On storytelling and life
The Woman in the House of Sticks
Now in a small corner of an unknown village there lived a rather plain woman named Cerise. The walls of the house she built for herself were made of sticks. In the beginning, these walls were paper-thin, but as she stayed longer, she would add layers of new sticks to it such that her walls were now really strong and thick. She would only talk to other people from a small open window on one wall (for she did not put any doors on her house and she never really wanted to leave her safe place anymore anyway).
One day, a radiant person passed her small corner and started to talk to her. Radiant is the only word she could think of to describe him since there was a glow coming from him: a soft, warm light not unlike the light of fireflies at night. At first they talked about those normal things that people talk about; and she thought, "he would eventually get bored and leave me, just like all those others". But she didn't really mind since she was used to it and she was safe and warm in her stick walls anyway.
But the radiant man did not go, instead he asked, "Could you show me what you are hiding inside your house? Or could you at least step outside so I can see you better?"
"I can't," she said, "my house has no doors."
"I want to look inside," the radiant man replied and started tearing down her stick walls.
"Don't do that, please. It's cold outside, and quite frightening."
But she couldn't stop him, and anyway she could see that the man's glow was quite warm and she wouldn't really be all scared if there was a friendly face with her.
When the final stick was removed, the radiant man looked inside and said, "But there's nothing in here," for Cerise's house was really quite empty and boring since she had no doors and no way to get things from the outside, "It's getting late and I'm really tired from pulling down all those sticks. I'll just see you tomorrow, okay?" And he went away, taking all of Cerise's sticks with him.
That night was quite cold and scary for her, and so was the next, and the next, since the radiant man forgot to come back.
"It was a mistake to let anyone tear down my walls," she thought. And she started building a new house, with bricks this time since the radiant man took all her sticks with him.
"My walls are made of brick now, you may huff and you may puff but you will never tear it down again."
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