(This is a story my two little sisters wrote and gave me for my birthday...it's amazing! So sit back, enjoy, and learn.)
There once was a noble ruler who lived very far away. Solomon, for that was his name, had planted a beautiful garden full of tiny flowers and magnificent trees. This ruler was preparing a place in his wonderful house for a little girl that he was adopting as his child. Her name was Johannahtu. Her golden hair that shone was pulled back into a small braid, freckles dotted her nose and her dark brown eyes sparkled. Solomon loved her and they spent many happy days playing in the garden together.
“Father?” Johannahtu asked one day. “why can’t we go into the forest?” (For a forest surrounded the garden) Solomon looked down at her and answered. “Because there are things in the forest that can hurt you. Promise me that you will never go there.”
One night an evil enemy came from the forest. The evil band of men planted poisonous seeds throughout the garden. “Hurry!” Shouted the leader of the men. “They can’t stop us now! We will win and all this land will be ours.” They did their work and ran off into the shadows of the woods. But, through a window in the house above the garden, was Solomon who had seen everything that had happened.
In the morning Johannahtu jumped out of bed and ran for the door. “Wait a minute young lady. Where are you going in such a rush?” Solomon said in a laugh as he caught her in mid-run. “To get some flowers from the garden, to put on the table for breakfast.” Johannahtu replied. Solomon looked out the window at the garden then back at Johannahtu. He smiled at her and picked her up and sat both of them down on a comfortable sofa. “There’s something I need to tell you first.” Johannahtu looked at him with her full attention, for she sensed concern in his voice. “Our garden is no longer safe. An enemy came and planted bad things in the garden to try to hurt you.” “Does that mean we can’t play in the garden any more?” Johannahtu asked sadly. Solomon smiled at his daughter who was almost in tears. “We will still go out to the garden; but, it will not be like before.”
Solomon looked straight into Johannahtu’s eyes. “You must always stay close to me… always. If you stay with me, these things will not hurt you. ”
Days went by and the garden slowly changed from it’s perfect beauty to a tainted beauty as a result of the ugly and dangerous plants that had started to grow.
One day Solomon and Johannahtu were taking a walk in the garden. “I miss the way the garden first was,” Johannahtu sighed. Solomon looked over the garden and breathed in the sweet air from the aroma that the garden still brought and then replied to his daughter. “One day I will fix our land. It’ll be good again, like it used to be, only more so.” Johannahtu looked up at her father and asked, “When father, when?” “Soon, Johannahtu.” Solomon said calmly. “But, when’s soon?” Johannahtu pleaded. “I call all time soon.” Solomon said looking back down at his daughter with a smile.
As more time went by the poisonous plants were taking over the garden. Johannahtu shuddered as she and her father passed the horrid things, but even in the midst of it all Solomon and Johannahtu still had fun. There was still beautiful flowers for Johannahtu to pick as well and that was the exact thing she was doing that afternoon. Her hand grasped around several tiny blossoms when something else caught her eye. It was a flower that she had never seen before. Johannahtu looked up at Solomon and he squeezed her hand, then she whispered. “I’ll be right back.” Then she slipped her hand out of her father’s grip and ran after the beautiful plant she saw. When she first saw the plant it seemed so close, but the farther she went the farther it seemed to go. Johannahtu looked back and saw Solomon in the distance beckoning to her. She said again under her breath. “I’ll be right back.- I’ll keep you in my sight,” Then she went on. When she finally got to what she wanted she stared at the delicate yellow petals that opened up like a golden trumpet which was attached to one of the enormous and dangerous plants she had seen many times before. (but her father had always been with her when they passed them.) She looked back again to see where her father was, but all she saw was garden and all that was in it. Johannahtu started to panic she couldn’t see her father, what would she do? What way would she go to get back home? But, like before she turned her attention back to the plant. She wanted the flower terribly, it was so tempting. She thought she could reach it without getting hurt by the ugly thorns that surrounded it. She reached her small arm up to the dazzling blossom, when her fingertips hardly touched one of the flower petals she gasped in pain and grabbed her hand and drew it back to herself. She looked down at her fingers, they were bleeding. What Johannahtu didn’t know was, that the small blossom was covered with poisonous stickers that couldn’t be seen. They were more deadly than the big ones that grew everywhere else. Johannahtu’s fingers throbbed in pain, faintness came, she fell to the ground from the aches that swept over her body. All at once she realized what she had done. “You must stay by my side” Solomon’s words echoed through her mind. She had left her father’s side and now how hopelessly lost she was without anyone to help her, or so she thought. As she lay there scared and alone everything started to fade then it all went blank. But someone was coming to rescue her, who knew all along what she had done and he was coming, even before she knew she needed help. Then a shadow was over her little body and there stood Solomon her father. He gently picked her up and carried her to the house and laid her on his bed. Her face was pale.
The poison from the plant was in her blood and it was quickly taking her life. The only way to save her was if someone pressed their own blood where she had been pierced, so that the good blood would cover the wound and heel it. That was the only way. It would get rid of the poison in her but it would enter the one who gave the blood.
Solomon reached and grabbed a knife and he quickly cut his hand. As the scarlet blood oozed out, he placed his hand on Johannahtu’s fingers. The poison quickly went into Solomon. Suddenly, Solomon became pale, his strength turned to weakness as he fell to the ground. Johannahtu’s eyes fluttered opened and she felt the pain leave her as quickly as it came. But pain struck her again as she looked over the bed and saw her father. The one who had loved her to the end, even when she had left him. She slipped off the bed and fell on Solomon’s chest and wept. Johannahtu grasped for father’s callused hand and then gazed at both of their hands. They were both stained with blood. She looked closely at the scar on her father’s hand and then at her own, the blood on it was not coming from her, she covered in her father’s blood. Once Solomon’s slow and heavy breaths stopped Johannatu cried out and wept all the more. All that night she cried and clung to father, but in the morning she woke up and was surprisingly shocked that he was not there. Johannahtu rubbed her puffy red eyes as more tears fell down her face as she remembered what had happened the day before. She heard someone’s foot steps coming which stopped at the door. Then she heard a voice, “Why are you crying Johannahtu?” Johannahtu turned her head toward the door and she saw through her tears a blurry image, which she thought was one of the house servants. “Why did you take him away?” Johannahtu asked in a whisper. Then the man in the doorway put on a huge smile and said, “Johannahtu, look Johannahtu.” Johannahtu sat up and wiped her eyes with her apron and then she saw what she had been longing for. It was Solomon!
“Father!” Johannahtu cried out as she ran into his open arms. “But how are you here? What happened, I thought you were dead?” Johannahtu questioned. Solomon looked into his daughter’s sparkling eyes and answered. “Death is not more powerful than me, Johannahtu.” Johannahtu laid her head down on Solomon’s firm shoulders and whispered in between her sniffles. “Do you still love me father?” Solomon smiled and said. “Nothing you do will make me stop loving you child.” “I’m sorry father, oh, please, please forgive me.” Johannahtu shut her eyes tight and waited for her father’s response.
Solomon put his scarred hand on Johannahtu and spoke gently.
“I already have.”
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