The Tale of the Silent Budha, the Mermaid and the Old Fool

Once upon a time there was a beautiful, deep blue pool shaded from the sun by some palm trees. The pool was hidden from the local people by an old fence beside a wide river. Those who knew of it knew it as the Pool of the Silent Budha because somewhere among the palms was a splendid but now rather tarnished Budha statue which silently watched over the pool.

In the pool lived a lively and pretty mermaid...with strange glasses. This is the story of how the mermaid came to possess glasses - for a mermaid is unusual but one with glasses even more so.

Nobody knew how the mermaid came to live in the pool nor how long the mermaid had lived there but the mermaid was happy - swimming and diving and doing handstands in the pool. Often she sang. She was not lonely because a cheerful golden monkey with smiling teeth had befriended her. Together they would play in the pure, crystal water under the silent gaze of the Budha.

One day a man came apon the pool. He was a foolish man who believed that wealth would come to him and did not need to be earned. When he saw the mermaid and the monkey playing happily in the water, his eyes lit with delight: now he would be a rich man for surely a real mermaid would fetch a fantastic price at the local market.

As he watched hidden in the trees around the pool he formed a plan. He was afraid the monkey would defend the mermaid so he would lure away the monkey first. Then he would return with a big net to catch the mermaid.

He had about him some magic spice. When the magic spice was spread on water anything seen only through the water seemed opposite so that love seemed like hate and greed as need.

The man cast his magic spice on the water when the monkey was resting on the bough of a tree and the mermaid deep in the water. Next he called to the monkey offering bananas and nuts. Naturally the monkey approached and as soon as he was near the man grabbed the monkey. The monkey shrieked and called to the mermaid for help. The mermaid, deep underwater, heard the commotion but could not hear the monkey's words. Worse still when she looked up at the monkey through the water his cry for help to the friend he loved appeared as the opposite because of the magic spice. It seemed the monkey was happy to be leaving with a needy man.

The mermaid was on the point of diving deeper into the pool believing her friend the monkey was leaving her because he wanted to be with the man when a large shadow fell across the pool. Curious as to what might have cast such a shadow and ignoring the pain in her heart the mermaid swam towards the surface. As she broke the surface she found a pair of strange glasses floating on the surface.

Quickly she put them on. Immediately they corrected her vision so she could see things as they were and without the influence of the spice in the water. She could see a greedy man struggling to steal her friend the monkey, who was crying for help.

Had the man made it out of the water before he too had paused at the sudden shadow across the water he might have evaded the mermaid. He had not and he soon knew he was no match for the mermaid and the struggling monkey; that his wicked plan had been foiled. He quickly retreated and did not return.

And so, to this day, the mermaid continues to wear her glasses for the magic spice may still be in the water of the pool, the man is known as the old fool for who would believe an unlikely story about nearly catching a mermaid and the shadow of the silent budha safeguards the hidden pool like a parent watching children play.
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