The Maiden
I am a maiden, a servant, who takes care of the king’s garden. It is a beautiful garden with gorgeous trees, bushes and hidden places for resting and enjoying the beauty of the flowers. I do a really good job; the king enjoys what I do and even looks at me in a very kind manner. Sometimes he would even speak to me about how beautiful his garden is.
And as I am really good, I am the head of all the king’s gardeners. What a beautiful life! Flowers, trees, and the smile of the king.
Although sometimes I dream about having my own garden. A small garden would be enough, I could afford it; I have saved everything I earned. And who knows, the day will come and till then I can dream about it.
The King
I am so lucky to have such good servants. I treat them well and they do a great job. All the other kings of this huge empire talk about the beauty of my garden. Good gardeners, you know.
However I would need a personal assistant for organizing all the tasks I have to do. And who would be better than my first gardener? She is the best for this job.
I know she will be pleased. Serving the king is something special. Not everybody can do this challenging job. I will tell her that she will be my personal assistant. I will smile at her, she will smile back, perhaps blush a bit – after all I am HER king. And then I will have a personal assistant I can rely upon, not as the former one who I had to lay off because of stealing and even worse, bonding with my competitors which reduced my chances to be first of all kings. And with such a skilful personal assistant I will be certain to get the job and become head of all kings!
And so it went, the maiden became a happy personal assistant of the king and HE was pleased, everything went so well.
The king waited for his chance to come and the maiden still kept the dream of her own garden in her heart.
The chance for a change came; the king applied for the job and as, of course, the outcome was not sure at all, he did not tell anybody that he already had applied for the job.
He would have to move and leave everything behind. And he was not ready to destroy all bridges in advance. No, he would not do that.
The maiden’s dreams of her own garden came to surface as well. It was HER dream. Her quiet, humble dream of a garden nearby that she had seen. Maybe someday it would come up for sale and she could buy it. Such a pretty garden. It would make her dream come true of being truly independent.
The king had once mentioned that he might leave, but there was no hurry he had said. The maiden was sure that the king would tell her when HIS moment had come so she could adjust HER plans as well. After all, she had done everything for him and he not only once, but many, many times had told her how much he appreciated her. So she waited. And nothing happened.
The king had applied, but his opponent had gotten the job that the king had wanted. But as the king was young, he could wait for another chance to come. He was just glad that he had not destroyed the bridges in advance. “Please stay with me,” or even worse, “Please come back,” was not in his vocabulary.
One day the maiden met one of the gardeners in the park. He was practically beaming. ”I am first gardener now!” he shouted and danced in a patch of flowers where he was not supposed to even enter in the first place.
The maiden was shocked: “YOU are first gardener? How come?”
“I was so lucky, you know. The former first gardener, the one who followed you, had heard of a little garden nearby which was on sale. And as nobody had asked for it, he bought it. He left the king’s staff and therefore I am now first gardener! Hurray!!”
At that moment all the beautiful trees and flowers in her dream garden vanished. A black hole was left. It had sucked up HER dream. But she was still his personal assistant.
The king though, being aware that he would not need a personal assistant any more, sent the maiden back to work in his garden again. With a pretty smile on his face.
So the maiden went back to the garden with her dreams vanished, not even head of the gardeners anymore. But she still had the beautiful smile of the king in her mind, as he sent her back to dig in the dirt again.
A young maiden, though, had followed that sad story and thought:
I will take my next chance to buy a tiny little garden. It does not matter how tiny it is. The smallest patch will be big enough to breed a new flower from two of the king’s flowers. He will be thrilled by this new miraculous flower, but he won’t be able to get it anywhere else than from MY tiny little garden.These flowers will be very expensive – and I do mean REALLY expensive, but the king will pay the price to outperform his competitors.
And then he can have MY pretty smile as award. Digging dirt? No, he won’t do that. But neither will I.
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