Once there was a girl named Gretchen who lived in a large, old farmhouse in the country with her mother and her little brother, Billie. Gretchen was a few years older than Billie and as such she was the hammer in their relationship and he was the nail. Gretchen loved Billie very much, she loved her mother very much too, however, sometimes it wasn’t very peaceful in their home.
Sometimes there was angst in the home. There was angst when Gretchen and Billie would fight. When they would fight, Gretchen’s mother always ended up breaking it up and taking Billie’s side because he was younger, and smaller, and weaker. Gretchen resented this about Billie and about her mother, but she knew there was little she could do about it so she accepted it. She also knew the best way to avoid this conflict was to try her best to get along with Billie.
One day, however, after a big fight, Gretchen’s mother became very mad at her and scolded her for hurting Billie.
‘Why do you always take Billie’s side?’ complained Gretchen to her mother.
‘Because,’ said her mother, ‘because Billie is good and you are bad.’
Sometimes after Gretchen fought with Billie her mother would put her in the cellar and lock the door. She would only do this after a really bad fight. Before she would do it, her mother would look at her sternly and say, ‘Gretchen, should I lock you in the cellar, have you been bad enough? Have you been bad enough, Gretchen?’
This happened on several occasions until Gretchen finally realized it would only happen when she was really bad. If she was a little less bad, her mother would not lock her in the cellar.
Gretchen’s best friend was a girl by the name of Mary. Gretchen and Mary were as close as any two friends could be. Every day the two girls would play in the vast meadows around Gretchen’s house and they would run through the woods down to the river where they would fish and swim and catch frogs to their hearts content.
One day after Gretchen and Mary were finished swimming in the river they decided not to return directly back to Gretchen’s house, as they normally would, but instead they continued downstream to see where the river flowed to. After they walked for what seemed like an hour, they came upon a beautiful small lake surrounded by broad, lush trees, beautiful wildflowers and lovely round boulders on the shore where one could sit and watch the birds flying, the squirrels running and the fish swimming freely and happily.
After exploring the small lake, Gretchen spotted another young girl across the lake sitting on a boulder and skipping stones gleefully into the lake.
‘Look, Mary,’ said Gretchen, ‘across the lake is another young girl. I have never seen her before.’
Gretchen and Mary proceeded to walk clear around the lake and approached the young girl to see if she would like to be friends with them.
‘Hello,’ said Gretchen as they approached the girl, ‘my name is Gretchen and this is my best friend, Mary. What is your name? Would you like to be our friend?’
‘My name is Eliza,’ said the girl, ‘Princess Eliza.’
‘Princess Eliza,” said Gretchen astounded, ‘you’re a princess?’
‘Yes,’ said Eliza, ‘I am a Princess. My father is the King and my mother is the Queen, and that makes me a princess, and not only am I a princess, but I have no older brothers or sisters, so I am the second heir to the throne. When my father passes away, my mother will become Queen, and when my mother passes away, I will become Queen Eliza.’
‘Well,’ said Gretchen, rather astutely, ‘how do you know your father will die first? Maybe your mother will die first, and you will immediately become first heir to the throne.’
I know my father will die first,’ said the princess, ‘because I plan to kill him.’
Gretchen and Mary recoiled at the abrupt statement made by Eliza.
‘How could you say such a thing?’ retorted Gretchen.
‘You have no idea who you are talking to,’ snapped Eliza. ‘You are talking to Princess Eliza! I am the third most powerful person in this fair land. You Gretchen, and you Mary, have no idea how bad I am. You have no idea how bad I can be.’
Gretchen and Mary looked at each other. Gretchen, who has been bad a few times herself, didn’t appreciate the challenge that Eliza seemed to be putting forth. Gretchen felt she could be plenty bad too.
Princess Eliza looked toward the lake and skipped the stone she had been holding in her right hand. As she did, her left hand jutted outward and Gretchen noticed a small box, just large enough to hold a wedding ring, in her grasp.
‘What’s in the box?’ asked Gretchen.
‘Never mind,’ said Eliza, ‘it’s a secret.’
‘A secret? What secret could you possibly hold from us? We only met you a minute ago. There should be no secrets. Please tell us what is in the box.’
Princess Eliza glared at Gretchen. ‘I can’t tell you.’
‘You must tell me if you want to be our friend. You can’t be our friend if you hold secrets from us.’
‘Gretchen, if you must know, I can only tell you that inside this box is a note. I can tell you it’s a note and I can tell you it’s a note written to you. But I can’t tell you what is written on the note.’
