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CKoller
Stories
Short Stories inspired by the collision of life with fantasy.
Disney Never Showed the Girl “How” by CK
It does not exist: A story, where the scullery maid walks up to the Castle and knocks on the door hoping to request the audience of the Prince. They simply live in two different worlds.
To quote "Ever After: A Cinderella Story, "A fish may love a bird, but where will they live?" Leonardo da Vinci replies, "Then I shall have to make you wings."
In the story, she approaches the Castle, and her communication fails.
Relevance: Her wings were destroyed.
The Outcome: She is unable to "knock on the door" ... a second time.
The story tells her to accept this fate.
Borrowing another quote: "You cannot leave everything to Fate. She's got a lot to do. Sometimes you must give her a hand."
But...
...Disney never showed the girl "How."
...
“The Unfinished Story” by CK
The Brothers Grimm received feedback from the Grand Dame regarding their version of Cinderella. In response to a rewrite incorporating these inputs, pages went missing.
...Or perhaps it was another story of an unlikely pairing where pages went missing.
If you follow the story depicted in the titled production, "Ever After," the Prince and Cinderella experienced a painful ending. However, the book still contained pages. An unfinished story beckoning an audience to continue turning pages. With each page, a sweet reunion unfolds, where "two" people can finally clear the air and exchange long-held emotions.
However, in the story of another unlikely pairing, those pages never made it to the printer. Those pages never made it to bookbinding. Their story simply stopped after the Prince exclaimed, "I will not yield!" ...and she responded by "running away."
In their moment of shared expression, the bridge between them,... crumbled.
To garner perspective, we seek assistance from the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, which served as the inspiration for the quote (i.e., I will not yield). In Act 5, Scene 8, Macbeth is faced with a decision that changes his fate. Fight: He dies. Yield: He lives. Macbeth chooses to fight. Macbeth dies.
This decision demonstrates courage and strength to maintain one's commitment, and one's belief system, even when they know it will end in defeat. Sometimes decisions must be taken to honor a commitment, a promise, knowing that someone gets hurt. A decision to not yield, a decision to run, are both decisions based in this belief and are not an intention to hurt. It is a sign of character and conviction based on knowledge "lived" before the event.
In the story of Cinderella, a 'belief system' and 'something new and unknown' collide. It creates great conflict. We exercise what we know. If we are lucky, we process what is new.
Pages cannot be printed without words that rely on events experienced.
Do not leave your pages unwritten. Publish your story.
...Perhaps, with an unlikely pairing.
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