Folk Tales 34; Painnachio

Painnachio ....

Now there was a young boy who lived with his father, the puppet maker, in this small town in a some place we forgot the name. But we all remember the boy as he is very popular and funny at times. You see this boy has a unique feature; his nose grows when he tells a lie, so everyone comes to him to hear him speak the truth.

And our story begans now.

Painnachio was walking back to his father’s shop with hunched shoulders and some bruises. So the father whose name was Geppeta saw his son apperance and he threw down his tools to comfort his son. After all he has only one son, and this son was a gift by the Fairy Godmother.

‘What ails you son?’ Geppeta wipes his son’s tears as they rolled down the cheeks. He also slowly brushed off the dirt on the child clothes. ‘Did they hurt you again?’

‘No, Dad. I felled in the drain and hurt myself’, replied Painnachio but his nose grew an inch. That tells us Painnachio lied to his father.

‘No,Son. You lied to me. Your nose showed me your lies’, said the concerned father as he hugges his son closer to him. ‘I am your father, and no lies need to be created for me’.

Painnachio sobbed his eyes out and could had filled a barrel if the father did not stopped him; ‘ I think at this rate, you will be dehydrated, so stop crying. Tell me what really happened.’

Now Painnachio looked to the man he called his father, when in fact that man is actually his inventor.

You see, Painnachio was made of wood like the puppets in the shop, except his inventor loneliness called for love of a son, and this was heard by the Fairy Godmother. As he was making a wooden puppet then named Painnachio, the Fairy Godmother used her magical wand to change the wooden puppet into a real boy. 

But there was a condition to his production; his nose will grow when he speaks of lies.

The Fairy Godmother meant well, as she wanted the boy to be truthful to his father, but she did not understand the implication of her act then.

So Painnachio related to the Father of his day, and how he was forced to tell the truth, and when spoken out, it brought him more pain. As some truth cannot be spoken but to be kept as secrets. Since Painnachio is a good boy, everyone tells him things including secrets at times. He then spoke of secrets’ of theirs as if it is his.

Painnachio wished he had not changed into a boy and would like to remain as a puppet. As a puppet, he is devoid of feelings and can’t talk like a boy. And no one can force him to tell the truth and if they hit him, he will just not feel any pain.

But second secret he had was if he become back a puppet, he will hurt his father who loved him as a son. So he does not want that to happened too. So he prefers to suffer his pain as a boy in  silent than to see his father suffers as a lonely man. 

Now that both secrets are out, both father and son wept in tears for they felt the pain of each other.

And came the Fairy Godmother, who said, she can put things back to normal if they want. But only if they want it.

Both Painnachio and Geppeta looked at each other and they both shook their head.

‘The pain I feel is on the body and not of my soul. If I am selfish to rid myself of this, I am hurting another soul in the making. I think I will stay as I am’ replied Painnachio.

And so they lived on with each other, in pain and joy they both shared.

( When in times of pain, we looked to those moment of joy for the healing powers. )