L. Tohreaux and the Golden Pear

L. Tohreaux and the Golden Pear

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Marilyn was skeptical that there was any living there today, but she kept an open mind. As a wizardess she was only too well aware of the very real possibility that some wizard had conjured up a few while toying with the local populace.

Marilyn's parents were wizards who lived on a 240-acre farm in the valley at the western edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Tennessee. They made Marilyn an orphan, though, when they blew themselves up while experimenting with curses trying to stop robo-calls and telephone scammers. A potion they needed specified ground unicorn horn, and none being available, they substituted black gunpowder---a fatal error.

Marilyn, named after Merlin, the most famous wizard of them all and possibly a distant ancestor, had never shown much interest in wizarding. She was far more caught up in gardening and topiary than she was in dusty arcane old tomes in her parents' off-limits library.

But now, as a young adult on her own, and her felt responsibilities as the sole owner of the farm, Marilyn delved into the books that had so engaged her parents. To her delight she found an incantation that married her gardening interests with wizardry.

She found an incantation that would grow a pear tree that produced only Golden Pears. Reading the details, she found that the tree would only produce one pear a year, and that only the wizard who grew the tree could successfully harvest the pear and use the gold. Anyone else stealing the pear and trying to leave the property would be turned into a groundhog as they crossed the property line, and that pear would change from pure gold to an edible fruit forming the groundhog's first meal.

"This would not do," Marilyn thought to herself. She didn't mind the idea of trespassers and thieves being turned into animals, but she especially did not like groundhogs that ate up her root crops. She thought about deterrents to trespassers and decided to put the pear tree into a fenced field guarded by a beast to keep trespassers away.

A three-headed dog would have been perfect---in a different age. Same problem with a dragon, wrong time, wrong place. "But, but, but," she thought. "How about a fierce bull? Yep, I think a bull might just be the answer."

Googling on-line, Marilyn found a ranch in Southwest Louisiana that raised bulls for rodeos. She found one she liked, and for only $12,200 plus $3,700 in shipping fees, she had him shipped to her farm in Tennessee. While waiting for her bull to arrive, she fenced her field, and very carefully incanted her pear tree, not wanting to suffer the same fate as her parents.

Her bull arrived, and the truck delivering him backed up to the gate to the field. The truck trailer shaked, rattled, and almost rolled. Stomps pounded the trailer floor, and snorts and huffs filled the air as the bull banged against the sides of the trailer and against the trailer door.

The driver approached Marilyn. "Mam, you get him out of the trailer. I'm not going near him. And if you ever need another bull delivered, please call somebody else. That darn animal almost turned us over a half dozen times."

"I'm so sorry," Marilyn said while smiling to herself. "He's going to be perfect," she thought.

Marilyn lowered the tailgate and looked up at the bull. They locked eyes, and instantly the bull settled down and lost the ferocity and anger that had flared from his eyes. " I think I will call you L. Tohreaux," she said to the bull. In recognition of the place where you were born."

With a gentle snort, L. Tohreaux walked calmly down the tailgate into his new home.

Within weeks a gold pear began growing on Marilyn's magic pear tree. A few walkers and bikers went past her field and stopped to see what was shining in the tree in the middle of the field. One even climbed the fence only to hear a stomping and snorting as L. Tohreaux pawed the ground getting ready to charge. The trespasser's retreat was faster than his entrance.

When Marilyn was in the field. L. Tohreaux followed her around like a faithful dog, and they were great friends from day one. Day and night the watch bull guarded the pear tree and the field, which quickly got the reputation as a good place to stay away from.

When Marilyn finally harvested this year's gold pear, she was able to sell it as an art piece which brought a higher price than the value of its gold content, which was considerable. If you are traveling through Memphis, you can see the pear on display in the museum.

With a tiny bit of the proceeds, Marilyn had a sign made that said, "Beware, This Property Protected by L. Tohreaux," with a likeness of the bull carved below the warning. In her topiary garden, Marilyn also fashioned a version of L. Tohreaux. The bull became her trademark which she used on her website and on her correspondence. With her fierce guard bull, who needs Dragons?

Marilyn raises only one cash crop.