‘Once upon a time, a very long period ago, lived a girl who lived a life of a fairytale. She was not a princess nor was her hero a king by birth. It was not the story of evens. It was the story full of odds.’
As the old wrinkly grandmother started narrating the story, sitting on a chair near the fire place the grandmother was in her late seventies with a soft knowledgeable gaze and a sweet wrinkly smile. She oozed out care and warmth.
‘How can it be a fairytale without prince and Princess, granny?’ her six year granddaughter questioned innocently, curling up in her lap.
Grandmother just laughed at her innocent granddaughter and started narrating the story while reminiscing the scenes as if it was hers.
It was a bright sunny day in the village of Shadowvalor. The sun was glaring with all its strength and hot breeze was making it even more difficult for the villagers to come out to work.
People from Shadowvalor used the resources they saved up to use them in the days like this which is hard to work outside.
While everyone are taking respite on such scorching sunny day, a girl who is not a day more than twenty two years, is working hard in her little farm to gather a meal for that day.
Wiping the sweat every few seconds with the long sleeves of her ragged gown. About few yards outside the village, alone in the waste land, working in a little farm to earn food every day is nothing new for that girl.
It was the same tedious chores she does every single day from past four years.
Four years… She thought sadly.
How four years how her lonely life went on, only she knows. The pain she felt. The loneliness’ she experience due to selfish motives of few people, only she knows how hurting it is.
Filling the jute basket with few eggplant and few potatoes, she returned to her small straw hut which is situated in the middle of her little farm.
Closing the wobbly door of her straw hut, she placed the basket of vegetables and fruits near the small fire place and sighed at the curse of a life she is leading.
The happy cheerful days of her childhood playing before her which made her smile and little and like a cloud they faded away in to darkness which made her smile turn sad and self – pity.
Bringing the cooking pot to the cooking place which is same as the living room and bedroom, she filled the pot with water and put the vegetables in it to boil.
How very ironic, she dreamt of working hard and providing enough food for her family one day and now when she has enough food from her hard work, she has no one to share it.
Is this the life she deserved?
What had ever happened to the little happy girl who always use to smile brightly?
She is no way the girl she once was. One incident changed everything in her life. One incident covered her life with dark clouds. One such incident made her a curse.
Just one incident!
“Ella”
“Ella”
She heard her name being called from outside her hut. She immediately rushed to open the wobbling door slowly, being careful not to bring it apart wooden holder.
“Ella, you went to the farm today? I told you I would bring the food then why did you go out in this heat?” Gode, Ella’s only friend and the only person who ever talks with her, asked.
Ella looked pale despite the burning sun which made Gode’s worry for her intensify.
“I am alright, Gode. I told you many times not to come here.” Ella admonished her dear friend who just smiled at her gave her a container of food she brought for Ella.
“And I also told you that I’m your friend and will not leave you like those selfish people.” Gode replied softly which soothed Ella’s pain a little.
Ella, like always, just gave a sad smile to her dear friend and took the container to serve it two plates.
“You need to live your life on your own cord, Ella” Gode, said looking at her pale, thin friend who looked beaten from work.
Her face littered with specks of soil, her hair mixed with leaves and twigs, her lips chapped and lifeless and her stature small and thin, Gode felt sad at the look of her disheveled friend. Never did she think that a day would come when the fairytale that Ella fascinated turns into a nightmare.
“There’s no life for me, Gode. You know I have no desire to live.” Ella sighed out softly, her voice cracked, lacking any emotion.
After that night of her ill-fate, Ella tried to kill herself by many means. She tried to hang herself to the roof of her hut, but the strong and sturdy roof which did not even sway at the time of storm, suddenly fell. It was miracle or fate, but Ella lived that day.
The next time, she tried to jump in the rocky creak from the hill top. She closed her her eyes and was expecting the pain but it never came. As if God is against this, Ella’s gown got stuck on a think branch of a tree and got saved again.
She tried to poison herself but its like even poison hates her that it did not affect her at all. She did lose her consciousness that day, but once she opened her eyes, she is completely healthy sleeping on her straw cot.
How she defied fatal venom that day is still a mystery to her. It is not like she has a family to save her nor any neighbor. She lives alone in her shack in the middle of hundred yards of a dry barren land. No person is allowed to talk to her. So how was she not affected by the venom, the question still lingered in her brain.
After that day, she accepted her doom and living a life of forbidden fruit.
“I wish you would get a –“Ella shook her head, stopping Gode from speaking any further.
“Do not wish for me anything, Gode. I have no longing for good to happen to me. Luck was never my guest. So do not wish for me anything.” Ella, spoke, putting the plates filled with food on a hay platter.
“I will go have my lunch and come back soon. Do tell me if you are leaving.” Ella said while walking outside her small hut.
“No, I will wait.” She heard Gode’s reply and nodded to her.
She walked straight towards her farm, crossing it, to a well near the farm. The dry sand is rising to make a murky surrounding, making it hard to see further. She pushed herself forward and walked in a small wooden arch that was placed out of nowhere in the middle of the vacant land.
Walking few more steps further, she knelt down and cleaned the dust from a raised platform with a cloth and placed fresh flowers on it.
The platform was in brown wooden slab and there’s a large cross at the head of it. The cross has few carvings on it and in the middle of the cross is the name of the dead person and their details.
Alexander Knavesmire (1596 -1627)
Looking above and dusting the large cross at the head of the platform, Ella sighed and smiled genuinely for the first time in the day looking at the grave.
Grave… Such a negative word, yet so befitting.
Befitting to the person inside the ground and befitting to the people they left to their life too.
Talking out the two plates of food, she placed one on the platform of the grave, “Look Alex, I brought food for you. Let’s have lunch together.” She said looking at the tomb of her husband.
Husband…!