Lifelike Fairy Tales Pt. I

Once upon a time, a little girl was born whom we’ll call Trina. Trina had blond curly hair, brown eyes, and dimples. She was friendly and outgoing, and everyone who met her thought she was wonderful. Everyone, that is, except her family. Trina lived with her parents, the King and Queen, and her older sister, Cruella. They all lived in a shabby little house in a run-down neighborhood in a small, snobby town.

It was the town that the Queen had grown up in, and the King always hated it and complained constantly. In fact, the King hated almost everyone and everything. He hated anyone whose skin was a different color or who spoke a different language. He hated anyone who had more material things than he did, because he didn’t feel that they deserved them. He hated anyone with less than himself, because he thought they were lazy and stupid. He hated anyone with a college education because he thought they felt superior to him. But, most of all, the King hated the Queen, Cruella, and Trina. He always told them that his life was happy before they came along, and he wished they would all die and leave him alone. Sometimes when he came home drunk and would scream these things, Trina would climb into her closet and cover herself with clothes, hoping that if the King decided to kill her, he wouldn’t be able to find her. Other times, when he was very late coming home, Trina would cry and beg God to let him be all right and to come home soon. The King said especially vicious things to the Queen; some were so mean that Trina would cry because she knew how much her mother must be hurting.

You see, for as long as she could remember, Trina could feel other people’s pain. At that time, there was a war in a far-away land. Every night, the newsman would talk about how many people died, and it would make Trina cry. In her heart, Trina could feel pain when she thought about the children who were hurt or whose fathers died. There were other incidents, too, where Trina would see someone hurting, she could physically feel their pain, and she would cry. This crying greatly annoyed the King and Queen, and they would spank her with a belt and send her to her room. After a while, Trina didn’t tell anyone when she felt sad or hurt, she would just go to her room and cry quietly to her dolls. Trina learned very early in her life to always act happy no matter how she felt inside. She began to develop a pain in the pit of her stomach. At first, it was uncomfortable, but as the years went by, it was comforting to her; it became part of her.

Trina was always very afraid; she was afraid of loud noises and chaos. She was afraid of anger and pain. But, during those early years, Trina was mostly afraid of Cruella. Cruella hated Trina with every ounce of her being. When Trina was a baby, Cruella tried to kill her. She took the bottle warmer (they had hot water in them in those days) and tried to dump it on the sleeping baby. The Queen had often told Cruella that this would hurt or kill the baby, so that was what she wanted to do. However, Cruella was only three, and not very big, so she ended up spilling the boiling water on her own foot. To this day, she still bears the scar, and she still blames Trina for it. Cruella was a quiet, plain child, and she resented all of the attention that Trina received when they went places. When Trina asked the King and Queen to make Cruella stop hurting her, they told her she needed to fight her own battles, and they refused to step in. When Trina cried, they would whip her for being weak and not defending herself. One day in the summer before Trina went to school, Cruella’s hatred erupted so violently that Trina would remember it forever.

Cruella wanted to sit in the chair Trina was sitting in. Trina scooted over and said, “There’s room for both of us”, so Cruella climbed in. Then she decided she wanted the entire chair for herself and told Trina to get out. Trina refused, and Cruella grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the floor. Before Trina could cover her face, Cruella began punching her viciously and kicking her in the head, stomach, and back. The Queen was sitting two feet away, watching television. Trina screamed and cried, choking on the taste of her own blood running down her throat. Finally, the Queen made Cruella stop beating Trina. She told Trina to get up and wash her face. Trina couldn’t move her right arm without searing pain. The Queen told her to stop being a baby and get her face washed. Two weeks later, when most of the bruises had healed, the Queen finally took her to the doctor. He said that Trina’s collarbone and upper arm were broken, and put a sling on her. Trina spent the rest of the summer wearing that sling, and her right collarbone still has a dip in it where the bone didn’t heal right.