The clove that wanted to marry the princess

There once was a clove named John. He lay inside an apple pie that was to be put upon the king's table, and one would think that was enough for a clove. But John had bigger plans than ending up on the edge of a dessert plate. He wanted to marry the princess!

The other cloves laughed at Johns dream. "A clove for a prince, ha, ha, ha, that's the silliest thing I've ever heard," one said. And then they laughed, and laughed, and laughed until they had no more flavour to give to the pie.

The king, the queen and the thin princess clapped their hands when the hot apple pie was brought in, along with a bowl of whipped cream. Since the princess was so thin they sat the bowl beside her. She was brown and long and had a princess' crown. If you looked closely and used your imagination you would see that she looked a bit like a clove herself, only much bigger of course.

Inside the pie, John lay longing for the princess. He could feel it in his heart that he was close to her. If only she gets served with the part I'm in, he thought. At that moment he felt the knife cutting right behind his back. The piece of pie was lifted onto a plate and covered with a lot of cream.

When all were served the king took a bite, but spit it out again. "Ugh, there isn't any taste of cloves in my pie," he said. "Not in mine either," the queen complained and wiped her mouth with a napkin. She looked at the thin princess who was enjoying her mouthful. "How about you, my dearest?" The princess looked at the ceiling and closed her eyes. Then John gave the bite so much taste that the princess' eyes popped open and stared at her parents. Then she opened her mouth and declared: "That's the best apple pie I've ever tasted."

"So you will eat all your pie and all the cream as well," the queen said hopefully. The princess then took John the clove out of her mouth and looked carefully at him. She could see that the clove smiled at her. She smiled back and said: "Yes I will, but then you must let me marry this wonderful clove.

"What?" the king said. "Do you want to marry a clove?" "Yes," the princess said. "He tastes so good and I can see that we belong to each other." "But," the queen uttered. "We were thinking of finding a handsome prince for you, you know." The princess just smiled. "This prince is good enough for me," she said and kissed John.

The king and queen tried all sorts of tricks to dissuade her, but she wouldn't change her mind. She was determined to marry the clove.

In the left over pieces of apple pie the other cloves lay pale with envy. "Holy apple pie," said the clove that had been laughing most of Johns plans. "I should have thought up some plans for myself instead of laughing at John's. Another clove sighed: "It's probably true what they say, that those who don't want anything, won't get anything either."

© Martin Nygaard