochester always came when I called.

I began walking down the sand dune, across the arroyos, and around the cactus. I could easily follow Rochester's trail in the sand. I climbed and hill and from the top, looked down into a basin. In the middle of the basin was a huge saguaro cactus. This was truly strange, Saguaro cactus don't live in New Mexico. Intrigued, I walked up to the cactus and saw that Rochester's trail stopped right there. It seemed as if the only place he could be was in the cactus. It was very quiet, I heard a whimper! It was coming from the cactus.

        As I walked around the cactus, I noticed a spot on the ground where Rochester's footprints stopped. I gave the cactus a kick close to that spot and a creaking noise began and a door began to swing open. I got down on my hands and knees to peer into the cactus. Sure enough, there was Rochester, curled up inside the cactus. He was frightened, so I crawled forward to comfort him. As soon as I was inside, the door slammed shut! BANG!

Now, I was trapped inside with Rochester. Before I had much time to think about what this all meant, the cactus began to shake. It shook harder and harder then it took off. It wasn't a cactus at all, it was a rocket ship! We flew for quite a while, then it reversed direction, landed and the door opened.

        I looked outside and saw that the sky was green and the ground was blue. Circling the ship were hundreds of tiny yellow men with lots of tall orange hair. They were holding spears, jumping around and making a weird noise thats sounded something like cats ready to fight.

Rochester and I crawled out the door and stood up. The tine men were smaller than Rochester and seemed to pointing their spears toward a path as they jumped around and made their weird noises.

        "Well, Rochester," I said, "Maybe we better walk on this path."

        That is what we did. The tiny yellow men surrounded us as we walked up and down hills, around big rounds and finally into a cave. The path in the cave circled and twisted and it went down and down. Soon we enter a huge cavern, filled with thousands of yellow men jumping around and making their weird noises. At the end of the cave was a huge yellow man, with tall orange hair, sitting on a throne with a crown upon his head. When he spotted us entering the cave he motioned for us to come closer. As we approached the throne the tiny men noticed us and began laughing and pointing at us. The huge yellow man began to bellow, point and laugh until there were tears in his eyes. When he could finally recovered from his hysterical fit, he pointed toward a huge door and nodded to the tiny men who had led us to the cave.

        They immediately began to push us toward the door. The door opened and we entered another huge cavern. This cavern was filled with cages hanging from the ceiling. Inside the cages were the strangest critters I had ever seen. There were purple blobs with eyestalks all over their bodies, green triangles with a multitude of eyes, transparent spheres with colored balls filling their insides. They were aliens from other planets. I suddenly realized that Rochester and I were aliens and they were going to put us in one of the cages to be specimens in their zoo!

Soon we were in a cage hanging from the ceiling and I was wondering what my Mom would do if I didn't make it home for dinner. As I worried about my future, Rochester began sniffing all around the cage. His tail began to wag very fast and he began eating the bars of the cage. These tiny men might have been able to make a saguaro cactus into a rocket ship, but they didn't know that dogs love milk bones and that is what they used to make the cage. Rochester ate a hole big enough for us to jump out.

        Now we were running down a path trying to escape. I looked ahead and sight a small light at the end of the path. We ran faster but soon we were being chased by the tiny yellow men. They were making their weird noises and throwing their spears at us. They felt like pins jabbing my legs as they hit me. The light at the end of the path grew larger, but I was exhausted from running and my legs ached from all the spears that had hit them. I told Rochester to go ahead and escape. But, he turned and faced the hoard of tiny men chasing us.

        Have you ever smelled a dog's breath? It can be pretty rotten. Rochester opened his mouth and hissed his breath all over the tiny men. They fell to the ground, began moaning and wiggling all over the ground. Rochester's breath was a weapon of mass destruction!

We turned, ran to the light, jumped out the cave and ran to the cactus. I kicked the door open, we jumped in and the cactus took off.

        Soon we were back home, eating dinner. I have always been reluctant to share this story, because I am sure there are those who will never believe me.

