Greetings, I am Cinderella, the princess of a tiny kingdom in a faraway land. You may have heard of my story.
I had a mean step-mother whose name was Lady Tremaine. She treated me and my sisters as if we were servants. She did not see us as her daughters, neither did I see her as my mother. After all, she was only my father’s wife and my sisters’ biological mother. I would never admit that Lady Tremaine was my mother.
One day, the king threw a huge party so that his son, Prince Charming, could choose his wife. My sisters showed no interest in it but I was dying to go. But, well, of course, I was not allowed to do so.
I cried alone in the garden, where I met my fairy godmother, Violetta. She let me go to the party.
Charming and I danced and fell in love. However, Violetta told me to leave before midnight so I did so.
I left a glass slipper there accidentally. Charming used it to find me. Then, I had my happy ending with my prince.
I heard people saying that my sisters were mean girls. I must clarify that my sisters, Anastasia and Drizzella were not mean. We treated one another well. They were my best friends.
Now, I often invited my sisters to have tea parties with me in the palace. However, I had never seen Lady Tremaine since the day I left her house.
I lived happily. Although I sometimes had nightmares about being tortured by Lady Tremaine, I kept telling myself that I had forgotten about my past.
But everything changed last Sunday.
It was seven in the morning and Charming was already at work when I woke up to see a violet lady, “Hi, Cinderella. It has been a long time.”
“Violetta!” I yelled excitedly. I hadn’t seen her since the party night.
“Cinderella, I need your help.”
“Yes.”
Violetta opened her palm. I saw someone who sent a chill down my spine. I saw someone who I thought I would never see again. I saw Lady Tremaine. Well, I did not remember that she was that short. She was only about 20 cm tall.
“Cinderella,” Lady Tremaine sighed.
“I know this will be tough but I want you to take care of your mother today,” Violetta said.
I looked into her eyes with disbelief. I hoped the whole thing was nothing but a joke. However, her eyes were saying, “I am serious.”
When I saw that, I could not help thinking of what Violetta did for me. So how could I say no?
It seemed that Violetta could read my mind, “Thanks.”
She put Lady Tremaine on my bedside table and then she disappeared.
There was nothing but silence. It was so awkward so I tried to break it, “Madam, why are you so tiny?”
“I… Erm…No matter what, I’m tiny now,” she said with a smile. I wondered if it was faked.
“Cinderella,” she said, “I have to make it up to you.”
She handed me her teeny necklace. There was a sparkling sapphire on it.
“Take it. This is the most precious thing that I’ve got. I want to give it to you. My first husband gave it to me. It represents my power and dignity as a Tremaine.”
“No, madam. You keep it. It’s too important to you,” I gave the tiny necklace back to Lady Tremaine.
Well, anyways, I needed to look after Lady Tremaine. She was so tiny that she might get drowned in a glass of water.
In order to make her comfortable. I ordered one of my servants to make a couch for her and some others to find food for me to make a meal. I went into the kitchen. I made some noodles–two strings of noodles, actually, for her. I also made her three drops of tea.
By the time I finished cooking, I found out that the couch was finished. It was only 15 cm high. It was quite cute. I looked at the details and I was in awe. They were marvellous.
The meal that I made was surprisingly good. I usually did not cook. The royal chef made the meals. But this time, I cooked the food myself. However, it was not toxic! And it was delicious.
Lady Tremaine exclaimed, “This is fabulous!”
I laughed. I did not realize that her voice had a higher pitch than before. It made me smile only to look at her indeed. When you look at a woman whose height is about 20cm, sitting on a teeny sofa, having a tiny cup of tea, how can you resist laughing?
When I looked at her, I could see her as a harmless little lady. I almost forgot what she did to me back when I was in her house.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Erm… I think looking at a 20-cm-tall you is, well, interesting.”
“Ha! Yes, it is,” she gave me a grin.
I glanced at her and I was shocked. She was eventually smiling. Actually, she looked quite pretty when she smiled. I did not realise this before because, well, you know, she had never smiled at me before.
So she had changed. She changed from a cruel, pitiless creature into someone kind, loving, and finally like a mother.
All of a sudden, something floated out in my mind. It said, “This may be a drama. Maybe she’s only trying to use you as a tool because you’ve got power.”
Well, before I realised it, the silence that fell between us had become awkward but I could not think of anything to talk about.
“So, Cinderella, you are still in touch with Anastasia and Drizzella?”
