Week 9 Story: A King From Lotuses

Interviewer: Hello, and welcome to the Lotus Show! Hope you all are doing well. It’s been a thrilling week, as we all know, our king has passed away, but we have recently just gotten a new one. In case you aren’t all caught up, that’s what I’m here for! We have a very special guest with us tonight, as well, and that’s our new King Bodhisatta. Let’s all give a warm welcome to him.

Bodhisatta: Hi everyone, it’s great to be here. I’m so glad that I’ve been asked to tell my story on live television.

Interviewer: Yes, we’re happy that you’re here as well! So tell us, Bodhisatta, where are you from?

Bodhisatta: Well I lived at the foot of a mountain for nearly my entire life. It was quite a peaceful life I must admit.

Interviewer: I see, I see. I can imagine. I presume it was just you and your mother that lived there?

Bodhisatta: Most of the time, yes. We had a few visitors on occasion, but my mother kept my origins a secret for a while. So we had to keep a low profile, you’d say.

Interviewer: Of course. Well, speaking of, I guess we should get to the part that everyone’s been wondering about. Enough small talk, right?

Bodhisatta: I’d say so. What is it everyone would like to know?

Interviewer: My audience is very curious about how you became king. Well, the full story, really. How did you figure out that your father was the king of our tribe?

Bodhisatta: My mother told me, actually.

Interviewer: Really? After all those years of keeping it a secret?

Bodhisatta: Honestly, I never really asked. She never told me a lie, per se, but I think she figured it was time I knew the full truth, since I was an adult. It was the first time she thought I could really handle the truth. I don’t blame her.

Interviewer: It must have been hard to grow up not knowing who your father was.

Bodhisatta: It was. Looking back, though, I have to admit, ignorance is bliss. This royal stuff is not as easy as the stories make it out to be.

Interviewer: I would certainly agree! Not that I’ve ever ruled a country or anything. How did your first meeting with your father go?

Bodhisatta: Oh now there’s where the story gets interesting! Did you know he tried to have me killed?

Interviewer: You don’t say? How did he plan to manage that?

Bodhisatta: Well, here’s the thing. My father didn’t try to have me killed. He tried to have the ogre kill me. My father sent me down to get some lotuses for him, thinking that the ogre who guarded them was going to kill me. Turns out, I’m much faster and smarter than he is. I was easily able to get the lotuses without the ogre killing me.

Interviewer: That’s quite a story! And that’s how you replaced the king as, well... king?

Bodhisatta: Exactly. I feel a bit guilty that my own father had to die in the process, but, well, I barely knew him at all! I had no idea what was going to happen.

Interviewer: Well, everyone adores the new king, don’t we?

Audience: Cheers.

Bodhisatta: Thanks. I’m happy to be here for all of you.

Interviewer: And thank you for showing up tonight! I wish you the best of luck in the future. You’ll make a fantastic ruler!

Interviewer: Well, that’s all Bodhisatta has for you all tonight. Now onto a quick word from our sponsors.


Lotuses from Unsplash

Author's Note: This week, I decided to go back to our first reading, the Jatakas, and do a story based off of that. I really liked this anthology because there were many different short stories with similar themes and ideas. The one that I chose to write from was "The Monkey Who Gathered Lotuses." I thought this story would be interesting to retell in a script set, as in the end, all the monkeys elect Bodhisatta to be their new king. Basically, the story went exactly as is told in the script, but I wanted to add some more characterization to show the Bodhisatta was well-liked, but also a bit clueless and cocky. 

Bibliography: The Monkey Who Gathered Lotuses from Tayohamma Jataka in The Jataka: Volume 1 translated by Robert Chalmers. 

Comments

  1. Rylie,
    I like how you decided to retell this story. You used a script to tell it and that is a great way to tell a story. It makes me want to do that for one of my stories. Reading your authors note, I likes how you wanted to add more characterization so you used all dialogue. Good job!

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  2. Rylie, I really liked how engaging and detailed the dialogue was in this story between the interviewer and Bodhisatta! The twist you added to the original story from the Jatakas where the monkeys choose Bodhisatta worked very well and was quite enjoyable to read. Keep up the good work this semester!

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  3. Hi Riley! You did a really great job re-telling this story. The details that you included throughout the story really aided me in my visualization of the story and allowed me to dive in as a reader and act as if I was experiencing the story from the point of view of one of your characters. You also did a great job of including some dialogue in your story. This really helped to bring the characters in the story to life. Overall, this was a really great read and I look forward to reading more from you!

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