The Blue Goose

 originally written March 14, 2019

    One of the most amazing places our family was lucky enough to experience was a blue apparition in the Atacama Desert.  It was a collection of living spaces, tents, and metal structures at the crossroads of the Pan American Highway and the turn off to Toquepala which began climb of 8500 feet into the Andes mountains.  It was also a place for the police to stop vehicles to check for something, even if they knew you had nothing.  They might be looking for illegal immigrants, drug activity or maybe they just wanted to harass someone.  The Atacama desert is the second driest desert in the world and the Blue Goose was the name of this hot spot on the ribbon of road cutting through a landscape with the Andes mountains towering over the land to the east and vast stretches of sandy desert running north and south along the coast of the Pacific Ocean to the west.  Vegetation was sparse to non-existent.

    LaWanda and I were working as teachers in Toquepala, the site of a large open pit copper mine 8000 feet above the  blue goose in the Andes Mountain. We lived in pleasant house with our two preschool aged children, close to the school where we worked.  The Blue goose was the first sign of civilization after leaving the mine after driving west for two hours.  The descent was steep causing the road from the mine to twist and turn as the flat plains came closer and closer.  There were spectacular views of the mountains and deserts interspersed with dangerous curves that drew your attention back to the road.  Arriving at the Blue Goose one would turn right and head straight up the coast to New Mexico, if you had a lot of time.  If you turned left the road cut across the Moqueqa Valley and into Tacna the major city of southern Peru, with 5000 inhabitants.  Tacna was a short drive from Arica, Chile, a coastal city where there had been no recorded rainfall and a statue of Bernardo O’Higgins represented the proud heritage of Chileans.

    Our family was frequently stopped at the Blue goose when returning from Tacna.  The police were neither friendly nor hostile, but there was always a sense that they meant business and that being a foreigner was a liability.  My favorite place to stop within the boundaries of the blue goose was a small gas station at the southern end of the habitations.  It was obviously as gas station because there were two gas pumps out front, a covered area over the pumps and a small rectangular building.  When you pulled up to the pumps all you could see was desert to the south, west and east.  The most interesting part of the gas station was that after pulling up to a pump you had to go into the building and the attendant would pour about 5 gallons of gasoline into container from a metal barrel in the office.  Then you would carry the gas out to your car and put it into the the gas tank.

    During one trip I was pouring gas into the tank of my Brazilian Volkswagon, while LaWanda and the kids dozed in the heat.  I was staring at the void that was the desert when, through the shimmering heat waves, I spotted an emerging man with a donkey.  My thought, was de donde vine?  There was no civilization in that direction.  The figure kept walking toward the highway and eventually I could discern that it was an elderly man with a long goatee wearing a wide brimmed hat with a serape thrown over his shoulder.  He looked like a Mexican Paisano not a Peruvian Indian.  He kept walking, his donkey following heading right for the highway.  They crossed the road and keep walking into the desert and I watched him until he could no longer be seen.  

    I have often thought of that man and his donkey and wondered where he came from and where he was going.  As far as I knew the Blue Goose was right smack dab in the middle of nowhere.  He probably knew a lot more about what was out there than I will ever know or perhaps can imagine.  Although I can try. 

Peru was a wonderfully strange place!

A Chance Encounter Creates a Lifetime of Bliss

His Story

     There I was hitchhiking home after a day in town.  It was a chilly day in February and snow was drifting from the sky obscuring the mountains where I lived.  Hitchhiking can be a lonely business and sometimes there are long periods of time between rides.  Since I was going to the mountains, not only did I anticipate it would take a long time, I was sure it would entail several rides and freezing interludes.

     I was staring at the cars stopped at the light and saw a beat up old Chevy waiting for the signal to change to green.  I could make out a pretty girl at the wheel and that sent my mind into fantasyland.  Every hitchhiker has dreams of something exciting happening during the trip.  Little did I realize that my dreams were about to come true in a way I didn’t imagine happening. 

     The old Chevy pulled away when the light turned green and I stuck my thumb out.  I was amazed when the car actually pulled over and stopped.  I ran up to the passenger’s side of the car opened the door and saw a truly lovely young woman who asked me if I wanted a ride.  I certainly did.  I jumped in the car, shut the door and we took off.  She asked where I was going and I told her that I lived on the other side of the mountains.  I offered her a cup of hot chocolate if she would drive me all the way home.  I was stunned when she agreed.

    As we headed out of town on Route 66, I looked at her and noticed that her legs looked pretty good pushing the brake and clutch.  As we talked I heard her say that she was a teacher.  I thought that was wonderful, as I was unemployed and had no idea what I wanted to be.  After four years in the Marine Corps, I wasn’t even certain I could hold down a job!  She then told me she loved to cook!  As a young man living on my own that was probably the most appealing thing she could have said.  My mind was reeling with my incredible luck and I thought this is the girl I want to marry.

