CaNdiEs bEaRiNg tReE 

 

This is a story about a tree that gave candies instead of fruits. As much joyful it may seem but it wasn’t at the beginning. Trees usually bear fruits or flowers but the tree god couldn’t take away the wish of a child that under circumstances wanted candies for her well being. He altered nature’s rules to do that.

 

Long time ago in a country named Xaeffy lived a very poor father and a child. Father’s name was Westol and his child who was a girl, her name was Dammadan. Westol worked in rubber industry where he extracted rubber from tree. Westol always wanted to do his own business as the pay he got from extracting rubber was very meagre and with that pay he was not able to support his daughter’s education.  

 

In Xaeffy it was not easy to do business as only the rich people could do it. Why? Because the ruler of Xaeffy was a very mean person. He put tax on everything just so that he kept on getting richer and poor kept on getting poorer. His tax policies were so strange that they included tax on rubber and maple syrup trees which in turn supported the rich people and him. Many times people tried revolting against him but were always suppressed by the his huge armies. So nothing could be done against the king or his army.

 

Once Westol was working in the rubber farms. On that day it was the birthday of his boss’s son. The owner was a miser too. Instead of giving a party to his workers he simply distributed candies (which were expensive too in that country but less expensive than a feast) to them.

 

Westol wasn’t a big fan of candies but his daughter was. Westol took the candies home for his daughter. His daughter when saw the candies was very excited to see them. Her daughter took out the wrapper from one of the candies and tasted it. She liked it very much. But his daughter since she was just a kid wanted the taste of the rock candies forever and did not wanted to loose them. So she asked her father “ How can I make more of the sweet rock candies that you have given me?”.His father was a a bit confused and did not know how to answer that. His father jokingly told her daughter that the only way to preserve it was to make more of it which they could not. 

 

The daughter then felt a bit sad but she was hungry too at that time. She wanted to eat food but the mouth watering taste she got from candies did not wanted her too have anything else so she started drinking water with her candies so as to at least fill her stomach. When she was doing that she felt sweeter in her mouth when the water ran down her throat so she did that again and again. She then realized that candy water tastier than the candies itself. She then got an idea. She thought that candies could be preserved by mixing them with water and making a syrup out of that. So she did. She picked up the remaining candies unwrapped them and then took a huge water jug. She then put the candies in the water jug ad filled it with water and started stirring it with a spoon. She kept on stirring the water in the jug until all candies got dissolved in it. Then she tried tasting it. It was beautiful! But lacked something. She tried putting lemon juice in it and the tried having a sip of it. When she did that, a perfect candy lemonade was made which she saved it till morning. 

 

Now, she wanted her father to taste it but at that time he was asleep so she waited till the morning when her father got up for work. She did not sleep that night in excitement. 

 

In the morning Westol woke up for work. After he got freshen up Dammadan filled a whole glass with candy lemonade and gave it to her father. She told her father to try it. Her father asked that what it was? But she said that try it first. When Westol tried it he found it that it was the most delicious thing he ever had. Her father in excitement screamed and asked what is that? His daughter freaked out and asked him “was he okay”? Her father said “yes” but he also said that he screamed in excitement and not other wise. He said that “ He had never had anything like that before” he then asked her how did she make it? Her daughter then told him that she called it candy lemonade and made it by adding candy, water and lemons. Westol had always wanted to start a business but he never had an idea. This time he got one but due to laws of country he still could not afford raw materials in a lump some  so he became a bit depressed then again and went back to work without saying anything to daughter.

 

The God of trees was watching all this and he became sad too and wanted to do something for Westol and his daughter, Dammadan. 

 

So the tree god waited for a day and then disguised himself as  a candy seller and went to Westol’s house. He then knocked at the door and asked if there was anybody inside. Dammadan came out and asked the boy that what was his purpose of knocking the door. The boy told that he was selling candies and wanted to sell some of them to her. But Dammadan said that she could no afford candies as they were very poor. But the boy said that he never goes to another house without selling anything to the previous house or loosening the weight of his candy bag. So he said that since she did not have money to pay for a candy he would give her something that would get her candies without having to pay for it. He also said that he could accept anything in exchange for that. Dammadan thought for a while and asked him is it possible to offer him a special lemonade in exchange for what he has to offer. The tree god who was dressed as a candy seller said that that was okay and agreed to the offer. 

 

Dammadan went inside and filled up a glass with candy lemonade and brought outside. She gave it to the candy seller. The candy seller tasted it and liked it very much. He then thanked the girl and gave her a seed. He told the girl that it was a seed that will grow a tree which will give candies. The girl though the candy seller was nuts but she did not refused the seed and took it and thanked the candy seller and then he left. 

 

Many days passed but the girl did not planted the seed. Then one day she thought let’s try planting it in my backyard what harm it could do. She hen took the seed from her drawer where she had kept it before and planted it an inch deep within the ground and waited for it to grow. Trusting the seed she slept that night very peacefully. The next day when she woke up she saw a giant tree where she had planted the seed. She then went outside to check it. When she checked it out she yelled just like her father did. The tree was bearing 1000’s of rock candies. Seeing that Dammadan got excited and waited for her dad to come.

 

In the evening his dad came. Dammadan told her dad that she has something special to show her and took her to their backyard. When Westol saw the tree he was shocked too. He asked her daughter that how did it happen? Her daughter explained her the entire incident.

 

Now Westol was excited and said that there was no tax on candy bearing trees and lemon trees so they can sell as much candy lemonade as they want. And that night Westol got some lemon seeds and planted them in the backyard along with the candy tree. 

 

Then what? They grew their business into a booming one and nobody ever came to know the secret of their lemonade. Not only that Dammadan was able to go to school and get expensive things of her desire, thanks to the tree god and her preserving trick.