The Gold-Inflected Bodice

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Jamie who lived in a village with his family. Jamie was a happy little boy, though sometimes rebellious. He would often do things out of spite, or to be heard. He was a handful. One day, Jamie’s mother came home from milking cows on the family farm. She was carrying something in her hand and seemed overjoyed.
“What? What is it?” said Jamie. “Why are you so happy today?”
“It was our cow. I milked this morning and, as a gift, she gave me this.”
“The cow gave you a gift?”
“Yes, a beautiful gift.”
Jamie’s mother opened her hands to reveal a bright gold-inflected bodice. It looked like a Christmas decoration. It was also clean and well-starched. Jamie was incensed.
“The cow gave you a gift? Why not me? I’m good!”
“The difference is, milked it. The relationship, I built it. I’ve seen and sewn and own my own. My love for duty willed it!”
“No fair,” said Jamie. “I want a bodice too.”
Jamie then marched straight over to the stables where the cows were kept. He found one of the cows and yelled at it.
“Okay, buddy, I don’t like you and you don’t like me. But you’ve got what I want, and I aim to collect!”
Jamie then sat on the floor, under the cow, and started milking. Only, Jamie had never milked a cow before, so he didn’t know how. Mostly, he just pinched and twisted its udder, which was extremely painful for the cow! The cow’s body moved and shook, and the cow began to scream. Soon, Jamie realized that his tactics were not working, so he decided to try with another cow, then another. Not only did Jamie not get any milk, but now the cows couldn’t sleep.
The next morning, Jamie waited for his mother outside as she came back from another day of milking.
“Mom, I want that bodice,” said Jamie. “It’s not fair.”
“What’s not fair?”
“It’s not fair that you get all the gifts, and I don’t get any! When was the last time I got anything in this place?”
“Oh, I buy you gifts all the time! I bought you that glass toy a few weeks ago.”
“It broke!”
“Well, I bought you that doll.”
“Its head fell off!”
“Well, if you would care for what you have, you’d have more.”
She affixed her new bodice to the fireplace mantle, where everyone could see it every day and told Jamie specifically not to touch it.
One day, Jamie had a show-and-tell day at school, and he wanted to impress everyone. He had plenty of stuff, but none of it was a bright gold-inflected bodice.
“This had better work,” he said as he removed the gold-inflected bodice from the mantle above the fireplace and placed it in his bookbag.
That day in class, everyone was waiting for Jamie to present. He seemed so sure of himself, that he was going to “win” grade school with a tchotchke from his pocket. Jamie got up before the class, which was spellbound by his confident and excited nature.
“What do you have for us?”
“It’s this bodice!”
The entire room gasped as Jamie pulled the gold-inflected bodice out of his bookbag.
“That’s nice, Jamie,” said one student.
“Wow, I wish I had something that nice,” said another student.
Jamie was about to finish presenting when his mother walked in through the front door of the classroom.
As soon as she saw him standing there, with her bodice in his hand, she screamed.
“Jamie!”
“What, momma?”
“Jamie, I can’t believe this! You, you stole my gold-inflected bodice? Why would you do such a thing?”
“Mommy, look, I wanted to have something nice!”
“Oh!”
His mother walked up to him, snatched the gold-inflected bodice from his hand, and went home. That evening, when Jamie came home, all his toys, clothes and books were sitting in front of the house. Incredulous and bewildered by this sight, Jamie went in to talk to his mother.
“Mom, why is my stuff sitting outside?”
“Son, you have to move out.”
“What? But I’m your son! I’m just a kid. See?”
Jamie then proceeded to hold out his tiny hands.
“Son, I’m your mother, I know that. But I can’t live with someone who would steal. I just can’t do it! I want you to say goodbye to the family, and then I want you to get your things and go.”
Jamie was dumbfounded. His entire life up to that point flashed before his eyes. He remembered all the toys, all the gifts, all the great, legendary suppers that he used to tell his friends about at school. All that was coming to an end, over a sneaky gold-inflected bodice!
“But where will I live? How will I live? How will I get food?”
“I don’t know where or how you’ll live, or how you’ll get food. I just can’t live with a thief. You’ve got an hour to say goodbye. Then just go. Take whatever you can carry. We’ll throw the rest away.”
Jamie went outside and began to cry. He never thought that this could happen to him. At first, he’d been yelling and screaming over a gold-inflected bodice. Now, he had nothing but the clothes on his back and the open road. He quickly grabbed a few things and then headed out on his journey.
At first, it seemed kind of fun Jamie had always wanted to find out what it felt like to be a “real man,” out on his own in the free world. He hadn’t thought about how hard it would be, but who would expect him to? As he passed house after house, he quickly became hungry, and angry.
One house he passed had a newly baked apple pie sitting in the window. Jamie made his approach. This one deed would make the difference between him eating and starving to death. The cook got there before him, closing the window, and almost crushing his little fingers.
Jamie kept going, searching for something, anything, that would keep him alive and happy. He traveled day and night. No food and no water. His stomach hurt so much that he wanted to rip it out and throw it away. That pain would have been less. Worst of all, he didn’t want to miss his mother so. After a few days, Jamie began to get weaker. Unable to move, he fell into a ditch by the side of the road and died. That was his end.