King Natta n the Monster...

Once a upon a time in the kingdom of Nicca lived a king named Natta. King Natta always had his people at heart, making sure there is enough food especially for the poor families. One day King Natta with his wisdom was asked to help a neighbouring country who was very poor and the people were suffering because of the drought season. King Natta set out to the neighbour country bringing with him his 3 wise generals, many types of seeds and seedlings.

Not too long after King Natta had left, a very strong wind blew across the kingdom of Nicca. The palace guards quickly ran to close the windows but they were not in time to close the last one…. A strong gush of wind came through the window and immediately the presence of a monster was felt, though not seen… there was a stench. Soon the monster was visible and the 7 palace guards were shock to see its presence.
They immediately armed themselves with sticks and tried to push the monster toward the entrance of the palace. Red-Guard shouted “monster… you have no right to be in the palace of King Natta!” Ora-Guard said “Get out before King Natta is back… “ Yel-Guard “you are so smelly and dirty!” Gre-Guard said: “Don’t touch our King Natta’s throne, you skunk!” With every unkind words uttered from the 7-Guards, the Monster became bigger and bigger and the stench was horrendous. Monster was gnashing its teeth “grrh…grrh…” and tried to avoid the sticks trouncing on it flaking and crusty body.
The Monster grew in size becoming bigger and bigger… the eyes were rage with fury! Puffing heavily…”arrh…arrh…arrh…” were raising its fist on the guards.

At this very moment, King Natta appeared! When he saw the monster he quickly approached it while 7 –guards tried to stop him, fearing harm from the monster. King Natta reached out his hand “Hello monster… welcome to the kingdom of Nicca… You must have been very tired, hungry and thirsty…, please take a seat on the throne… 7-Guards please prepare icetehtarik, meemambo and icecream with choco toppings for our guest… Please bring the fragrant bungamelor towel to refresh our guest, don’t forget the sayang-layang fruits from our garden too…”

Monster’s eyes brightened and welled with tears … that King Natta was indeed a wisdom king of compassion: to nurse when it is hurt, to feed when it is hungry, to love when no one cares…
7-Guards applied Karuna oil on the monster and massage the flaking and crusty body… Feeling the compassionate touch from 7-Guards … and every kind and loving words from King Natta, the monster became smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller … And with the last kind word from King Natta, monster vanished from the palace…

The story of King Natta and the monster was told to children chronically-ill… I tell this story to children in the chronic ward. When I finished the story, I asked the child who is King Natta and who is Monster? I had a child who told me “He is King Natta and the Cancer is the monster”… I smiled at the boy… had a moment of silence and said: “yes, you are King Natta, now we will say nice words to monster ya… and monster will be smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller…”

The original story the King and the monster was told by Ajahn Brahm, an English Buddhist Monk from Australia.

Children who are chronically ill create stories of Hope mainly on drawings, though non-verbal most times. They seemed to know life is fragile though not expressed verbally. How do I answer a child when she told me "I m going to die... "please ask Jesus to pray for me..." or a hand gesture 'waving goodbye' and maintaining the eye contact.


The child was reaching out to the telephone: "ring...ring...ring... Anybody there, if only someone understand what i m going through, my fears, my pain. When will all the chemo be over and my hair will grow back again... Will I ever go to school? Will I see my classmates again...
*Will ask Mama to make me a pair of wings to fly to heaven..."