Rowan Witebsky

The Girl, the Three Tokens, and the Monster

            Once upon a time, in a small town far away, there lived a young girl named Rani.  Now, Rani was not necessarily the prettiest girl in town, but she was probably one of the cleverest.  And, as you shall see, this cleverness helped her in ways beauty never could.

            One day, Rani, feeling charitable, decided to assist three different villagers with odd jobs.  She helped the town storekeeper sort his stock, and got a piece of sweet candy in return.  She helped the seamstress sew a dress, and got a little clipping of ribbon as thanks.  She helped the painter carry his paints into his studio, and got a gold coin for her work.

            Now, most little girls would have eaten the candy, spent the coin, and worn the ribbon until it was dirty.  But Rani was a smart girl, and kept her rewards, just in case she ever needed them.

            This turned out to be a very smart idea indeed.

***

            That same day, in the forest that bordered the village, a mean and lonely monster was sulking on a rock.  He had spent the entire day sitting alone, watching the people of the town go about their daily lives.  Now, unhappy, he raged to himself.

            “Look at them!” he thought.  “So happy, without any worries!  They don’t know what it’s like to be me.  None of them has ever sat alone on a rock all day.  They all have friends and family, while I’m too fiendish for anyone to want to spend a moment with me!”

                        The monster sat silently for a moment, these sorrowful thoughts bouncing around his head and making him even more upset.  Then he smiled, as a terrible idea took form.

            “Why,” he said, “I will give them some worries!  If I am to be called a fiendish monster, so be it!  A fiendish monster I will be!  I’ll make them understand what it is to be unhappy.”

            That night, while all of the villagers were sound asleep in their beds, the monster snuck into town and put his plan into action.  He stole the painter’s paints, and splashed color all over the houses.  He broke into the store, and knocked everything to the ground.  He pulled up plants and let animals loose and generally created an enormous amount of trouble.  Then, feeling satisfied with his work, the monster snuck back into the forest and waited for people to notice what had happened.

            And notice they did.  When Rani awoke the next morning, she could hear angry voices coming in through her open window.  Peeking outside, she saw a mob gathered in the town square, talking furiously amongst themselves.

            “Whoever did this,” said Mr. Andrews, one of the town officials, “is going to pay dearly for their mischief!”

            “I simply cannot believe someone would do such a thing,” exclaimed the wife of the man who owned the town inn.

            “It’s horrible!” said another man, to a chorus of agreeing voices.  Before anyone could say anything more, the town mayor walked up the podium and cleared his throat.

            “My fair citizens,” he began.  “I, like all of you, am shocked by the destruction that has rained down on our fair village.  And I assure you,” he continued, puffing his chest out like a rooster, “we will not rest until the vandal is caught and taught a lesson!”

            The townspeople cheered happily at this declaration, but Rani wasn’t so sure.  The mayor’s plan was to go through the town and ask each person what they had been doing the night of the attack.  But every answer was the same: sleeping.

            By evening, the villagers were not so happy with the mayor.

            “We still haven’t found who did this,” said one man.

            “Yes,” continued another, “and night is coming on!”
            “Of course,” said the mayor.  “We will all rest tonight, and tomorrow, we will continue our search.  It must be someone in the village!  Who else would have a reason to do such terrible things?  We will find this criminal, I guarantee it.”

           

            That night, Rani did not go to sleep immediately.  Instead she waited at her window, looking out into the dark village.  If the vandal was going to come back, she wanted to be awake to see them.

            Hours passed without movement.  Rani was almost ready to give up and sleep, when she noticed something strange out of the corner of her eye.  A dark shape was moving carefully down the road, staying in the shadows.

            Rani sat up very straight and stared.  This must be the person that caused so many problems!  Quickly, she pulled her window open and stuck her head out.

            “Hey,” she hissed at the shape, “Hey you!  Are you the one who painted the houses and let the animals loose yesterday?”

            The dark shape glanced quickly up at her, and stood still for a moment.  Then, quick as a flash, it slide down the road the way it came, and disappeared from sight.

            Rani sat back on her bed and thought to herself.  That was definitely the same person.  But he had run away, so she couldn’t talk to him.  She needed to come up with a plan, but what?

            The next night, Rani was ready.  If that shadow came back, she would catch it before it could slip away.  She waited at her window, peering out into the darkness.  And just like the night before, she saw a strange shadow slip down the street.

            The monster was unhappy.  His plan had been to go through the village again and cause more trouble, but a village had noticed him, and he had to leave.  But tonight, he was determined to create more problems, like he had planned.

