We had stopped to have lunch, Lei stayed close to me, Also was smiling at her. I was glad to see him smile, he was so serious all the time, like Lei. I wondered about their friendship, about the secrets they seemed to share without ever actually speaking.
"Asria!" That was Mandary, a redheaded child often teased for the color of her hair. "What about the mirror?"
"Do you want to hear the rest then?" I teased her and she gave me an indignant impatient look. She fit her fiery hair color well. I grinned.
I took a deep breath and let my hands fall back to my lap, my expressions were animated as I spoke. "All right then.. Sarah remembered her aunt's advice. So, she started to move about the room to get a view of Dudly in the mirror. She forgot, however, to let go of his chest hair. 'Ow!' screamed Dudly, and he began to jump up and down and rub his chest. It was then that Sarah caught a quick glimpse of Dudly in the mirror. Gads! He was even more ugly than Manley! His hair was not curly, but straight, and it sort of . looked like brown kelp from the sea. He had two tongues which each had a black snake's head. And, his skin! In some places it was almost transparent, and she could see the blood pumping
through."
Several of the children grimaced and even Lei told me I was being gross. Some of the boys giggled. I smirked.
"Sarah screamed 'Arrrrgh!'and ran to the bathroom. Dudly, who looked his usual manly self when looked at directly, shrugged his shoulders and strutted out of the wagon. This went on for several days, until Sarah had seen all four hundred suitors who had been waiting for her. Each one seemed to look worse than the one before when viewed in the mirror. Although, when viewed directly, they were all beautiful, handsome hunks. Sarah was bonkers (a little crazy), because she didn't know what to believe: her eyes or the mirror. But after she had seen each man in the mirror, he was ruined for her. As I was saying, they got uglier and uglier, until the eighth day when there were no more. No more, except.... old pail eyes. And, to tell you the truth, he didn't look so bad to Sarah after seeing all those uglies in the mirror!"
It was about then when I noticed Fonce making his way towards us. I assumed he was coming to hear the story; everyone loves a good story, right? I offered him a smile and then turned back to the small crowd.
"So, Sarah said to herself.. 'Oh, what the heck, at least I'll have some fun rejecting the nerd. Then I can be an old maid the rest of my life!" So, she called Norman, that was his name, in. Norman stood looking around the room, adjusting the few strands of hair which were on his head. He really looked like he could use some meat. 'Come over here, you,' growled Sarah, 'let me have a look!' Norman shuffled over slowly. He stood looking down at his shoes which were untied. 'Oh God, better an old maid than this!' mumbled Sarah to herself. But, she moved around so she could look into the mirror."
I lowered my voice a little so the children had to lean closer. My eyes were wide.
"What Sarah saw in the mirror was truly amazing. Norman wasn't handsome in the usual sense. In other words, he didn't have hair like anything, nor skin like anything, nor eyes like anything. He was just beautiful! And, it's no use trying to describe it to you, because I can't. Sarah just knew that he was beautiful! She fell instantly in love. She spun around, grabbed Norman by the neck, and kissed him hard on the lips. 'You're the one!' she screamed. Norman gasped. Can you imagine his surprise? Sarah's father was extremely upset. 'How can she mate such an ugly man?' he wanted to know. All of Sarah's friends tried to talk her out of it. 'He's a nerd!' they exclaimed. 'If you marry him, we will refuse to be seen with you!' All of the people of the Harriga cried out in alarm. 'It will cause economic disaster for the Ubars daughter to marry such a creature!' The only one who was pleased--besides Sarah herself--was wise Aunt Nevermind. 'You have made a wise choice' was all she said. So, Sarah married Norman Nerd and they seemed extremely happy. The mirror was lent out to a wicked Ubara in a neighboring Tribe who wanted to find out who was the fairest in her land. After a near disaster which involved the Ubara's falling off of a cliff, the mirror was returned to Sarah and her husband. Sarah unpacked it from the wrappings which it had been carefully placed in and hung it on a wall in her bedroom. It was during the act of hanging the mirror on the wall that Sarah--for the first time--caught a glimpse of her own image. She had to stuff her fist between her teeth to stifle her scream. For there in front of her was an image of supreme ugliness! I'm not going to attempt to describe what she saw, but I can say that it was worse than anything she had seen in the mirror before. She snatched the mirror from the wall and hid it in the closet behind some old quilts.
When Sarah's husband asked her about the mirror, she told him that she broke it and had to throw it away. Norman thought nothing more about it, but Sarah thought about it a lot. Every day, for the rest of her life, she crept into that closet to gaze into the mirror. At first, she was sick every time she looked into it. But, she forced herself to stare fully into the mirror for at least three minutes each day. And, you know what? Gradually, she started to become less ugly! Yes, it's true! To Norman and the two children (a boy and a girl) which they eventually had, Sarah was a beautiful blonde-haired, blue-eyed lady. But, she knew the truth about
herself. She did eventually become beautiful to herself also. But that wasn't until she was very old--then she could stare into the mirror all day long. Which only goes to show: if you face your ugliness often enough and fearless enough, you will eventually defeat it and become beautiful."
There was a soft hush upon them.. mostly I think they were trying to understand the ending. Lei grinned up at me. Fonce was standing near us now and I sent Lei off to go find Cana with Also. Once she had slipped off and the children were scattering.. I had barely gotten in a Tal when Fonce took my elbow and insistently walked me tot he first fires. All my happy from the story telling was loosing its bounce as we walked.
"Fonce...?"
No comments:
Post a Comment