After supper Elsie waits at the bedroom door staring at JP. He's in the sitting room with Pa listening to the radio news, pretending not to notice her. He wonders how long it'll take her to lose patience.
Not long at all. She comes across the room, takes his hand and pulls.
“Come,” she says. “You promised!”
For a moment JP toys with the idea of teasing her but allows himself to be pulled out of his chair when he sees the expression on her face.
Elsie gives a squeak of pleasure when she is sure he’s really coming and rushes into the bedroom.
“Don't you excite her,” Ma waves a warning forefinger as she comes in through the dining room door.
“I know, Ma.”
In the half-light of the bedroom, Elsie is already in her narrow
bed. He lies down on top of the blanket beside her, sharing her pillow.
“What story are you going to tell me?”
“About Sleeping Beauty.”
Elsie squirms with pleasure and JP laughs silently. He really enjoys the time he spends with Elsie.
“What's her name?”
“Whose?”
“Sleeping Beauty's.”
“Sleeping Beauty.”
“What? Oh! No! That's the story's name!” Elsie protests.
“What would you like her name to be?” and then rushes on before she can respond. “Let's make her name Sally.”
“No!” Adamant. Elsie also knows the rules of the game.
“How about Linda?”
“No.”
“Sarah?”
“No.”
“Judy?”
“No.”
“Very well, you pick a name.”
“Wendy!” Elsie shouts triumphantly at the top of her voice.
“JP! Don't you dare get your sister all stirred up!” Ma calls from the sitting room. She really has a thing about getting Elsie wound up at bedtime.
“Yes, Ma. See what you've done with your big mouth? Better be quiet now, okay…”
“Ma says not to say okay.”
“Shoesh now... okay?” Deliberately.
“Why mustn’t you say okay?”
“I asked Mr Honniwell and he says it’s a vulgar expression.”
“What’s vulgar?”
“I thought it was a kind of fraction. Now I don’t know.”
“Never mind. Tell the story.”
“All right then,” relieved to get away from the dos and don’ts of adults.
JP pauses for a moment and then begins. “Once upon a time there lived in a far land a king and queen who had a most beautiful daughter...”
“What was the daughter's name?”
“I forget… Anyway, one day…”
“What was her name?”
“I forget.”
“No you haven't. Tell me her name!”
“What was that name you told me just now?”
“Wendy!” at the top of her voice.
“JP!” Another warning from Ma which JP ignores.
“Oh yes, now I remember… Anyway, one day Wendy was playing in the garden with her dog, Perpendicular, when…”
“What kind of name is that?”
“Perpendicular? Isn't it a lovely word? Mr Honniwell told us about it the other day. Can I continue with the story now?”
“Yes.”
“Yes please…” Elsie really is a patient old soul. “Well anyway, she was playing in the garden with Perpendicular when a witch came to her and gave her an apple. You see this witch was very jealous of Wendy for having such a lovely dog and had tried several times to buy Perpendicular from her. But Wendy refused so the witch decided to put Wendy to sleep...”
“But that's not right. Wasn't the princess in a tower spinning when…?”
“You want to tell the story?”
“No.”
“Then shoesh and listen. The witch gave Wendy the apple and waited to see it was eaten. Wendy ate the apple and became very sleepy. So sleepy she forgot about Perpendicular and went into the palace to her bedroom and fell fast asleep on her bed. Of course, everybody else in and around the palace also fell asleep. The cook lay down in front of his stove with a loaf of bread as a pillow, the king and queen on the floor in front of their thrones, the gardeners in their flowerbeds. Wherever you were, that's where you slept.
“Many, many years passed…”
“Shame.” Elsie whispers, staring at the ceiling through the gloom. “Who’s going to…”
“Shoesh and listen. Many, many years passed and the buffalo berry hedge the witch had planted round the palace kept on growing and growing until it was huge and so dense…”
“What's a buffalo berry?”
“A plant with seeds that burn like fire where they touch you… So, many years passed and everybody in the country forgot about the palace and princess and also about the spell the witch had put into the apple with the sleeping pills…”
“What spell?”
“A spell that could only be broken by a very strong prince who was to fall in love with Wendy at first sight and immediately give her a great big smack of a kiss.”
“Oh yuck!” Elsie squirms with pleasure and anticipation. Outside Hentie's bike crashes into the side of the house and the back door opens and bangs shut. Ma's voice whips through the house, demanding explanations. Hentie's reply, though indistinct, sounds unapologetic. JP can just make out the words Dolf, money and profit before their voices fade into the kitchen.
“Anyway, in a far country there lived a honey badger…”
“What's a honey badger?”
“A small animal a bit like a dog with a white stripe along its back. Badgers are very tough and very strong…”
“You're tough and strong, aren't you?”
