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The
girl who was different
“She
doesn’t think like us,” said her brothers. “She
feels differently,”
said her sisters. And her parents
would remark, “Yes, somehow she is
different from the
others,” and they would worry every once in a while.
It
wasn’t that she was lazier or cheekier than the other
children, and not
at all because she did things that were
forbidden. No, on that count she
was not different at all. It
was just that sometimes she said “no” when all
the
rest shouted “yes”, or she played with those whom no
one else would
play with, something many people considered
most inappropriate. Sometimes
she would say, “I love
you,” to people she liked, and that particularly was
not
liked by some, because no one had said “I love you” to
them for a long
time. So they used to make fun of her and
look at each other meaningfully
when she was around. After
all, devotion to truth has its limits, they
would say.
The
years passed and her brothers and sisters got married. The girl
also
found a nice man and lived with him and her children not
very far away, but
still far enough to be able to bear the
mocking of the others.
One day some new men came into the
country and ordered the people to
destroy their flowers and
all the flowering trees because their beauty was
keeping
everyone from work. So from then on they were forbidden.
Others
ordered that all birds be caught because those who
listened to their song
for long would turn into dreamers and
no longer be fit to do work.
And because the girl who was
different said “no” to the men and their
orders,
they built a high wall around her house and garden with a
single
tiny entrance. After all, as they were never tired of
repeating, they were
not inhuman. They only had everyone's
best interests at heart, and it was
better to keep away from
those who were different. They then forbade the
people to
stock food and to enjoy the fruits of their labour because
these
were weaknesses that would only make them lazy and
lethargic and cause them
to stray off the right path.
At
first everyone was very happy and enthusiastic because finally
here was
someone who obviously knew what needed to be done,
and everyone was eager
to work. But then, not so long after,
someone knocked on the little door in
the wall and a child
entered the garden of the girl who was different. It
took a
deep breath of the clear, fresh air, delighted in the song of
the
birds and drank in the colourful brilliance of the
flowers. “How nice it is
here.” it said, “We
have destroyed everything.” When it sadly turned to
leave,
the girl gave it one of the bright flowers to take along.
In
the next days more people came, all wanting to hear the birds
sing and
see the flowers in bloom. The girl gave each one of
them a flower. “But now
you have none left,” said
the old man to whom she had just gifted the last
flower.
“Don’t worry, they’ll grow again,” laughed
the girl.
He walked towards the small door with slow, heavy
steps, then turned around
once again and asked, “Why are
you doing this?”
“Because I
love you!” answered the girl who was different.
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