Drinker
Once upon a time there was a creature who was called Drinker. The people in the village near the Big Woods told stories of Drinker walking in the forest and luring people into his home. Some said their grandmother, or their uncle, or the Old Fisherman at the wharf, knew a man who knew a girl who had been stolen away. No one knew what Drinker looked like but they liked to talk about him at night when they had bonfires and cooked hot dogs and roasted marshmallows over the fire. Grandmothers warned their little grandchildren not to wander into the forest alone. No one had seen Drinker in a long time so no one knew if he was still alive or if he even was real. Someone had hung warning signs on the trees and bushes at the edge of the big forest a long time ago but over the years the letters faded and the wood started to bend and warp. Some boards fell down and finally only a few blotches of faded paint could be seen on the few signs that remained.
One beautiful spring day a young maiden named LilyAnne decided to go for a walk. She put on her pretty new slippers with all the colors like jewels on them. She walked out of her neat little house and started down the path that ended at the Big Woods. She thought that she wouldn’t go too far from her cottage at the edge of the village but the sun was shining so softly and the birds were singing so sweetly that she walked farther and farther until she got clear to the edge of the Big Woods.
She was just outside the forest when she saw a man. He was young and handsome and he was wearing a bright yellow shirt and brown trousers. He stood at the edge of the trees looking towards the village. He smiled at her as she walked towards him.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hello,” she answered, feeling a little shy.
“It is such a nice day today,” the man said. “I can’t help but admire these lovely trees. They are so tall and the shade is so pleasant.”
LilyAnne smiled at him. That was exactly how she felt.
“I don’t usually walk this way,” she said softly.
“I don’t either,” he said. “I know the most beautiful place of all to walk and it is very near here so I usually go there and I don’t often come over by these woods.”
“Oh, you do?” said LilyAnne. She wondered where the most beautiful place of all to walk could be. She looked down at her slippers as she and the man stood by the woods in the shining sunshine. She loved how her slippers glimmered in the light. She had made them just the week before. LilyAnne was thinking about asking the young man where the beautiful place to walk was located but she felt shy.
“Would you like to see that beautiful place to walk?” he said.
LilyAnne looked up. He was smiling at her.
“Is it in the woods?” LilyAnne asked. She was afraid to go into the woods. She remembered her grandmother telling her that a creature lived there who grabbed people and drank them up.
“Oh no,” said the nice man. “We will take a quick shortcut through the woods but the most wonderful, beautiful place is in a lovely meadow on the other side, just by a hill with some big rocks. There is a waterfall there and it has rainbows that shine around it all day.”
He held out his hand and touched her hand. Suddenly, LilyAnne realized how silly she was to be afraid. If the creature did exist and if he did see her walking in his woods, the young man would protect her. She thought, what a nice young man, who likes to walk like I do, and who likes the colors of rainbows, just like I do.
LilyAnne took the man’s hand and let him lead her into the soft green shade of the Big Woods. She felt happy. As they walked she thought about the colors she saw in the woods. She saw shining green and gold all around and soft brown in the deeper shade. She thought about how she made the slippers. She wove them out of golden thread and then she carefully sewed on each colorful piece of glass until the whole thing gleamed like the most beautiful piece of art. She imagined threading the needle and tying a knot in the thread. It felt so pleasant to imagine her favorite thing to do that she was still in her daydream when the man led her up to a house in the woods and opened the door.
LilyAnne walked in and looked around. It was very tidy. She thought that it could use more color to brighten it up but she liked how neatly he had arranged the cushions on his little couch.
“Is this your house?” she asked. “It is very pretty.”
“Yes,” he said. “I have lived here for a long time. I have added rooms for many things. Now that I have met you, I am going to add a sewing room. I would like to make some artwork for the walls so it will be more colorful in my house.
LilyAnne smiled. She thought of the colorful mats she had on her walls in her little cottage. She had made them out of wool that she bought from the shepherd. She had made bright-colored threads from the wool and then carefully sewn them together into beautiful pictures with patterns of thread and cloth. Everyone in the village loved the beautiful artwork that LilyAnne made and put on the walls of her cottage.
She started daydreaming about making more colorful mats. She imagined exactly how she made each one. She started with the wool, cleaning it and getting ready to make it into thread. She thought about which colors looked good together and how she dyed the wool to get exactly the colors she wanted.