“Yes. We have tea parties every Saturday,” I said, “Would you like to come next time?”
“I think I won’t be able to come,” I wondered if I saw a spark of sorrow in her eyes when she said that.
“Why?”
“Well, I won’t be free next Saturday,” she replied without looking at me. In her voice, however, I could hear vulnerability. It seemed like she would fall into pieces immediately.
“Erm… I hope that you could come and join us someday.”
“I hope so,” she said. No, actually she whispered.
Wait. This was weird. Lady was so fragile right now! What in the world had happened to her?
“Giolla,” I called my most trustworthy servant, “Please come.”
She came immediately, “At your service.”
“It will be highly appreciated if you could take care of the needs of this kind lady here,” I pointed at Lady Tremaine and ordered.
“It is my honour to take care of your needs, my lady,” she said to Lady Tremaine.
I walked out of the room as calmly as I could. But in fact, everything in me was screaming for some fresh air to meditate. I felt like the world was spinning around me.
I walked to the garden automatically. Every time when I needed to think, I go there.
I fell deeply in my thought.
At that moment, Lady Tremaine looked vulnerable. She sounded vulnerable. She was vulnerable. It seemed that she would be broken with one single touch. And then, another view flashed in my mind—the sadness in her eyes. This might actually be a drama. But it did not seem like one. Her eyes were so sincere when she said she would make it up to me. The sorrow in her eyes was too real to be acting.
I needed somebody to tell me what had happened. I was so relieved when I saw a violet lady.
“Violetta, tell me what happened,” I begged, “Please.”
“All I can tell you is that you should cherish today as you can spend time with your mother. I know you didn’t like your mother. But she has changed. She deserves a second chance. You’ve got to accept her, at least try to. I am your fairy godmother. I want you to be happy. I don’t want you to regret,” she said.
I did not really understand what would make me regret if I did not cherish my time with Lady Tremaine. But after all, I did know that it would be wise to listen to my fairy godmother. She was the most erudite person, no, fairy, I had ever known.
So I went back to the room. I had better treasure my time with Lady Tremaine. After all, she might have changed. Maybe she did deserve a second chance.
I looked around and found Giolla panicking, so I asked her, “Where is Lady Tremaine?”
“I… I don’t know,” she replied, obviously terrified, “I brought her another cup of tea as she requested. When I went back, I could not see her.”
I rushed out of the room immediately. I saw Bruno, my pet puppy. He was playing with a doll.
I went past him. I was too busy looking for Lady Tremaine to notice that actually she was around.
I looked at Bruno again. Then I found that he was not playing with a doll. He was playing with a 20-cm-tall woman, Lady Tremaine.
“Bruno,” I shouted.
“Yes, Cinderella?” Did I mention I could talk to animals?
“Don’t be rude. Look at the lady that you’re playing with.”
Bruno stopped playing with Lady Tremaine. He put her on the ground and stared at her.
“Who is this woman?” he asked.
“My step-mother,” I replied.
“Who treated you badly that you have nightmare about her every single time you sleep?”
“Yes,” I said. Well, even though I had forgiven her, it was true that I had nightmares about her every night.
“Let me fight with her, Cinderella. I will…”
“No, you’re not fighting with her. I have forgiven her,” I cut him off.
“Well, okay then,” he said.
“Thanking for trying to protect me, Bruno.”
I led Lady Tremaine back to the room. She was exhausted, I could tell.
I helped her to wash herself. Meanwhile, I let someone have her clothes washed. When she finished cleaning and putting on her clothes, the sky had darkened.
“Cinderella, sorry for everything. I shouldn’t have treated you so badly.”
“It’s okay,” I said, “I forgive you.”
“Cinderella, thank you so much. I promise I’d make it up to you from now on. Can we… can we start again?”
“Of course,” I said. I realised that all I needed to have a fresh new start with Lady Tremaine was a simple “I forgive you”.
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
“We shall have dinner soon,” she said, “Let me cook it for you and your husband.”
“Really? Thanks!” Honestly, I had never eaten food cooked by her.
She went into the kitchen then.
“Giolla, please come,” I suddenly came up with an idea.
“Yes, my lady.”
“Please tell Maya to come and see me.”
Maya, my royal fashion designer, arrived in a minute and I told her what I wanted. Then she gave me a sweet smile and left. She started working on the thing that I requested.
I went into the kitchen then. Lady Tremaine was nowhere to be found. Was she caught by Bruno again? Or was she buying things from the market so she left the palace?
