In the little kingdom of Treeleaf, Bruno and Agatha gave birth to their first son (Agatha did the giving birth part, Bruno did the expectant father part – they each played their parts well). They looked at their newborn son fondly and decided to name him Hugo.
Hugo grew into a fine young man. He was tall, good looking, strong and courageous. Everyone who knew him said, “He will be a mighty warrior, a credit to our kingdom of Treeleaf.” Bruno and Agatha used to make humble comments when they heard these things, but privately, they agreed.
The neighboring kingdom of Sagebrush used to mind their own business and the two kingdoms were happy to ignore each other. But a new king arose in Sagebrush and he thought he’d rather like to acquire parts of Treeleaf for Sagebrush, so he began to raise up an army. They weren’t very good at first, so he put them to work doing some practice harassment. The city of Nettles in Sagebrush sat right on the border between the two kingdoms, across from the city of Moonseed in Treeleaf, so the harassment started from there.
The king of Treeleaf raised up his own army and once both armies were done practicing, the fighting started in earnest between the two cities. Hugo not only joined the army, but also quickly rose in the ranks. He was an excellent warrior and strategist. Eventually, with Hugo at the head of the army of Treeleaf, they conquered Nettles once and for all. They not only conquered Nettles, they took it over, renamed it Newberry, and made it part of Treeleaf. The king of Sagebrush admitted defeat and the two kingdoms went back to ignoring each other.
By this time, Hugo’s reputation in Treeleaf was well established, and lacking a war to attend to, he went on tour of all the cities of the kingdom. Each time he entered a city, he was met by city dignitaries, a parade was given, and the whole town would gather and call out “Hugo! Hugo! Hugo! Hugo!” What fun! Hugo got quite used to the adulation and began to receive as his due. And that’s when people began to discover Hugo’s Achilles’ heel: he had a temper problem.
He snapped if he was interrupted, he fumed if dinner wasn’t done when he was hungry, he yelled if his bath wasn’t ready on time, he seethed if someone tried to share the stage with him, and had no tolerance for any sort of criticism. And waiting in line? Forget it! Hugo’s popularity waned, but he continued with the tour.
Finally, he came to the little town of Vineyard in the northwest corner of the kingdom. He sent his PR people ahead of time as usual, but in spite of that, when he entered the town, no one was there to greet him. He was outraged. He began taking it out on the PR people, but one of them spoke up timidly, saying, “We told them you were coming, Hugo, but they simply weren’t impressed. They say they have a man here who is superior to your might and don’t see any need to give you a parade.” Hugo demanded to meet the mayor of the town and so he was taken to the mayor’s office.
The mayor began to welcome Hugo warmly, but Hugo interrupted. “I have led our army. I captured the city of Nettles almost singlehandedly. I have never lost a battle. Show me this man whom you claim is mightier than me. I shall challenge him to a duel.”
The mayor looked amused by this. “I’ll bring you to him, but I think you’ll see that he’s much too busy for duels and such. Follow me.”
Hugo was ready to fight, no matter what, so he was happy to follow the mayor. Along the way, the mayor began to explain, “I’m taking you to see our local grocer, Albert. He and his wife run the grocery store, helped by the older two of their children. I can see that you are incredulous, but I must ask you to watch and wait when we get there. If you still want to fight our man after 15 minutes, we’ll talk.”
The mayor led Hugo to a place just outside the grocery store where he could watch Albert through the window. “What a waste of time,” Hugo was thinking to himself, already growing angry at this delay. “Just watch,” said the mayor, as if he could hear what Hugo was thinking.
It was a busy day at the grocer’s. Albert stood at the counter taking payments and overseeing the packing of groceries by his two children, both of whom looked a little bit young for this responsibility. Sure enough, one of the kids packed one of the bags too full and the bag broke, spilling the groceries out on the counter and floor. Albert apologized to the customer, helped his son pick up the groceries, patiently showed him a better way to pack them, patted him on the back, and then went on to the next customer. Albert’s wife interrupted Albert in the middle of the next transaction with a question about one of their specials. He nodded to his wife with a smile to acknowledge her, asked pardon of the customer, answered his wife’s question and went back to finish the transaction. The next customer was angry and started yelling at Albert about the bad bananas he had gotten last week. Albert listened politely, offered to replace the bananas and thanked the customer for letting him know. A woman with two young children stepped up to the counter, trying to hold onto both wiggly toddlers while getting her money out. “Here, Madge, let me take one of those fellows for you while you pay,” Albert said, reaching out for the wiggliest of the two. He laughed and made faces at the little guy while Madge finished up, looking very grateful for the help. Over on Aisle 2, an employee accidentally knocked over a jar of jam, breaking it on the floor. Albert took this in stride, asking the employee to make sure none of the customers stepped on the broken glass and sticky mess while he went to fetch a broom and mop. Hugo overhead Albert tell the employee, “Don’t worry about it – I’ll help you clean it up.”
It had only been ten minutes, but Hugo turned to the mayor and said, “I am defeated. I yield. What Albert has is better than all of my might..” The mayor nodded and said, “He’s looking for help. Want a job?”
And that’s how Hugo ended up working in Vineyard at Albert’s, learning from the master.
“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.”
Proverbs 16:32
This has been Fiction Friday with Lynniebeemuseoday.
I’ll probably delete this in the morning, especially if Hugo comes after me.
Lynniebeemuseoday 