The nice young man still held her hand. He led her deeper into the house as she thought. He took her down a set of stairs and down a hallway and then he led her into a big room with cushions and couches all around. There were many people in the room but LilyAnne didn’t notice because she was thinking about sewing a flower in the middle of a mat and then sewing some green leaves and grass around it. She wanted it to be perfect.
None of the people looked up when the young man led her into the room. He led her to a beanbag chair in the corner. She sat down happily. She had decided that she would sew a bright sun in the corner of the mat to make it look sunny and cheerful.
Someone murmured, “Oh, that looks good. Now it is tidy and clean in here,” but LilyAnne didn’t hear it. She suddenly imagined someone had offered her all the colorful thread she could ever want. She looked at the gleaming choices in her imagination and carefully started to pick her favorite colors. It would take her years to make enough mats to use all the thread she saw. She had never been so happy in all her life.
The young man was happy too. He decided to start making the new room in his house that was just for sewing. He knew how to build a room with wood from the forest. He had a guest who understood exactly how to make flat boards, and to make screws out of wood, and to put a window frame in, and put glass inside the window. It was his guest’s favorite thing to do and he thought about it all the time. The creature breathed in deeply, drinking the air. He drank in the imagination flowing all around him. People are so talented, he thought. They love what they do well, and now he loved everything they could do and he knew how to do everything that he saw in their imagination.
This is how the creature got the name Drinker. He put a spell on people when he touched them and brought them to his house. Once they were under his spell, they thought about their favorite talent all day and night and their thoughts flowed freely around them. He breathed in people’s talents and their happiness to work on the things they love the most to do and then he would do those things all day long.
Drinker hummed as he left the house. He knew his guests would all be safe. No one could see his house unless they imagined it and why should they? He took another drink of the air and of everyone’s thoughts and then smiled as he went off to find the best wood to use to make his new room.
Now, thanks to LilyAnne, he loved to sew! Another of his guests imagined writing new songs every day and night as he rested on his couch. Sometimes the air was so thick with beautiful music that Drinker woke up singing. He chuckled to himself as he walked along. He knew how to make a garden, how to care for bees, how to sing, how to grind wheat in a mill, how to keep a house neat and tidy, how to write music, and many other wonderful things. He knew how to do everything that his guests loved to do. The wonderful thing, he thought, is that now they were all his favorite ways to pass time too.
It was late afternoon when Drinker went out to cut wood for his new room. He was so excited about the things he had learned through the imagination of the people that he didn’t notice that the sun was sinking lower and lower. He decided to go and drink from the bubbly spring at the center of the woods. He thought the clear, good water in his mouth would taste as enjoyable as the wonderful thoughts in his head. As he walked along, it started to rain. When Drinker had left his house he had been warm and dry. He had been busy thinking about sewing a colorful mat with a bright, shining sun. He had forgotten to put on his coat.
It got colder and colder. Suddenly, Drinker stopped imagining sewing beautiful items for his house in the sewing room he was going to build and noticed that he was shivering. He was very cold. He started to sneeze. Oh no! he thought. He knew that if he got sick he would not be able to feel the thoughts and imaginations of the people and they would be free from the spell that came on them when he first touched them. He wanted to hurry home but he was so cold that he stopped to shiver under a tree for a while before starting back to his house.
LilyAnne opened her eyes. For a moment she wondered where she was. She knew she had been sleeping. She could remember the wonderful dream she was having about sewing beautiful, colorful items. She looked around. All the people were starting to get up from the couches and cushions that they had been sleeping on. Suddenly she remembered the nice young man. She looked for him but she didn’t see him in the crowded room.
“Why, I have been dreaming ever since I met him,” she said aloud.
All the people turned to look at her. She heard someone gasp.
“So have I!” said one old woman.
“Me too!” said a man. “I dreamt that I was building sturdy cottages for all my friends.”
A slender, young man said, “I dreamt I was singing and dancing at the fair in the marketplace. Everyone loved my music and asked me to keep singing.”
“It was the Drinker!” they all cried out.
Together they rushed down the hall and up the stairs and ran out of the house in the woods. No one knew where they were because everyone had been daydreaming when Drinker led them to his house. Which way was it to the village?
LilyAnne started to cry.
The singer said to her, “Don’t worry. We will find a way home. I think I know where we are. When I was just a boy, my family went to sing at the king’s palace and we traveled through the Big Woods. Follow me.” He took off his coat and put it around LilyAnne’s shoulders.
All the people followed him in a line. Each one was thinking about the dreams they had while they were in Drinker’s house. They had been gone from their family and their friends but their thoughts and dreams had been so pleasant and seemed so real that they had not noticed that they were alone. Some of them had been in Drinker’s house for years.