No. She was in the kitchen. She was inside a glass, a glass filled with smoking hot water.
Oh dear! She was almost drowned in a glass of water. I rushed to her and poured the water out of the glass. I made her sit on the table. Well, she was still terrified and could not think. So, I tried to make her comfortable.
I felt guilty. Violetta told me to take care of her. I had to take care of her but I let this happen to her. Oh! What kind of daughter was I? I was so focused on telling Maya her task that I forgot that my step-mother, who was in the kitchen, was shorter than a fork and she definitely would not be able to prepare dinner all by herself.
I was lost in my thoughts when I heard Lady Tremaine say, “Cinderella, you hear me? Hello? Earth to Cinderella?” Well, she had probably been trying to get my attention for a few minutes.
“Yes. Yes, madam. You okay?”
“Yes. I’m okay,” she said. Relief rushed through my body.
“Now, let’s get back to work. Can you help me with chopping, Sweetie? I can’t do that.”
“Okay,” I said.
Wait. Did she just call me “Sweetie”? So, she saw me as her daughter. Before I could stop it or even realise it, the corners of my mouth were pulled upwards. A wide smile grew on my face.
Now, we finally got to do some “Mum and daughter stuff”. We used nearly two hours to prepare the dishes. Well, that was okay. I needed to wait for Charming anyway.
We had a great time cooking together. I kind of understood why Violetta said I would regret if I did not accept Lady Tremaine. I would have missed a lot of great things if I did so.
We finished cooking. We were waiting for Charming to come back when Lady Tremaine suddenly turned back to her normal size. It was miraculous.
“What did you do?” I asked, “Why are you normal again?”
“Nothing,” she said, “I don’t know.”
“The spell is gone,” I caught her murmuring.
I wanted to ask her what the spell was. However, I was interrupted by Giolla, who came into the room and said, “My lady, Maya has completed her task.”
I walked out of the room and saw Maya, who was holding a beautiful necklace, which I requested as I wanted to give a present to Lady Tremaine. The necklace that Maya made was better than what I expected. There were not any rubies or emeralds. But there was a heart-shaped metal pendant, with two words on it–De novo. It meant “start again” in Latin. This necklace would mark our fresh new start.
“Madam, this necklace is for you,” I handed the necklace to Lady Tremaine.
“Oh, Cinderella, this is beautiful! Thank you,” Lady Tremaine exclaimed, “Thank you!”
I helped her put the necklace on, hoping that we really could start again.
We then talked about everything and anything until Charming came back. Charming walked in and looked at me with disbelief. I only smiled at him and he smiled back. I could see in his eyes that he was trying to tell me, “I am proud of you.”
We had a pleasant dinner then. The dinner that Lady Tremaine cooked for us was the best thing I had ever had. It was even better than the ones cooked by the royal chefs. I had never noticed this before, because, well, I did not have the chance to.
This changed the way I thought of Lady Tremaine, not because of the dinner, it was awesome though. It was because of the changes I found in her personalities. She was no longer the monster that haunted me even in my dreams. She became the mother that I always hoped to have.
After dinner, she left. I tried to make her stay but it was useless. So I let her leave, promising her that I would visit her often.
I took a bath and fell asleep. I did not realise how exhausted I was. Well, I guessed I could call it a day.
It was nearly midnight when Charming woke me up. I found myself in a chariot, on my way to my old house.
“Your sisters told me to bring you to them as quickly as I could. Sorry for not…”
“What happened to them?” I cut him off.
“I don’t know but they made me bring you there immediately.”
What did that mean? It meant emergency.
Once the chariot stopped, I hopped off and rushed into the house. I saw no one, but I heard someone sobbing.
I searched for the source of the sound. I went into Lady Tremaine’s room and found Anastasia and Drizzella. They looked pale. Drizzella was sobbing. They were looking at the bed so I looked there, hoping to find out what had happened. And the sight hit me hard.
Lady Tremaine was lying silently, lifelessly on her bed. What in the world had happened? All kinds of emotions broke free from the dam of my heart. My mind was overloaded and could not comprehend anything. I stood there, completely motionless, even though I knew everything inside me was shattering, falling into pieces.
“What had happened to her?” I eventually managed to whisper.