‘A note written to me? How could you have a note written to me? You just met me. Until we came to you here on this side of the lake you didn’t even know me. How could you have a note written to me? And, come to think of it, written by whom?’
‘I told you, Gretchen, that I am a princess, didn’t I? Well, as a princess I have special powers, and one of my special powers is I know everybody in this land. I knew you long before you walked over here. I knew you, Gretchen, I knew you, Mary. I know your brother Billie and I know your mother. And to answer your second question, the note I have in this box was written by her. It was written by your mother,’ Eliza snickered as she told this to Gretchen.
‘My mother! How could you have a note written to me by my mother? And if you do, you need to give it to me! You cannot keep this from me. If it is a note from my mother, written to me, it is my note and you must give it to me.’
‘I don’t have to give it to you because I am a princess. And as a princess, I get to choose who gets to see this note. And I am choosing not to show it to you because your mother doesn’t want you to see it.’
‘What,’ shrieked Gretchen, ‘what are you talking about? Why would my mother write me a note, hand it to you and ask you not to give it to me? This makes no sense! My mother doesn’t even know you.’
‘Oh yes she does, your mother knows me,’ said Princess Eliza rather pompously. ‘Your mother knows me and she has always known me. As I told you, I am a princess!’
‘Well then as a princess you must do the right thing and give me the note from my mother.’
‘Gretchen, I’ll tell you what I can do. I can give you this note, but before I do, you and Mary have to do something for me.’
‘What? What fair princess, must we do? Just name and it and we will do it, for I must have this note,’ pleaded Gretchen.
‘What you must do, Gretchen, is you must be bad. You must be very bad. As princess, I only give in once someone has been bad enough. I never give in to good people. You must be bad. And not only must you be bad, you must be bad enough.’
‘How bad must I be?’
‘You must be very bad. Now go back to your home and do something bad. Once you are done, return to me. I will be here on this rock, throwing stones and waiting for you. Now go and be bad.’
‘Fine,’ said Gretchen. ‘Come along Mary. Let’s go do something bad.’
With that, Gretchen grabbed Mary by the hand and pulled her along as they made their way back to the river, upstream to the woods, through the meadow and back to her house. At the house, Billie was playing in the yard, but her mother was nowhere to be seen. As the girls passed Billie, they pushed him over and kicked dirt in his face. He got up, began to cry and swing his arms and they pushed him over again.
Finished with Billie, they stormed away, luckily before Gretchen’s mother heard the crying, and walked all of the way back to the lake where the princess sat on the rock skipping stones.
‘You’re back very soon,’ said Eliza. ‘Have you been bad enough, Gretchen?’
‘We have been bad enough,’ said Gretchen. And she explained what they did.
‘No! Not bad enough! You have not been bad enough. Go back and be more bad than that.’
Miffed, the girls whisked back to Gretchen’s house. Along the way, they talked about what they could do to be more bad. Arriving at the house, Billie glared at them and they went right past him and picked up some stones and threw them right through the kitchen window breaking it into a thousand pieces.
They returned again to the princess only to find out they hadn’t been bad enough.
They returned home again, started a fire in the yard, returned to Eliza only to hear her ask, ‘Have you been bad enough Gretchen?’ Then to be told, ‘No, you have not been bad enough.’
They returned home again, walked through the house with a baseball bat smashing pictures and lamps, strung up the cat by its tail, they broke Billie’s leg with the bat, only to return and hear: ‘Have you been bad enough Gretchen? Nope! Not bad enough.’
Finally, Gretchen and Mary had had enough of this game and decided they would do the worst deed they could think of. They went back to Gretchen’s house, they did the deed, and they returned once and for all to Princess Eliza sitting smugly on her rock.
‘Have you been bad enough Gretchen?’
‘Eliza,’ said Gretchen through mussed up hair, ruffled clothes and dirt all over her face and hands. ‘I have been bad enough, and now you must give me the note in that box. I cannot do anything worse than what I’ve done. Now give me the note.’
‘Tell me what you did Gretchen.’
Gretchen explained regretfully that she and Mary had killed her little brother Billie and left his body lying in the yard for her mother to find.
‘Oh Gretchen!’ exclaimed Eliza, ‘You have been so bad! I am so proud of you. I am jealous of you! You have been more bad than I have ever been. I want to be bad just like you!’
Gretchen stood staring at the princess and stuck out her hand waiting to receive the box. Eliza passed it to her. Gretchen looked at her with a touch of contempt and a pinch of satisfaction. She opened the box. Inside was a folded-up sheet of paper. She unfolded it and read the note aloud so Mary and Eliza could hear.
