.Cinderella #249 The Cinderella Game, by Kelly Link (2009) From Troll's Eye View
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| Who was that troll under the bridge? |
Note: contains violence. Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Darcy whose mommy had abandoned her when she was small. Her daddy had remarried, to a lady with a son of her own. His name was Peter and he was twelve years old, already feeling the surge of testosterone in his blood. He was also resentful of his mother's new husband. And he hated his stepsister, doing all the things he could to torment her. When she asked him, "Why are you so mean?", in a voice like she really wanted to know, he answered,"I'm not mean, I'm just honest. It's not like I'm your real brother. We just happen to live in the same house because your father needed someone to do his taxes and my mother is a certified accountant." To himself he added that her mom was poor, while his dad was rich. It happened one evening that the children's parents were out, and the babysitter, old Mrs. Daly, had been called away on an emergency. Darcy was asleep, but Peter was wide awake. It was well past dark, and he had snuck into his dad's secret study to watch a horror movie. There were leather sofas, and a giant flat-screen tv. Right at the part where the werewolves were coming, Darcy came bargin in, still dressed in a fairy princess outfit that had been "pink and spangled, at one point. Now it looked like something a zombie would wear to a fancy dress party." He was so startled by his bratty little step-sister that he dropped his bowl of popcorn all over the sofa. He stared at the greasy stain it left on the couch. Darcy would not stop pestering him about playing a game with him. She even offered him money, which made him perk up his ears. He got an allowance, but it was never enough, especially since now he was on half-pay scale after "he'd knocked a glass of orange juice over on his laptop, and his mom said she was only going to pay for half of what a new one would cost." So he accepted her offer, on condition that he got to choose the game. He said,"For a lousy twenty bucks, I get to be whoever I want. I'm Cinderella. You can be the evil stepsister." And Darcy told him,"You can't be Cinderella." And Peter demanded to know why. "You're a boy." she answered. They argued for some time, until Peter said, "I've changed my mind. I'm going to be the evil Cinderella." So Darcy bared her teeth at Peter, and the game began. The evening concluded with a bloody dinner fork, a puncture wound that should have had medical attention, and some unfortunate family dynamics.
From: Troll's Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales. England:Penguin Books
Notes: A truly villainous take on Cinderella, quite modern and dark, and sickeningly accurate. Take it from this preschool teacher: children often are not bathed properly each night. Sometimes, they look downright grungy. This vicious description of 8 year old Darcy is fairly I accurate, for some kids...Cinderellas, indeed.
