The golden flower

 A long time ago, in the house of a simple Romanian peasant, there was a meeting and nearby, of course, were alot of people from the village.
 Among the people, what was there to see?...A young skinny boy with a pale yet handsome face.
 Nobody saw him before or knew who he was or where he is from, but Romanians are hospitable
and they let him stay there hearing stories and riddles.
 The meetings were organized pretty often and the mysterious young man was always there, the people still knew nothing about him, but they could see he's always looking at a beautiful young girl.
 The girl, in that time, felt something that she couldn't understand. Some time ago she used to like
the most handsome boy from the village, but in short time, she forgot about him.
 Sometimes she was thinking of the skinny pale boy, although she never felt anything for him.
 One night, after the meeting, the boy came to the girl and caught her in his
arms and asked her:
 - Maria, do you like me? Do you want me as your husband?
 Scared, the girl, ran home and next day she went to her aunt, the village midwife, whom had much knowledge.
 She told her aunt what happened and asked for help.
 - Sweetie, to marry a stranger ? That's impossible.
 - But what is there to do, auntie ? I am scared, tell me what to do.
 - Let me think, sweetie. He is very pale and nobody knows about him, he always dissapear in the fog, maybe he is a ghost, may the Gods protect us, who knows ?
 Take my advice. Start and prepare a big-big clew from thin wool and next time when you see him,
pretend to be nice to him and attach the clew with a needle on his back.
 After he leaves, follow the yarn to see where it's going, after that, come back and tell me what you saw.
 The girl started to work on the clew for two days and two nights. When the third day arrived, the villagers had a meeting and as always, the pale guy was there looking at the girl.
 When the meeting ended and the girl went ouf of the house, the boy came to her
and asked:
 - So, do you marry me, Maria?
 - We don't know each other or...
 The  boy didn't let her to finish what she had to say and he tried to kiss her.
 She defended herself with the hand and in that moment she hang the needle on his sleeve and pretended to run home. Instead she stopped running and hid, trying to see where the boy goes.
 She took his trace and followed the wool, in short time, the boy entered the church's yard and
he went straight to a grave full of bones.
 The girl got scared and ran to her her aunt, shaking, to tell her what happened.
 - He is a ghost and you can't escape from him. But you need to do as I will tell you.
 If he'll ask you again to marry him, tell him you are not prepared.
 If he says he will kill you or your family, say to him: "kill them" or "kill me", but don't
resist, cuz its bad. If he kills you, I have the cure to bring you back to life and you'll have
good fortune, that's the law of the ghosts, the girls they kill remain dead, if is not someone to
bring them back, but if is someone to bring them back, after that, they'll have luck.
 The girl was very scared, she couldn't sleep at all.
 Next night, the ghost came to Maria again and asked:
 - Do you marry me, Maria?
 - No, i'm not prepared.
 - Marry me or i'll kill your father.
 - Kill him.
 Next day, they found the poor Romanian dead in his bed.
 In that night, the ghost came again at Maria and said:
 - Marry me, Maria or i'll kill you too.
 - Kill me!
 And he killed her.
 And after that, the entire village heard about her death. The aunt came at Maria's place before the funeral and instead of taking her coffin out on the door, she took it out on the window.
 She said some incantations and put some herbs at her head, in the coffin.
 After that, she let them to bury her.
 In 3 days, on her grave, grew a beautiful golden flower, everyone from all near villages came
to see it and smell her heavenly perfume.
 Everybody was talking about the flower, even the King came to see the miracle, he was so impressed that he cut the flower with his silver knife, took it to his palace and put it in a glass of water, in his very own bedroom.
 Before bedtime, he always locked the door.
 In that night, the golden flower got out of the glass, jumped three times and transformed in Maria.
 She cleaned his room and she turned into a bird, started to sing and even made the King dream
of heavenly gardens and magical bird songs.
 When the King woke up after a long night and saw everything was clean, he remained surprised as he knew no one could enter the room while it was locked.
 The next night, he didn't sleep waiting to see what will happen.
 In a moment, he saw the flower turning into a beautiful girl and then into a bird singing magical
songs. At the end of the night, when the girl was preparing to turn into the flower again, the King
jumped from his bed and started to kiss her as he was holding her hips.
 The girl blushed and when the King asked her how all of these happened, she told him her story.
 The King didn't care she was a peasant's daughter, he was fascinated by her beauty, so
he married her and they lived many happy years together with their children, because you see, they
had many children too and maybe they're still alive, but I don't know, because i never heard about them.


Told by Maria Pariano from Mihailesti, Giurgiu County, Romania