When they got to the village each person hurried to his own home. LilyAnne went inside her cottage and looked at her colorful mats on the wall. She started to cry again.
The old woman went to her house but no one was there. The door was hanging crooked on the frame and it swung open when she pushed on it. She went inside and looked around.
“Why, it’s a mess,” she said. She walked through the house and found an old broom in the back yard. She started to sweep the empty kitchen. To think that I dreamt about cleaning, she thought. That was so foolish. I will make this house spotless and then go and find my family and bring them here.
The singer went to find his family but was told they had moved to another village the year before. The carpenter went to his house and his wife and children cried out when they saw him. The carpenter stared and stared. His oldest son, who was five years old when the carpenter last saw him, was now a tall man and had already started to build cottages as well. “I never dreamt of such a thing as my handsome son being grown up,” thought the carpenter. Some of the people found their family and others did not. That night all the people of the village gathered in the Village Square.
The mayor of the village stood up and made a speech. Everyone cheered. Then the people started to tell their stories. Each one said that he had been walking near the Big Woods when they met a young man who had reached out and touched them. They said that was the last thing they could remember clearly until they woke up in the room in the basement of the creature’s house.
The people of the village looked at one another. They were puzzled.
“But what happened?” they said. “Who was he? Why did you go with him?”
“It was Drinker,” said the people who had been under his enchantment. “We were under a spell.”
Someone laughed and then the rest of the villagers started to laugh too.
“What really happened?” they said.
LilyAnne started to cry. Some of the captives who were free now looked at each other. They didn’t know what had happened. Was it all a dream?
“We thought it must be the Drinker,” they said.
They mayor stopped laughing and said, “Drinker is just a legend. We like to tell scary stories about him because it is fun to be scared at night when we are having a village party with a big bonfire and drinking hot chocolate. But he isn’t real. No one has ever seen him. No one has ever seen a house in the Big Woods.”
All the people started to argue. They argued and argued about whether or not it was Drinker. Finally, LilyAnne cried out loudly, “But if it wasn’t Drinker, then who was it?”
Everyone stopped talking and looked at her. That was a very good question. Who was that young man?
The singer volunteered to take the mayor and some of the people from the village to find the creature’s house in the woods. Early in the morning the mayor and the singer, and all the others who wanted to go along, set out for Drinker’s house. The singer knew the way and he led them to the exact spot where the house was located. However, some people could see the house and others could not. A new argument broke out. Just then, there was a sound behind them. They turned around and saw a man walking out of the thick woods towards them.
“It’s him!” shouted the singer. “It’s Drinker!”
Drinker smiled as he approached the little crowd. It had been a few hours since he felt well again. He was eager to have houseguests again. He reached out his hand towards the mayor. The mayor put his hand out and they shook hands. “Welcome,” said Drinker. Immediately the mayor realized how silly he had been to think that this nice young man was a wicked creature. He started to think of how he could go back to the village and organize the townspeople for the next Village Bonfire party.
Drinker shook the hand of every person in the group, except for the singer who turned and ran back towards the village.
“Come into my house,” said Drinker. “I am so happy to have you for my guests.”
Drinker led the people into his house and down the stairs and through the hallway to the room with couches and cushions. No one protested. They all followed along in a daze, each one imagining his or her favorite things to do. Drinker breathed in deeply. It felt so good. He was excited to get started on his new favorite pastimes. He could see how to mine for gold, how to build a windmill, how to take care of cows (he decided he would get a small herd), how to weave carpets out of rushes from the river, how to whistle, how to make his own clothes, and many other wonderful talents. He was very happy.
The singer ran straight to the Village Square.
“Drinker has captured them,” he shouted. “Come and help me to rescue them!”
No one came out of their houses. Everyone was frightened. Some of the old wives pulled their shutters shut and hushed the children inside their houses.
The singer, whose name was Will, thought for a moment and then made his way to LilyAnne’s cottage on the edge of the village. He knocked on the door. LilyAnne came hurrying from the kitchen. Her face was worried when she opened the door.
“They are gone! They are all gone!” Will said.
“Oh no,” she said softly. She looked sadly at the young singer. “What shall we do?”
They stared at each other.
“Come into the kitchen,” said LilyAnne. “I just made some butterscotch cookies.”
