The Mad Girl
This is an original fairy tale.
There was once a young girl, pretty as a flower - yet wilted, too, as a flower plucked before its time. She as well known in the villiage as a mad girl, for she would spend her days wandreing from one place to the next, and when she reached there, she would simply wander on. Should anyone stop her for conversation, she would look at them with sad eyes, and say nothing at all.
It happened, though, that a stranger passed through the villiage. This stranger was a woman, with grey hair, and a lined face, and a bent back. Not much to look at, yet she carried a hidden wisdom.
It was this old woman who approached the mad girl. She had wandered as fa as the river, and there she sat, singing some strange and haunting song. The woman sat beside her, waiting for the song to finish. Then, when the girl stood to leave, she placed a hand to still her.
"Alone?" she asked.
The girl looked at her, eyes filled with tears. "Yes," came the answer.
With a gentle touch, the old woman wiped the tears away. "So sad," she sighed.
The girl trembled. Nobody had known this much before. "Yes," she whispered.
With another gentle motion the old woman wrapped an arm protectively around the girl. "And afraid," she murmered. "Terribly afraid."
The girl could not speak. Instead, she fell into the old woman's arms, and sobbed bitterly, until it seemed her body would be torn apart by the sobbing. The old woman comforted her the while.
After enough time had passed, and enough tears had falled, the woman released her, and dried her eyes. They walked together, and the girl showed her every place that she wandered each day - a special tree, a bush with purple flowers, a particular bend in the river, another tree where birds nested, a high rock that she could climb to see down on the whole villiage.
In the evening, as the moon rose, their journey reached an end. They had not spoken for almost all of the day day. They walked to the house where the girl lived, and as they approached, her footsteps faltered. The old woman took her hand. "I know," she said.
"I'm frightened," the girl replied.
"You must go on."
"I want to stay with you."
The old woman felt the tears well up in her eyes. Once, long before, she had been left behind - left to face days, and years, of sorrow. Alone, sad, frightened - she did not just know. She understood.
"Child," she whispered. "Do you see the moon?" The girl nodded. "Then know that the moon shines with the light of hope - where it shines on you, it shines on me also. You will never be far from my thoughts. Courage, child." The girl closed her eyes as the old woman touched her hair in blessing. When she opened them, she was gone.
The girl could often be seen wandering from place to place. She never much spoke to anyone - yet if she saw anyone hurt, or sad, or frightened, she would sing to them such a soft, sweet song, that all pain would vanish from their hearts.
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