Once Upon A Time

Chapter 13

"No Gray. He didn't love us. He wasn't even happy when I told him I was pregnant with you. He said that you were my burden to carry not his."

"I'm a burden?"

"No darling!" She said embracing him. "No. Your father foolishly saw you as a burden but the truth is you were a gift. A gift that I love and cherish with all my heart."

"Do you really feel that way Mama?"

"Always have, always will."

To prove it she planted a kiss on his forehead. Gray smiled, his mother always knew how to make him feel better about himself. He wasn't sure what he'd do if she wasn't around anymore.

"Now then I think I'll get back to work."

"No Mama you need dinner too. Why don't I finish your work while you eat?"

"That's sweet but you're still learning and I think you're much too young to be doing my work."

"I don't mind. I like it. Please."

"Well...Alright. But as soon as i'm done with my dinner you let me takeover okay?"

"Okay."

She watched him work as she ate and she was surprised that someone so young could learn to spin so well in such short time. When she first started spinning it taken her months to get it right. 

"Gray you astound me." She said smiling. "You could spin for kings and queens one day."

"Really? I didn't think I had any talent."

"It's more than talent it's a gift. You could probably spin something from anything."

"Something from anything?" 

He thought about that for a moment, trying to think of what he could spin. As he thought he glanced outside the window to where they kept the straw to feed the sheep. Funny thing about straw is was basically just dried grass best used for feeding livestock but he always thought it's color was very nice. In fact he thought that when the light shined on it the color resembled gold. Gold. Straw and gold. That give him any idea.

"Mama do you think that I could spin straw into gold?"

"What?" She giggled.

"You said that I could spin something from anything. If I could spin straw into gold then we would be rich. We wouldn't starve and we wouldn't always be so cold and we wouldn't live in this drafty house. We could move away from here and live in a castle."

"Oh Gray that is a lovely thought but you misunderstand. When I said you could spin something from anything I meant you could spin any kind of cloth from any kind of material. Spinning straw into gold is impossible."

"It is?"

"Yes."

"Oh..."

"But we don't need gold to get by and we most certainly do need it to be happy."

"But don't you ever get tired of living like this?"

"It is a struggle but it's not all bad. You know not everyone in village is cruel to us or scared of us. Macao the toy maker has always been very kind to us. Remember him?  He still comes by to buy my cloth and he's the one who always makes a special toy just for you every year on your birthday."

"Yes he is nice. You know you'd think with all the toys he makes he'd have some kids of his own to give them to."

"That's thing Gray he wants to have a child so very much but unfortunately his wife left him and he hasn't be able to remarry so it doesn't look like he'll ever have a child of his own."