Just Remember - chapter 2

Chapter 2

The next time Shiz came to visit he was angry to find Jesse still living in the hut in the village.

“What's wrong with you, you little wretch?” he cried. “Why are you still living here with this old woman? Does she feed you? Does she keep you warm? It's time you left! You are big now, you don't have to wait for someone else to take care of you anymore, unless you are afraid!”

“I'm not afraid,” Jesse told Shiz. “I stay here because I love the old woman, and I want to take care of her.”

Shiz looked hard at Jesse. “How can you love that old woman?” he asked sharply. “She doesn't love you! She doesn't even want you here. She only keeps you because you do her work for her. Don't you know that you will never get anywhere in this world by taking care of other people? You have to take care of yourself!”

When Emer came the next morning he found Jesse deep in thought.

“Your Majesty,” he greeted the boy, giving him a big hug. “I am so proud of you and the way you take care of the old woman. You act just like your father, the King,”

“Shiz says I should take care of myself, too,” Jesse told Emer. “He says if I don't take care of myself, no one else will.”

“What do you think the King would do?” Emer asked the boy.

“I think he would stay here and take care of the old woman,” Jesse said finally. “But I wish we had more food to eat. Would a prince really live like this?”

“Not usually,” Emer told him. “Most of the time princes live in castles and their fathers take care of them. Some day, when you grow up, you will live in the castle with your father. But right now you get to prove how much you are like him by taking care of the old woman. Maybe you could help her plant a bigger garden, so you could grow more food.”

Jesse worked hard gathering wood and taking care of the garden so he and the old woman would have enough food. He worked so hard he didn't have time to play with the other children in the village, but at least he wasn't hungry or cold any more.

Sometimes, when the kids saw him working in the garden, they would laugh at him and call him names. It made him sad that he didn't have any friends, but then he thought, “I am the son of the King, and I am doing what a prince would do.” That made him feel warm and better inside.

When Jesse was nine years old his foster mother died. That made him very sad, because he had learned to love her while he took care of her. That year when Shiz visited, the wicked wizard yelled and screamed.

“Look how skinny you are!” he said. “What's wrong with you? Are you too scared to take care of yourself? I see the sheep on the edge of the cliff. Why don't you steal them? They could fall over anyway. No one would know you killed them! If you don't start eating right you will never grow big and strong!”

When Emer came the next day, he could see that Jesse was sad. He hugged the boy tightly, and asked him what was wrong.

“Shiz says I should eat more meat,” Jesse told Emer. “He says I won't grow up big and strong if I don't take care of myself, and that I should either steal some of farmer Owen's sheep, or I should leave this village and go into the mountains to live with the robbers. Doesn't a king need to be strong?”

“Yes,” Emer told him. “A king should be strong, for sure. And healthy. What do you think your father would do?”

“I don't know,” sighed the boy. “I know he wouldn't steal the sheep.”

“You see,” Emer smiled at him, “you already think like a king. I am so proud of you. You know, Jesse, there are lots of ways to become strong. Just eating meat won't give you strength.”

“Shiz says I should live with the robbers in their caves because they can teach me how to be really strong,” Jesse said. “He says they are strong because they eat lots of meat, and drink wine.”

“Oh,” Emer said. “Yes, the robbers do eat lots of meat, and drink lots of wine, and some of them are very strong, but I don't think that's the reason why. Strong men are usually the ones who work the hardest.”

“Does wine make you strong?” Jesse wanted to know.

“It makes you think you are strong,” Emer told him. “There are things that can fool people into believing they are good for them, but really they aren't.”

“How will I know if something is bad for me?” Jesse asked.

“You have a warning voice inside that will help you know when something is going to hurt you,” Emer told him. “It's the same voice that tells you who you really are. When you get a feeling that something is bad, listen to that feeling, and you'll be OK.”

Emer looked at Jesse's sad face, and asked, “What else is bothering you, Your Majesty?”

“Shiz says I should go live with the robbers so I won't have to live all alone,” he finally told the wizard.

“You would like to have some friends, wouldn't you,” Emer said kindly. “It is hard to be lonely, isn't it?”

“Yes,” Jesse admitted. “The kids in our village won't play with me, they laugh and call me names. I tried to tell them I was really the son of the King, but that made them laugh even more. They said if I was the King's son, he would come and take me to his castle.”

“How do you feel in here?” Emer asked the boy, patting him over his heart?

“I don't know,” Jesse cried. “Just kind of lonely, and scared.”

“Shh,” Emer whispered. “Be still and listen to your heart.” He pulled the boy up onto his lap, even though Jesse was too big to be held anymore, and hugged him. “How do you really feel in your heart?”

“I feel warmer,” Jesse finally said, “and safe.”

“Who does your heart say you are?” asked Emer.

“I am a prince, the son of a king!”

Emer smiled. “There will always be people who tell you that you are nobody, and it will hurt, but if you listen to your heart, you will know who you really are.”

“I wish people liked me,” Jesse said.

“It is is good to have friends,” Emer agreed. “but the best way to have people like you is to be a friend to them.”

“How?”

“What would the King do?”

Jesse thought for awhile, then finally said, “Maybe help them?”

Emer nodded. “You know, Jesse, people don't love the King because he is the king. They love him because he takes good care of them. Being a king means you are the servant for all the people in your kingdom, and you have to work harder than anyone else to take care of them. What do you suppose you could do to help the people here, in your village?”

Jesse thought for a long time. Finally he looked up at Emer and said, “Well, there is Farmer Owen. His sheep keep getting close to the edge of the cliff, and sometimes they fall over. Maybe I could make a fence to keep them safe.”

Emer smiled. “Now that is exactly something the King would do! I am so proud of you, Jesse,” and he hugged the boy again. It felt good, and Jesse couldn't help remembering what Emer always told him, “The most powerful thing in the world is love.”