Ota's Tales

About Brat - Who is Brat?

So they went into their bedroom. But when they opened the door, instead of gold coins, the bed was crawling and hissing with foul snakes. Their eyes widened and the bedroom was shut as quickly as possible until no reptile noticed them.

"Oh, I was frightened," the woman said, "what's the meaning of this?! Where's the gold!? Show me the purse."
The man took the purse from his pocket and handed it to the woman.
"At least everything's all right here. I smell coins," the woman said as she squeezed the leather purse. "If snakes came out of it, I'd die of fright," she said, and began to pour the coins into her hand.
But instead of gold coins, only copper coins fell in. And that wasn't all. The purse was quite empty.

"Are you sure it was his purse?" the woman asked the man, and at once she began to suspect that he had switched them.
"Of course it was," he replied, then spat. "I smell some devilry."
"It looks to me like you're lying to me. Where did he put the infinite purse?" she asked, and began to search his pockets. The man recoiled from her.
"Excuse me. Me, lying to you?! I have nothing to hide."
The woman snapped at the man: "If you have nothing to hide, why are you backing away from me?! You wouldn't hide it in your pockets anyway. So where did you put it?!"
"I don't have it. You must believe me," her husband said.
But the greedy wife didn't believe the man. She thought he wanted to take the wealth of the world himself. Then he would surely find a young mistress and leave her. No, she must prevent that. The purse would be far safer in her hands. She had an idea, but she didn't put anything on.

"Then go and look for it," she said to the man, "I'll look in the fireplace."
She went that way, and the man went into the kitchen. But the woman didn't go looking for anything. She wanted to look at the magic lamp he had left for them. It was standing quietly on the chair.
She came over carefully and looked at it. "Quite an ordinary lamp," she thought, taking it in her hands. She was leaning it from side to side, rubbing it with her hand.
Suddenly there was a spark in the room, a bang, and a terrible shadow came out of the lamp. It had no mouth, but the woman heard him say, "What do you want?!"
She couldn't believe her eyes, but she was convinced she wasn't dreaming. And immediately she had an idea what to wish for. She told the ghost, who only replied, "Your wish is my command." Then it sparked again and the ghost was lost.

The man was just in the kitchen, looking for his purse, when he heard a huge bang. He was startled, so he strained to hear what it might be. He was tense for about a minute. When he finally got up the courage to go, there was a second bang, so he was startled again and hid under the table. He breathed loudly and listened to the sounds. He heard footsteps approaching.

'Hello, where are you?!' shouted a woman who had come into the kitchen.
"Under the table," the man replied, and began to crawl out.
"What the hell are you doing?! You should have looked for the purse!" his wife scolded him.
The man could not control himself. He didn't want to say anything, but something made him answer all her questions truthfully. "I heard a bang, so I hid. What was that?" he asked.
"I wonder if you've found the purse."
"No," he said.
"And you say you are not hiding him?"
"No, I've already given it to you," he answered her question. "And can you tell me what the bang was?!" the man urged the woman.
"All right," she said, though she didn't want to. "You know, I didn't believe you. I thought you'd stolen the purse. That you wanted all the gold for yourself. I was angry, so I wished you'd only tell the truth."

The man shook his head in disbelief, and his face turned red. "What did she wish for? I wish for it, and things don't come true," he marveled.
"Well, I tried the magic lamp," she said.
By then her companion had exploded with anger. "What did she try for?! Why did you do it without my thinking?! You wished for complete stupidity, and we only have two wishes left."
The woman tried to calm him, but couldn't. The man pushed her away and ran to the fireplace, where a magic lamp lay on the floor.
"What do you think you're going to do?!" the woman called after him.
The man ignored her. He just shouted, "At least I'll wish for something real." He took the lamp in his hand, but didn't know how to work it. He started to say his wish, but nothing happened.
"It's broken!" he called to his wife. Then he put his ear to the lamp and began to shake it. Then the room flashed, a huge bang struck, and a slightly larger black spirit appeared. The man was frightened by its size, but was glad to see it. It said, "What do you want?!"
Without hesitation, in a small voice, the man said, "A son, I want a son."
"Your wish is my command," he just said.