Book about Buttons
Once upon a time, there was a small Girl who worked a very important job in a place called Ministry of Extremely Important Buttons. Her job was very simple, whenever the royal wizard needed a button, the Girl would carry it from the Button Castle to wherever the wizard happened to be. The Girl was not a wizard, nor a knight, not even particularly knowledgeable about buttons, she was simply the person who knew where the buttons were, but she was proud of being useful to the kingdom, and always did her best.
One afternoon, the Wizard sent the girl to fetch thirty-seven silver buttons, “Thirty-seven. Exactly thirty-seven. I am counting on you.”
He said, and so she went to the Moonlit Buttonmaker, and said: “Thirty-seven, please.”
But before the buttons could be delivered, a gigantic purple goose descended from the heavens. The goose was the Supreme Inspector of Roads, Rivers, Clouds, and Other Things That Are Suddenly Not Allowed. It looked at the delivery and honked:
“Absolutely not. You may not put thirty-seven buttons in that particular meadow.”
Nobody knew why and The Goose refused to elaborate, as he kept watch over the affair, looking down while atop a huge, tall mountain. And so, the Girl hurried back to the Wizard. “Sir, the Goose says we can't put all thirty-seven there.” The wizard scratched his beard. “Fine. Put seventeen there and send the rest to the nearest castle.”
So the Girl went back to the Buttonmaker. “The wizard says seventeen here, and the rest to the castle.” The Buttonmaker shook his head.
“Can't.”
“Why?”
“My cart gets sad when it carries half a load.”
“Oh...”
So the girl looked at the ground, turned around, and ran back to the Wizard. “The cart gets sad, the Buttonmaker said!” The wizard became annoyed.
“It doesn't get sad. Tell him to do it.” And so she went to tell him. “The wizard says your cart won't get sad.” The Buttonmaker crossed his arms. “Well, tell the Wizard my cart knows its own feelings.”
And now the girl was stuck. The wizard was waiting at the meadow. The Buttonmaker was standing beside his emotional cart. The purple goose had flown away to inspect a different kingdom.And the Girl had no magic, no authority, no cart, no buttons, and absolutely no idea why she was somehow now responsible for resolving a disagreement between a wizard and a vehicle without any idea of what to do.
She stepped away from the Buttonmaker, to a brook halfway to the Wizard's meadow. There, she sat down on a tree stump, beneath a mushroom. There she went over her thoughts on how to resolve the problem, but try as she might, no solution came up, and frustration began to inflate in the form of little grey cloud atop her head, raining on her parade.
A glance at the river, gently flowing water made her vision waver and voicing anything seemed terribly difficult right now. The river inside her eyes threatened to spill itself over to the bigger one, made of warm, salty tears. But the delicate and premature afternoon dew was stopped before it could slide down the plump soft cheeks.
A tiny fairy emerged from the mushroom. She glowed beneath the darkening sky, leaving little trails of fairy dust behind her. She flew close to the girl and gently brushed something from the corner of her eye, and asked: “What troubles you so, little girl?” And she explained everything. The fairy listened carefully, then she said:
“Can you fix it?” - “No.” “Can you make the wizard agree with the Buttonmaker?” - “No.” “Can you make the cart stop being sad?” - “Probably not.” “Can you bring back the goose?” - “Certainly not.” “Then what can I do?” The fairy smiled. “You can tell everyone what everyone else said.”
“That doesn't solve anything.” - “No.” “Then what good is it?” - The fairy shrugged. “It is not your job to solve a problem simply because you are standing closest to it.”
The Girl thought about this. Then she stood up, dusted the mushroom crumbs from her skirt, and went back to the castle. She told the wizard what the Buttonmaker had said. She told the Buttonmaker what the wizard had said. And then she went home. The buttons remained undelivered, the cart kept emotionally unstable and the Goose remained none the wiser of the chaos it had caused, and, strangely enough, the Girl slept soundly that night.