A long, long time ago there was a town on the river, and the name of the town was Walgelijk, and the people there were as bad as bad can be. I would tell you about all of the horrible, horrible things that they were known to have done, but we would be here all day, and I’m sure you have other things to do. Let’s just say that when murderers misbehaved in prison, the magistrates threatened to send them to Walgelijk. It was a town full of monsters, and there it is.
In Walgelijk lived a young girl named Vlinder who sold flowers on the corner of the street. Vlinder was a pretty thing, and most unlike every other person that lived in Walgelijk, because she never had a bad thought in her head or a bad word on her tongue. Sometimes the townsfolk spat at her or threw coal instead of purchasing her flowers, and she was used to being called the worst kind of names. Vlinder would just smile and move to a different corner of the street.
One midwinter night the weather was worse than usual, and Vlinder left her street corner to seek shelter from the rain under the eaves of a nearby building. As she huddled there for warmth, holding her shawl over her basket of flowers to protect them, she heard a hissing noise from the roof above her, but craning her neck, found nothing there. But when she turned back to the rain, the Devil was standing in the street in front of her, soaking wet and smiling.
The Devil said to Vlinder, “Why do you live in Walgelijk, when you are sweet and kind, and every man, woman and child in this town is so malignant and grotesque?” And Vlinder answered the Devil, “Everybody needs flowers to brighten up their day, and who am I to say that Walgelijk does not?”
And the Devil said to Vlinder, “But if all men say that Walgelijk is a town filled with monsters and seven cold kinds of spite, why then do you live here, when you are as pure and lovely as the snow in the valleys?” And Vlinder answered the Devil, “No soul is so crooked that flowers cannot straighten it, even for only a moment.”
Then it was that the Devil fell horned head over hooves in love with Vlinder the flower girl, because, surrounded by wickedness at all times as he was, he was unused to true goodness and kindness, and it spun his head around like a large whiskey at lunchtime.
And the Devil said to Vlinder, “Once every winter, I am bound to the service of a saintly man, who bids me listen at chimneys for the thoughts of all men and tell him who has been naughty, and who has been nice. But, save for you, Walgelijk is bereft of joy, decency and any good human feeling, and so this benighted town has been given to me to drown, and drown it does tonight. Come with me, for I would spare you the flood.”
But Vlinder pleaded with the Devil, saying “If you drown all the people of Walgelijk tonight, there will never again be the chance for them to think a good thought, or say a good word. You will steal their every tomorrow, and so condemn them to staying the same, forever and a day.”
And the Devil swooned a little, and said to Vlinder, “You are just ridiculously nice. Seriously, what is it with you?”
So he took her to the rooftop, where the saintly man waited for him on his white horse. And a little while later, when the dike broke and the waters came rushing in to drown the evil town of Walgelijk (for he was the Devil for a reason), Vlinder was nowhere to be seen. The flood carried away houses and wagons and street signs and anything else that was not nailed down and plenty that was, but not a single awful soul in Walgelijk was lost to the waters that midwinter night.
But when the Devil returned to his lonely Hell, exhausted from carrying so many bags of gifts for the saintly man, there were flowers in his window box, flowers on his mantelpiece, flowers on his table and flowers on his pillow. Because no soul is so crooked that kindness cannot straighten it. Even for only a moment.
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