     As luck would have it, the snowfall quickened it’s pace causing the mountain road to become slick and difficult to traverse.  I asked her if she wanted me to drive and she said yes.  After changing places I began driving and thinking about this young woman and hoping that her feeling about me were about the same as mine about her.  Soon, I approached the turn off to the road that would lead to my house.  I didn’t want the ride to end and luckily, I lost control of the car and it skidded into a snow bank as we were turning into my driveway.  We were stuck!  We quickly ran to the house and we both realized she wouldn’t be able to leave that evening.  I didn’t have any chocolate but what a wonderful night we had talking and learning about each other. 

    Within six weeks we were married and together we have raised three children, pursued careers as educators and had the opportunity to travel around the world working as teachers in overseas schools.   I often think about how lucky I have been and believe firmly in love at first sight.

Her Story

    I moved to Albuquerque after graduating as a result of hundreds of applications and resulting correspondence. I had no job and my car broke down the first day in town. Fortunately a couple noticed my KS license plates and stopped to help. As fate would have it Mary Francis had relatives in a little farming community outside of Topeka where I had done my student teaching. She was four months pregnant, had 2 preschool age boys, her husband worked in Los Alamos, and she just learned she had cancer of the uterus. I had no job, a small u-haul of personal effects, and my cat and dog. They offered me a place to live while I looked for work in exchange for helping Mary Francis around the house and with the kids. After about 6 months, I had a job, Brian was transferred back to Albuquerque, the baby arrived, and Mary Francis's mother moved in with them. 

    One day on the way home from work, I saw a hitchhiker who looked cold. While sitting at the red light I debated as to whether I should pick him up or not when it started to snow, I picked him up. I was only going to take him to the last major intersection where I turned off, but he asked if I would drive him out Tijeras. We were having an interesting conversation so I agreed. The snow was getting bad by the time we got there and there was very little other traffic so I offered to drive him on home. Well, my car ended up getting stuck. Rick borrowed a neighbor's truck to get me to work the next day. He still had my car so I had to see him again. I moved in two days latter; we were married 6 weeks later and have been happy with that decision ever since.

Willow Wife

This story is similar to those you will find in my book Old Japanese Tales. If you like this you can find more by purchasing my book by clicking here for the paperback from Lulu or here for the Kindle ebook.

Willow Wife

In a certain Japanese village there grew a great willow tree. For many generations the people loved it. In the summer it was a resting place, a place where the villagers might meet after the work and heat of the day were over, and there talk till the moonlight streamed through the branches. In winter it was like a great half-opened umbrella covered with sparkling snow.

Heitaro, a young farmer, lived quite near this tree, and he, more than any of his companions, had entered into a deep communion with the imposing willow. It was almost the first object he saw upon waking, and upon his return from work in the fields he looked out eagerly for its familiar form. Sometimes he would burn a joss-stick beneath its branches and kneel down and pray.

One day an old man of the village came to Heitaro and explained to him that the villagers were anxious to build a bridge over the river, and that they particularly wanted the great willow tree for timber.

"For timber?" said Heitaro, hiding his face in his hands. "My dear willow tree for a bridge, one to bear the incessant patter of feet? Never, never, old man!"

When Heitaro had somewhat recovered himself, he offered to give the old man some of his own trees, if he and the villagers would accept them for timber and spare the ancient willow.

The old man readily accepted this offer, and the willow tree continued to stand in the village as it had stood for so many years.

One night while Heitaro sat under the great willow he suddenly saw a beautiful woman standing close beside him, looking at him shyly, as if wanting to speak.

"Honorable lady," said he, "I will go home. I see you wait for some one. Heitaro is not without kindness towards those who love."

"He will not come now," said the woman, smiling.

"Can he have grown cold? Oh, how terrible when a mock love comes and leaves ashes and a grave behind!"

"He has not grown cold, dear lord."

"And yet he does not come! What strange mystery is this?"

"He has come! His heart has been always here, here under this willow tree." And with a radiant smile the woman disappeared.

Night after night they met under the old willow tree. The woman's shyness had entirely disappeared, and it seemed that she could not hear too much from Heitaro's lips in praise of the willow under which they sat.

