Faster Than a Reading (Notes) Bullet: Fear

Romantic and Atmospheric Graveyard (World’s Best Music, 1900) by Helen Kendrik Johnson. Found on wikimedia. 

Fear
The main character is a little boy who doesn't know what fear is. He is trying to find fear; he can't experience it. He goes around trying to find fear, with different people trying to lead him to fear. First he runs into a group of forty robbers on a mountain and thinks, "you know what would be a great idea? getting closer to them and talking to them!" I don't think he is the brightest bulb in the pack... or he doesn't have fear so he can't see why this is a bad idea... either or. They send him into a cemetery to make food at night, again stellar idea, so he does. Then comes the supernatural elements trying to frighten him. A floating hand appears next to him and demands food, but he just slaps them on the wrist with a spoon. He isn't afraid and goes to ask the robbers what's next. They don't understand how he wasn't afraid when a disembodied hand just floats right on over, so they send him to a lonely building where he hears crying. Another person comes up to him and asks to climb his shoulders the help out the child crying above. They proceed to strangle him. He throws them off and takes their fallen bracelet. Now here's an anti-semeitic section about a greedy Jew- yay. He claims the bracket is his so they go off to the court to get a ruling. The judge says neither can prove it so the bracelet it impounded. Then the boy goes to the bottom of the sea to confront the being tossing the ship. In all of this, he has never been afraid.
Then there is a fountain filled with pigeons that transforms into women. They are the people who have been attempting to scare him. He has been in the garden so He just walks up and says- hey that was me. They invite him to stay with him in their palace, but he says he must continue on his path to finding fear. the people try to make him king. The widow of the previous king takes it upon herself to scare him- with a bird under the dishes covering. It works. He becomes king and brings his mother to the palace.
I wonder what it would be like from their point of view."Well, I appeared as a floating hand in a graveyard. And what did I get? A literal slap on the wrist! Not even a jump scare! It's your turn [insert character name here]."
Author's Note: this story is from Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos, with illustrations by Willy Pogany (1913).
SaveSave