Pinocchio and Mistress Cherry

Once upon a time there was…

“A queen!” the readers of this story will say.

No, dear friends, you are wrong. Once upon a time there was a little piece of wood.

The piece of wood was lying in the house of the wonderful Mistress Cherry, who decided to make a puppet with it.

So Mistress Cherry took the right instruments to carve and model the wood, and started her work. But just before she was going to give the first stroke to the wood, a small voice implored: “Please, don’t strike too hard!” Imagine the astonishment of Mistress Cherry!

She turned around the room, but no one was there. She eventually decided that the voice was just an invention of her mind, and gave the first stroke to the piece of wood.

“You hurt me!” The same little voice said.

This time Mistress Cherry was very puzzled. She was not afraid, of course, for she was a strong and secure woman, but she was a bit confused. Could this piece of wood talk? Could someone be inside it?

After some thinking, Mistress Cherry decided to continue her work. The voice had a male inflection, so if carving the wood meant hurting the owner of the voice, a male would suffer.

Of course the voice screamed and cried all the time Mistress Cherry was doing her work, and when the first leg was finished, the puppet even tried to give a kick to Mistress Cherry. Not that he succeeded: Mistress Cherry easily avoided the kick, and tied the leg before it could try again.

After a couple of hours the puppet was finished.

“You hurt me!” the puppet said.

“You do not know what it means to be hurt, puppet!” replied Mistress Cherry. “Do you see that fireplace?”

The puppet turned his head–it was the only part of his body that was not tied–and started to scream!

“No, please, don’t throw me in there!” the puppet implored.

“I won’t, if you behave and do whatever I want” Mistress Cherry said.

“As you wish” the pupped said defeated.

And from that day, Mistress Cherry enjoyed the devoted and constant servitude of her puppet. After many years, the puppet eventually became a real male, but that is another story.