JP smiles wryly and chuckles derisively, a full-blown image of The Greek rising in his mind. “That's something I still have to find out.”
“So what happens with the badger?”
“The badger was just a normal badger, getting into fights with bigger animals who wouldn’t leave him alone and usually winning. But mostly he tried to mind his own business. In his brain he only had badger thoughts except for one clear idea – he knew he was a prince under a witchdoctor's spell. He also knew he would have to fall in love with and kiss the most beautiful girl in all the world if he was to become himself again.”
Elsie giggles with approval. This is her kind of story all right.
“One day the badger came to the buffalo berry hedge and was amazed at how dense it was. Animals living there told him about a palace and a sleeping princess but did not believe the story. Badger thought about this for a while and started sniffing along the edge of the hedge looking for a way through. After three whole days, he found a tiny track which had been kept open by skunks, meercats* and jackals and forced his way into it.
“As soon as got to the other side of the hedge, he saw the palace and ran to it. He jumped in through an open window and started exploring. There were servants lying and sitting all over the palace, fast asleep, and in a large hall he found the king and queen snoring away on the floor. Badger went upstairs and there in a bedroom he found the most beautiful girl in all the world. She was fast asleep and so beautiful Badger fell in love with her on the spot.
“He was so in love with her that he couldn't help himself. He quickly jumped on the bed and licked the princess until her whole face was sopping wet.”
“Oh yuck!” cries Elsie again, sounding anything but disgusted.
“As soon as badger stopped licking the princess…”
“Princess Wendy.”
“…she started to stir. At the same time badger felt a great pain tear through his body and fell off the bed in a dead faint. When he woke up a minute later, Wendy was sitting up in bed, stretching, and he, badger, was a man with no clothes on…”
Elsie clamped a hand over her mouth, her eyes alive with laughter in the gloom.
“Now Badger was not only a prince, he was also a clever man. He understood at once what was going on and quickly grabbed a dress hanging over a nearby chair and pulled it over his head. It was too small for him, but what can a man to do? He forced himself into it and waited…”
Elsie could not contain her mirth, and JP knew how Ma would react. Better finish the story off quickly.
“Anyway, there he was waiting. He could hear more and more voices outside and suddenly the king and queen burst into the room. “Where's my baby?” the queen cried, running to the bed. She hugged her daughter and made a great big fuss over her.
“By Jove,” said the king, “the spell seems to have been jolly well broken. What a jolly good show!” He looked around the room and saw Badger for the first time. The king carefully inspected him from head to toe. “Oh, I say?” the king asked. “Do you always dress so jolly well strangely?”
“No your majesty,” he replied as another button popped off the dress. “You see, I was also under the spell of a witchdoctor and when the spells broke just now, I found I needed to put some clothes on rather suddenly.” Badger blushed as another three buttons popped off the dress.
“Oh, I say, jolly good show, jolly good… What's your name?” the king interrupted himself.
“I can't remember. All I do know is I'm a prince and that I was a badger before I broke your and my spell.”
“Rightyo,” cried the king. “We'll jolly well call you Prince Badger and you must live here with us and marry princess Wendy… She's already in love with you, anyway. Just look how she follows your every move. Can't keep her eyes off you!”
Elsie squirms next to JP and tries to control her giggles. She thinks the king's pompous accent very funny.
“The king turned to the door and said, “Butler, have the hedge cut down and tell my tailors and the queen's dressmakers to jolly well come here at once. We need a princess and a prince dressed up for a jolly old wedding. Oh, and tell cook to bring food. I'm jolly well most extraordinarily hungry, I am indeed…!”
“And so they were married and lived happily ever after.”
“But what about…”
“No questions. There must always be one or two things left in a story to wonder about. Sleep now, sweetheart.” JP kisses his sister on the forehead and gets up to leave.
“Do fairy stories ever come true?” Elsie asks, her eyes large dark pools in the half-light.
“Oh… Who knows…? Perhaps every once in a long while…I hope so anyway… Life'd be very boring if they never did.”
In the sitting room Ma and Pa are discussing a letter. “Uncle JP and Aunt Lillian have again invited us and Uncles Andries and Gert for Christmas.”
JP's heart lifts. Spending Christmas with all his cousins on Uncle JP's farm is far and away, out and out, no matter how high or low you look for something better, the best news ever.
That night JP fell asleep with a smile lingering on his lips. It had after all not been such a bad day...
SLEEPING BEAUTY
A SHORT EXTRACT FROM
Fairy Stories DO Sometimes Come True
BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN COMING OF AGE STORY!
6” x 9” perfect bound, 210-page book. Price $10.55 plus P &P.