Slowly, the singer followed. He sat at the little wooden table in the kitchen nook and nibbled a cookie nervously. He tried to think of what they could do to free the mayor and the townspeople from the creature. He looked around admiringly at the beautiful decorations on the wall and the placemats on the table. He could see that LilyAnne was not only a beautiful young woman but that she was very talented. He thought of a song he would like to sing to her.
But first, he thought, we must rescue the people from Drinker. Who knew how long they would be gone this time if no one came to find them.
The two young villagers thought and thought about what they could do to rescue their friends. Will sang a song to help them to think more clearly. LilyAnne liked the song very much. But they still could not decide what to do about Drinker and the prisoners. Will told her that the rest of the villagers were afraid to help them.
LilyAnne jumped when they heard a knock. She ran to the door and opened it. It was her Aunt Dana, who was the nurse in the village. Dana explained that she had come to see how LilyAnne was feeling after her captivity with Drinker.
“I feel fine,” said LilyAnne. She started to cry. “But I am so worried about the people who are captive in Drinker’s house.”
Dana and Will put their arms around LilyAnne. She felt better.
“Don’t worry,” they said. “We will find a way.”
The three sat down and started to talk about how they could rescue the prisoners. They suggested one thing after another. Every idea they had seemed to have a problem. They knew that if Drinker touched them, they would fall under his spell again.
Finally, Will said, “It is too bad that we don’t have someone whose favorite talent is to chop down houses, so Drinker would chop down his own house and free the prisoners.”
LilyAnne laughed a bit sadly, but Dana sat straight up and said, “That’s it!”
Will said, “I was only joking. I don’t think that would work.”
“Shh,” Dana said. “You gave me an idea.” She sat with her eyes closed for several moments, while Will and LilyAnne stared at her.
“Well, I don’t know if it will work, but it is worth a try,” she said when they thought they couldn’t wait another moment to hear her plan. She stood up. “Will you lead me to Drinker’s house, please? Let’s hurry before it gets late.”
On the way back to the Big Woods, Dana told them her plan. Once again they came to the edge of the trees by Drinker’s house.
“Stay here,” whispered Dana. “I hope to be back soon. If I don’t come back, go home.”
LilyAnne and Will hid behind the trees and watched as Dana walked towards the house. Before she reached the door, Drinker came out and stood on his porch, looking at her. Dana kept walking towards him, and Drinker smiled.
He said, “Welcome. I normally don’t get visitors who come on their own.”
Dana smiled at him. She reached out her hand towards him. Drinker took her hand. He stood there for a moment, holding Dana’s hand. LilyAnne and Will could see that Dana had started to daydream. They saw her follow Drinker without resisting. LilyAnne felt scared. What if the plan didn’t work?
LilyAnne and Will stayed in the woods watching the house. Dana happily daydreamed about her talent as she went with Drinker. She started to daydream about rescuing the villagers.
She thought of the mayor’s wife and children and how much they would miss hearing his speeches at home and at the town meetings. They were proud of his big words and long-winded speeches. She thought about the village baker and the delicious buns he made and how much everyone in the village would miss eating his marvelous breads. She thought about the miner, who went out every week to find gold, and who always brought some back to the village to give to the poorest families. The kind miner also bought the food for the Village Bonfire Parties. Dana’s heart swelled with love for all the people as she daydreamed. Her talent and the thing she liked to do the most is to care for others. It was because of her love for the villagers and her desire to take care of them that she became a nurse.
They reached the room with the couches and cushions where all the people were daydreaming, each lost in his imagination. Drinker flung open the door. He went in, pulling Dana by the hand. He put down her hand and waved his arms, clearing the spell on everyone.
“My friends,” he said. “I stand before you today as a creature who has learned much from his many years in these Big Woods. I have realized, over the passage of time, that it is people who matter the most. Our friends and our families are the true wealth that we own, and if each one of them is happy, then and only then, can we truly be happy too.”
Everyone sat up and stared at him. The mayor looked surprised. Drinker’s words sounded like the start of the speech he had been imagining saying at the next Bonfire Party.
Drinker smiled at all of them. “I am setting you free,” he said. “Now I understand what it means to be truly happy. Making other people happy is the greatest talent of all.”
They all cheered and got up off their couches and cushions and followed him out of the house. Will and LilyAnne came out from behind the trees and ran to greet the villagers. They hugged every person. They hugged each other twice. Drinker promised never to put a spell on any person again. He came back to the village with them.
