What Goes Around, Comes Around.
Saturday, May 25th, 2024.
There's a case causing a serious uproar in the courtroom regarding the request of a young woman to behead her daughter for a necklace.
Let's not be quick to judge; it's only fair to know the whole story, right?
Right.
Paulina is a woman, nice in the heart and full of love, but maybe unfortunate enough to have met someone like Kate—her husband's first wife.
Jeff only has two wives, Kate and Paulina.
The two wives did get along well, and Paulina open-mindedly requested Kate’s half-broken clay pot. It was one of its kind.
Back in the day, those pots could serve as vases, only that they are secured safely into the ground and can sustain trees as huge as a mango tree.
Paulina had the mind to plant cocoa seeds and start a cocoa business. Kate handed it to Paulina willingly due to their closeness.
She went ahead with her business venture, and it thrived. Paulina’s cocoa tree was fully grown; it produced quite a lot of pods, and she reaped the gains.
On the other hand, Kate grew jealous, and this was where she made a mistake. In anger, she requested the return of her half-broken clay pot. Paulina pleaded desperately and continuously that it was impossible to return to her without cutting down her tree.
Kate insisted, and she added a condition: “Return my clay pot exactly the way I have handed it to you, half broken with no other scratch.”.
There was only one way to meet such a demand—cutting down the tree. And this was what Paulina dreaded. Cutting down the tree would wreck her.
People came to Paulina’s aid, but all they could do was plead on her behalf. All fell on Kate’s deaf ears. She had made up her mind and was hell-bent on watching the thriving business hit rock bottom.
The disheartened business owner had no other choice and ordered the chopping down of the huge, flourishing cocoa tree. Alongside the tree, Paulina’s heart was severed, and she harbored unhealed wounds.
After two years, Kate gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She was so beautiful that her alluring charm attracted gifts from everyone who gazed at her lovely face.
Paulina was also astounded by the beauty and loved the child, just not as much as anyone thought.
Paulina gifted the baby girl a handmade necklace created from the finest minerals she ordered when she journeyed to the big cities.
It happened that this same necklace became the baby’s most expensive possession as she grew older. Although it had a pratfall to it, the necklace was so small that it expanded with her neck as the girl grew older.
Kate compelled her daughter to pull it off at some point because she never takes it off, but her daughter, Doris, refused. She loved it that much.
Soon, the necklace expanded to become a part of her.
As life would have it, no evil goes uncountered, regardless of the years that might have passed. Paulina went to Kate and demanded the necklace, which she gave to her daughter. But she gave a condition: “Return my necklace just the way I have given it to your daughter, expandable and no scratch.”.
Kate spoke with her daughter, who, after much appeal, agreed to give back the gift. The more challenging part soon revealed itself when Kate and her daughter spent hours trying to figure out how to slide off the necklace through her relatively large head.
The necklace has no hook, and it can only come off Doris’ neck if it’s cut off, which Paulina warned against.
But there was another solution that would earn Paulina her necklace just the way she had gifted it out—beheading Doris.
That way, Paulina gets her necklace back unscratched.
Kate ran in front of Paulina, crying, rolling on the floor, and pleading not to kill her daughter. She promised to pay her triple the amount the necklace must have cost her, but Paulina insisted.
She gave Kate a deadline, and the terrified mother ran to the court for help. The court heard both sides of the matter, realizing Kate is only suffering for the work of her hands. The pain she had once caused crawled back to her, but she pleads for mercy.
The court has been transfixed to give a final verdict, but the truth must stand. Help the court decide!
Should Kate return the necklace even if it costs her daughter’s life, or should Paulina forgo her necklace?
Before you judge this matter, I employ you to fit right into Paulina’s shoes for a moment. Would you let go?
Apparently, folklore is a tale of rich lessons, and I want more people to incorporate it into today’s lives. It also strengthens generational bonds as it’s passed down the family tree.
The moral lessons of this poignant tale are as follows:
1: Do not seek the downfall of a fellow human.
Isn’t this common in our society now? Envy, jealousy, backbiting, treachery, conspiracy, and the list goes on are ground factors that are prevalent in today’s society.
Even little kids do this to themselves.
2: Listen to your parents.
Let’s assume Doris listened to her mother when she was advised to pull it off (which might have stemmed from parental instincts or something); the end result wouldn’t have attracted dire consequences.
3: Be watchful of the way you treat others, because whatever you do, you will most definitely reap the rewards, and so will your children and their children.
Just like we pass tales and wealth down to our generation, we also pass curses if we manage to attract some.
4: On a more subtle note, we should try, as humans, not to allow materialism to define us. It could cause us harm or become our weakness.
Doris was so into the necklace that she never took it off; now it plans to take her life.
Wrapping up: To crown it all, let’s become better versions of ourselves and filter out evil because what goes around is just lurking right in the corner to bite back.
This story is submitted to a writing contest: