Very many, very many years ago, there lived amidst the mountains in a little valley, a very old woman. She was alone. All her family had dispersed among the hills. And she was alone in her little hut, where she tended to cows, chickens, and a little goat and all the birds that seemed to come together to see her in the morning when she came out and spread some bread for them.

She lived a simple life, taking care of her animals, walking around the fields, checking the plants if they were growing, if they were not, if there was some kind of insect eating them or not, and, taking care of the health of everyone.

But no one took care of her health but herself. She had many friends in the woods that surrounded that little valley. There was a very curious fox that usually came to observe her when she was walking by the woods. And there were other kinds of animals also observing her. Not friendly with her, but not aggressive, curious, but nothing else. In that way she had lived for many years, taking care of her people, which she called her animals, and waiting for her family to perhaps someday return.

In her little hut, she had a very nice bed. It was not a magnificent bed, but it was a nice bed. And because in that place where she lived winters got very cold, springtime was still cold, and summer was but a brief glimpse of what summer could be in other countries, her bed was covered by several blankets. Also, she was old, and she felt the cold more than young people.

It was a toil for her every morning because she was an organized woman and liked to have everything tidy, that she would get up and even before having her frugal breakfast, she would tidy her bed. It was a toil for her. Three blankets, one on top of the other. And you may ask, why three? Why didn't she get a big one? Well, that's what she could afford. Three blankets, one on top of the other. And she took particular care to square all those blankets and have them very tidy. She had never been in the military, she had never been asked to do that, but she did it nonetheless.

So, the woman, whom I said already was very old, got sick. Not extremely sick, a bit sick. Just enough to feel her bones and to feel heavy to stand up. But still she did. And when she tried to fix her bed, she felt that her arms were not really helping her. She couldn't really square the bed sheets and the blankets as she wanted.

She just left her arms fall down by her side and looked sadly at the bed.

“I cannot fix you today, my dear. I am not feeling well. Maybe tomorrow.”

So she went to her little kitchenette. She prepared her coffee, her breakfast, and she sat there pondering what would be this new problem that had come to face her. If she was not able to use her arms as fully as she previously had, what would become of her cow, and her goats, and her little chickens, and everyone that in the neighborhood demanded her help.

However, she was not a pessimistic woman. She was optimistic. So she said:

“This will pass. This will pass. Let me go and see my animals.”

So she went out. And her arms in a sense helped her a bit more. She didn't feel so unable to help them. The day passed, and she came back to her bedroom. She was amazed.

“Why is this bed like this?”

And then she remembered. When she had woken up, she hadn't been able to fix the bed, to make it tidy, military style. She shrugged and said, okay, tomorrow will be another day.

The night passed. And when she woke up, still in bed, she said to herself:

“This is a new day. Everything is going to be okay.”

So she got up, and again she tried to fix her bed. She tried to square the three blankets and the bed sheet. And again it was impossible for her. Now she was concerned, and now she was worried.

“I cannot lose control of my arms with everything I have to do!”

She went back to the kitchen again. She sat there thinking, thinking, what am I going to do?

In the middle of her breakfast, she stopped and went back to the bedroom and tried to square the blankets again. But she couldn't. And then she sat on the bed and started crying.

“I cannot do this. I cannot do this, and I am alone. Who's going to help me with everything that I have to do?”

She looked at the bed where her pillow was, and she patted her pillow.

“O my dear, my dear, I cannot, I cannot fix you. You are going to be rumpled like this, and I cannot fix you. And who's going to wash you out in the well when you get dirty?”

She sat there for a while thinking. And as always, strong woman she was, she stood up, she turned around to look at the blankets again and said:

“Not today either, my friends, not today either.”

And she went out, and she took care of her cow and her goats and her chickens. Then she sat and looked at them.

“Who is going to take care of you?”

And then she straightened up, left the bucket with the food and left the water and everything, and went into the forest to meditate, to think, to ponder on this new grievance her body had done to her.

She walked through the woods for a long time, thinking, thinking, remembering, pondering. She was so quiet and so absorbed that some birds even came and landed on her shoulders. She didn't realize. The fox came and sat before her, and she didn't realize. Those other big animals, monsters were there, a bear, and also very large red deers, they pushed their heads among the forest, amongst the bushes, and looked at her, nearer than they had ever been. She would have been very happy to look at them, but she didn't realize. Then when it started getting dark, she realized it was getting dark. That she realized, and she returned and came back to her little hut. She opened the door, and she came in. She hadn't had any lunch. She hadn't had any dinner. But what she needed was to lie down. And she went to her bedroom. She took off her clothes, and she lay down. She didn't realize something else. The bed was nicely done, the pillow was fluffy and good. Everything looked beautiful in her bed. But she was so grieved that she didn't realize.

Next morning when she woke up, she sat abruptly on the bed.

“How did I fix the bed last night?”

And she started remembering what she had done during the day. She remembered walking into the forest and walking and walking and walking all day. She still felt very tired. She was not used to walking all day.

“But when I came in, the bed was done. I didn't do the bed. Okay, let's try. If I can do it, then it was me, maybe I was distracted, I did it and I don’t remember.”

So she got up and tried to fix her bed. She tried to put the three blankets in neat squares, military style, and the bed sheet. But she couldn't.

“How can this be?” she said. “I distinctly remember the bed was done when I came in.”

Then her stomach growled. Are you gonna feed me, woman? So she went to the kitchen. She sat there, again pondering, drinking her coffee, drinking her coffee, eating her frugal breakfast.

“This cannot be. Am I hallucinating? What's happening here?”

She was so intrigued that even before cleaning her dishes, she went to the bedroom. And there it was again. The bed was done, the blankets were beautifully aligned, military style, as she liked them. The pillow was fluffy and nice. But she hadn't done it.

Two or three mornings, went like this. The old woman was puzzled.

What was going on?

First she thought it was a ghost. But a ghost will not have strength enough to lift a feather, much less her heavy blankets.

Then she thought someone was coming into her hut to help her. And she kept an eye, but she never caught anyone coming to her place, much less to her bedroom. There was no explanation to this mystery.

Her animals could not do that. What was going on? Was she totally crazy? Was she having double or triple personalities taking control of her body?

Then one day she decided to hide and made as if she had gone to the kitchen to have her breakfast. She hid behind some curtains and kept very, very silent. She was looking through a little hole on the curtain when she saw the curtains straightening themselves, the pillow fluffing itself, everything military style as she liked it.

She saw no hands, she saw no person, she saw no weird animal, no fairies, no gnomes, nothing that could explain it, just the blankets and the bed sheets and the pillow straightening themselves.