After that day, Drinker came to all the Village Bonfire Parties. The children loved to hear his stories. He often sang duets with Will and he sang a song that he had written for Will and LilyAnne’s wedding. Sometimes he gave speeches. During the week, you might find him at the bakery, helping to bake pies, or at the mill, helping to grind wheat. Nurse Dana knew that she only had to ask and he would be there to help her deliver the new babies, or take care of anyone who got sick.
Everyone was happy doing what they love best, and they all lived happily ever after.
One beautiful spring day a young maiden named LilyAnne decided to go for a walk. She put on her pretty new slippers with all the colors like jewels on them. She walked out of her neat little house and started down the path that ended at the Big Woods. She thought that she wouldn’t go too far from her cottage at the edge of the village but the sun was shining so softly and the birds were singing so sweetly that she walked farther and farther until she got clear to the edge of the Big Woods.
She was just outside the forest when she saw a man. He was young and handsome and he was wearing a bright yellow shirt and brown trousers. He stood at the edge of the trees looking towards the village. He smiled at her as she walked towards him.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hello,” she answered, feeling a little shy.
“It is such a nice day today,” the man said. “I can’t help but admire these lovely trees. They are so tall and the shade is so pleasant.”
LilyAnne smiled at him. That was exactly how she felt.
“I don’t usually walk this way,” she said softly.
“I don’t either,” he said. “I know the most beautiful place of all to walk and it is very near here so I usually go there and I don’t often come over by these woods.”
“Oh, you do?” said LilyAnne. She wondered where the most beautiful place of all to walk could be. She looked down at her slippers as she and the man stood by the woods in the shining sunshine. She loved how her slippers glimmered in the light. She had made them just the week before. LilyAnne was thinking about asking the young man where the beautiful place to walk was located but she felt shy.
“Would you like to see that beautiful place to walk?” he said.
LilyAnne looked up. He was smiling at her.
“Is it in the woods?” LilyAnne asked. She was afraid to go into the woods. She remembered her grandmother telling her that a creature lived there who grabbed people and drank them up.
“Oh no,” said the nice man. “We will take a quick shortcut through the woods but the most wonderful, beautiful place is in a lovely meadow on the other side, just by a hill with some big rocks. There is a waterfall there and it has rainbows that shine around it all day.”
He held out his hand and touched her hand. Suddenly, LilyAnne realized how silly she was to be afraid. If the creature did exist and if he did see her walking in his woods, the young man would protect her. She thought, what a nice young man, who likes to walk like I do, and who likes the colors of rainbows, just like I do.
LilyAnne took the man’s hand and let him lead her into the soft green shade of the Big Woods. She felt happy. As they walked she thought about the colors she saw in the woods. She saw shining green and gold all around and soft brown in the deeper shade. She thought about how she made the slippers. She wove them out of golden thread and then she carefully sewed on each colorful piece of glass until the whole thing gleamed like the most beautiful piece of art. She imagined threading the needle and tying a knot in the thread. It felt so pleasant to imagine her favorite thing to do that she was still in her daydream when the man led her up to a house in the woods and opened the door.
LilyAnne walked in and looked around. It was very tidy. She thought that it could use more color to brighten it up but she liked how neatly he had arranged the cushions on his little couch.
“Is this your house?” she asked. “It is very pretty.”
“Yes,” he said. “I have lived here for a long time. I have added rooms for many things. Now that I have met you, I am going to add a sewing room. I would like to make some artwork for the walls so it will be more colorful in my house.
LilyAnne smiled. She thought of the colorful mats she had on her walls in her little cottage. She had made them out of wool that she bought from the shepherd. She had made bright-colored threads from the wool and then carefully sewn them together into beautiful pictures with patterns of thread and cloth. Everyone in the village loved the beautiful artwork that LilyAnne made and put on the walls of her cottage.
She started daydreaming about making more colorful mats. She imagined exactly how she made each one. She started with the wool, cleaning it and getting ready to make it into thread. She thought about which colors looked good together and how she dyed the wool to get exactly the colors she wanted.
The nice young man still held her hand. He led her deeper into the house as she thought. He took her down a set of stairs and down a hallway and then he led her into a big room with cushions and couches all around. There were many people in the room but LilyAnne didn’t notice because she was thinking about sewing a flower in the middle of a mat and then sewing some green leaves and grass around it. She wanted it to be perfect.
None of the people looked up when the young man led her into the room. He led her to a beanbag chair in the corner. She sat down happily. She had decided that she would sew a bright sun in the corner of the mat to make it look sunny and cheerful.
