Priyadarshini Das, ShortStory 2021 Magazine

THE MAGICAL UMBRELLA

Once upon a time, there lived a young boy named Ramu in a small town. He was a very poor and he lost his father when he was only three years old. After his father died of poverty, Ramu being a small boy had to work along with his mother. His mother used to go from door to door asking to do household chores and Ramu used to work in small restaurant. At night, he used to come back from his work place with little money. They used to spend that money on their food. Ramu’s mother used to be happy and satisfied even though she was poor. She used to advice Ramu to be good in all aspects of life. Ramu lost his job in the restaurant and started begging in the streets to arrange food for him and his mother. Soon the monsoon season started and it used to rain day and night every day. Soon all the money he had got over. Ramu and his mother did not have anything to eat or to drink. Their condition was miserable.

A fairy was watching all this from the heaven and felt pity on Ramu. She went to Ramu and told “I saw everything from heaven and will to lend you a helping hand.” She gave him an umbrella to Ramu. Ramu said kindly to the fairy “Thank you for the umbrella but now I don’t have enough money to purchase it. You can take it back.” The fairy said with a smile “This is not an ordinary umbrella. If you open it, you will get a gold coin. But remember when you open it, you will grow one inch tall.” Ramu thanked the fairy. Ramu used the umbrella only when he needed money. He lived happily with his mother after getting the umbrella. But soon he became greedy. One day he repeatedly opened the umbrella. He was looking at the gold coins greedily and was very happy.

Then he realized that he had grown very tall, almost going to touch the sky. Seeing all the gold coins he didn’t care about his height. He hid the coins under the bed. He thought it would be safe there and went outside for a walk. No one could recognize him but because of greed he did not care about it. After few days, Ram started feeling lonely and sad without any company. Even his mother didn’t know that he was Ramu because of his height.

People thought that he was a giant who wanted to harm them and ran away from him. Ramu felt really bad for his loneliness because of his greed. At last, he prayed the fairy to save him. The fairy immediately appeared in front of him. Ramu told the fairy “Oh my dear fairy, I am very sorry for what I have done. I will never repeat this kind of mistake. Please forgive me. Ramu asked her “Do you have any solution for this problem?” The fairy said making a frowned face “I am ashamed of giving you this magical umbrella. I will punish you for your greed. I am telling you the solution because I believe you will not repeat it again. The solution is that you have to put the coins back into the umbrella when it rains. You have to lose all your wealth to become normal again.” Ramu said “I am ready to do this. I cannot live like this anymore. I will do as you said. Thank you, my fairy.”

Ramu immediately ran towards his home to get the umbrella and gold coins as soon as it started raining. He put all the coins into the umbrella. Soon all the coins disappeared into the umbrella and Ramu’s height was normal again. Then Ramu returned home and changed his wet clothes. After this he opened the umbrella three times and got that much coin which was essential for his living. He understood that greediness is a curse. In summer he utilized those three gold coins to put up a small tea stall in his locality. He realized that begging is a bad practice and stayed out of that. Soon Ramu and his mother started earning their livelihood from that tea stall.