Ally and Sarah were brushing their teeth when their father,
Albert, came into the bathroom telling them that their mother, Emily,
was on the phone and wanted to talk to them. The two little girls
ran to the living room and eagerly snatched up the phone. After
exchanging "hellos" and "how are you doing," the girls proceeded to
tell their mother about the interesting bedtime stories their father
had been telling them.
"He told you what!?!" cried Emily.
Albert quickly took the phone from the girls and tried to
steer the conversation in a more positive direction, but Emily would
not budge.
"Why did you tell them that the evil stepsisters got their
eyes pecked out?" asked Emily.
"Well, that's how I remember it from when I was a kid,"
replied Albert.
"Well, things have changed from when you were a kid, honey,
and I don't think you should be telling the girls such graphic
stories. You might scare them."
"I'm not scaring them," said Albert.
"Listen, honey, why don't you just grab the storybook from
the living room and read them a story out of that tonight," pleaded
Emily.
"Alright, alright," said Albert.
After all of the necessary "goodbyes" and "I love yous" were
exchanged, Albert grabbed the book from the living room and herded the
girls into the bedroom. Albert opened the book and decided to
read one of Ally's favorite stories, Sleeping Beauty, or as this book
entitled it, Little Briar-Rose.
Once upon a time there was a beautiful witch, that's me, and
there was a magical kingdom that the witch lived in. This kingdom
was ruled by a King and Queen who believed very strongly in dark
magic. Well, not necessarily dark magic, but they believed in
magic. There were thirteen witches in this kingdom, including me,
and I
was the only one who dabbled in dark magic. Maybe that's why the
King didn't invite me to his party. You see, the king was having
a party to celebrate the birth of his only child, a beautiful little
girl named Briar-Rose. He and his wife held a lavish party with
music, dancing, and golden platters full of delicious foods. All
of the other witches got invited to this party, except me. The
King claimed that there were only twelve golden plates and no room for
me,
but I didn't believe that. He has never been happy with some of
my magical practices and I'm sure that he didn't want a magical gift
from me for his precious Briar-Rose. I, however, would have none
of that. I marched right up to that castle and intruded upon
their precious party.
Albert suddenly jumped out of his chair and started marching
around the room. Ally and Sarah could not help but snicker at
their dad's animated efforts at imitating an angry witch. After a
few minutes of robust laughter from both Albert and the girls, Albert
went back to telling the story.
I promptly saw how unwelcome I was,
so I quickly gave my magical gift to Briar-Rose and left. You
see, I gave Briar-Rose the gift of death! When she turned
fifteen, she
would have her finger pricked by a spindle and then she would
die. I later found out that I gave my gift of death too soon
because there was another witch, one who detested dark magic, that
counteracted my gift. She gave Briar-Rose the gift of
sleep. When Briar-Rose turned fifteen, her finger would be
pricked by
the spindle and instead of dying, she and the entire kingdom would fall
into a deep sleep for one hundred years. The King was so
distressed by the looming devastation that was awaiting his daughter,
that he went into all of the kingdom and destroyed every spindle he
could find. He, however, didn't find the magic spindle that I
placed in the tallest tower of his beloved castle. Fifteen years
later, Briar-Rose pricked her finger and fell into a deep sleep along
with the entire kingdom. During this one hundred year stupor, I
placed all kinds of dark spells over the castle. One of my
favorite spells is the one where I made thousands of poisonous thorns
creep up the castle wall. This spell proved to be effective
because hundreds of brave souls tried to rescue Briar-Rose and they all
failed, getting impailed by poisonous thorns.
This one hundred year period of
darkness and despair was a very happy time for me, but it all came to a
crashing end when that stupid boy came into our lives. This
stupid boy was actually not dumb at all. He was a very handsome
prince from a kingdom far away. He managed to make it through my
maze of thorns and found his way to the tallest tower in the
castle. Once he found the beautiful Briar-Rose, he fell in love
with her immediately. He began fervently kissing her until she
awoke. This kiss ended my reign of dark terror. The entire
kingdom came to life with happiness and celebration. The King and
Queen were reunited with their precious Briar-Rose, and the prince got
to marry his princess. Everyone lived happily ever after, except
me.
Albert looked up from his book to find that Ally and Sarah
had fallen asleep. He tucked them in, kissed them goodnight, and
put the book away to use another day.
The End
Author's Note: My
version of the story of Little Briar-Rose is a lot like the original
version of the story. I kept the original setting of the story
and I also kept all of the characters from the original story.
The main difference between my version of the story and the original
story is that my version is told from the perspective of a witch.
This evil witch puts the spell on Briar-Rose that causes her to prick
her finger and fall into a deep sleep. This witch is a central
character in the story, but she is often overlooked. The evil
spell is the main plot of the story, but in the original version of the
story the witch who casts the evil spell is only mentioned in a few
lines at the beginning of the story. I thought this was a gross
injustice to a central character in the story, so I decided to make her
the narrator of my version of the story. I kept some of the
graphic details and tried to make the story dark like the original
story was. The framing for my Storybook is the same as it was
before, except for the fact that a new character was introduced.
Albert's wife, Emily, discovered that he had been telling the girls
graphic stories that were not appropriate for children. She was
upset and urged Albert to read the girls a classic story from a
children's storybook. Albert ends up reading a story from the
wrong storybook. He picks up the Grimm Brothers' storybook and
reads yet another graphic story to the girls. I wonder what his
wife will say to that when the next story comes around.
Introduction
Cinderella
Little Snow-White
Introduction
Cinderella
Little Snow-White