Someone murmured, “Oh, that looks good. Now it is tidy and clean in here,” but LilyAnne didn’t hear it. She suddenly imagined someone had offered her all the colorful thread she could ever want. She looked at the gleaming choices in her imagination and carefully started to pick her favorite colors. It would take her years to make enough mats to use all the thread she saw. She had never been so happy in all her life.
The young man was happy too. He decided to start making the new room in his house that was just for sewing. He knew how to build a room with wood from the forest. He had a guest who understood exactly how to make flat boards, and to make screws out of wood, and to put a window frame in, and put glass inside the window. It was his guest’s favorite thing to do and he thought about it all the time. The creature breathed in deeply, drinking the air. He drank in the imagination flowing all around him. People are so talented, he thought. They love what they do well, and now he loved everything they could do and he knew how to do everything that he saw in their imagination.
This is how the creature got the name Drinker. He put a spell on people when he touched them and brought them to his house. Once they were under his spell, they thought about their favorite talent all day and night and their thoughts flowed freely around them. He breathed in people’s talents and their happiness to work on the things they love the most to do and then he would do those things all day long.
Drinker hummed as he left the house. He knew his guests would all be safe. No one could see his house unless they imagined it and why should they? He took another drink of the air and of everyone’s thoughts and then smiled as he went off to find the best wood to use to make his new room.
Now, thanks to LilyAnne, he loved to sew! Another of his guests imagined writing new songs every day and night as he rested on his couch. Sometimes the air was so thick with beautiful music that Drinker woke up singing. He chuckled to himself as he walked along. He knew how to make a garden, how to care for bees, how to sing, how to grind wheat in a mill, how to keep a house neat and tidy, how to write music, and many other wonderful things. He knew how to do everything that his guests loved to do. The wonderful thing, he thought, is that now they were all his favorite ways to pass time too.
It was late afternoon when Drinker went out to cut wood for his new room. He was so excited about the things he had learned through the imagination of the people that he didn’t notice that the sun was sinking lower and lower. He decided to go and drink from the bubbly spring at the center of the woods. He thought the clear, good water in his mouth would taste as enjoyable as the wonderful thoughts in his head. As he walked along, it started to rain. When Drinker had left his house he had been warm and dry. He had been busy thinking about sewing a colorful mat with a bright, shining sun. He had forgotten to put on his coat.
It got colder and colder. Suddenly, Drinker stopped imagining sewing beautiful items for his house in the sewing room he was going to build and noticed that he was shivering. He was very cold. He started to sneeze. Oh no! he thought. He knew that if he got sick he would not be able to feel the thoughts and imaginations of the people and they would be free from the spell that came on them when he first touched them. He wanted to hurry home but he was so cold that he stopped to shiver under a tree for a while before starting back to his house.
LilyAnne opened her eyes. For a moment she wondered where she was. She knew she had been sleeping. She could remember the wonderful dream she was having about sewing beautiful, colorful items. She looked around. All the people were starting to get up from the couches and cushions that they had been sleeping on. Suddenly she remembered the nice young man. She looked for him but she didn’t see him in the crowded room.
“Why, I have been dreaming ever since I met him,” she said aloud.
All the people turned to look at her. She heard someone gasp.
“So have I!” said one old woman.
“Me too!” said a man. “I dreamt that I was building sturdy cottages for all my friends.”
A slender, young man said, “I dreamt I was singing and dancing at the fair in the marketplace. Everyone loved my music and asked me to keep singing.”
“It was the Drinker!” they all cried out.
Together they rushed down the hall and up the stairs and ran out of the house in the woods. No one knew where they were because everyone had been daydreaming when Drinker led them to his house. Which way was it to the village?
LilyAnne started to cry.
The singer said to her, “Don’t worry. We will find a way home. I think I know where we are. When I was just a boy, my family went to sing at the king’s palace and we traveled through the Big Woods. Follow me.” He took off his coat and put it around LilyAnne’s shoulders.
All the people followed him in a line. Each one was thinking about the dreams they had while they were in Drinker’s house. They had been gone from their family and their friends but their thoughts and dreams had been so pleasant and seemed so real that they had not noticed that they were alone. Some of them had been in Drinker’s house for years.
When they got to the village each person hurried to his own home. LilyAnne went inside her cottage and looked at her colorful mats on the wall. She started to cry again.
The old woman went to her house but no one was there. The door was hanging crooked on the frame and it swung open when she pushed on it. She went inside and looked around.