One night he said to her, "Little one, will you be my wife -- you who seem to come from the very tree itself?"

"Yes," said the woman. "Call me Higo ("Willow") and ask no questions, for love of me. I have no father or mother, and someday you will understand."

Heitaro and Higo were married, and in due time they were blessed with a child, whom they called Chiyodo. Simple was their dwelling, but those it contained were the happiest people in all Japan.

While this happy couple went about their respective duties great news came to the village. The villagers were full of it, and it was not long before it reached Heitaro's ears. The ex-Emperor Toba wished to build a temple to Kwannon [goddess of mercy] in Kyoto, and those in authority sent far and wide for timber. The villagers said that they must contribute towards building the sacred edifice by presenting their great willow tree. All Heitaro's argument and persuasion and promise of other trees were ineffectual, for neither he nor anyone else could give as large and handsome a tree as the great willow.

Heitaro went home and told his wife. "Oh, wife," said he, "they are about to cut down our dear willow tree! Before I married you I could not have borne it. Having you, little one, perhaps I shall get over it someday."

That night Heitaro was aroused by hearing a piercing cry.

"Heitaro," said his wife, "it grows dark! The room is full of whispers. Are you there, Heitaro? Hark! They are cutting down the willow tree. Look how its shadow trembles in the moonlight. I am the soul of the willow tree. The villagers are killing me. Oh, how they cut and tear me to pieces! Dear Heitaro, the pain, the pain! Put your hands here, and here. Surely the blows cannot fall now!"

"My Willow Wife! My Willow Wife!" sobbed Heitaro.

"Husband," said Higo, very faintly, pressing her wet, agonized face close to his, "I am going now. Such a love as ours cannot be cut down, however fierce the blows. I shall wait for you and Chiyodo -- My hair is falling through the sky! My body is breaking!"

There was a loud crash outside. The great willow tree lay green and disheveled upon the ground.

Heitaro looked round for her he loved more than anything else in the world. Willow Wife had gone!

• Source: F. Hadland Davis, Myths and Legends of Japan (London: G. G. Harrap and Company, 1913), pp. 177-180.
  
• Davis's source: R. Gordon Smith, Ancient Tales and Folk-Lore of Japan (London: A. and C. Black, 1908), pp. 12-18.
  

Canaries in the Classroom

I watched Bella as she sat quietly at her desk, looking at nothing I could perceive. She had done nothing in my class during the first quarter. I knew it was not just my History class, she was like this in all of her classes. It was almost time for report cards and I was discouraged that nothing I said, nothing I did could penetrate the armor she put on each morning before she came to school. I thought I would try another tact, “Bella, what are your parents going to say when you come home with all Fs on your report card?”

She looked at me in a way that spoke to her lack of emotion and replied, “They can make me go to school, but they can’t make me learn anything, can they?”

In my 31 years of teaching I encountered many Bellas, children traumatized by going to school. I did not love going to school, the same with many of my friends. However, I was not traumatized by the experience in the way that Bella was. Why do children choose to follow a gang leader rather than a teacher. What are schools doing that make them such a terrible place for some of the children in America?  

Perhaps a clue lies with another problem I had as a teacher. I taught U.S. and World History to 15-18 year old high school students. Part of my class included testing. Those terrible evaluations that teachers use to prove how little their students learned over a period of time.  I always included some type of question that required a written response. I was always amazed at the number of students who did not even attempt to answer reply to those questions. It was usually the same student who did not participate in class discussions nor particularly care what grade they received. It was the same symptom Bella displayed.

It is important to understand that not all students shut down like Bella, but I believe most students feel this way, even many who thrive at school.  Students like Bella are sending a powerful message to all of us. Something is not right in our education system and they are the first to let us know.  

So, what do we do, we label them, put them in special programs, take away privileges, demean, tutor, and provide all manner of treatment that seems to cause the disease of hating school to spread. It is a virus that has gone viral in our schools. Today we are holding the entire education system hostage until these students perform at 100%.

It seems that society has turned against it’s young, demanding that they be ready to solve the problems we have caused. Somehow our method of making this happens seems convoluted.  We continue to do more of the same, pouring knowledge into the brains of our poor canaries expecting them to sing upon demand, and sing better than all the other canaries. We place them under great stress by expecting everyone to perform in the same way.

In one respect Bella was wrong. She didn’t realize she couldn’t not learn.