‘Dearest Gretchen. You have been bad. You have been very bad. You have been so bad that I can never forgive you. You have killed my beloved Billie. You are the worst person in the entire world.
Gretchen, you need to get home right now and clean up this mess. Then after you clean up the mess, I will lock you in the cellar for eternity. You will never see the light of day again. You will remain in the cellar until you die.
And when you get here to clean up the mess Gretchen, you may not recognize me. I am not the mother you know anymore. I had a spell cast on me by a princess. The spell turned me into a witch when my youngest child was killed. When you killed Billie, Gretchen, you turned me into a witch. I look completely different now. My hair is long and scruffy, my body is tall and slender, my eyes are completely black and as shiny as an eight ball. And my tail. I have grown a hollow wooden tail that follows me wherever I go.
Come home Gretchen. I’m waiting for you.
Love, Mother’
Gretchen dropped the note and stared at Eliza, then Mary.
‘You’d better go home now Gretchen,’ said Eliza and she hopped off her rock and skipped away in the direction of her castle.
Gretchen and Mary stood looking at each other and pondering the trouble they were now in. Gretchen knew she had to get home to clean up the mess. As scared as she was of her mother, she could not leave the house in such a mess.
Slowly, Gretchen and Mary meandered back to the house. When they arrived, they saw Billie’s body where they left it, the cat was still hanging in the tree, the kitchen window was broken and the fire was still burning in the yard.
They crept in the front door, looking both ways before entering. The lamps and pictures were broken, there were holes in the walls, a door was ripped off its hinges, but no sign of her mother.
‘Mother!’ called Gretchen. No answer. They looked upstairs in the bedrooms. No sign of her mother. They scoured the kitchen, the pantry and every room on the main floor of the house. No sign of Mother.
Next Gretchen and Mary stood at the top of the stairs to the cellar and looked down into the dark, clammy basement.
‘Mother?’ No answer.
Reluctantly, Gretchen and Mary descended the stairs into the cellar. They looked and looked for her mother, but could not find her. Then, suddenly they heard footsteps on the floor above them. Footsteps and a strange scraping sound, like wood dragging on the floor above.
Realizing it was probably her mother, Gretchen and Mary hid in the corner, got down on their knees and covered their faces and wept silently.
The footsteps led to the door at the top of the stairs then slowly began to descend. After two steps began another strange sound. Clack, clack, clack. It was the sound of hollow wood hitting the steps.
At the bottom of the stairs the footsteps began to approach Gretchen and Mary, followed by the sound of wood dragging on the dusty concrete floor. When the footsteps were almost on top of Gretchen they stopped.
Gradually, Gretchen opened her eyes and looked up through her tears. Looking down at her was a tall, slender witch that resembled her mother. Her hair was long and scruffy. Her eyes as black as the night. And protruding from behind her, a hollow, jointed wooden tail.
‘Have you been bad enough, Gretchen?’ barked her mother.
‘Yes, yes mother, I’ve been bad enough.’
Her mother reached down and picked Gretchen up by the neck. Gretchen stared into her glassy black eyes, her mother squeezed her neck very tightly and pinned her against the brick wall. Gretchen couldn’t believe her mother’s strength. She couldn’t remember her being this strong before. Then, as quickly as she picked Gretchen up, her mother cast her down. Gretchen fell backward as she stumbled to the floor.
‘Now Gretchen. Since you have killed my beloved Billie, you must spend the rest of your days locked in this cellar. You will stay here with no water, no food and no daylight until you die.’ With that, her mother let out a shrill and evil laugh. It was such a terrifying laugh, it cut right to the core of Gretchen’s being.
Gretchen’s mother turned, her tail flinging toward the girls, and she retreated up the stairs. At the top, she slammed the door.
Gretchen and Mary didn’t move, they just listened. They listened to the hollow clunk of the lock. Then the footsteps started up again and the scraping of the tail as her mother left the house. Forever.
BT
This fairy tale is adapted from a novel by the title of ‘Cuckoo’, written by Sophie Draper. In the novel, Caro, the protagonist, is haunted by a story her recently deceased step mother told her when she was a small child. In this story there is a mother who grows a wooden tail, has eyes as black as eight balls and who comes in search of Caro after Caro killed her own brother. And she repeats to Caro, “have you been bad enough, Caro?”
The rest of this fairy tale is entirely created and written by me.
Thanks for reading,
Brian