“Why, it’s a mess,” she said. She walked through the house and found an old broom in the back yard. She started to sweep the empty kitchen. To think that I dreamt about cleaning, she thought. That was so foolish. I will make this house spotless and then go and find my family and bring them here.
The singer went to find his family but was told they had moved to another village the year before. The carpenter went to his house and his wife and children cried out when they saw him. The carpenter stared and stared. His oldest son, who was five years old when the carpenter last saw him, was now a tall man and had already started to build cottages as well. “I never dreamt of such a thing as my handsome son being grown up,” thought the carpenter. Some of the people found their family and others did not. That night all the people of the village gathered in the Village Square.
The mayor of the village stood up and made a speech. Everyone cheered. Then the people started to tell their stories. Each one said that he had been walking near the Big Woods when they met a young man who had reached out and touched them. They said that was the last thing they could remember clearly until they woke up in the room in the basement of the creature’s house.
The people of the village looked at one another. They were puzzled.
“But what happened?” they said. “Who was he? Why did you go with him?”
“It was Drinker,” said the people who had been under his enchantment. “We were under a spell.”
Someone laughed and then the rest of the villagers started to laugh too.
“What really happened?” they said.
LilyAnne started to cry. Some of the captives who were free now looked at each other. They didn’t know what had happened. Was it all a dream?
“We thought it must be the Drinker,” they said.
They mayor stopped laughing and said, “Drinker is just a legend. We like to tell scary stories about him because it is fun to be scared at night when we are having a village party with a big bonfire and drinking hot chocolate. But he isn’t real. No one has ever seen him. No one has ever seen a house in the Big Woods.”
All the people started to argue. They argued and argued about whether or not it was Drinker. Finally, LilyAnne cried out loudly, “But if it wasn’t Drinker, then who was it?”
Everyone stopped talking and looked at her. That was a very good question. Who was that young man?
The singer volunteered to take the mayor and some of the people from the village to find the creature’s house in the woods. Early in the morning the mayor and the singer, and all the others who wanted to go along, set out for Drinker’s house. The singer knew the way and he led them to the exact spot where the house was located. However, some people could see the house and others could not. A new argument broke out. Just then, there was a sound behind them. They turned around and saw a man walking out of the thick woods towards them.
“It’s him!” shouted the singer. “It’s Drinker!”
Drinker smiled as he approached the little crowd. It had been a few hours since he felt well again. He was eager to have houseguests again. He reached out his hand towards the mayor. The mayor put his hand out and they shook hands. “Welcome,” said Drinker. Immediately the mayor realized how silly he had been to think that this nice young man was a wicked creature. He started to think of how he could go back to the village and organize the townspeople for the next Village Bonfire party.
Drinker shook the hand of every person in the group, except for the singer who turned and ran back towards the village.
“Come into my house,” said Drinker. “I am so happy to have you for my guests.”
Drinker led the people into his house and down the stairs and through the hallway to the room with couches and cushions. No one protested. They all followed along in a daze, each one imagining his or her favorite things to do. Drinker breathed in deeply. It felt so good. He was excited to get started on his new favorite pastimes. He could see how to mine for gold, how to build a windmill, how to take care of cows (he decided he would get a small herd), how to weave carpets out of rushes from the river, how to whistle, how to make his own clothes, and many other wonderful talents. He was very happy.
The singer ran straight to the Village Square.
“Drinker has captured them,” he shouted. “Come and help me to rescue them!”
No one came out of their houses. Everyone was frightened. Some of the old wives pulled their shutters shut and hushed the children inside their houses.
The singer, whose name was Will, thought for a moment and then made his way to LilyAnne’s cottage on the edge of the village. He knocked on the door. LilyAnne came hurrying from the kitchen. Her face was worried when she opened the door.
“They are gone! They are all gone!” Will said.
“Oh no,” she said softly. She looked sadly at the young singer. “What shall we do?”
They stared at each other.
“Come into the kitchen,” said LilyAnne. “I just made some butterscotch cookies.”
Slowly, the singer followed. He sat at the little wooden table in the kitchen nook and nibbled a cookie nervously. He tried to think of what they could do to free the mayor and the townspeople from the creature. He looked around admiringly at the beautiful decorations on the wall and the placemats on the table. He could see that LilyAnne was not only a beautiful young woman but that she was very talented. He thought of a song he would like to sing to her.
But first, he thought, we must rescue the people from Drinker. Who knew how long they would be gone this time if no one came to find them.
