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.

Image found here

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. 

Week 11 Story: The Girl and The Black Lamb

There once was a farmer who loved farming all of his fruits and vegetables, and tending to livestock. He would go out every day to pick his fruits and vegetables, and to feed and water his animals. As years went by, he met his wife, they had children and his farm became bigger and bigger until he had to hire people to help him tend to his crops and livestock. As his farm grew, he noticed that more and more children from the area would come to eat an apple or two, and to pet his animals.
As months passed, spring came around again, when all his horses, sheep and cattle began having their babies. One sheep in particular was his wife’s favorite, because she had picked her out at the auction herself when it was still a lamb. Now, a few months later, it was old enough to have a lamb of its own. The Farmer’s Wife went out daily to check on her sweet sheep, until it was finally ready to give birth. To her surprise, the new lamb was as black as night in the sea of white wool. The Farmer’s Wife fell in love with the new lamb and cared for it day and night.
A few weeks later, the Farmer’s Family all went on a road trip to scout out some more livestock to bring back home. During their time away, one little girl in particular who lived in the area had also fallen in love with the little black lamb and took her to her home a mile away to care for her while the farmers were gone.
When the family returned, they found the black lamb missing, so all of the hired hands went out in search for the lost lamb. One of the hired hands had noticed that the girl who used to come over all the time had not been around for the past week, and went over to her house. There, he found her and the black lamb playing happily in the yard. Together, they went back to the Farmer and returned their beloved lamb.

Based off of the story: The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls

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Author’s Note:
This story is based off of the short story, The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls. In the original story, it is a King and the Queen who have the pearls go missing. In the story I wrote, I chose to use a farmer and his wife who still have a lot of land and wealth because that is more relatable living in Oklahoma. Also, just like it was normal for the monkies to be in the garden, it was normal for the children to be at the farm. I also found it interesting that the King did not seem angry in the original story, so in the story I wrote, the little girl did not have bad intentions and I focused on how it was returned, and the Farmers were happy. 

Gangs of New York

Link to story on my portfolio site:Gangs of New York

Week 5 Story: 90.9 Sports All Day

Here is a link to my portfolio site and the updated story: Sports All Day

Welcome to 90.9 Sports All Day, I’m Maximillian Bucks and today we will be discussing the career of Ryan Ratha and what his future may hold. I’d like to start with how successful he’s been so far and whether there are any challenges that lie ahead that may slow him down a bit. Of course, I’ll be opening call lines later on for the faithful listeners who want to share their input. For now, let’s talk about Ryan. Ryan has been training his boxing skills since quite a young age, and honestly everyone can see that it has been paying off. He had several bouts lined up for him as he started out and none of them seemed to even bring a challenge. Ryan’s manager was even asked by John Devit’s manager for a bout that would pit a young hopeful against an established powerhouse. John Devit has already made a name for himself and quite frankly has been unstoppable lately. Normally this would seem unfair that Ryan is so young and inexperienced, but John must not be paying full attention to how Ryan seems to be dominating his opponents. I may be in a small minority when I say this but I fully believe that Ryan could make John regret proposing this fight. Ryan’s fighting style is unique enough that it makes preparing difficult even for someone like John Devit. Ryan’s father was actually a very successful boxer as well and Ryan shows glimpses of his father’s fighting style, but Ryan’s father had a tragic accident that took his life while Ryan was still an infant. That is one of the mysteries of Ryan’s style. I find myself asking how Ryan developed such a similar style to his father even when he never had a chance to train with him. With all of that said, I truly believe that John Devit is making a terrible mistake underestimating Ryan Ratha. But this show means nothing if it only includes my opinion, so this is where I will take the first caller of the day! Our first caller is…

In the spotlight

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For this story, I wanted to include Rama's battle with Vishvamitra with a sports twist. I wanted to show that Rama is connected with Vishnu but there's a mystery around why they are so similar.

Source- Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists: Ramayana by Sister Nivedita

Story found here