THE SPICEBOX

Once upon a time there was a “VILLAGE”, in which a “WIDOW” with her 3 Childs lived. The village was situated in a place with harsh conditions, so harsh that sometimes there is no rain for a long part of year, very small amount of crops after so much effort even sometimes the villagers had to starve for days before touching a loaf of bread. Survival was a challenge in this village for the best of them.

The Woman with her kids lived in a shabby hut, she was very poor, and she worked as a farmer for the village chief to provide for her children. The amount she earned after hard work of a day was very little, so little that she skipped her own meals to provide 2 times a day for her children. The widow was very hardworking, self respecting and self-confident. She never turned to anyone for help even after the death of her husband in war.

One day when it was one of those harsh days of year. The field where she used to work withered and she lost her work for a whole month. After trying to find another job to provide for her kids, she took her hand sickle which she used for her work at farm and went to the woods to find something that could be as food for her Childs.

She went deep into the woods, and after a little while it started to darken, the she was at a place where there was no sunlight to be found. She saw a wild-duck. She grabbed her sickle and when she was about to attack it she saw its ducklings following that mother duck. She froze, couldn’t attack it she was puzzled, she was thinking “if I hunt this duck then her ducklings would die out of starvation, how I could hurt another mother to fill my own Childs belly” and turned back.

She hopelessly turns and starts to walk back toward her village. She was thinking that what would I say to my kids, what if they said “we are hungry, then where am I going to find food for them. She was walking blindly thinking about her kids. She stumbles upon a tree root and falls down, then she hears a voice “Ma’am are you alright, you didn’t hurt yourself did you” she turns her head upwards and sees a man dressed like a noble and behind him was a carriage carrying merchandise. The man introduces himself as a merchant who used this route for trade with a big city.

The man asked the woman what was she doing in this deep into woods, she had a light injury in her foot and couldn’t walk. “Ma’am you can tell me” the man said, after a while the widow tells him about her story. The man says “when I was a child my father also died in the war and my mother raised me on her own she used to work as a maid at a noblemen’s home one day the noblemen died and the had nowhere to work, a wise old man went through our village, my mother treated him with respect and gave him some food, the old guy gave my mother a “Spicebox” and told her to never Break or Crack open it, it was then when our life became easy and we started our spice business, our life became much easier, but a few days ago my mother died and told me to handover this Spicebox to another woman who is in need like herself.” After this the man gave this woman a weird shaped almost a round box with 7 lids on top. The woman denies taking it but the man insists and hands over the box to the woman. The man beware the woman to never Break or Crack the Spicebox as long as you don’t prosperity will be yours. The man takes the woman to her village in his carriage.

After this the woman goes to her hut and takes out the Spicebox given to her by the merchant. And opens the first lid from the box and she is surprised by the fact that there is Green Cardamom which is a rare and expensive herb, she is shocked because even though it is very little quantity its enough for her to take care of her kids for an entire week. She takes the Green Cardamom and reaches the shop of one and only herbalist of town. She unfolds the piece of cloth and presents the spice to herbalist he is also shocked as it is a precious and very rare herb often found in a nobles house or palace kitchen. He jumps with joy and asks for the price the woman is worried as she emptied the first box of Spicebox and says I am selling this spice so that I can provide for my children it was very hard to find this on my own from woods, the herbalist is shocked to the fact that it is impossible for this herb to grow in that region. The woman turns her gaze and asks for a fair trade the herbalist takes out the purse and gives her 1 silver and 30 copper coins. The woman is very pleased and grabs the money and goes to market to get some food for her children.

After a few days later the woman again finds herself out of money and again opens the second lid of the Spicebox and finds Guinea grains and is once more shocked as she saw another precious and rare herb. She once again goes to the herbalist and presents the second spice, he is once more shocked and asks how she obtained this herb, once again she avoids his questioning and asks for the money, this time the herbalist gives her 5 silver coins and tells her that it is the most he can arrange for the time being, and asks her that she should bring more if she comes across again a precious spice in the future. The woman goes back to her hut and thinks that her lucky charm is sooner or later is going to be emptied. And opens again the first lid of the Spicebox, she can not believe her eyes what she is seeing. The first box is filled again Green Cardamom mysteriously. She curiously opens the second box and is shocked that its also filled once more with Guinea Grains, she opens the all the other lids and she cannot believe her eyes as there are Black Cumin Seed in the third box Long Pepper in the forth box, under the fifth lids she finds Mahleb, In the sixth box is Fennel Pollen and in the seventh and the last box which is in the center of the Spicebox she finds Saffron which is more expensive then the gold itself.

