Lola Chapter 3: The Poor Peddler Had Two Ducks

 It had been two days since the handsome trader had taken her furry friend, Kitten, and both of her coins. The old woman had taken the poor white pup and washed him in her wooden tub and had tried her best to keep them both alive by fishing and drinking water from the well. She could feel her days on earth were numbered however. An old person could not live on bits of fish now and then and nothing else. She had in her cupboard one carrot that didn't look very good at all and two wild onions that she had picked from the flowers by the pond. "I guess I will chop up the withered carrot with these onions. I will add some fresh water. Then that will be the last for me and Lola. Hopefully Lola being as young as she is will run away and be picked up by someone that cares for animals."

Little did she know, but she was about to have a visitor. "Hello the house! Is anyone at home? I have need of a soft chair and a drink of cold water. Hello?!

The old woman was not going to fall for the tricks of the traveling traders again. It mattered none, however, because now she had nothing to be stolen. She walked slowly to the doorway and saw an old man with kettles and pots strapped to his back. He was stooped like she was. Walking slowly by his feet were two ducks. They were of different breeds. One was dark and one was white. "You have come to the wrong house for a welcome party, Sir. I have nothing to buy your wares with and I have no soft chair. My only chair is made of ancient boards. You may come into my home and sit if you wish. I will give you a drink of my cold well water. If you wish to steal my chair my good wishes go with you."

She made her way slowly to the pipe that the water had never failed to fill her cups and pots. It did not fail her today. After she had filled the cup, she took a drink for herself. She looked down at her feet. There sat Lola, her puppy, panting with thirst. "Alright, my dear. You can have a drink as well."

After the pup had it's fill the old woman filled the cup again and looked for the old peddler. He was gone! "He must be in the house sitting in my chair. Let's go give him a drink of water. He looked very tired."

The old peddler was no where to be found. In his place were the two ducks. The white duck and the dark duck quietly quacking as they inspected the room. The old woman put the cup of water on the floor and told the ducks to drink which they did immediately. "Your master left you, you poor ducks. I have no feed for you. Only water which will not fill your bellies. I am fixing a bit of soup for my dog and myself. If there is any left you are welcome to share it."

The old woman walked over to the fireplace where her pot was simmering. On the hearth there was a basket of large duck eggs and two big fat fish. Nestled in between the beautiful eggs were three large bones with enough meat on them to make the puppy and herself full for at least two or three days. And the eggs! It had been many weeks since she had tasted an egg and a duck egg at that. Oh my, I guess miracles do happen even for old women. I will remember to say my prayers of thanks this night."

A few hours later the Queen said to the counte,"Thank you so much for taking care of my old and faithful servant. Did you punish the the scoundrel that took her cat and coins? But most of all, did she find the pup? That pup will someday go down in history if all goes as planned."

Lola Chapter 2 The Handsome Peddler Was A Thief!

The old woman woke from her bed with aching bones and a headache. She had not slept a bit well. She missed her furry friend, Kitty. Her cat had chosen to sleep outside in the bushes with the small white puppy she had found. The puppy was dirty and had matted fur and was near starving to death. The old woman was very poor and told Kitty there was no food for another mouth no matter how small. The puppy would eat more than the two of them and leave them with only scraps. She was not willing to share.

She went to the door and called for Kitty to come in the house. "Come in dear friend. I will warm you some of my supper left from last night. I miss you. Please come in."

The voice that answered her was not Kitty, but a deep voice of a man.  There stood a finely dressed and easy on the eye, man. "Good morning, dear lady. I have good news for you today! I have beautiful fruits and vegetables for sale and even some beef and a bit of pork for sale. You can't find any thing better for the price than I am asking. The hawkers in Rome are asking twice the price, so you would be getting an opportunity that you cannot get any other day from any other trader."

"Off with you! I have only a bit of food and only one or two coins to last me the rest of my life. I have a cat to feed as well. If you want to help out a poor old woman take that bit of a pup with you and sell it and get yourself some coins, That's my gift to you today. Now off with ya!"

