beautiful monsters

Tales

We’re writing fairy tales in class. Personally I hate fairytales, I think they’re really disturbing. They’re morbid, sinister, they're filled with abuse and murder and awful stereotypes... they’re just bad and wrong in every possible way. For this exercise we had to work out the essential plot of a fairytale, and then transplant it in a modern context - see if you can guess which ones these ones were based on. The first one is a bit disturbing [the usual warning, self-harm and stuff, content may offend] but hey, the original is pretty disturbing too, even the most superficial reading of it. The second one is happier, and it’s fairly obvious what it’s based on. The fairy baglady idea was stolen from Iona.

Little Rose

Not so far away and not so long from now, lived seven brothers and one sister. The children lived happily with their mother in a little house on the edge of suburbia. After school the brothers rode their bikes down the steep street and the sister skipped rope along the footpath. On sunny weekends there were plenty of tall trees to climb, when it rained there were stories to read, and on Sunday mornings the house smelt of freshly baked muffins. Their mother always let little Rose lick the spoon, and the brothers scooped the last of the mixture out of the bowl with their fingers.

But one day the children came home from school, and there was a tall man sitting at the kitchen table. When he smiled at the children all of his white teeth glinted. The brothers smiled back politely, but Rose burst into tears and hid behind her brothers.

That autumn the tall man married the children’s mother, and came to live with them. Every morning at breakfast he sat at the head of the table and smiled at the children until they squirmed in their seats.

One night, after everyone had gone to bed, the stepfather crept into the children’s bedroom. In the morning the eldest brother was gone. All week his mother cried for him, but the stepfather put his arm around her and whispered, “All is well, all is well, I’m here to care for you and all is
well.”

The next week, late at night, the stepfather crept into the children’s bedroom again, and in the morning one of the brothers was gone. This time his mother cried for six days, but the stepfather put his arm around her and whispered, “All is well, all is well, I’m here to care for you and all is well.”

This continued for seven weeks until all of the brothers had disappeared. Then their mother had no tears left to cry. When the stepfather was at work, she took little Rose to her grandmother’s house on the other side of town.

Rose’s grandmother wouldn’t let her climb trees because it was dangerous. She couldn’t skip rope because it wasn’t ladylike. There were no stories to read on rainy days, and no muffins on Sunday mornings. Rose was very lonely. There was only one tree outside her grandmother’s house, and Rose sat underneath it day after day. When the wind rustled through the leaves it reminded her of her brothers laughing. When rain fell she turned her face to the sky, closed her eyes, and imagined the raindrops were her brothers kissing her goodnight.

One winter, her grandmother died. People came to organise the funeral, sell the furniture and auction off the house, but no body noticed Rose. She slipped out the back door and started across the city.

The footpaths hurt her feet, and tall grey buildings towered all around her. She walked all day, plodding down deserted alleyways and running across busy intersections. She did not know where to go, but she longed so much to see her brothers.

When the sun set behind the skyscrapers, she had not found her childhood home, so she curled up in a doorway and slept. She dreamed that she was a tree, and her brothers were sleeping in her branches.

For three days Rose wandered through the city. Then, on the third day, just as the sun was setting, she came to her own neighbourhood, her own street, and her childhood home. She was exhausted, so she curled up beneath a tree in the backyard and fell asleep.

That night she dreamed that she heard her brothers calling out to her "Little Rose, little Rose," but when she awoke and turned around there was no one there. She fell asleep and again she dreamed that her brothers were calling to her but when she awoke she was alone. The third time Rose curled up and closed her eyes she only pretended to go to sleep. Soon she heard the voices of her brothers calling to her. Quickly she turned around. The moon was shining brightly, and on a branch of the tree she could see seven weta. Rose gasped, and reached out towards the nearest weta, but he scratched her with his claws. Rose turned away and started to cry. As she wept she heard her youngest brother call out to her. "Go away little Rose, do not look on us. We are fierce and hideous, fit only to hide in this tree and creep about at night."

Rose wept all the more bitterly, because she did not think her brothers were fierce and hideous. Suddenly, she had an idea. She ran to the house, and climbed in through the bathroom window. Lying beside the handbasin was the stepfather's shaving mirror. Rose put it in her pocket and climbed back outside. She took the mirror to the tree where the weta were trembling with grief because they thought they had driven their lovely sister away.

Rose called to her youngest brother to come out and look into the mirror, but when he looked into the mirror, all he could see was a monster with a huge plated head, black jaws and sharp claws. The youngest brother was hurt and angry, and he threw a rock at the mirror so it broke into tiny pieces.

Again Rose turned away and cried, and again her youngest brother called out to her, "Go away little Rose, do not look on us. We are fierce and hideous."

