Twenty Fables in Search of a Moral: (4-6)

Mother and Daughter

 by Rhonda Palmer

Fable Four: The arrival

Once upon a time in a remote province of China, there lived three sisters who cared lovingly for their elderly mother.  The oldest sister sewed beautiful clothing for the mother from sunsets and rainbows.  The middle sister cooked the most delicious food for the mother from the songs of nightingales, and the youngest sister brought the mother a cup of pure water each evening, water that appeared magically in a silver cup with a green jewel at the base.  The mother was tender and appreciative of her daughters, and they did their duties with a smile on their lips.  One day a handsome prince from the Imperial City came to their house, asking to speak with the oldest woman in the house.  They showed him into the bedroom of their mother and when she looked upon his face all the ravages of time fell away and she was once more the beautiful young woman she had been.  “Oh, my Beloved!” she cried in joy, and together the prince and the now young woman rode away from the house in the remote province.  The three sisters sat quietly for many days.

Fable Five: Finding love

Artwork by SK Dapoz

Janet fell in love with the dolphins on her first trip to SeaWorld.  She sensed a connection between her 12 year old self and the three adolescent female dolphins in the tank below her and she refused to go to any of the other tanks or performances with her family.  “Leave her alone,” said her mother.  “She knows where she needs to be.”  So she stood by the tank watching the dolphins swim in slow and lazy circles, while their handlers cleaned the tank and fed them.  Janet worked up the courage to ask one of the handlers if she could help with the feeding.  “Sure,” said the young woman,  “hold this bucket out until one of them comes your way, and then just pour the contents slowly into the water.”  Janet held the bucket steadily until the smallest dolphin swam near her.  She poured the contents into the water as instructed, but the dolphin rose up and looked at her, eye to eye, smiling and laughing. 

Fable Six:  Barbie’s dream

Could there ever be another day as beautiful as this day, she wondered to herself.  She rode in the backseat of the 1960 Impala with the red leather seats and she wore a brown rabbit fur coat over her gold brocade cocktail dress and on her wrist was a diamond bracelet and on her feet were brown satin pumps.  No one spoke to her as she exited the car and no one spoke to her as she entered the restaurant with the candlelit tables and quiet jazz trio.  She sat by herself, as always, drinking her water, eating a salad and the catch of the day.  Today she studied the painting on the wall across from her usual table, noting for the first time that it was of three beautiful young women in some remote period in China.  How sad they looked, and how lonely!