SHE WAS PRETTY

ONCE UPON A TIME,
She had lips as red as blood.
Snow was her skin as white as
But she wasn’t snow white.
Her hair as black as ebony.
Still, she wasn’t snow white.
Rosa was her name.
So every night she would wait
For an unknown voice to lull her to sleep,
“Sleeping beauty” was all the voice would say.
Then she would have her beauty sleep.
The voice never came after one night.
That night, she went to the mirror.
She saw all the difference.
“She was pretty!” was what she sang
Then... Her mirror fell off her hand.

She was pretty, not that she lost all her beauty all together but it faded just so fast. She had been ravishing ever since birth. She had always been the fairest. It started with little wrinkles that began to force it abode on her neck- so, she wore a shawl.

James asked for no explanation all he did was bought more shawl. Sooner, her red lips began to lose it redness. “You have the lipstick” Some fairy in a faraway land would whisper to her. I think in her dreams.

A night, James kissed the usual goodnight kiss, he got his lips stained. The next day, he came back with a big box of lipsticks. Their love was very great and lovely. He loved her more than Romeo loved Juliet or Arthur loved Gwen. Well, just think of any beautiful love stories you know, theirs was more beautiful.

But when her hair started to fall off. She didn’t think she wanted him to know. So she bought beautiful and colorful wigs. She kept it somewhere in her wardrobe. So, every fourth night she would flaunt her hair and dance in front of him.

“Look, my new hair. Beautiful right? She would wink her youthful winks.

Then, he would wrap his arms around her and throw her up into the air. “My pretty” He would say proudly.

After two years, he stopped throwing her up into the air. All he did was perform her duet song with her. Rosa never asked him why he stopped throwing her. It saved her the burden of having to shut her eyes deeply and pray, lest her wig fell!

And so her little secret continued to live on with her since she was 40.

Now 50, her hair had become even worse. So, she would tap beauty and strength from younger girls.

Sometimes, she would look around, in the church, on the street; she didn’t pay much attention to ladies under thirty, all they did was reminded her of her beautiful days.

Sometimes, she admired their swaying buttocks, glassy eyes and succulent skin that appeared slippery and delicate from too much illuminated beauty. Not that their pouty lips that told the tales of adolescence didn’t catch her attention but she would simply smile and look way.

And when the comment “Wow, you look beautiful bae” spill off the sugar coated mouth of muscular chested and slim guys seeking adventure in open V spaces, she knew the comment was meant for the eighteen or twenty five years old lady just by her side or the one who just walked beside her, flinging peacocked legs about, Yet she still smiled as if the compliments were meant for her.

The beautiful woman over the age of 50 who flaunted their natural lips and hair were the ones that caused cracks in her bone. Tumult in her heart. So, she decided to use dark shades. When James saw this, he bought even more shades for her.

That night, when he came with the shades. He did try to throw her up into the air but he stopped.

“Arggg… my power is draining my dear”

Then, she was assured that her wig secret was safe.

Every night, she didn’t take off her wig. It became a burden, a prison. Sometimes, she would rush ahead to have her bath first. Then in the bathroom, she would take off her wig, heave heavily and wash the very little strands of hair left on her head.

“Can I always have my bath first, don’t join me anymore” She had said after seven years. He agreed with a smile that flashed with pain. She did not see the pain.

Their thirtieth anniversary came. Tonight she was elegant. Tonight I admit, she was snow white! Her lips flashed red. Her skin glowed and her wig was the fairest of all wigs.

“Rosa, what shall you give me tonight?”

“Poems, dances for my beloved!”

So, she began, swaying and jumping, singing melodiously. In her mind eye, she was eighteen again and in the garden of love with her lover turned husband. There they played the plays of love. The chase, the trees, the giggles.

So, she danced and danced, happily and joyfully, even more happy by her safe secret.

It was only the sudden, jolting loud frail call of “Rosa” clothed in grave fear and pity that threw her to the sudden lightness she felt on her head. Then she came to a sudden awareness of it all when her toes kicked against her wig lying helplessly on the floor.

Her eyes shone. Her head fell. She didn’t mind the big wideness that sat in the front and sides of her head.

“When did it fall” She wanted to scream but it was a whisper.

A tear rolled down her cheeks. Her eyes spoke to her legs, then she ran… to nowhere in particular. He ran after her! Caught her! She threw successive blows and pleaded the “Let me be, James” But he held on to her even tighter, even bolder.

Finally, when she wouldn’t listen, when she still kept struggling. He spoke.

“Rosa! Rosa! I have always known.
It was no secret.
Every night it falls of your head.
Sometimes I wanted to put it back on for you.
I was scared you would wake up.
So I waited every day.
I waited for you to wake up before me.
To fix back your wig.
I have always known Rosa!”

Silence followed his words. He heard her sigh. Then he threw his hands around her.
“My Rosa, you are free now. I am happy now”

Then they kissed like he was Seventeen and she was sixteen. That vibe! You get?

Hope you enjoyed? I got the inspiration to write this, because it appears light to me. I think it is. I love my stories to end in a tragic way. So I tried this. Yea, TRUE LOVE CONQUERS ALL.

But you know what, I feel the urge to end this story with; “They broke the kiss and when she lifted her wet eyes to look at him, he appeared like a stranger and she felt shamefully naked. She started to hate him”.

Well, I am just going to end with- AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

THE END.

IMAGE IS FROM PIXABAY

THANKS FOR READING!!!