The Kind Woman and the Giant Carp

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The Kind Woman and the Giant Carp

Once upon a time, there was a kind woman.

She worked as a caregiver for elderly people. She helped them around the house, cooked when necessary, carried things, cleaned, listened to the same stories more than once, and generally did all the things that somehow become invisible the moment someone else starts doing them.

Cooking and giving away food were not really part of her job.

She simply liked feeding people.

Unfortunately, one day she made a mistake.

A very small mistake.

She accidentally cooked herself a soup using someone else's chicken leg.

She had chicken legs of her own, of course.

Smaller ones.

Those she used to cook food for the other person.

And because she was honest, she admitted it.

That should have been the end of the story.

It wasn't.

Rumors appeared.

Then explanations.

Then completely new versions of events.

According to the most popular version, the kind woman had invented the entire business of helping people for one simple reason:

To secretly feed her enormous husband.

This was unfair.

Her husband was certainly enormous.

He was also sick, lazy, and capable of eating with impressive dedication.

But he had never asked for anyone else's food.

Eventually, almost everyone turned away from her.

She lost her work.

For a while, people were quite pleased with themselves.

Then strange things began to happen.

One old man started having stomach problems.

Another began sleeping badly.

A third woman suddenly found that nobody had watered her plants for three days.

Someone else discovered that the kitchen had become mysteriously dirty.

Naturally, everyone blamed something different.

The weather.

Their age.

The food.

Stress.

One particularly suspicious man blamed the government.

Nobody said:

“Perhaps things started going wrong after the kind woman disappeared.”

Not yet.

Meanwhile, the kind woman was doing perfectly fine.

She had too much energy to sit around feeling sorry for herself.

Her husband, however, had plenty of experience in that area.

One morning she looked at him lying on the sofa.

He had a slightly unkempt beard and the tragic expression of a man who had been personally betrayed by life.

“Get up,” she said.

“Why?”

“We're going to the park.”

He looked horrified.

“Am I dying?”

“No.”

“Then why are we going to the park?”

“To walk.”

“I don't like walking.”

“You're sick.”

“I know.”

“That's exactly why you need to walk.”

Her husband thought about this.

Then sighed.

“You know, doctors are much nicer than you.”

Nevertheless, she eventually managed to get him outside.

In the park lived two black cats.

They were not officially anybody's cats.

But they had somehow appointed themselves managers of the entire park.

The woman always brought them something to eat.

That day, however, she had a special problem.

A giant carp.

The carp had been enormous.

For several days, she fried it, baked it, cooked it, and invented increasingly desperate ways to serve it.

Her husband had eaten as much as he possibly could.

Then one evening he looked at his plate.

Looked at the fish.

And slowly asked:

“Is that...?”

“Yes.”

“The carp?”

“Yes.”

“Again?”

“Yes.”

He closed his eyes.

The woman decided it was time to give some of it away.

First, the two black cats received their share.

Then she packed several containers.

Without really thinking about it, she took them to some of the elderly people she used to care for.

They were surprised to see her.

“I thought you didn't work here anymore,” one of them said.

“I don't.”

“Then why did you bring this?”

The woman looked at the container.

“There was too much carp.”

The old man looked at her.

“That is the whole explanation?”

“Yes.”

He looked suspicious.

People had become suspicious of simple kindness.

But he took the fish.

The next day, his stomach felt better.

At first, he assumed the carp had medicinal properties.

Another elderly woman slept through the entire night.

She blamed the weather.

A third person suddenly noticed that life seemed less annoying.

He blamed the vitamins.

But then people began talking.

Quietly.

Carefully.

“Did your stomach stop hurting?”

“Yes.”

“Did you sleep better?”

“Yes.”

“Did she bring you fish?”

“Yes.”

The conversation stopped.

Nobody wanted to say it.

Because it sounded ridiculous.

Then someone finally whispered:

“Maybe we shouldn't have treated her like that.”

That thought was dangerous.

It spread.

Slowly at first.

Then faster.

People began remembering things.

How she had helped without being asked.

How she remembered what people liked.

How she brought food even when she didn't have to.

And, most annoyingly of all, how things had somehow been easier when she was around.

Meanwhile, the woman who had taken her job was becoming nervous.

At first, she had been very pleased.

She now had the work.

The clients.

And, naturally, a slightly higher price.

But people had started asking questions.

“Wasn't the other woman cheaper?”

“Didn't she cook better?”

“Did she always complain this much?”

“Could the old woman come back?”

The new caregiver smiled.

A professional smile.

The kind that appears when someone is imagining your funeral.

Then she heard about the carp.

And the two black cats.

And the strange fact that people were beginning to feel better after the former caregiver visited them.

That was enough.

She went home.

Sat down.

Opened a notebook.

And wrote:

HOW TO GET RID OF HER AGAIN

Then she stopped.

Thought for a moment.

And added underneath:

Before people realize that everything was better when she was around.

In the park, the kind woman was sitting on a bench.

The two black cats were finishing the last pieces of carp.

Her husband sat beside her, looking exhausted.

“You know,” he said, “I'm getting hungry.”

The woman smiled.

He looked at her.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Please tell me there isn't any more carp.”

She said nothing.

His face turned pale.

Somewhere across town, a woman was planning how to destroy the reputation of a person who had done nothing except help people, feed cats, and accidentally cook herself a soup from the wrong chicken leg.

And somewhere else, several people were beginning to understand something important.

They had gotten rid of the wrong person.

And this time, getting her back might be much harder.