The Young Robin Hood (a short story)

The Young Robin Hood

by Sheri Grutz

In the year 18__, the law was set in Tinsel Town that gifts to the king would good enough to gain land and several protections against theives. Robin Hood's father was head chef in the palace, having learned everything he knew from kitchens at the depot, feeding soldiers, passengers, personnel. These were the people with money, so it became natural, that he would end up feeding the King and his court, with a great reputation for merry making along the way.

“But my Lord, you must try the stuffed peppers made with blood sausage and brown grains, it comes exclusively from my garden.”

“I pay you enough to make me oyster stew! You will not get paid for this.”

“The merchants are catching ill, there is no working populace on the sea.”

“Ahhh, then our naval fleet will have to do it, certainly you've rubbed shoulders with them.”

“But so many poor are coming in, they are now patroling every coast line. Even fishermen are being rounded up.”

“Bah! This military will fail me in the end.”

Robin Hood was a curious boy, and he spent his summer days watching ants, and worms, and butterflies. One day, his father asked him to come with him to work. Robin Hood did not want to go, for the judgment of the King was final, and he was too young to be written off that early. When they arrived at the palace, the first thing that Robin Hood did was smell all the flowers, and delight in the trickling water inside the moat.

“Father, I want to walk through it, the water.”

“You mustn't. I've been told there are leeches, and possibly an alligator in there.”

“Then what will I do while you are working?”

“I'll show you what papa does all day. You will see how I earn what we need on the farm.”

His father walked young Robin Hood down several hallways, and rooms, to a swinging door into the kitchen. Mercy was there, amid all the sterling pots, apron on and when she looked at them she said, “Be gads, a child.”

“This is my son, Mercy. He needs to see what his father does.”

“Hello, Mercy, very nice to meet you,” said Robin Hood.

His father went about checking the inventory, planning the lunch meal, and thinking of the skin off his back.

“Young man, this is basic feudalistic society we are in, you see your father works as any severant and if it is not deemed worthy by the King, you, my boy, will not get new shoes,” Mercy told him leaning into the counter to take weight off her heels.

“But my father is a hard worker, he should be rewarded for effort.”

“Eventually all over the land, people will be stripped of earnings that don't meet standards. We have a system that rewards the very ficky tastes of those who want something done.”

“Well, that doesn't seem right.”

“I was not given my pay yesterday, and neither was your father. It is based on, Pay what it is worth.”

“I can't imagine my father making something bad, he's the best of the best.”

“Those who serve have greater capacity to be denied.”

Robin Hood cut the conversation short, to observe his father peeling potatoes, and boiling water, with glazed spare ribs in a large pan. He told his father he was going to look around the palace. It was adorned with hand made swords, men on horseback, giant pots, taper candles and several chandeliers.

He came upon a man walking toward him, eying Robin Hood to the bone.

“I am the Duke of Earl, and who might you be?”

“I am Robin Hood. I am with my father in the kitchen.”

“Hmmm, the King is getting disgusted with the kitchen help.”

“Never! My father is an expert.”

“There are many other servants who can do his job.”

“But it's not fair! He should be appreciated.”

“Oh, well, it's not up to him.”

“Leave me alone!” Robin Hood tried to remember his way out of the palace, turning left, then right, veering back to the left, then seeing the wooden door. He ran all the way home.

Robin Hood spent his afternoon feeding the ducks on the pond near Pointe Center, and he worried over his mother's health, and his father's job. He thought about what Mercy had said, and then what the Duke had said, and the ducks came right up to him as if to say, Let's fly away.

It was after supper when Robin Hood's father came home, looking forlorn and tired. His mother warmed up his plate on the fire.

“My family, I did not get paid today, and I have been let go.”

“Father, that is terrible!”

“Oh, darling, the King and his standards, is that it?”

“Yes, no working servant is good enough for him. I would go back to the depot, but the King has seized that too.”

For the next several months, Robin Hood went from eating 3 square meals a day, to eating one. He went from not being able to buy his books for school, to not going to school at all. He helped his father around the farm. His father did take up work at the Country Store, which was also controlled by the King, and the shelves had very little provisions in which he could instruct a certain dish. It was all way out of the price range for average folks. He sometimes got paid, and sometimes didn't.

Years went on like this, and the poor grew greater by the season, and the King grew richer on resources and those workers who did all the labor, only to be paid little, or fired.

When Robin Hood turned 16, he had had enough. He put on his jolliest of outfits, meant for holidays, and he rode their horse into town. He stopped to see Mercy, and she told him exactly where they kept the gold coins. Robin Hood came with a newspaper, disguised as a news boy, and they allowed him entry into the palace. He moved quickly and determinedly, until someone knew something was up, and they chased him all over the palace. Robin Hood found the box of gold coins, grabbed it and kicked at the shins of the Duke, causing him to reel over, then he made his way out the door, over the bridge, and back home.

“Father, I have done it. Now we will give to the poor, tomorrow, you and I.”

“Oh, Robin Hood, you will be an outcast here, they will hunt you down!”

“Not until I give back to the poor.”

His father smiled, and nodded his head. He had a brave son that he was very proud of.