Pinocchio and Mistress Cherry
Once upon a time there was…
“A queen!” the readers of this story will say.
No, dear friends, you are wrong. Once upon a time there was a little
piece of wood.
The piece of wood was lying in the house of the wonderful Mistress
Cherry, who decided to make a puppet with it.
So Mistress Cherry took the right instruments to carve and model the
wood, and started her work. But just before she was going to give the
first stroke to the wood, a small voice implored: “Please, don’t
strike too hard!” Imagine the astonishment of Mistress Cherry!
She turned around the room, but no one was there. She eventually
decided that the voice was just an invention of her mind, and gave the
first stroke to the piece of wood.
“You hurt me!” The same little voice said.
This time Mistress Cherry was very puzzled. She was not afraid, of
course, for she was a strong and secure woman, but she was a bit
confused. Could this piece of wood talk? Could someone be inside it?
After some thinking, Mistress Cherry decided to continue her work.
The voice had a male inflection, so if carving the wood meant hurting
the owner of the voice, a male would suffer.
Of course the voice screamed and cried all the time Mistress Cherry
was doing her work, and when the first leg was finished, the puppet
even tried to give a kick to Mistress Cherry. Not that he succeeded:
Mistress Cherry easily avoided the kick, and tied the leg before it
could try again.
After a couple of hours the puppet was finished.
“You hurt me!” the puppet said.
“You do not know what it means to be hurt, puppet!” replied Mistress
Cherry. “Do you see that fireplace?”
The puppet turned his head–it was the only part of his body that was
not tied–and started to scream!
“No, please, don’t throw me in there!” the puppet implored.
“I won’t, if you behave and do whatever I want” Mistress Cherry said.
“As you wish” the pupped said defeated.
And from that day, Mistress Cherry enjoyed the devoted and constant
servitude of her puppet. After many years, the puppet eventually
became a real male, but that is another story.