Lifelike Fairy Tales Pt. II

There was one person in Trina’s life who loved her and whom Trina loved more than anything, that was her grandmother. Her grandmother was the King’s mother, but she was nothing like him; she didn’t drink and she found goodness in everyone she met. She always patted Trina’s arm or hand and she smiled at her when she talked. Trina’s grandmother taught her to cook, to draw, and to love books. Her grandmother had been a teacher before she got married, and she missed it very much. Trina decided that she wanted to be a teacher like her grandmother. When Trina was seven, her grandmother made her a Raggedy Ann doll that became Trina’s second-best friend, after her dog. Her grandmother probably had some idea about Trina’s home life, but she never interfered. Trina always wondered why not; she used to dream that her grandmother would come and take her away to live with her, and she always had a few clothes in a suitcase in the back of her closet just in case.

There was another family member that Trina did NOT love. In fact, she feared him as much as she feared Cruella. He was an older cousin named Ped. Ped made Trina do awful things with him. She would cry and beg him to stop hurting her, but he thought it was funny when she cried, so she learned not to cry. She just pretended that she was dead and waited for him to be done. Trina hated Ped and begged God to take him away or to kill him, but God never listened. One day, the Queen walked into the room where Ped and Trina were. The Queen told Trina to come on, it was time to go home, and left the room. Trina got dressed, hoping that the Queen would keep Ped from ever seeing her again. All the way home, the Queen did not talk to Trina. When they got into the house, however, the Queen began hitting her, smacking her face and punching her in the head. She called Trina names that she didn’t understand and told her that she was bad and dirty. Trina tried to tell the Queen that she asked him to stop, but the Queen shoved soap in her mouth and told her that’s what dirty liars deserved. She said that Ped wouldn’t have done that unless Trina wanted him to. Then she ran a bath of all hot water and made Trina get into it. The Queen took the brillo pad and scrubbed Trina’s skin until it was bleeding in places. She told her that she had to scrub the filth off before other men found out. Trina didn’t cry. The Queen never told anyone and Ped kept coming around until he moved away when Trina was eight.

Trina had hoped that going to school would be as wonderful as the books all said. She liked learning new things, and was very good in her classes. However, from the first day of kindergarten, Trina knew that it was not going to be easy. On that day, a girl named Penny laughed at her clothes and bragged about how much her dress cost. Trina was shocked; she could not imagine anyone spending that much money on their kid’s clothes. Soon, most of the other children joined in the teasing of Trina and a few others. They made fun of their clothes and their houses. Trina could never understand why anyone would want to hurt someone on purpose. She was never ashamed of her ratty clothes or shabby house, because they were just things, and it didn’t make any sense to her to be ashamed of the things she had (or didn’t have). When the other kids found out that this didn’t bother her, they began making fun of Trina, herself. They told her she was fat and ugly. This bothered her, because the King always told her she was ugly, too. In all of the stories she had read, the princess was always beautiful and kind. Trina reasoned that if she were kind enough, she would become beautiful, and if she was not beautiful, she must not be a good person. If she could become pretty enough, maybe the King, Queen, and God would love her as much as her teachers did.

For many years, Trina’s life went on like this; she would put on a smiling face for the world, and kept her pain inside. A few incidents with “friends” at school had taught her not to share her feelings with them, either. The King always told the girls never to trust anyone. In an attempt to illustrate this point, he took Cruella, who was deathly afraid of water, and threw her into a lake. He watched her go under and flail wildly, while Trina cried and begged him to help her. When he finally pulled her out, her lips were blue and she was unconscious. The King slapped her back a few times until she coughed up water and began to breathe again. He told them never to tell anyone or he wouldn’t go in after them next time. Trina became an excellent swimmer after that, even getting her lifeguard certification when she was in high school. Cruella still hates water.