FAIRY TALES (text) - 93. THE DAISY

THE DAISY

In the field, nearby the big road, there was a nice lodge. In the yard there was a small garden of flowers in the fence. Not far from there, in the middle of the grass there was a small daisy in blossom. Like all the other flowers in the garden, she was getting bigger hour by hour. One beautiful morning she had blossomed her flowers and she looked like the sun. She didn’t care that they saw her as an insignificant flower, she was glad and absorbed the warmth of the sun with desire. So, was very happy like it was celebration day. At the time the children sat at the school desks and learned, she admired the beauty of the nature, looked at the bird who sang and didn’t feel bad that she couldn’t do the same because she was glad about what she had. ‘‘I can see and listen, – she thought. – The sun warms me and the wind embraces me, I have nothing to complain about!’’ 

Inside the fence there were a bunch of flowers that the sweeter they smelled, the more they inflated. Some flowers bloated to become bigger than the roses, but the rose isn’t beautiful because of its size. The tulips were glowing by their beauty and were puffing up, so they didn’t even cast a glance to that little daisy, while she looked at them with delight saying: ‘‘how wealthy and beautiful they are! The great bird will come and visit them for sure and I am so happy to be part of this show.’’

At that moment, the singing bird flew not towards the tulips, but to the little daisy, which didn’t know what to think. The bird began to dance around her and sang. No one could imagine how happy she was.

The bird sang around her, kissed her once with his beak and flew up to the sky. A little embarrassed but very happy, she looked at the other flowers in the garden. They were witnesses of the honor that was done to the daisy, and they knew about the happiness she felt at that moment. But the tulips kept their heads up high and their red faces showed that they were really jealous. The little flower noticed that and didn’t like the fact they felt jealous about her. Later, a girl with a knife in her hands came out in the garden and went to the tulips, she cut them all. The daisy began to tremble from the fear and felt so bad for the tulips. The next morning, the daisy opened up her petals to the air and the sunlight. She knew the song of the bird, but that time he had a sad song because they had closed him in the cage. He was singing for the free life, the beautiful green fields and his early flights in the air. The daisy would love to help him but she could do nothing. Because of the bad feeling she had from what had happened to the bird, she forgot the beauty around her, the heat of the sun and her white glowing petals. Later, two little boys came into the garden: the oldest had a long sharp knife in his hands, like the one the girl that cut the tulips had. They went towards the daisy, which wasn’t understanding what they wanted to do.

– We can take a good chunk of lawn for the bird in here, – said one of the boys and he began to make a big square around the small flower.

– Root up the flower, – said the other.

When she heard the words, the daisy was terrified. If they ripped her out, then she would lose her life! And she had never loved her life as much as at that moment.

– No, let’s leave it right here, -said the oldest, – it’s in a great place.

They didn’t touch the daisy and put her inside the bird cage. The little bird was mourning of being unfree and hit the wires of the cage with his wings. The little daisy, with all the desire she had could not help him even with a word. Then that’s how the morning passed. 

– There is no more water in here, – said the bird, – everyone is out now and I have nothing to drink. My throat is dry, I’ve got terrible fever, and I can’t breathe! I feel that I am going to die far from the glowing sun, far from the fresh grass and all the beauties in this world! Then he drove his beak to the wet piece of lawn to freshen up. He looked at the little daisy; nodded his head gently, hugged her and said:

– Oh, you poor little flower, you’re going to lose your life in here! They replaced the world I owned with some piece of grass and they gave me only you, my friend. Every blade of grass will be a tree to me: each of your white petals will be a spicy flower to me. Oh, you bring to my mind all the beautiful things that I have lost! 

 ‘‘If I could relieve you’’ – the daisy was thinking, and felt so useless. However, she spread her smell more than usual; the bird felt that, and even though he was suffering from the thirst, he was careful not to touch her.

The evening came, and no one came to fetch the water to the poor bird. Then he stretched his beautiful wings writhing and singing a sad song.

He nodded his head to the little flower and his broken heart from the pain stopped beating. Witnessing such a terrible scene, the daisy couldn’t close her petals to get asleep, but she fell down in despair. The little boys showed up the next day. When they saw that the bird had died, they cried so much, then dug a hole for him. They put his body a beautiful red box, made him a burial ceremony and threw rose petals at the place where they buried him.

When he was alive and sang all day long, they forgot him and let him die in misery; when he died, they cried for and honored him. They threw away on the road the piece of lawn where the daisy was living, she lived in misery and no one remembered about her that loved so much the little bird.