Not Your Fairy Tale Mother: A story by Preethi Warrier


Little Priya closed her fairy tales book and lay down.  It was late in the night, but sleep eluded her.
 Neha would be coming home tomorrow, for good.
They had been friends till sometime back, in fact, she had liked Neha the very first-time daddy introduced her.
But of late, her mind was clogged with doubts. After all, books were her best friends and they never lied. Would her life be messed up forever, now with Neha's arrival?
Back from school next afternoon, Priya found Neha waiting.
Smiling with pure joy, she rushed to embrace Priya, only to be pushed away harshly.
“You’re evil,” Priya screamed. “You’ll treat me bad, turn me into your maid, make me do all kinds of chores. Your children will be worse, they'll bully me. I hate you.”
Her daddy rose to reprimand her, but Neha motioned him to stop.
"We are friends, you know that Priya. What happened suddenly?" Neha enquired softly.
 “Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, they all have stepmothers and stepmothers are wicked. I’m sure I’ll end up like one of them.” Priya fumed.
Neha gently stroked Priya's hair, these fairy tales, though fun, often gave out such wrong messages.
She now spoke softly to Priya, " I won’t take your mother’s place Priya, but I promise I’ll be your closest friend. Moreover, real life is no fairy tale at all. Trust me, there’s no magic, no evil step-mothers, no fairy Godmother and absolutely no Prince Charming.”
“No Prince?”The little one sounded so shocked, that they all laughed together.
"No Priya, there's no Prince charming out there to save a princess in distress. You, a girl, should be strong enough to protect yourself and perhaps a Prince in distress." Neha reassured.
Little Priya smiled as she wiped her tears. Her daddy looked on at the two of them, Neha would make a great mother to his daughter after all.




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