Week 12 Story: Princeton and the Janitor

Updated Story Found Here:Princeton and the Janitor

There once was an owner of a great and prosperous factory, Mr. Kingston. There were many men and women who had been with him since the beginning of his company, who all loved him because he was a good man. All of his employees respected him, were loyal to him and worked very hard for Mr. Kingston because he was good to them. He also allowed his employees to buy shares of stock of his company. Mr. Kingston had a son named Princeton who had been around the factory ever since he was a young boy. The workers were always kind to him but as he grew older, he became cruel and saw them as nothing but assets to his father’s great company. As he became a man, he knew that he would one day inherit the business that his father had built from the ground up and too liberties in changing “minor” things here and there, that overall effected the moral of all of the employees. As Princeton grew in experience and gained more confidence, he punished any employee who crossed his path and even fired some for innocent mistakes they made. This stirred up anger among all of the employees since they were like family. His father, Mr. Kingston never noticed any of these things because he loved and trusted his son, and he was becoming older as time passed.

            One day, Princeton went on a walk outside around the toxic chemicals, despite all of the warning signs, thinking nothing terrible would happen to him for he had grown up walking around the place. As he walked across the creaking metal bridge that all the employees always avoided, they just stood and watched, secretly hoping that he would just fall into some chemicals. As they reached for the door to go back inside, they heard the medal give out but none turned back to check on him.

            Luckily for Princeton, he had not fallen into chemicals, but into a large container of thick glue. Though he was not burned from the warm glue, he was having difficulties staying afloat. He was so focused on escaping this glue that was willing to swallow him alive that he never noticed the three little puppies that also fell in the rusted bridge broke, plunging them into the white abyss.

            Princeton managed to croak out a gargled “Help!” just in time for the kind janitor to walk by. He quickly responded with, “Hang on! I’m coming to help you!” and scaled the ladder on the side of the large container of glue. As soon as he reached the top, he saw a large mass that was a man, and three smaller lumps that seemed to be struggling to stay afloat. Being a compassionate man, he reached for the three struggling lumps first to put into the pockets of his jacket, then reached to pull the man out. Princeton carefully climbed down the ladder to the bottom where the janitor was caring for the small brown animals who turned out to be puppies. After a few minutes had passed and panic had left his system, Princeton realized that the janitor only given him a towel and had not bent over backwards cleaning him up, and grew angry. Though the janitor offered to let him use the small shower in the back, in his pride, Princeton declined the offer. Embarrassed and outraged, Princeton thanked him and stormed off, back to his house. The janitor then moved the puppies to his custodial closet to give them a nice warm bath.

            A few months after this incident, the owner, Mr. Kingston fell very ill and could no longer run his growing company and passed it down to his son, Princeton. Neither Princeton nor the janitor had told anybody about this incident because Princeton was to prideful, and the janitor was too humble. The two men had not seen each other since the fall, but Princeton still held a grudge for the janitor saving the puppies first, over himself.  

            Several months after the transfer of power, the janitor and Princeton ran into each other. The janitor kindly greeted Princeton, inquiring as to how he was doing to which Princeton just turned and walked away. He then went straight to his manager, and ordered him to humiliate and force the janitor to quit, to which he complied.

            The manager went to the janitor, knocked him down and yelled at the janitor, trying everything he could do the make him resign from the job. The janitor however just took the abuse and began to tell the other employees about how he saved Princeton and the three puppies that now live with him. The managers also listened in, and checked the cameras and saw that what he said was true.

            The employees out of anger and loyalty to the kind janitor all gave their shares of the stock on the company to him. Though there were other investors, the janitor now owned the largest portion, and legally became the new owner of this large company. He was good to his employees and friends, giving them bonuses and extended leaves of absences. They also worked hard and well for their new boss and friend.

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More Jakarta Tales by Ellen C. Babbit


Author's note: 
This story is inspired from the short story, "Prince Wicked and the Grateful Animals". In the original story, it is a king and a prince, so I named the two characters Mr. Kingston and his son, Princeton but changed their occupation to owners of a company. Also like in the original story where the Prince's men purposefully left him behind, the employees also left Princeton behind on purpose despite hearing the bridge breaking. For the three puppies that the janitor rescued, I wanted to show how helpless they were compared to Princeton so the janitor really had a good reason for helping them first. I did change their role some in this story by having the puppies just live with the janitor, and not doing anything to help him monetarily like the grateful animals from the original story. For the ending of the story, I did not think it would be realistic for the employees to kill the owner, so I just had him overthrown from power, and had the janitor take up the new open position as owner of the company. In the end, the employees were loyal to the new owner because he was good, just as they were to Mr. Kingston in the beginning of the story.