Castle Wintry

a short story for me, by me

He had lived his whole life in the damp gray walls of the Castle Wintry. As a boy he new nothing of love or affection; he only knew that when the spiders bit him late at night under the cold moon… he felt it comforting to know something recognized his beating heart. His father was a pastry chef known to most as the worst cake maker in the whole castle. His mother hated his father for be being dull and dry-witted; she in turn saw only his father in his eyes and paid him no mind. They both passed away when he was a teen and left him nothing to remember.

The boy grew into a man. In doing so he gained quite the reputation for entertaining the masses in the castle. He reveled in telling witty jokes and using his flirtatious mannerisms to make the ladies of the castle giggle. He often found that his most prized gift was that of dance. He loved to dance and found that he was quite mesmerizing to the castle patrons when he did so. The man entertained so well that the King requested that the man be appointed court jester and dance before them between meals. A great honor it is to be the supreme entertainer to the nobles and monarch. For years he entertained and loved his audience. He knew them all by name and even when he was not entertaining them officially, he would often stop them in their daily routines in hopes of making them laugh or smile. He counseled many of the men and listened to the quandaries of many of the women. Never a day went by when he felt he didn’t help someone and that left him content.

One early morning brought much grief to the man. The man, now in his late thirties, was lying on his deathbed. He had but only a few hours left. The man reconciled the notion of death and started to smile once again. He continued to smile while waiting for the beautiful sight of all his friends and master to wish him off to the afterlife. The day was long and soon it was night. Never had a man been so saddened and now so ready to die. He had understood what his life was about. He knew the affection and the attention he never received as a child motivated him to give. Therefore, he gave all of himself to others. Lying on his deathbed with only a few hours left, he knew he’d die alone and that’s when he realized… he more than anyone else in Castle Wintry deserved love.

The man’s body was tossed to the moat where it was promptly lifted and carried away. The man's body drifted and finally rested in a patch of water lilies. When the man had died, his last thought was that he wished he could have danced one last time. He wished he could have done the one thing that gave him joy one last time. Some would say they could see the water lilies dance under the moonlight to the whistling wind. Unfortunately, most paid no attention to the water lilies, the masses only wished they had someone to listen to them, talk to them, or just dance for them. There was now no such person in Castle Wintry.