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There was a queen that loved to take a bath.
She bathed in warm water, coconut, milk, roses, perfume and all that was creamy. One day a little colourful bird came to her window and told her that far away was a tree that produced a nut so special that it would make her baths the most luxurious ever.
The queen wanted those nuts, so she sent for her servants to fetch some for her. The servants traveled far and wide to find them, but returned empty handed.
“Why have you brought no nuts?” exclaimed the queen.
They answered that they had found the big old tree, but it had said it would only produce nuts if she came to collect them herself.
The queen ordered the horses out of the stables and boarded the royal carriage with the royal bath inside. She bathed as they journeyed to find the tree.
When they arrived at their destination, they found the tree.
“Dear tree,” said the queen, “I am your queen and I have heard that you will produce the most special nuts for my bath.”
“Yes, this is true,” said the old tree.
“Could you provide me with these nuts?” asked the queen, and immediately the tree produced lots of nuts that all fell to the ground. The servants collected them and made a special royal bath out of them for the queen.
It was the most delightful bath she had ever taken.
Coming out of the bath, the queen felt fresh and full of vigor.
“Dear tree,” she said, “you must make me more nuts!”
“This is a problem,” said the tree. “I've used up all my energy to produce fruit and the land here is bare and desolate as we have had no rain.”
“This is no problem,” said the queen. “I am the queen and can order clouds to rain,” and she did. The clouds gathered and it began to rain. The tree absorbed the rain and instantly made more nuts that fell to the ground. The queen took another bath.
She felt so much better afterwards that she immediately wanted to take another. But the tree said,
“Dear queen, I can't make any more nuts because the land is not fertile.”
“This is not a problem,” said the queen, “I am the queen and I can order it,” and she ordered all the animals, plants and all the minerals to come to the land and fertilise it.
The tree once more produced its fruit.
As she lay back in her bath she was already thinking about the next one she would take in her palace.
“This I can't do,” said the tree. “I am the last of my kind, old and soon to follow the ways of the earth by carrying on to the place unknown.”
This saddened the queen as even she could not stop the inevitable, so she
pulled the plug.
edited by Janet Cartlidge, copyright © 2014 Fabrice Schomberg
