A Golden Goblet

Knock knock

Knock knock  

The window vibrated back and forth as the noise echoed around the house unbothered by the person living inside. Soon after that the door slowly opened as Emma carefully pushed it, but once again the screw on the top of this poor figure lost its grip and now it was on its edge of causing further trouble. Emma’s weak hands were still holding that enormous piece of wood and her determination resulted in achieving her success. Although she was able to save her self-made wooden stool and two little glass vase from demolishing, which she got from her masters house. She always thought they hold her pride in front of any guest being the most valuable thing in her shabby looking house, and the sight of those precious decoration pieces enlightened her face and gave her hope for living a luxurious life.

She almost forgot about the knock but soon it again started. Having a visitor in her little house was not common because of its location. Overlooking her house was a vacant area covered with plants and shrubs, but there were some similar looking shabby houses made out of wood instead of bricks, sheltered with giant leaves instead of a proper roof, some of them even didn’t had any entrance and were covered with sheets, and each of them were in a quite distance from each other. Even though she had lived like that for a while still she was always conscious to let anyone enter and judge her lifestyle. Those plain curtains, stained sofas, damaged ceiling, and plain clothes bothered her. She was going through poverty and anxiety she felt as if everything that a woman of her rank deserves, she is deprived of it .But she had an urge to change everything, to give herself an enough amount to own the luxuries of life.

As she stepped near the door the continuous echo guided her that the expectation to see someone behind the entrance door was false as the noise appeared to be caused by someone from behind the window. As she drew her hand near the plain sheet to uncover her window, she saw a strange looking bird aiming at her window with her peck. She saw the sign of danger and more than that the cost of repair haunted her. In a second this women in her mid-thirties ran outside to get rid of that bird. She struggled to fight with a bird and some of her skills were newly discovered. Soon she got rid of that bird, but something caught her sight in its paws which she dropped before her departure, a golden goblet.

At, first she hesitated to grab it but she was attracted by its beauty. It was quite small and its upper half was oval, six jewels were installed on the top of the goblet in a circular pattern and red stones were adorned in the middle, moreover its foot was covered with white beads which gave it its elegance. As she brought it inside her house, she realized the danger of putting it among her two other luxuries, how suspicious can people be of her?

She decided to get rid of the goblet after receiving her amount, the stones. It was twice as difficult as she thought, it was as if something was forcing them inside. Among her other plain kitchen utensils, she found a small sharp knife and a pointy folk to help her out in her mission. First, she aimed at one of the red stone, she used her folk to help her lose its grip and as she carefully used her knife with quite some force, she failed as the stone sticked to its place but her skin cut open and the blood streamed out. She stood there dumbfounded as her hand was dangling with braided stream of blood originating from her fresh wound. She stood motionless staring at the goblet performing its magic! She saw some tiny drops of her blood which landed inside the goblet, as soon as it touched its surface it changed into pearls. She was unbothered by the pain in her hand and was thinking about how she will utilize this new discovery of her. Her hand which was smothered with blood, now it was leaving its stain on the floor. She carefully lifted her hand without wasting any drop of her precious blood and let it fall in the goblet. In a blink of her eye, they turned into pearls. She was overwhelmed by the sight of those jewels, and how the knock on her window turned out to be an opportunity to change her fate, oblivious to the pain that deep wound in her hand will lead her to.

As more and more pearls pilled-up her greed grew, to an extent that it was no more a desire but addiction and urge to own everything she wanted. She owned a huge mansion with enormous chandeliers dangling, inside it had a distant ceiling like a castle, she had sculptures in every corner, her bath was almost the size of an indoor swimming pool, she owned all the jewels, long dresses, heels, and headgears she desired. But she stood on a wheelchair, on a heavenly garden overlooking her house staring at the life she desired. Her eyes were not filled with complex and greed, but with an urge to live. She wanted to live her life to the fullest, wanted to walk with her own foot, feel the strength in her body again. She held the goblet in her hand and remembered the day she heard,

“Sorry, but I can’t help”

She abhorred the way she was living. As her tears began to fall, she whispered while her eyes were fixed to the goblet,

“Maybe it was my life, which was your price”

She forced herself and threw it away until it landed on some bushes. Maybe somewhere she still wanted to hold it but she had nothing to give it in return. As she busied herself wiping off her tears some weird looking bird picked it up and disappeared in the sky while holding it in its paws.