A fairy tale parody

The Poor Girl’s Marbles

Once upon a time, there was a sad, lonely girl. Her name was Karin. Karin was forced by her 3rd cousin’s evil stepmother to do horrible backbreaking chores everyday. She wasn’t quite sure why her 3rd cousin’s stepmother was there. Karin knew her mother and father were both still alive and well. Karin just did not know where they were. She decided to never question it, and always did as she was told whether she liked it or not. The stepmother would always call the girl stupid or ugly. Karin would graciously ignore it and continue on with her chores.

Karin was a beautiful girl. She had long red hair that she kept in a ponytail so it wouldn’t get in her way she worked. Her green eyes sparkled every time she smiled and there wasn’t a blemish on her face. Karin’s dress fit around her nicely. She had always sewn her own clothes, considering the stepmother decided to never give her clothing but only lettuce. And that’s what the clothes were made of, dried lettuce. It hadn’t bothered Karin too much though.

Her parents had given her a small bag of marbles on a necklace when she was little and she loved them dearly. She would give up any possession as long as she didn’t have to give up the marbles.

One day, as Karin was washing the stepmother’s tiny dog, the stepmother came in and sneered at her, the wrinkles on the old woman’s face becoming caverns where small rodents could hide.

“Digusting desiccated lettuce girl,” the stepmother said using her annoyingly (not so large)large vocabulary, “Get up.”

Karin stood as the dog shook itself and ran off. It knew when its owner was mad, it was better to run than to have its hair cut in disgustingly cute ways.

“Give me your marbles, wretched piece of dried vegetable,” the stepmother held out her hand expectantly as she spoke.

Karin’s eyes filled the brim with tears, “You can’t take them from me they was from my parents!”

“I can and I will you pious little maggot!” the stepmother grab the bag of marbles and ripped it from the leather necklace. She smirked in victory and walked off.

Karin turned from the spot and started to go up to her room. She got to the staircase and started to climb the 129 steps. She counted them every time she went up or down so she knew the exact number. Counting them didn’t feel the same though since her marbles were gone.

The beautiful maiden entered her room and collapsed on the bed and began to cry. She had never been this sad. Soon small animals heard her sobs and arrived at the tiny window of her bedroom. Rabbits, robins, field mice, rats, anything that roamed a forest or field, it was there. The animals crawled on the bed. A sigh came from most of their mouths. It was like this every month. She would cry, they would be the adorable woodland creatures that would comfort her and help her; she would get better and be over it by the next morning. They were really annoyed with it.

A rabbit nuzzled against her head and she looked up. She smiled at the creature and it gave a fake smile back. She couldn’t tell so it made her smile bigger. It said to her in a squeaky voice, “Don’t worry Karin it’s going to be all right.”

“But how can it be all right when my marbles were taken away?” she said.

“We know how you can meet your parents!” a little bird chirped.

“Really?” her eyes brightened and she sat up.

A mouse, “Of course…here’s what you do!” It crawled up to her ear and began whispering in it. After it was done she smiled, “Okay Mr. Mouse! I’ll go do that right now!”

Karin got out of the bed and ran out of the room. After the door shut, the mouse started screaming curses at her, “Can’t you tell the difference between a woman and a man?”

Karin ran downstairs and found the evil stepmother. The stepmother’s wrinkled hands were holding a teacup.

“Stepmother! I have something to tell you!” she smiled more widely then she had in a while. It sickened the stepmother.

“And what’s that?” she asked curtly.

“I have woodland creatures that talk to me and tell me about how wonderful my parents are! They said many things about them….”

The stepmother dropped the teacup making it shatter into pretty little pieces on the ground. It had finally happened. Their daughter had finally gone crazy. Karin’s parents were nutcases and she figured it would eventually happen to Karin, which is why she never wanted to think of the girl as her own. The stepmother stood and patted her on the head, “Karin, I think its time we go visit the special doctor.”

“Special doctor? I don’t quite get what you’re saying?” Karin said.

“You’ll see soon enough dear…soon enough….” The stepmother took Karin by the hand and led her to the door.

Moral: Never tell anyone about the tiny woodland creatures that talk to you. They’ll either think you’re joking or that you’re insane.