FAIRY TALES (text) - 95. THE NEEDLE

THE NEEDLE

Once upon a time there was a thick needle. But that needle was so presumptuous that she pretended to be as thin as the sewing machines’ needles. Any time the fingers touched her, she complained and one day she told them:

– Be careful or you’ll break me, what a filthy work!

It didn’t last too long and the needle was broken. 

– Now it is useless! – said the fingers and decided at once to throw it out. 

But the woman cook put some wax at the broken head of the needle and used it to tie her scarf.    

– Now I have become a pin! –the needle said loudly. – I have always known that I will be higher than the others and everyone will envy me.

Then she began to laugh to herself. Anyone who heard her was surprised, because they had never heard her laughing so hard before. She was standing at the scarf and was looking around, it seemed to her she was walking in a cart.

– Allow me ask you a question madam… are you golden? – said the needle to the pin near her. – You look so beautiful…it’s just that your head is so small. The ones who have a big waxy head like me are so rare!

The needle raised her head so much splurging that she slipped away and fell right into the flow, where the cook poured the water of the dishes.

– Great, now I will sail! – said the needle boasting again. – It’s just that I am afraid I will fall at the bottom. And she went indeed to the bottom of the water.

– Poor me, I am so thin! This world is not for me! – said the needle and sighed at the bottom of the stream. – But I should not lose my energy, I know how worthy I am.

So she stood again on her feet. She felt like she could control everything. On the surface, over her head there were lots of tings floating; wood chips, grass, old newspapers and lots of other things…

But the needle thought they were acting high-and-mighty, and she said:

– Let all the bullshit float, I will be quiet! I know how much I am worth. At that moment a shiny object fell next to her. That was a piece of glass. 

– Hey friend, – said the needle. I am a pin, what about you… are you a diamond?

– I think so, – answered the glass. 

So they began to talk. They called each-other precious treasure and told that the other objects were being haughty. One day, the needle told the glass her story. She said she lived in the box of a girl and that girl was a cook. Her hands had five fingers and the fingers were arrogant. 

– Why were they so, did they shine like me? – asked the glass.

 – No, my dear, – said the needle. – The fingers were five brothers and they would always queue up. Only one of them who was called the Biggest, stood out of the line. He bent at two points unlike his brothers that bent in three ones. But he was always boasting and said that if they cut him, the man would not be worthy for military service. They called the second brother the Index and he pried in everything and pretended to know everything. When the cook wrote a letter, he would push the pencil from above. They called the third brother the Middle, he had the highest head and could see the others from above. The fourth was the Ring, and he had a beautiful ring on his belt. While the last one, the smallest was called the Lazy, he didn’t do anything and boasted more than anyone else. And it was their fault that I fell in the stream.

– Don’t you abandon yourself to despair and let’s go and shine throughout the world, – said the glass.

At that moment someone poured the water from a bucket and the flow took the glass away. So the needle continued to live alone at the bottom of the stream thinking only about herself. ‘‘It seems like I was born from the sun ray, that’s why I am so thin.’’ One day there came two children near the stream and they were trying to look for two old nails and other things in the mud.

Oh! -suddenly one of the children shouted because he had stung his leg with the needle.

– Look what I found, – said the child and took the needle in his hand.

– I am not a needle, but a princess, – said the needle angrily.

But none of the kids heard her howls. The needle was in a terrible was, her waxy had had fallen, her body was blackened too much. But the needle loved herself much more now because she felt like she was wearing a black dress.

– Look… an egg-shell is floating! –said one of the kids.

The boys put the needle inside the egg-shell and released it back in the stream.

– The black fits so perfectly with the white, – the needle was thinking. – Now they will all see and will envy me! But I am afraid the sea waves will take me! I can’t stand them, I am afraid I will be broken again! I’m so thin and delicate! 

But the needle was safe again and she wasn’t that seasick. 

– As I can see, I am not sea sick. It’s so good when you have a stomach of iron so you never get sick and die.

– Now I feel so good. The thinner you are, the stronger you feel.

– Crack!-the egg- shell pealed. The wheel of a cart passed over it. 

– Oh poor me, – the needle screamed. – Now I will get sick. The wheel is so heavy! I can’t cope with it! I will get broken.

But the needle wasn’t broken again. The cart passed and the needle was still on the road.