Story: The Two Little Pigs

Image: Wallpaper Cave

I was walking along the dirt road that led to the market, which was going to be about a 3-mile walk. I haven't yet trusted the idea of some loud machine that sounds like it's about to erupt in flames while I'm in it. Sure, it's the 1920s  and people are coming up with all sorts of strange contraptions, but I'm staying with what I know. And what I know is dirt roads and water wells and growing my own food. Unfortunately, I still have to go to the market to get yeast for bread and a couple of household things. Now I was holding a large bag  on my way back to my house. I was just nearing the lake, when I heard strange little squeals, one slightly lower pitch than the other. I looked around but saw nothing until I looked down close by the lake and saw the smallest little pink objects. I approached and they didn't seem scared of me. On the contrary, they had started sniffing the bag of groceries I had set down. There didn't seem to be any mother around, which almost made me cry. Someone had abandoned these adorable creatures. I picked them up and put them in my basket. All three of us walked the way back from the market.

"Pinky, Inky!" I called. It was exactly 6 o'clock.
"Time for dinner!"

Three years later, the two little pigs were no longer little, but they were still pink. They both came immediately, oinking their way to the customized food bowls. This ritual continued until one day I didn't want them to come home. Two large men had just come to my door. They were clearly drunk and could barely knock on the door. They offered me a bottle of wine and so I let them into my house.

"Ma'am, we want your pigs. There's a big festival today and we ran out of meat for everyone. We need more." He pounded on the table to emphasize the last three words.

"Those are my children, not for eating."

"How about we open that bottle of wine?" One of them asked.

They drank and talked for about 30 minutes and they had hoped that I was drunk enough to let them have my little ones.

One of them finally brought it up.
"So, ma'am, how about those pigs of yours?"

"They are still my children." This brought them over the edge. The two barbarians stood up and started for the door.

"Then we'll find them then. We don't need you."

It was 7 PM, and Pinky and Inky hadn't come yet, since they always waited for her call. The large men started looking in the barn. These idiot men didn't realize that my children and I had a secret system. If there was danger, I called their names in reverse order. So while the men looked around the barn, I called my children home.

"Inky, Pinky!" I prayed that they understood the message. The men soon got tired of looking and went back to the party, furious.

I waited 15 minutes for them to completely disappear, and ran toward the place I knew my little pigs would be. There they were, laying by the lake where I first found them. I called them over and embraced them. We walked back home, the three of us, just like that day I found them.



A/N
The story this was based off of was from Twenty Jataka Tales called "The Two Pigs." In the story, a woman finds two baby pigs on the side of a lake and cares for them for several years. They became like her own children. Every day, she would call them to be fed at the same time. There came a week when a large feast was being held in the village, but they ran out of meat. They remembered the lady had pigs, and tried to get her to let them kill them for meat. She refused, even after several glasses of wine. After that, to protect the pigs, she called them in reverse order so that the pigs would know not to come. The only difference between the original and mine is that one of the pigs says a magical poem about love that transforms everyone in the village. They no longer want meat, and everyone is happy. After this, the pigs are celebrated and brought to the King of the village and are able to live there until they die. However, I wanted the pigs to stay with their mother, so that's how I changed it for my story.

Bibliography: Twenty Jakata Tales. "The Two Pigs." Link to Reading Guide.