Rose was heartbroken, she longed so much for her brother to hold her in his arms. In despair she took one of the splinters of mirror and cut seven deep gashes in her arm. Dark red blood spilled from her arm and gathered in a pool on the ground. At the sight of the blood Rose grew quite weak and fainted.

Her brothers gasped in horror, and crept towards where she was lying. "Oh little Rose," cried the youngest brother. "What have we done to you?" But just as he spoke these words, he caught sight of his face reflected in the pool of blood. It was not the face of a monster, but the face of a beautiful young man.

When they realised that they were human again, six of the brothers wept with relief. But the youngest brother wept with sorrow, because he thought his sister was dead. His tears ran down his face, and fell onto Rose's cheeks. The moment they touched her skin she opened her eyes, and smiled at her brother.

The sun was beginning to climb above the horizon. Rose's brothers carried her to the house. When the stepfather saw that the brothers were human again he was afraid, and he ran from the house and away down the street. But Rose ran into the bedroom, and there she found her mother chained and blindfolded. Rose released her, and took off the blindfold. When she saw Rose and all her brothers, their mother wept tears of joy. Soon the house was once again filled with the sound of laughter and the smell of muffins baking.

THE END

Alexandra and the Fairy Baglady

Far above the city, in a shining glass tower, lived a beautiful girl named Alexandra. She had long golden hair that flowed over her shoulders like honey, and blue eyes as bright as the sea on a sunny day.

Her parents were very strict. After school she was sent to singing and piano lessons, ballet, horse riding and tennis, and in the evenings she had to do her homework in her room. Her report cards were crammed with A's and her walls were covered in certificates and medals, but she was very unhappy. She never had time to go to the movies or hang out in the mall. She never had time to make any friends.

One day at school she overheard some of the other girls talking about the school ball. There was going to be a great band playing, and the girls were all buying new outfits to wear. Alexandra was sad. Even if she was allowed to go to the ball, she had no one to go with and nothing to wear.

The next day on the way to school she saw an old woman huddled on a park bench. She was wearing tatty clothes and her grubby hands clutched dozens of plastic bags. But she was smiling and singing a happy tune to herself. Alexandra went and sat beside the baglady, and joined in her song with a beautiful harmony. All morning they talked together, and Alexandra shared her lunch with the woman. The baglady had many fantastic stories to tell about her life.

Suddenly Alexandra realised that she was late for her singing lesson. She leapt to her feet. But the woman reached out and touched her arm - for she was no ordinary baglady. Indeed, she was Alexandra's fairy baglady, and she promised to grant Alexandra's dearest wish.

Alexandra closed her eyes, and wished with all her heart that she might go to the ball. Then she kissed the fairy baglady goodbye and hurried away to her lesson.

Alexandra didn't see the woman after that. Days past, and she gave up hoping that she would go to the ball. The rest of the school was buzzing with excitement, but Alexandra hid her tears behind her books.

Then, on the night of the ball, after Alexandra had gone to her room, she heard a tapping noise outside her window. She opened the window, and in tumbled her fairy baglady. Alexandra cried out in surprise, but the baglady put a finger to her lips. She reached into one of her bags, and pulled out a dress that shimmered like peacock feathers and glowed like paua. Alexandra gasped. The dress was exactly her size, and she hurried to put it on.

Then her fairy baglady reached into another bag, and pulled out a pair of scissors and a can of hairspray. She hacked away at Alexandra's hair, and then spiked it up with tons of hairspray. Alexandra looked in the mirror and grinned. Then her face fell, as she realised she could never sneak past her parents with her hair in spikes. But her fairy baglady was reaching into her bags once again, and drawing out abseiling ropes and a harness. Soon Alexandra was on her way to the ball.

When Alexandra arrived at the ball the room fell silent and everyone stared in amazement. The captain of the rugby team, who was the most handsome boy in the school, stepped forward and asked Alexandra to dance. Alexandra smiled politely, and shook her head. She made her way across the room. In the far corner was a small dark haired girl. She was wearing a simple black dress, she had a tie noted around her neck and her hair was knotted in a pony tail.

Alexandra walked straight up to the girl, and grinned. "My name's Lexy," she said. "Wanna dance?" The girl grinned back, and held out her hand. Alexandra took the girl's hand, and lead her to the dance floor. All night they danced together. Alexandra had never been so happy in her life.

*

NB There were no pumpkins, mice or spells involved, so they kept dancing long after midnight. Lexy was grounded for a year when her parents saw her hair, but she abseiled down the tower and ran away to university with the dark haired girl, whose name was Samantha, and they found a flat together, adopted seven cats and lived happily ever after.

THE END

Posted by Fionnaigh at May 25, 2003 07:18 PM