The Rickshaw Driver

Stranger In The Land

The great clamor of late evening activity in the ancient eastern city seemed almost startling to the young stranger from the west. The noise and dim light made him feel afraid. In the daytime he had suffered no loss of confidence and had found the culture of the city to be exotic and exhilarating.

As evening fell and the dim light filled his mind, he was tempted to think that criminal activity could easily be taking place in conditions like these. Walking along in the shadows of light, he passed by the row of rickshaws that were always waiting at the centre of the main business section of the city. He stopped and contemplated the row of rickshaws.

The young man had heard that there might be work for laborers expanding the walled marketplace of the nobles built high on the mountain. When he looked up he could just make out the walls of the marketplace. It looked like a castle at the very top of the mountain. How would he get there? He was naturally strong but had began to feel weak and weary from hunger. It would be nice to be able to ride up the mountain in one of these rickshaws, he thought.

He had very little money and wondered if there was any service he could render for one of the rickshaw drivers that would make it worth their while to take him on as a passenger. He decided that early in the morning he would return to speak with one of them.

Tying The Knots

In the morning, passing along the row of waiting rickshaws, the young man noticed that the rickshaw drivers were using a cross-strapped harness as a yoke that was attached to the poles of the rickshaw. The young man was an expert in knots and thought that he might know a way to tie the yoke of the harness to the rickshaw that would make the driver's harnesses work more efficiently. He decided to talk to one of the drivers about his idea for a better method of tying the harness.

Perhaps the driver did not understand him clearly because of his accent. In any case, the driver was uninterested. He tried again with another driver, and then another. He then came upon something he had not seen before. A rickshaw stood in front of him that was clearly built as a dual-driver rickshaw. It had three instead of two pulling poles. There was, however, only one driver standing harnessed within this dual-driver rickshaw.

The young man walked up to this driver and spoke to him. “If this is what it looks like to me, this a two-driver rickshaw. Is it not?”

“Yes, it is,” answered the driver, “but my partner has left me and no other driver will join me to pull the rickshaw. They all have their own rickshaws. Therefore I pull it by myself, though it is large and very hard to pull. For I do not own another rickshaw.”

“I see that you have a pulling harness at your waist yoked to your rickshaw, like the other drivers,” the young man said. “I am an expert in knots and believe I may know a knot that you could use to make your harness work better for you. May I show you?” Because the driver was glad to learn the new knot from the young man, soon an arrangement was made that the driver would guide the young man to the royal market at the top of the mountain in exchange for the young man's services in helping him pull his rickshaw up the mountain as soon as he had a passengers going there. And so it was. After his new partner had loaned him a little money for food to strengthen himself, the young man began his training as a rickshaw driver.

To The Marketplace Of The Nobles

Instead of becoming a laborer as he had planned, the young man became a very successful rickshaw driver. In time, the young rickshaw driver’s partner retired and the young man bought his own single driver rickshaw, with which he was able to make a good living.

One day a passenger, a modestly dressed young woman, directed him to take her to the marketplace of the nobles at the top of the mountain.

“Why do you want to go to the marketplace of the nobles today?” asked the young rickshaw driver. It is the annual festival day of the king and all marketplaces are closed, even that of the nobles.”

“Yes,” the young woman said, “The marketplace of the nobles is closed today. But I must go there today, nevertheless.” She was confident and certain in her manner and persuaded the young rickshaw driver to take her up the mountain without any further questions.

Normally, the young driver acted in a very humble manner toward those whose attire revealed that they were nobles. He always kept his eyes low out of respect when he needed to speak and did not speak unless he was spoken to. As he carried his passenger through the city toward the mountain, even though she was dressed very modestly like every commoner, he began to suspect that this young woman was in fact of noble birth.

When she began to seek to engage him in conversation, in modesty, he at first resisted. But, to satisfy his curiosity about her, he thought he would talk with her, if only a little. And so it was that the rickshaw driver and the young woman began to become acquainted.

In the Confidence of The Princess

“By your appearance,” the young woman said to the rickshaw driver, “you are clearly of foreign origin, and yet by the look of your skill pulling this rickshaw you are equal to any rickshaw driver in this city.” The young man found that he both wanted to speak with her about himself and did not want to. He did not want to talk with her on account of his modesty. Yet her charm and clear desire to converse with him drew him out of himself. He began to tell her his story.

