The Creation of Miasto Ciasta

King Charming and Queen Cinderella accepted an invitation from Tsar Nicholas to visit him in Saint Petersburg. They went there by the same coach that Cinderella had used to go to the ball where she met Charming for the first time.

Passing through Poland they happened to meet Ludwig Zamenhof. He was an optician but he also possessed very powerful second sight, among other talents. “Your majesty,” he said to the queen. “I perceive that you are not happy and your coach is not what it seems. Come and see me on the way back from Saint Petersburg.”

The king and queen passed through Poland again on the way back from Saint Petersburg. They stopped overnight and in the morning their coach was missing. It was nowhere to be found. The tsar's police searched everywhere but eventually the king and queen had to return home by train.

Cinderella did not live happily ever after with King Charming. He cheated on her with many girls and boys also, as royals are wont to do. After her divorce she went to Poland to see Zamenhof.

That wizard had changed her coach into a whole town, with factories, houses, gardens, parks, churches, synagogues, schools and people. The town was called Miasto Ciasta and, like Eccles in England, was famous for its cakes. Cinderella was happy, as the Lady Mayor of Miasto Ciasta the Cake Town.

Endnotes: The word for pumpkin in the artificial international language Esperanto is “kukurbo” which can also mean “cake town”. Hence this story. Thanks to Google Translate for the Polish placename.

 

Peter Redfarn

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