Fairy Tale

This is Day 23 from my novella 100 Unfortunate Days. ----->

Day 23

Once there was a little girl. She went into her grandmother’s special cabinet and took out all the scarves. Some were bright pink with gold coins sewn to them, some were square and some were rectangular, one had the bright eyes of many foxes, but all were silk. She knew the scarves were magic, and she brought them outside with a basket of clothes pins. She hung the scarves on the weeping willow tree in the back yard…all around the low-hanging outside branches, and formed a beautiful house with windows and a big door that opened and closed. As she clipped the last pin to the last scarf the house filled with gold furniture, and the fox jumped off the scarf and became her pet. She could hear music in her head and could light fire with her fingertips. She looked up into the night sky and she knew how old the stars were. Her eyes were the clear green of the ocean and she did not have to blink. She knew all the languages of the world and as she lay on the ground the earth swallowed her. It held her as she slept and in the morning she left her scarf house with the fox and went in to the woods. She took her pocket knife and carved her name in a tree that grew the wood that would someday form her coffin. She cut her hand on the knife and her blood dropped on the ground. A crow flew down from the sky and landed at her feet near the blood. “Go home.” it said and flew away. She followed a trail of poisonous mushrooms deeper into the woods and fell to her knees at the sight of the moon in the distance. She closed her eyes and went home to her silk house. Her parents missed her very much and her grandmother was not even mad anymore that she played with her scarves without asking. But she did not know this, and she did not miss them. She cut the lemon tart that was her breakfast and picked raspberries from the bush next to the weeping willow tree. One day she missed her parents and she went home, but they did not know her…she was not a little girl any more.

Day 93 from 100 Unfortunate Days for Sample Sunday

Day 93

I was born in Venice on the 4^th of July—which means nothing to anyone in Venice.  I was born with jet-black hair and very light blue eyes.  Then all my hair fell out and grew in very light blonde.  My eyes have remained light blue.  I was left on a ferry boat when I was 3 months old—I don’t know if it was on purpose or not—but I was raised covertly by the Queen of England until I was 5, then she could not keep me under wraps anymore because I moved around too much and she felt I should be going to school.  I was sent to stay with the Queen’s illegitimate sister who lived in France.  She taught me how to play the guitar and wear makeup.  I stayed there until I was 8 and then I worked in a coffee shop and slept there at night next to the picture window that had a toile cushion beneath it because no one minded.  I ate small sugary biscuits with tea or coffee every day for breakfast and wrote sad love songs until I kissed a boy.   I got a tattoo of his initial on the underside of my middle finger and never told him.  I left the lyrics to a song on a table outside the coffee shop one afternoon and could not find them later that afternoon.  I heard a song on the radio a year later that used my lyrics.  I never told anyone.  I took a train to Germany and died my hair jet-black again.  I had 5 children in 5 years and gave them all away to charity.  I worked in a guitar shop and met Jimmy Page and we spent the night together.  I got a tattoo of his initials on the underside of my middle finger of my other hand and swore my love to him eternally.  He said he would love me forever too.  I stayed awake once for 3 days because I was sad.  I moved to Spain because I needed to be warm and painted my front door a different color every day.  My skin loved the sun and the black faded from my hair.   I wore jewelry with diamonds and flowers in my hair.  When I looked at the sky at night I could see the face of my true love who I knew I would never meet.  Sometimes I see children with light blue eyes and jet-black or light blonde hair and I know they are mine.  I never say anything.

100 Unfortunate Days------------->