He told her that he was born and raised in the west and that he had stowed away on a ship when he was very young. It was simply that he had wanted to see the world, he told her. After a considerable time traveling, he had found work in this city as a rickshaw driver, which he enjoyed and made him want to settle down.

Then he became very bold and asked her, “What of you? How is it that a young woman like yourself has come to be on your own in the city? And now, why are you in need of going up the mountain to the noble’s marketplace on the king’s festival day?”

“You seem to me to be a person that can be trusted to keep something in confidence,” she responded. I will tell you my story as you told me yours. But if we should meet anyone else on our way, I do not want you to indicate in any way that you know what I am about to tell you. In truth, I am the king’s daughter.

You have found me here in the city dressed as a common person because my father and I had an argument and because of that argument I ran away from the palace. I received a message today that all is forgiven and that I should return immediately. It was brought to me by my personal dove, who found me.

I saw you in the line of rickshaw drivers and chose you to return me to my father. It is for this reason that you are carrying me up the mountain to the marketplace of the nobles, where my father is to meet me.”

The rickshaw driver did not know what to think or believe. For a long time he could not speak. But now, as he pulled the young woman up the mountainside toward the royal marketplace, everything inside of him seemed to have changed.

The Royal Argument

Finally the rickshaw driver spoke. “What did you argue about with your father, if I might be so bold as to ask?” He knew that he was stepping completely out of place to ask her this. She was a princess. But for some reason she had taken him into her confidence. He felt something compelling him to be open with her.

“We argued about you!” she said to him, without any explanation at all. “What do you mean, you argued with the king about me? You did not know me then, and the king does not know me at all!”

“Yes, I knew you. I have always known you. And the king knows you.” “But this is impossible!” the young man exclaimed. “I just met you a few hours ago!”

“Do you not feel that you have always known me?” the princess asked him. The young rickshaw driver did not answer her. He turned back to his work of pulling the rickshaw and went far up the mountain before he spoke again.

When he did speak, he said to her, “The argument that you say that you and your father had about me, what was it about?” “We argued because I wanted to bring you into the inner chambers of the palace, but my father said that because you were not prepared for that, to do such a thing would only destroy you.”

“I would not accept what he said,” she continued, “because I wanted you to be close to me. I said to my father in anger that I did not see how being close to me would destroy you. Then I fled the palace and went and lived as a common person in the city. Now I have received a pardon from my father and you are bringing me back to him.”

The Light Of Her Face

All the things the princess had said to him were far too much for the rickshaw driver to hear. Listening to them, he had began to feel an anger stirring within him. Finally, he said to her, “I think you are playing with me, as if I were a child, or even as if I were a toy. I think it is a very unkind thing you are doing to me!”

With these words he stopped and turned and faced her. Streams of tears were pouring from her eyes.

“Oh princess!” he cried out.

Hearing him call her princess caused the light of a smile to return to her face. Through the light of this smile the streams of tears receded. She leaned forward in the rickshaw and extended her hand toward him. He reached and lightly took her hand and slightly bowed toward her. He was lost for words. And she was overcome with emotion.

It was not long after this that they came to a crossroads in the higher valleys of the mountain, in the area of residence of many of the great noble families. At this crossroad, the rickshaw driver new well that, of the two ways he might choose to take, both roads would lead to the top of the mountain, but one way was steep and very direct and would lead there quickly. The other way was winding and very much longer. If he were to take that second way, he would, he thought, have much more time with the princess before they arrived.

He decided to take the longer way and had set foot to do so when suddenly he was blocked by four armed men wearing evil looking masks. Without hesitation and with great speed, the rickshaw driver evaded the four men by dashing onto a side street. Glancing over his shoulder as he ran, he saw that the princess was throwing what looked like a money bag out of the rickshaw to land at the feet of the pursuing men. Looking back again, he saw that the men had stopped and were struggling with one another over the bag. With the additional time this gave him, the rickshaw driver was able to completely lose the pursuing men.

The Gates Of The Market

“Robbers!” he exclaimed to the princess. “No,” she answered. “They were kidnappers. Somehow they found me. Spies discovered that I left the palace and kidnappers have pursued me ever since. They would have asked more of a ransom from my father than the treasures I had to throw out to them, but it will hold them off for long enough. You have risked your life to save me. You will be rewarded.”

