The woman heard,“Many days have I fasted. Do you have any food for me?”
This request
was what she had expected.
So, she made
him a very small cake with very bitter hands. “You can have this cake,” she
seethed, “if you will wait for it to bake.”
“I
will wait,” he replied calmly.
Much to the
woman’s surprise, when the cake was baked it was actually quite large. “I can’t
give away such a large cake!” she thought. So she put it away and made an even
smaller one than before.
“If
you will wait, you can have this cake
when it is baked,” she sheepishly offered.
“I
will wait,” he calmly replied.
When the cake
was done, it was even larger than the first. So much from so little—what a
feast! She quickly put this new cake away and began preparing the smallest one
yet.
“Now,”
she cooed, “if you will only wait I will surly give you this cake once it is baked.”
The Great
Spirit said nothing, but she merrily put the crumb-sized cake in the fire. And,
of course (thanks to the Great Spirit's magic), it was the largest and most delicious of them all. The woman
marveled, what a miracle! But not a miracle that she would waste on a wanderer.
“I’m
sorry,” she comically sighed, “but I don’t have any food for you after all.”
The Great
Spirit looked deep into her eyes and carefully asked, “And where would you have
me find my food?”
Unsettled and
angered by her guilt, she unlocked her beautiful eyes from the old man’s
compassionate stare and threw the words “Scavenge in the forest” at him like
she was tossing out dirty water.
The Great
Spirit slowly brought himself to full height, saddened and disappointed by the
beautiful woman. His cloak, along with the appearance of the old man, melted to the
ground.
“I
journeyed to find someone who was pure of heart and willing to give, but
instead I found someone who is selfish and greedy. You will no longer be a
beautiful woman that lives in a wigwam.”
She was so terrified
by the apparition of the Great Spirit that she completely forgot about the old
man and the cakes. She only cared about
the life she was losing.
“But
where will I go? How will I get food?” was her desperate cry.
The Great
Spirit spoke not a sound, but the words “scavenge…in…the…forest” echoed in her
brain as her body began to transform. Delicate hands became greedy paws; pretty
lips became a spiteful maw. A tail sprung from her like vanity, forever reminding
her of her former beauty. The now fox yelped as it scampered away into the
forest, always hungry for more.
Meanwhile, the
Great Spirit ate a cake and stared pensively into the fire...
The End
*This is a retelling I did of a Native American folk tale. (The first re-telling I've e'er done, by the way.) We're probably all familiar with stories similar to this. They've always resonated with me: how would I act in this situation?? Basically, I have "writer's envy" which means I'm jealous that I didn't think of it first. I've changed it quite a bit from the original, but I hope I was able to capture the spirit of the thing. Cheers.
Want more? :)
Read about Melvin and a Tibetan town and some Finnish brothers.
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