Ondine’s Question
By
Valerie L. Egar
Once upon a time, a
young woman, Ondine, left her village to make her way in the world. She set out on the narrow path that led to the
river and paid a ferryman to take her across.
“Ah, you must be going to Avongale,” he said as he steered the boat to
shore.
“Is it nice
there?” Ondine asked.
“Not very,”
replied the ferryman. “I’ve never been, but I’ve heard it takes two hundred thirty-two
years to walk down Front Street. No one ever gets to the end!”
“Oh my! It must go
on for a long, long way!”
“No, it’s only a
mile.”
That made no sense
to Ondine and she suspected the ferryman was repeating a tall tale he had heard
or was trying to frighten her. She was curious and wanted to see a town with a
street that was a mile long that took two hundred thirty-two years to walk.
When she stepped
from the boat, she asked the ferryman to point the way to Avongale. “I wouldn’t
go there, no, I wouldn’t!” he said, pointing north. Ondine suspected that the
ferryman, who crossed the river over and over in the same spot year in and year
out, wasn’t adventurous enough to go most places, and she headed north.
She soon saw
golden turrets and white marble towers shining in the distance. The city was surrounded by a wall, but the
gates were open as Ondine approached.
“Greetings!” said a deep voice.
Ondine saw a bearded man standing at attention, dressed in a long red coat.
“Welcome to Avongale.”
Ondine smiled and
took two steps forward. “No!” the man shouted. “Go back one step. Before you may
step forward, you must count to 100 very slowly, clap your hands three times
and then step forward.”
“Why?”
said Ondine.
The
man shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t
know, but that’s the rule.”
Ondine
did as he asked and took a step forward and then another. Once again the man
shouted, “No!”
“What
now?”
He
motioned for her take one step back and consulted a book. “This says for the
third step, you have to recite the multiplication tables from 1x 1 though 12 x
12, spell ‘rhythm,’ and ‘mischievous’ and do
20 push ups.”
Ondine
started to understand why walking a mile might take two hundred thirty-two
years. “Why?” said Ondine.
“Don’t
know,” the man said. “It’s the rule.”
Ondine
started reciting her multiplication tables and was glad she had memorized them.
“Stop!”
the man shouted. “The book says third
steps can only be done on Tuesdays and it’s Thursday. You’ll have to wait.”
“But
that’s five days away!”
The
man shrugged. “That’s the rule.”
Ondine
looked up the street and saw people
hopping, twirling and spinning. She heard poems recited, the alphabet
said backwards, trivia questions asked and answered. She noticed people who
were sidelined because they didn’t know the correct answers or it was the wrong
day of the week to take the next step. Everyone was so intent on getting from
one end of Front Street to the other, no one asked who made the rules or what
purpose they served.
“What
happens if I don’t wait until Tuesday?” Ondine asked.
The
man’s eye widened. “I have to check the book.”
Ondine
waited a long time. The man read all of the instructions for two thousand steps,
then all the appendices with the correct answers to the questions for each
step. Finally, when he came to the end, he fell on his knees in front of
Ondine.
“Oh,
most worthy Queen!”
“Queen?” Ondine
said.
He handed her the
book. “A worthy leader knows what rules
are necessary and never imposes ones that do not benefit the people. The one
who questions these rules shall rule Avongale.”
The
first thing Ondine did was invite everyone to parade up and down Front Street
now that they were free from rules that served no purpose. For the first time, people saw the entire
street and marveled at all they had missed. For many years after, Ondine ruled Avongale
with great wisdom.
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Copyright 2017 by Valerie L. Egar. May not be copied or reproduced without permission from the author.
Published August 6, 2017 in Journal Tribune Sunday (Biddeford, ME).
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