After remaining in shock for some days she sets her minds to opening an spice shop. Her spice shop grew exponentially, and all the nobles and hotel owners became her regular clients. She bought a house and slowly she started to imported the same spices from out of country to not be looked suspicious, and after a year her shop grew so much that she never needed to open the Spicebox but she still kept it. The herbalist watched her business grow from shadows and hire a thief to investigate and report the secret of her business. The thief went into the house of the widow and secretly kept an eye upon her. Before going to bed she makes sure her kids are asleep and goes to a small room, with very little light and takes out the Spicebox and opens the middle lid to take some saffron and mixes it in the milk which she prepares for her Childs then she turns back leaves the milk in kitchen and sleeps.

The thief tells the herbalist of this occurrence but the herbalist thinks there must be a big secret behind this and he orders the thief to keep an eye on the woman for a whole month. The thief watches the woman as she takes care of her business import and every night takes out some saffron from the box and does the same for the whole month. The thief returns to tell the same story again, first the herbalist says there must be a bigger secret behind her sudden success, but the he asks the thief she took saffron out of the box for a whole month. The thief replies in yes, and says what is so special about her taking saffron out of some weird shaped Spicebox. Then he again asks the thief did you ever saw someone refill that Spicbox the thief says never, and then he realizes that it is the Spicebox that is special.

The thief went to the woman’s house to steal the Spicebox for the herbalist and after the woman takes saffron and leaves the small room the thief comes in and takes the Spicebox back to his employer the merchant, the thief asks “how did you know that she had this kind of thing in her possession” herbalist replies “before she use to sell him all of these precious spices but one day she opened her own shop, where did she got that much spices or money to start her own business, that is when I got suspicious of her activities but her business grew and it became harder to find out about the truth.” The herbalist takes out a heavy pouch filled with silver coins and hands over that to the thief with a warning “if you ever open your mouth about this in front of anyone you are dead.” The thief leaves in chills and replies “I am a professional you do not need to worry about privacy.”

Some time passes the woman knew from the start that the box went missing but she never cared about it as she had nothing more to gain from the Spicebox anymore. But the herbalist who took it made some heavy profit out of it, and became curious about how it never empties, how it is always full of these spices. And one day he comes back to his shop where he had hidden the Spicebox drunk, and takes out the Spicebox and tries to find crack open the box. But there are not hinges that could be open. He becomes furious and throws down the box. The box starts to move a little, he is shocked “did the box move by itself” he takes an axe and places the box on floor in 90 degrees angle and starts smashing it, after 2 or three hits the box cracked and a hole is placed in the box the herbalist grabs the box and tries to sneak into the box, the box is vibrating like its hurt or scared, but ignoring all of this he is trying to find the box’s secret. He continues to sneak in the box, takes the box near a candle and tries to watch whats inside. In an instant a slender body comes out like a bullet and bikes him on his temple releasing venom in his brains he drops the Spicebox now which seems like a snake with a shell yellow eyed spices growing out of its back and red wooden color. It goes crawling back into the Spicebox as the herbalist who is laying beside the box watching it, his vision starts to blur as the snake goes back into his shell the Spicebox, and after this his blood covers his eyes and from all of his nail, nose, and eyes, ears blood flood out, he dies a very painful and slow death scared to the very end. After a couple of days when his wife comes looking for him she finds him dead on the floor. She screams for help and all the people from the village gather they see his cold body and his very brutal death. The widow comes and sees the Spicebox placed right next to him and gets even more shocked as now she finds out about who stole the Spicebox it is more mysterious now that how did he died. The investigating officer from the army says he died by a snake bite. The widow tells him that the box right the dead man belongs to her which was stolen a month ago. And takes back the Spicebox. Then she realizes the Merchants story about passing the Spicebox to another who is in need, she notice the small crack by some weapon on the side of Spicebox.

This whole situation folds as an accident and no involvement of the widow in it. After a few years after the woman caught a weird sickness, she realizes she won’t make it and gathers her 3 Childs to tell her whole story, that now her childrens are grown and can take care of their own Spice business. She asks of them to pass down the Spicebox to another woman who is in need as she was once, and after 2 year she dies. But her children are living in prosperity like a noble family.

Is this a happy ending?

Well if you ask me, I don’t even know myself if it is. But you should remember every miracle has a price and horrors of it own.

10-04-2022S.HSB.G