I looked back at Lady Tremaine. Her emotionless face. Her pale face. Her closed eyes. All those things made a huge part of my heart fallen into an abyss. The remaining part was the part that allowed me to fear, to cry, to want to shout because everything was so unfair. I only got to truly know and love Lady Tremaine that day, but now I lost her—forever.
I was so lost in my thoughts that I nearly missed Anastasia saying, “The curse.”
When I was about to ask her what the curse was, I saw two amethysts — Violetta.
“Please come out, Violetta. I know you’re here.”
“It’s time for me to explain everything,” Violetta suddenly appeared, right in front of me.
Violetta told us everything. The first thing she told us was Lady Tremaine was asleep. And she would be asleep forever.
It was a serious blow to me. I felt like something had pierced through the remaining part of my heart.
When I was still standing there like a statue, she told us about Lady Tremaine’s childhood and marriage. She was born in a wealthy family. She lived happily in the first six years of her life. However, her father lost his job when she was six and became abusive. He abused his own wife to death and was imprisoned. Lady Tremaine was then sold to a family to be a servant. Lady Tremaine did her work well, but not perfectly. And her master blamed her for that. He chased after her, with a chopper in his hand. Maybe he also locked her in a shed.
I still did not get it. So what was the curse? Again, Violetta seemed to have the ability to read my mind, “She was under a curse, an ancient one that could not be broken. It was cast on the Tremaines by a powerful sorcerer. Every time a Tremaine man’s son or daughter gets married, the Tremaine’s wife dies one year after. I still don’t know how the Tremaines got themselves into this trouble. But I cannot find a way to get them out of it.”
I could tell Violetta was still saying something. But I could not hear it anymore. My mind went blank. All I could hear was a voice in my mind saying, “She could’ve killed you. She could’ve stopped you from getting married. She could’ve chased after you with a chopper. She could’ve locked you up in a shed. She could’ve…”
Lady Tremaine could have done all those things. But she chose not to do so.
“Our father told us about the case without letting mother know,” Drizzella said, “Mother tried to keep this from us so that she would not destroy our happiness. Well, that was why we did not go to Prince Charming’s party, because we did not want to get married.”
“She was trying to keep us at home in order to keep us from getting married,” Anastasia added, “Sorry, we were too young when we heard about the curse and we forgot to tell you about it. And when we tried to find you that day when the party was held, you had already gone to the palace. But, you know what? Mother could have killed you after knowing you were marrying the prince. But she chose not to do so. She cared for you after all.”
I stood there, stunned and speechless. I did not know how long I stood there without even breathing. I thought Lady Tremaine only cared about herself. But I was awfully wrong. She sacrificed herself for my happiness. She cared about me. She cared for me. I dare say, Lady Tremaine did love me after all.
“Your mother knew today was her last day. That’s why she came to me and asked if I could let her see you one last time. I made her 20 cm tall in order to convince you to spend the day with her. I only made it an excuse. I’m sorry, but she really wanted to spend her last day with you,” her eyes were filled with sadness.
I crumbled. I knelt onto the ground and my tears were streaming uncontrollably. She did love me after all. She did. I cried until the front side of my gown was totally soaked, until I ran out of tears.
Anastasia gave me a piece of paper. With my eyes still watered and swollen, my cheeks wet and salted, I started to read it:
Dear Cinderella,
Thank you. De Novo.
Love always,
Mum
I thought I ran out of tears. But, indeed, I still had plenty of them. I was crying out loudly. But I did not care. I realised I had never even called her ‘mother” or “mum”. She was my father’s wife and my sister’s mother after all. She was my mother.
I walked towards the bed. I knelt down and took Lady–no–Mum’s right hand. I found something in her hand. A necklace.
I thought it would be the one with that beautiful sapphire on it, the one that her first husband gave him, the one that represented her dignity and power as a Tremaine. But no, it was not.
It was the one that I gave her this evening, the one that marked our fresh new start.
“Mum,” I knew she could not hear. But I wanted to call her my mum, at least once. Besides, I owed her too many words. I needed to apologise to her. I needed to thank her. I tried to put all the apologies and all the gratitude into this single word. But I knew it still was not enough. I still owed her three words. So I said, “I love you.”
I looked at the necklace again. Tears started to fall again uncontrollably.
I pressed a kiss to Mum’s forehead lightly. A kiss of blessing.
Mum, I hope that you can live happily ever after on the other side. In the kingdom in which there is no pain, no sorrow, the kingdom which is filled with laughter and joy. And if I get to see you in heaven, I swear, we will start over again.
De novo.