EDITOR,
There was once a kind, but poor lord who was gifted a large piece of land by a powerful and rich uncle. The lord was very happy about his good fortune, because times were hard, and his lovely estate no longer provided the income he once was accustomed to. Together with his estate manager, he worked out a plan of what to do with this addition.
Alas, on inspection, the new land proved to be strewn with rocks, and its depths full of old tree trunks, and whatever soil there was, not very good for farming. Never mind, the lord could see in his dreams golden wheat undulating in the gentle breeze, rows upon rows of orchards as well as grassy commons where the estate's parents could play with their children and artists performing to their audiences. He instructed his manager to make it happen.
The man went to work at once, but it was not easy. Soon the hired hands from the estate needed outside help and it all began to cost a lot of money which the lord did not have. A nearby prince proposed to help, but he was sent away, because the lord was afraid the prince would not share his cherished dreams for the land.
The estate manager and his helpers toiled on for years, all the while assuring the lord that all was well. The land did not look better despite all the work and the huge sums of money the manager had spent on it, money which had to be borrowed and which indebted the estate ever deeper to the bank. There was nary any accounting of what the vast sums were spent for. The lord naturally began to worry and so did the estate manager, he about being dismissed, rightly or wrongly, by his master. He knew only a bold plan could save him now.
The first part was easiest: Even the lord could see by now that the estate was no longer able to divert finite resources towards the gifted land and therefore agreed to have it sold. The second part was more difficult, because his master still wanted to have his dream fulfilled by others.
The estate manager went to work with new zeal and advertised the land throughout the kingdom, but alas, none of the offers he received included any to accommodate the lord's dreams and were therefore unacceptable. Tormenting thoughts swirled through the manager's head during many sleepless nights about the huge, barely explained debt, mounting bills, his master's increasing anger... and then - at last a break! The wealthy merchant living in one of the estate's villages who had offered help in the past came to the rescue again, with an offer that surely would please the lord!
It happened just as he had hoped, except that the merchant and his foreign partners only agreed to the lord's dreams with a nod of their heads; the exact details, the price and all else to be worked out later. Nevertheless, it was the first good news our embattled estate manager could present to his master in a long, long time, and at the very least, it bought him time.
Will he succeed and keep his job? Will everyone live happily ever after on the estate, or will there be more unexpected twists in this tale? Who knows, but one thing should become clear from this saga: Beware of "free gifts," "deals of a lifetime" and even more so when combined with hazy dreams.
PS - Any resemblance to real locations, events and persons is purely coincidental.
Wolfgang Wittenburg
Squamish