The two young villagers thought and thought about what they could do to rescue their friends. Will sang a song to help them to think more clearly. LilyAnne liked the song very much. But they still could not decide what to do about Drinker and the prisoners. Will told her that the rest of the villagers were afraid to help them.
LilyAnne jumped when they heard a knock. She ran to the door and opened it. It was her Aunt Dana, who was the nurse in the village. Dana explained that she had come to see how LilyAnne was feeling after her captivity with Drinker.
“I feel fine,” said LilyAnne. She started to cry. “But I am so worried about the people who are captive in Drinker’s house.”
Dana and Will put their arms around LilyAnne. She felt better.
“Don’t worry,” they said. “We will find a way.”
The three sat down and started to talk about how they could rescue the prisoners. They suggested one thing after another. Every idea they had seemed to have a problem. They knew that if Drinker touched them, they would fall under his spell again.
Finally, Will said, “It is too bad that we don’t have someone whose favorite talent is to chop down houses, so Drinker would chop down his own house and free the prisoners.”
LilyAnne laughed a bit sadly, but Dana sat straight up and said, “That’s it!”
Will said, “I was only joking. I don’t think that would work.”
“Shh,” Dana said. “You gave me an idea.” She sat with her eyes closed for several moments, while Will and LilyAnne stared at her.
“Well, I don’t know if it will work, but it is worth a try,” she said when they thought they couldn’t wait another moment to hear her plan. She stood up. “Will you lead me to Drinker’s house, please? Let’s hurry before it gets late.”
On the way back to the Big Woods, Dana told them her plan. Once again they came to the edge of the trees by Drinker’s house.
“Stay here,” whispered Dana. “I hope to be back soon. If I don’t come back, go home.”
LilyAnne and Will hid behind the trees and watched as Dana walked towards the house. Before she reached the door, Drinker came out and stood on his porch, looking at her. Dana kept walking towards him, and Drinker smiled.
He said, “Welcome. I normally don’t get visitors who come on their own.”
Dana smiled at him. She reached out her hand towards him. Drinker took her hand. He stood there for a moment, holding Dana’s hand. LilyAnne and Will could see that Dana had started to daydream. They saw her follow Drinker without resisting. LilyAnne felt scared. What if the plan didn’t work?
LilyAnne and Will stayed in the woods watching the house. Dana happily daydreamed about her talent as she went with Drinker. She started to daydream about rescuing the villagers.
She thought of the mayor’s wife and children and how much they would miss hearing his speeches at home and at the town meetings. They were proud of his big words and long-winded speeches. She thought about the village baker and the delicious buns he made and how much everyone in the village would miss eating his marvelous breads. She thought about the miner, who went out every week to find gold, and who always brought some back to the village to give to the poorest families. The kind miner also bought the food for the Village Bonfire Parties. Dana’s heart swelled with love for all the people as she daydreamed. Her talent and the thing she liked to do the most is to care for others. It was because of her love for the villagers and her desire to take care of them that she became a nurse.
They reached the room with the couches and cushions where all the people were daydreaming, each lost in his imagination. Drinker flung open the door. He went in, pulling Dana by the hand. He put down her hand and waved his arms, clearing the spell on everyone.
“My friends,” he said. “I stand before you today as a creature who has learned much from his many years in these Big Woods. I have realized, over the passage of time, that it is people who matter the most. Our friends and our families are the true wealth that we own, and if each one of them is happy, then and only then, can we truly be happy too.”
Everyone sat up and stared at him. The mayor looked surprised. Drinker’s words sounded like the start of the speech he had been imagining saying at the next Bonfire Party.
Drinker smiled at all of them. “I am setting you free,” he said. “Now I understand what it means to be truly happy. Making other people happy is the greatest talent of all.”
They all cheered and got up off their couches and cushions and followed him out of the house. Will and LilyAnne came out from behind the trees and ran to greet the villagers. They hugged every person. They hugged each other twice. Drinker promised never to put a spell on any person again. He came back to the village with them.
After that day, Drinker came to all the Village Bonfire Parties. The children loved to hear his stories. He often sang duets with Will and he sang a song that he had written for Will and LilyAnne’s wedding. Sometimes he gave speeches. During the week, you might find him at the bakery, helping to bake pies, or at the mill, helping to grind wheat. Nurse Dana knew that she only had to ask and he would be there to help her deliver the new babies, or take care of anyone who got sick.
Everyone was happy doing what they love best, and they all lived happily ever after.