The tradesman looked where the old woman pointed and saw the cat with a dirty white puppy. There in the bushes was a cat and as she said a dirty white puppy. "Oh I shall give your cat some milk I have with me. The pup will not sell. But I shall only give the cat some milk if you give me one of your coins."

Realizing her mistake she shook the towel she had in her hand and said, "No no. Now go away. I have no coin for you. The tradesman had already filled a small bowl with some milk and offered it to the cat, not the puppy. "Come kitty kitty. Come get a drink of this delicious cow's milk. It will fill your belly and make you feel oh so wonderful. Come old woman. I have enough of this milk for you too. There will be no charge if you would only give me some of your water to fill my jug. I have a long way to walk and will be so thirsty."

The old woman thought it over and decided it wouldn't hurt if she gave the man some water. She had a good well and the water was always clear and cold. She had not had a glass of milk in ever so long. She went into the house to get a cup for the water. When she went back outside the peddler was gone and so was her cat! Her furry friend was gone. The bad man had left her only with the dirty white puppy and just a bit of milk left in the dish.

The old woman started to cry. "Oh I am so old and foolish. I should never had given that bad man the time of day. Oh I will miss Kitty. I loved him so. It was then that she saw the pup and heard his weak little whimper. The old woman's heart was broken, but it was not a hard heart. She picked up the pup and carried it to the wooden tub. She put a little water in it and a sliver of soap that she had in her apron pocket. "Alright then, pup. You have to be clean before you can come into my home. There is a bit of milk left in the dish that Kitty didn't drink. Then we need to come up with a plan to feed you and me. I am so glad I didn't give that man any of my coins."

After she had washed and dried off the puppy with her towel she was surprised to see that the puppy was actually a very pretty dog. She carried the pup into the house and saw her little cloth bag laying on the table that had her coins in it. She quickly shook the bag and realized what had happened. "Oh no! That man has taken my coins! Oh what a sneaky man. He was so finely dresses I thought I could trust him. I had only turned my back for a minute. Whatever shall we do now, pup? Well, I know the first thing we shall do is find you a name. It's not right to be called Dog. Poor Kitty went for generations being called Kitty with each new kitten that was born. You shall be different. You are a beautiful girl, but a worrisome one. Full of pain and and beautiful There is a word that is Spanish that I learned years ago. The word is Lola. Yes, it means pain and worry, yet beautiful. That shall be your name. Someday when you have a litter of puppies, I shall make sure that one of your puppies shall have your name to carry on for generations.

Lola Chapter One: The Old Lady And Her Cat

 Once upon a time many many years ago there lived a very old woman in a land called Italia. She lived in a tiny stone cottage that was older than she was. She lived alone except for the company of her cat. Her cat was also old and liked to lay in the sun to warm his bones. The old woman had found her cat when he was just a kitten and she was a young girl. She called it Kitty because she couldn't think of a better name. The kitten grew to be as big as  the foot stool that sat in front of her chair by the window.  At first and for a few years the two of them would run and play in the open fields.; often chasing butterflies and make believe unicorns. Then she was summoned to work at the palace with her mother for many years. The hard work and long hours of work would soon leave little time for fun with her kitty. She would go to bed almost as soon as she got home from the palace.

Nowadays, her cat, the third generation of kittens her childhood cat had given her kept her cottage free of mice which the old woman was thankful for. The old woman had many things to be thankful for in her old age. The old Queen let her live in her cottage rent free. The cat was full from his diet of mice so she didn't have to give him part of her food. She lived by a stream that was full of fat fish that she occasionally caught with tails of tadpoles that her cat would lay at her stoop.

