Chapter 2 - The boy's departure

Everything was going well for a while. After finishing his usual duties around the planet, I was rewarding my young caretaker with impressing facts about my four claws. They protected me from the rough shell of this planet so their fierceness was obvious. They could defend me against dangerous creatures such as tigers! One step and they would suffer the pain of my class.

Unfortunately, my young friend did not look impressed at all.  He even called me a weed in a sarcastic tone! Luckily, he properly apologized for his inadequate attitude. I reassured him that tigers were no threat to me. However, everyone is born with a weakness that has to carry on throughout their lives and I was no exception. I was terrified of the wind drafts. 

My young confidant gave me a doubtful and funny look: he thought it was "bad luck" for a plant to be afraid of wind drafts. He didn't understand the real nature of this reasonable fear. Tigers were foes easy to overcome, but the wind drafts are some of the most dangerous and unpredictable enemies for a flower. You can't see them and you can't know when they will strike you with all their mighty coldness! That's why I asked him to put me under a glass globe during the night... I might have unintentionally exaggerated the details about my birthplace, but that wasn't my plan at all. I just wanted him to take my worries seriously. This was such an embarrassing moment for me! 

I needed to improvise a solution quickly so I started to cough a couple of times to distract his doubting thoughts. It worked smoothly. He brought the glass screen in a jiffy.

Time has passed and my loving and loyal friend started to be increasingly unhappy doing his chores. He looked so dejected hearing my stories about tigers. He wasn't praising my fragrance anymore. What happened to him? Is my presence no longer fascinating to him? Am I not bringing the happiness I did before?

I didn't understand the reason before this change until the day he left this planet. One morning a flock of birds was flying above this planet. Giving a final clean-up of the planet, he stopped to water me for one last time. I could easily see how much he was holding back his tears. That was when I finally realized my foolishness. He was leaving because of the awful way I treated him.

It was such a painful conclusion, that I was uncapable to face him. So I did what I knew best: coughing and asking for forgiveness. I also told him to go and find his true happiness. A kind soul like him deserves to be happy even if that meant abandoning me on this tiny planet. 

But he did not leave immediately: he was trying to fulfill my needs even when he was about to start his journey of finding bliss. I had to give him all the encouragements in the world in order to convince him to leave. I even had to yell at him to make my point across.

As I was saying those words, I felt that my tears would pour out in any second. Fortunately, he left before he could see my pathetic display. It's better than my tears weren't his last memory of me.

Have a safe travel and be happy... my Little Prince.