Lace and Candy
This Document Copyright ©2014 By Laura Morrigan All Rights Reserved
My sister was always fanciful. She was
born simply Anna, you know, but she had to call herself Arabella, and
put on airs. Her and that silly name and her colourful lacy dresses,
dragging everywhere and showing dirt! I always preferred the plain
black clothes, no muss, no fuss, so much for suitable for our
profession. We were born into it, like our mother before us, it was a
proud tradition.
All we women lived under the same roof,
singing, proud of our role in life. Not so Arabella. No, she had to
go make her fancy dresses, and when we teased her, well then she did
what not one of our family had done in generations, she took off on
her own. She made her own cottage in a nearby wood.
I visited as often as I could, even
though I thought she was snobby, and treated us like we were beneath
her. I hated her blonde ringlet curls and primping ways. I hated the
way she swept the floor with the broom, clutching it carefully so as
not to chip the coloured beetle shells she wore glued to her
fingernails, making them glitter and gleam in the sunlight. But I
think I was a little jealous of her too.
But the house- the house was a
monstrosity. It was made entirely of sweets! In our day, sweets were
rare enough, and to make a whole house out of them- well, even for
one of our kind, it was a frightful and embarrassing indulgence.
Gingerbread walls and roof, rock candy beams, boiled sweet windows!
What a thing! It was beautiful, yes, but stupid! She was asking for
trouble!
I wasn't surprised when I heard what
happened. The greedy little children, eating her beautiful house. Of
course Arabella was furious. But she should have turned them into
frogs, not just threatened. Still, she was never as good with spells
as the rest of our kind. Only the sweet things, never the squirmy
ones. So what did she do? Threaten to eat them, an empty and silly
threat! Imagine sweet tooth Arabella trying to eat a child! She
wouldn't even eat chameleon stew! Of course the silly creature ended
up in the oven herself! She couldn't scare a newt! Humans! How they
overreact!
I miss my sister, even though centuries
have passed. Even though she misused her broom to sweep the floors,
instead of flying high on the five winds, as one of our kind should.
I remember her stupid, fanciful house and feel a little wistful. I
remember her bright dresses, and sometimes, my charcoal garments seem
a little dull. I kept one of her dresses for moments such as these.
By day, when my sisters and mother are asleep, I sneak outside, black
cloak over the red lace, until I reach a sunlit glade and twirl and
dance to my heart's content. Sometimes, if I dance long enough, I
hear soft laughter on the wind, and I could swear she is there with
me.
It was a weird coincidence that when looking for a picture to accompany my story I found this oddly suitable one with a girl in a red dress. Just coincidence or a faery/ witchy blessing?
ReplyDeleteIt was clearly meant to be
DeleteLaura, I love this story!
ReplyDeleteI think this picture was a witchy blessing ;o)
Hugs ;o)
Thank you! Hugs!
DeleteI love this twist on the Hansel and Gretel tale! And that picture you stumbled upon really is perfect! :)
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks!
DeleteThat was beautiful, I loved it! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteAwesome... :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely story. I like it. :)
ReplyDeleteIs alien print clothing the new thing?
http://www.paintitrogue.com/2014/09/alien-print-clothing-yay-or-nay.html
I love this story, so beautiful and poignant. I have a sister myself, who is somewhat like Anna - er - Arabella. Though she can be annoying at times, how I would miss her if she were gone!
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Victoria
Aw! Thanks for your lovely comment!
DeleteI'm loving the story, a lovely twist to an old tale. The picture you found works wonderfully with it.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!
DeleteThis is utterly magical. Your love of magical faery fashion really adds to the imagery of Arabella's clothing. Gorgeous story!
ReplyDeleteAw, what a lovely compliment! <3
DeleteInteresting!! What a wonderful twist on an old childhood favorite.
ReplyDeleteThank you! :)
DeleteWonderful stories, I love reading twists on fairytales like this.
ReplyDeleteHope you do more. :-)
Thank you!
DeleteThis is great!
ReplyDelete