Soon they arrived at the top of the mountain and at the outer gates of the marketplace of the nobles. It seemed that the gatekeepers were informed of their coming, as the gates were opened as they approached and they were not even made to stop at the gate.

The princess began to give the young rickshaw driver detailed directions of where to go and where to turn in one direction or another. They passed many pillars, into chamber after chamber. He had been in these chambers many times on normal market days, when they were filled with great numbers of people and rickshaws. all coming and going, buying and selling. Finally, they come to a great chamber which he had never seen before. In this great chamber there were no pillars supporting the ceiling. This seemed impossible as the chamber stretched as far as the eye could see. As they entered this great chamber, the young rickshaw driver stopped and was afraid to go further…

The Chamber

“Why are you stopping?” the princess asked him. “We have further to go. I want you to take me all the way to my father.”

The young man realized completely then that the princess's story was true. Somehow she had argued with the king, her father, because she wanted to bring a common rickshaw driver like himself into the king’s presence and the king would not allow it. Because of this, the princess had ran from the palace and had become like a commoner herself. Now the king had forgiven her. And now she was returning to him, but she was bringing her rickshaw driver back with her! The young man was still perplexed about all of this but he now believed everything. To not go further with the princess would be to betray her. His heart had been captured by the princess’s beauty and grace and goodness toward him. He suddenly felt an overwhelming love and loyalty toward her. His thoughts and feelings of fear now seemed unimportant to him.

He began to pull his rickshaw and the princess with great determination and at an ever increasing pace into the great chamber. However, he found moving forward became harder and harder. Some force resisted him. He saw nothing but the great empty chamber that was lit with some form of dim white light. As he continued to move forward both the light and the force that resisted him grew stronger. Soon the dim light that had begun to help him see had become a great whiteness and he could see nothing else than that whiteness. He was having to press harder and harder in order to maintain any momentum. Nothing, however, was going to break his determination. With all of his effort he pressed forward, until his own force pressing against the force that resisted him caused him to fall to his side, the rickshaw falling with him and the princess within it.

Standing up and walking around in front of the young man and turning to face him, the princess said to him, “I will have to go on alone.” After looking deeply into his eyes, she then turned and walked on into the whiteness that now filled the great chamber until the young man could no longer see her.

Morning

The rickshaw driver turned his rickshaw back the way he had come. His heart was shattered. The pain did not lessen at all as he went down the mountain. He had failed the princess. He knew he had no choice but to return to the city, to his life and to his work.

Over the years that followed, although he was no longer young, and although his heart and mind were overcast with grief, the rickshaw driver remained a very good, very successful rickshaw driver. Day after day, he slept, he woke, he accepted his life. He married and raised a family. He said nothing to anyone about the princess, or about how he saw the face of the princess in his mind at all times.

His memory of the princess did grow fainter over the years, but the shattering pain of his heart remained unchanged. One day, like any other day, he woke early in the morning for work and sat up in his bed. His wife remained asleep beside him. This morning the face of the princess was as bright and clear in his mind as on the day he met her. His whole vision was filled with the memory of her face glowing with light. At that moment the rickshaw driver turned and looked at his wife where she was asleep next to him. Suddenly he saw that the face of his wife was the face of the princess. He understood that he had been in a trance of grief and remorse all this time and had not realized that the princess had found him and had married him. He had looked at her on the day of their wedding, and on every day before and he had not recognized her. Her face had looked like the face of a different person to him. He had seen her every day, yet the trance of his tremendous grief had completely blinded him. He had not recognized her. He had thought she was someone else. Clearly, she had always known this; from the day she had found him and married him she had known and understood his blindness, but still she determined simply to wait for him. All this time, as though in a trance, he had been asleep. Now he was finally awake.

He looked out his window, it was the same world. He would be going to work soon. But it was not the same world. The whole room and the world outside was filled with what seemed to be a supernatural light. It was the light of the inner chamber where the princess had gone to return to her father and her kingdom. That light now seemed to fill the whole world. Now he was not forcing himself with every step into the light. The light had come to him. It was beautiful to his eyes and did not blind him. Indeed, it was making him able to see for the first time. The rickshaw driver reached over and gently took his wife’s hand where she lay next to him in the bed and, speaking softly, said, “Wake up, my princess! It is morning and the world is filled with the light of your father, the king!”