Folk Tales 16; Ton Thumb

Ton Thumb  ....

There was never a day which the poor Mother of Ton Thumb would never sigh, as she think of her son. Ton is not her only son; she has five to be exact excluding Ton, and they are all of normal as in normal by the view of the people.

But not Ton; when he was born, his right hand thumb was enormous, and that actually scared the midwife then. But Ton was born to a very lovable mother who nurtured him, and always tell him; ‘Ton, you are no different from the other kids but you have a unique gift which one day will tell you more’.

So Ton lived his young life with the taunts and gossip of his deformity, but he has five sturdy and brave brothers who never left his side, and took on any others to defend their brother’s honor. Soon Ton grew up and he finds himself always shorter than the rest while his thumb just grew bigger.

So one day, his dying mother looked at her sons’ especially the one with the huge thumb, she said;’take him away to a place where people can see him for himself’. As that was her dying wish, the children agreed. Upon their mother’s death, they left the place called home for a long time, and took on a journey of ‘walk straight and look not back’.

On their journey, the people who saw Ton Thumb will comment on his deformity, and the brother’s fought them all. But they also in some places, found their new roots, so they decided to stay back to nurtured the new roots. Eventually, it was only Ton and his eldest brother Tin.

‘Brother Tin, follow me no more. You find yourself a home at the next town, and I will move on myself. Dinna worry, I will be fine.’ And so he did, with Tin staying back at the town.

Now Ton came to many places on his own, and he encountered many adventures. Once he plugged a dyke wall with his thumb while the mason was still fixing the gap. He also endorsed some products for good quality with his infamous thumb. Even some doctors studied his thumb, as it was easier to read his than the normal guys one. He was also invited to ‘thumb’ his mark outside a chinese theater when others actually left a palm print. The best was he was invited to support a Presidential candidate with the slogan; ‘Thumbs up!’.

By then, Ton Thumb was travelling in a limo in his travels, and he still can’t find the place his mum mentioned to him. But he did finally reached that place on his thirty six birthday, he arrived in a town called ‘Thumbs’.

Well, nobody there has a thumb like his, but they acknowledged his popularity improve the town’s image.

So he settled there, and a year later, he married a lady named Thumbelina. And they had ‘tons’ of kids. I know him as a good friend and am godfather to his kids. Ton actually ‘thumbprint’ every birth certificate of his children as he never learn to write or read.

( A defect at birth is not our own doing, and if others can learn to see beyond that will be their own doing. )