            The monster was so busy thinking about what he would do to the village, that he didn’t even notice the young girl trailing after him.  Instead, he headed right for the village square.

            The minute Rani had seen the monster, she had climbed right out her window and followed it.  She had even thought to put on boots, and to wear a real dress to bed instead of a nightgown - the same dress, in fact, that she had been wearing when she had helped the villagers with their jobs.

            Rani snuck behind the monster all the way to the center of the village.  There, she hid behind a tree and watched the monster look around.  What was this strange creature going to do?

            The monster stood in the center of the village square.  Now that he was actually here, he wasn’t quite sure what to do.  After a moment, he decided to find a place to sit down.  The monster looked around, and saw a pile of rocks sitting on one edge of the village square, right next to a tree.  He walked over to the rocks, sat down, and looked at the tree.

            And found himself staring right at Rani.

            “Aaah!” yelled the monster.

            “Aaah!” yelled Rani

            The monster leapt up from the pile of rocks, and turned to run away.  But Rani was ready for him this time, and quick as a flash, she grabbed the monster’s arm so that he couldn’t run off again.

            “What are you doing, little girl?” the monster hissed.

            “You’re the one that I saw sneaking around in the village,” said Rani.  “Are you also the one who caused all that trouble the other night?”

            The monster looked surprised for a moment, and then he smiled.  “Yes, I am,” he preened.  He was really a very proud monster, and the knowledge that his antics caught the attention of the town pleased him.

            “But why?” asked Rani.

            “Why what?”

            “Why would you do so many terrible things?  Are you mad at the village?”

            The monster paused for a moment.  “I did these things... because I’m a monster!  Why else?”

            “Well,” said Rani slowly, “I don’t really think that being a monster is any excuse.  Why can’t you be a monster and still be nice?”

            “That’s just not the way these things work,” the monster said irritably.  “Besides, why should I be nice?  I don’t have any friends to be nice to, so what’s the point?”

            “Maybe if you were nicer, you would have more friends,” Rani pointed out, but the monster just shook his head.

            “It doesn’t work like that.  Nobody wants to be friends with me, no matter what I do.  I’m too mean, and strange.”

            Now Rani, being a smart girl, saw quickly that the monster wasn’t really that mean, and also that he was really very unhappy with his situation in life.  Furthermore, she realized that she simply couldn’t leave him to mope about being friendless.

            “I’ll be your friend,” she said.  The monster looked at her for a moment, and then sighed.

            “I suppose.  But what good is it to only have one friend?  And besides, I’m still a monster!  People will still avoid me.”

            Rani looked at the monster, who was no longer looking mean at all and was instead looking quite sad, and thought to herself.  She thought about what she could do to help the monster, and suddenly, an idea occurred to her.

            “I know,” she said, reaching into the pocket of her dress.  “Here are some things for you!”

            Rani pulled out the three items that she had been given - the candy, the ribbon, and the coin - and showed them to the monster.

            “These will help you become more friendly!”
            “How?” said the monster sullenly.  “Are they magical?”
            “Well, no,” Rani said, for she was truthful and didn’t want to trick the monster.  “But they don’t need to be!  Here.”

            Rani held up the ribbon, which floated in the evening breeze.

            “Whenever you think you look strange, remember this ribbon and tell yourself that you look as nice as this does.”

            “That’s stupid,” said the monster.  Rani sighed.

            “I’m trying to help you,” she reminded him.  “You need to be more grateful.  In fact, here.”  Rani held up the coin.  “This coin will remind you of, well, being grateful to others, I suppose.”

            “I don’t see how,” said the monster, but he grudgingly took both the coin and the ribbon and tucked them into a hidden pocket.

            “And this candy will remind you to be sweet, because it’s sweet!  No,” said Rani hurriedly, “Don’t just eat it.”

            The monster, who was about to place the candy in his mouth, looked annoyed.  However, he did as he was told, and the candy was placed with the ribbon and the coin.

            “There,” said Rani.  “Now you don’t need to worry about being a friendless monster!  Soon, you’ll have many more friends.”

            Rani, as it turned out, was fairly correct in this regard.  Soon, the monster started to spend much more time in the village, and the villagers grew to think of him as just another, slightly odd looking citizen.  Though the monster was not always perfect - he still sulked and moped, and sometimes he felt like causing trouble for the villagers - overall, he behaved much better and was much happier.  And Rani, for her part, was short one piece of candy, one ribbon, and one gold coin, and instead had one new friend.  Overall, she felt it was a very good trade.