The Suspicious Broom Makers

Once Upon A Time, quite a long time ago, a wizard named Aiken and his wife Astra lived in a small village known merely as “that small village under the mountain.” (The mountain was actually more of an exceptionally large hill but those living at the foot of it thought of it as a mountain.) Now Aiken and Astra were known in their area as being the best broom makers around, and were always experimenting with ways of making faster or more comfortable brooms.

Once they were in their workshop, Aiken dreaming of a broom to outfly a dragon while he read an old broom making book and Astra working on a more comfortable broom, when Aiken ran across a spell that could attach a heavy load to a broom without slowing it down. He showed this to Astra and they tried it out, it worked like a dream. As they tried heavier and heavier loads on the broom Astra thought of a plan, if it could keep a broom from slowing down, why couldn’t the spell speed a broom up. Once the first tests were done they tried her idea and it worked, they were overjoyed and resolved to show it at the upcoming gathering of broom makers.

They arrived at the gathering, bursting with pride, and all ready to show off their new discovery. However, as they were looking at the displays of the other broom makers, they discovered that Basil, a broom maker from a nearby town and their rival for customers, had brought a broom to demonstrate the same idea! They left, enraged, before their turn came and resolved the next year to come up with an idea entirely new that no one else could think of.

On their way home, each thought to herself or himself that someone must have told Basil about their idea. Slowly each came to the conclusion that the other had told Basil and that was the reason they’d lost. Each also resolved silently that in the coming year any discovery would be kept to herself or himself.

The year passed slowly, with no more cheerful discoveries being announced to one another and no more experimentation sessions joyfully attended by the neighbors. Astra worked on an invisible pillow, softer than any other but thin enough not to get in the way when attached to the broom. She very often wished she could turn to Aiken and ask for his help with a difficult spell but she always firmly stopped herself when she felt like asking him.

Aiken made very slow progress in creating a broom with no wind resistance whatsoever and often wished for Astra’s help in testing. He stuck to his resolution and never said anything, but he came very near it several times.

by the time the broom maker’s gathering met again Astra and Aiken were both feeling a bit out of sorts. But they headed straight toward Basil’s stand, supremely confident that he could not have found out what they were doing this year. Behind it all though, they each felt a bit of anxiety, what if he had found another way?

When they reached his display they stopped with their mouths hanging open for a second then each turned to the other accusingly. Each stopped when they saw the other, practically mirroring each other’s looks of shock. Slowly a look of comprehension dawned over their faces as they realized how silly they had been.

They left Basil’s display, a cushioned, wind resistant broom, and gathered up their own things. On the drive home they confessed to each other how silly they had been and asked for forgiveness. They talked for a while and decided Basil had simply come up with the ideas by himself and there was no way around it. Also, after a while, they began discussing new ideas for next year, ideas which no one could ever top. But even if someone did, Astra and Aiken promised, to each other this time, that each would never again blame the other for anything without reason.

Translated by RogueTonks