The old woman would talk to her cat at times as if the cat was a human friend. Her voice was frail and weak, but at times even with her failing vision she would read to Kitty. His favorite story was the tale of a cat called Papa Gatto. He was a widower left with eight kittens after his wife died. The story book was full of beautiful pictures that the old woman showed to Kitty as she read the old old book. Papa Gatto was searching for a nanny to care for his baby kittens. Papa Gatto was a wise, well dressed, and clever cat and would advise the Prince from time to time. The book told the tale of him searching for an honest and beautiful nanny and acquiring only a beautiful and dishonest Sophia while all the while the plain Beatrice should have been his best choice. 

One day the old woman and her cat went outside to get some fresh air after a lovely spring rain. The sun was shining and the birds were singing their beautiful songs. The old woman looked down at her cat and said, "We are so very lucky to have such a beautiful day, aren't we, Kitty? The roof didn't leak even after all these forty fifty years. That's good because I can't afford to have someone redo it.

Her cat walked as quickly as his chubby self could go over to the bushes and flowers. He started to meow a loud scratchy meow. The old woman went over to see if the cat had caught a mouse when what did she see, but a tiny white furry ball. It was a puppy. It was dirty and matted and cried a tiny cry. "Well, how did you get here, my love? I bet you are hungry and I can't afford to feed you. I have all I can do to feed myself and Kitty. Now what should I do with you? I think it would be best if I left you here. Maybe someone will see you and take you in. I just can't do it." She turned and started to walk back to her cottage. She was surprised when Kitty blocked her way and went back to the bushes and flowers and curled up to the puppy. The old woman was astonished. "What are you doing? Are you willing to share your food with the dog? Dogs don't eat mice and tadpoles. They need lots of food that we don't have. What do you suggest we do? What's that? No answer? Just as I thought. You want what you can't have. Now come in with me. There is no use wailing and meowing. What that dog needs is a mother. He is just a little bit of a thing. He needs milk. Do you see a cow? No! No cow, no mama dog, no food. I see no solution for this little one. Now come in the cottage! I will finish knitting you a pillow cover for your little bed."

Valentines Day In Grade School

 Grandma Lu was unwrapping a box of chocolates that her husband gave her and thinking of this day when she was just a child. How different it was. There was not a gift exchange between my parents because there was no money for things that weren't necessary. They knew they loved each other and showed it with all their hugging and kissing throughout the years. Grandma Lu shook her head and told her husband thank you and told him to take a piece of the chocolates. She was thinking of all the Valentines that she wrote when she was in grade school. They were so little; probably about three inches. They each had an envelope. The envelopes didn't have glue on them so you had to tuck them together so the Valentine didn't fall out.

Grandma Lu looked at her right hand. Yes, it was still there. She had a callus on her third finger from holding her pencils so very tight all the way through school, but especially in grade school. Her handwriting was atrocious. One teacher in particular made it even worse by smacking her hand with a ruler because she wasn't holding her pencil the way the teacher thought she should.

The Valentines came in a box of twenty-five. Often her classes had more than that so her mother would have to buy two boxes. She could still hear her mother sigh when holidays came around. Grandma Lu knew what that sigh meant. She had done the same thing during some tight years when her children were in school. 

Just for fun she looked up what the old Valentines looked like when she was seven or eight years old. "Yes, there they are. I would take my time and read each one and choose which one was just right for the person I was giving it to. Wouldn't you know it, I would break the lead in my pencil, or spell something wrong. Writing Valentines was not just stressful for my mother, but for me as well."

The Valentines would all be carried to school in a decorated box that I had glued together with the help of my father and a lot of construction paper. I always made so many hearts of a contrasting color to glue on the outside of the box. Again I had to try over and over until I got the shape of the heart just right.

Sometimes my mother made heart shaped sugar cookies to school for the party. They were always perfect with pink and red frosting and of course, they were delicious.

And then there was the ride on the bus with my little brother, who also at some point had a Valentines Box and cookies for his party. I have a friend who loves driving a school bus. I can just imagine her helping the little ones with their hard to manage projects for their parties so they would arrive safely for this special day.

Happy Valentines Day!