After half a day of watching women either slip out of or try to jam their feet into the glass slipper, the prince made an important discovery about himself. Patience was not one of his strong points. The girl from the ball was supposed to answer the first door that he knocked on. She would smile at him, and the connection they had forged at the ball would return. After that, he didn’t really know what should happen, but he knew that it would be generally amazing. Unfortunately, the first door that he knocked on, hopeful and shaking with nerves, was answered by an elderly woman who spent twenty minutes informing him that her arthritis kept her from dancing at balls. And no, she had no daughters.

This stunning start to the day put the prince in a dismal mood. The many subsequent failures that he endured did nothing to lift his spirits. He was in a miserable, grouchy funk. They had canvassed what seemed like half of the town! The mystery girl still eluded him. His mood became so stormy that people were discouraged from even answering their doors. Finally, he called off the search temporarily. They would resume the next day.

The next morning dawned in no particularly special day. The sun came up like it does at the beginning of every day and the birds chirped their morning greetings. In a little hut on the edge of the woods, a strange old man continued his doggedly in his attempt to tame a squirrel. This is why he lived in a little hut on the edge of the woods: his pet squirrels had been continually attacking the villagers when he lived in town.

Cinderella was blissfully unaware of the strange old man on the edge of the woods. She was cleaning up the breakfast dishes in the kitchen. Therefore, she was also unaware of the prince who, with slightly less enthusiasm than he had possessed the day before, was approaching her front door at that very moment.

One of her stepsisters, however, was not caught unawares. Her shriek when she saw the prince and his servants in the lane brought her sister, mother, and all of the dogs in the vicinity running to the front window. “The prince! The prince! Oh, he’s come to sweep me off my feet, I know it!” And sighing in what she believed was a beautiful, feminine manner she collapsed delicately onto a nearby couch. Unfortunately for her, she had underestimated the distance, missed said couch, and fell to the floor.

“No, no! He’s come for me! He could not take his eyes off of me at the ball!” her sister cried. Grabbing a scarf from the hooks by the door, she spun herself around and wrapped it around her neck. “Do I look lovely, Mother?” Her mother, who had quietly locked the door to the kitchen, smiled and replied in the affirmative. The first sister had picked herself up from the floor by this time and moved to tackle her sister. Girls can become very aggressive when their path at a boy is contested, even if that path does not really exist. The only harm the sisters succeeded in inflicting on one another was to trip themselves with the scarf. Their mother only rolled her eyes.

By this time, the prince had reached the front stoop. Hearing a commotion punctuated with girlish shrieks coming from the other side of the door, he knocked hesitantly. After a few minutes and a cry of, “It’s him!” the door was thrown open by an austere-looking older woman. Two young girls crowded behind her, vying for a view of the prince. They were both breathless and their hair appeared to have just escaped the danger of being ripped from their heads. The prince stared, wide-eyed and feeling just a little frightened.

With another roll of her eyes, the mother pushed her daughters out of the way. They fled into the sitting room, trembling with excitement and never taking their eyes from the prince. He was terrified of even sitting down, wondering when a new wave of excitement would overwhelm the two girls. He cleared his throat hesitantly. “Eh-hem.” The girls immediately focused on him as though he was the sole object left alive on the planet. Feeling very much as though he should fear for his well-being, the prince continued. “As I am sure you well know, I am searching for a certain woman from the ball this past week. This particular woman dropped this shoe-“ and here he produced the glass slipper, “-on her way out of the ball. I would appreciate your cooperation in narrowing my search by trying on this shoe.”

The girls nodded, but their dreamlike stares never left him. “Er, this means that you must put on the shoe. I have not generally found that staring at it helps much.” The prince was quite alarmed. He had never seen eyes grow to quite the width those of the sisters had just achieved. Nor had he made an acquaintance that could last for such an extended period of time without blinking.

“Girls,” their mother began in a syrupy voice that oozed false sweetness, “be dears and try on the shoe for the prince. Otherwise he will never know which of you he should marry.” (Here the prince had to struggle to keep from gagging. His only visible reaction to the statement was a slight wrinkle of the nose that was barely detectable, except to expert readers of nasal expressions.)

“Oh! Well, it is obviously my shoe. I can’t believe that I lost it! Thank you ever so much for bringing it back.” The first sister clasped her hands and attempted to flutter her eyelashes following this speech, but only succeeded in exaggerated blinking a few times.

“No, no, it’s mine! Oh, we are going to be sooooo happy together!” the second sister chimed in. She pushed the first into the couch cushions in order to get closer to the shoe. With all the care of a zookeeper throwing fresh meat to newly captured grizzly bears, the prince handed the shoe to the sisters. Its reception was accompanied with squeals of delight. These reached a pitch that had never before been achieved by mankind.

No amount of squeezing, shoving, stomping or swearing could succeed in making the slipper fit either sister. Very relieved but a tad exasperated, the prince was ready to collapse onto a couch and moan over the mystery girl. He felt as though he would never find her. “Ma’am, could I trouble you for a glass of water?” he asked the mother. It was a simple request, but she turned white extremely quickly.

“No, I am terribly sorry Your Highness, but it is our servant’s day off. I’m afraid that I cannot offer you any refreshments.” The stepmother’s sugary façade was quickly evaporating, and the prince did not have the patience to deal with her foolishness.

“Ma’am, I am the prince. I asked you for a glass of water, and you tell me that your servant is not here to get it for me. For Heaven’s sake, just go into the kitchen, take a cup, and fill it with water yourself! Please!” The mother pursed her lips, but looked about to comply with the prince’s command. He was, after all, the crown prince. One could not just refuse him a glass of water.

“Mother, you don’t need to fetch him water. We have –“ her mother flew to cover her daughter’s mouth, but the damage was already done. “-Cinderella,” the girl finished. She was very confused by her mother’s behavior.

“Well, fetch this Cinderella and ask her to please bring a glass of water,” the prince sighed. He did not even bother to attempt to understand the behavior of the women in the house at this point. He wanted a glass of water and then he planned on leaving as quickly as his legs would take him back to the castle. The girls’ mother knocked uneasily on the kitchen door.

“Cinderella? Bring a glass of water out here, and be quick about it. You belong in the kitchen, remember that!” The prince looked up briefly as he heard the kitchen door open. His jaw dropped and his heart stopped as he saw the girl carrying a glass towards him.

A.N.: I’m sorry I haven’t updated this in such a long time! Life just happens sometimes, and it doesn’t like to stop so that I can sit down and write. Thank you to everyone who is reviewing! I really appreciate it.