Part II

Dear Diary,

Sunday, 29^th day, 8^th month, early afternoon

I awoke refreshed, not recalling any of the events of the previous night whilst I completed my toilet. It being past the lunch hour, I scurried to the kitchen to prepare a meal for the others only to discover that they were all still sleeping. The snores seemed sufficient to waken the dead from their slumbers but nary a body twitched. My intention was to leave them be when I spied something grasped in my stepmother's fist. I ran to my space in the kitchen and pulled my diary from under the bedding.

I took the time to read every word from the previous post, though I knew it well enough that I felt I could recite it by rote.

The very fact that the words were written in my journal did not make them so. In sooth, I could very well have awakened from an intense dream and recorded the events in my diary. This is what I would have believed except for one thing. My stepmother held a cork from a champagne bottle clutched in her hand as if it were a prize beyond value.

Dear Diary

Monday, 30^th day, 8^th month

The proper amount of champagne is a wondrous thing. It refreshes, it relaxes and it makes one's breath attractive. In excess, it becomes an abomination.

Naturally, I endeavored to obtain as much information about the events after I had exited the ball as I could. Since my "family" wants little to do with me other than order me to do this or that, this took some effort. However, I soon discovered that the whole subject of Cinderella left a foul taste in the mouths of each of them. (I speak here of the figurative. Henceforth, I shall cover the literal.) A little sympathy for them or an insult to her would entice them to spew forth more information than I thought possible.

I was able to determine that the Prince had ordered all his soldiers and guards to search for me almost prior to the twelfth chime of the great clock, even going with his most prized squadron personally. Upon his leaving, his chief steward took it upon himself to ask his prince what he wished done with all the remaining champagne. The Prince waved his hand at the crowd and said "Give it to them. They will drink it." The rumor was that the only reasons the head steward got away with his head intact were that the Prince had his attention solely upon me and that the steward had changed the Prince's diapers when the Prince was but a toddler.

The champagne corks flew and the crowd drank. Some wag took off her slipper and held it up to the steward and from that point on, all were drinking from their footware. None seemed to realize that a slipper will hold two or three glasses' worth of champagne and that three or four slippers full is much more than an equal number of glasses.

The prevalent attitude seems to have been that the women of the kingdom made a special effort to reward the Prince with their presence and he ignored them to pay attention to this Cinderella person from a land nobody had heard of. Most people did not refer to her as "Cinderella" however, but used disparaging. made up names. I hesitate to write the one I find most vulgar, but my stepmother seems never to tire of using it and it has lost its bite. She referred to her as "Cuntarella."

The reasoning of the crowd seems to have been that the Prince had harmed them in some way, or, as Bertha expressed it, he "done them wrong." The reaction of all three was that they had sacrificed to make themselves attractive for the Prince and he had seen fit to ignore them. Never a mention that they were practically drooling for a chance to get their hands upon his royal ducats. As one, the people who attended and were ignored felt they were owed something for the Prince's rudeness, and proceeded to drink as much champagne as they could hold and more. Toward the end of the evening, which was actually almost dawn, all three of them had one slipper in each hand and would take one away only to drink from the other.

All three said they were suffering from a new sickness that was making itself known around the country upon arising from their slumber shortly after the sun went down on Sunday. This "sickness" affected the stomach and that is why they each had need of the bucket. From what I could tell, it affected the breath as well. I have smelled critters that have been lying dead in enclosed places for weeks that were not as vile as what came out of their mouths, either as a vapor or a liquid. The fact that one was using the bucket at the time did not hinder one or both of the others from attempting to use it at the same time. Having vomitus spewed upon one's face, hair and back seemed not to effect any of them. Their attention was upon the bucket, not the world around them.

I hastened to the barn and emptied the bucket used for the horse's oats and delivered it into the house, only to find the three of them lying on my mattress, snoring louder than before. I took my leave of the kitchen because of the stench of the three. It pervaded the whole dwelling, so I spent my night in the barn, where the only odor I had to endure was the manure.

Dear Diary,

Tuesday, 31^st day, 8^th month

If I knew not better, I wouldst think the foul stench had migrated from each of their mouths to their very souls.

They arose on Monday, almost at the lunch hour.

To listen to the three of them, it was my bedding that covered them with vomit, not they that ruined my bedding. I had to heat enough water over the fire to fill our bathing pot enough times for each of them plus the clothes they had seen fit to sleep in. To hear them, it was my fault that water took so long to heat up and that the bath required so many cauldrons of water to fill it. The fact that the caked vomit was painful to brush out of their hair was also my fault.

The afternoon was at its midpoint when I finally got Gertrude out of the tub and I was soundly chastised by the other two for not feeding them at the lunch hour. And when I stopped to prepare food for them, I was nattered at for leaving their clothes in their disgusting state.

This was the time I heard most of the tale of Cinderella and how she plotted to turn the Prince against all who had sacrificed so much for him. It took but a slight comment on my part for any or all of them to go on and on, spewing vitriol as I'd never heard before.

After their clothing was cleaned, I prepared the evening meal for them. By the time they had finished their meal and repaired to their beds, the story had been twisted to the point where it had all been my doing that allowed this Cinderella person to pull the Prince's attention from them. In some manner, I'd caused them to be covered in vomit before the ball, rather than the day after. And in some manner, I was responsible for the "sickness" they had suffered. It made me wonder who they had found to blame for their shortcomings ere my father was tricked into marrying that fat pig.

Cleaning the scum from the three of them and their clothing had added time to my day and the cow went hours past its milking time. Listening to its painful lowing was music to my ears compared to the yammering of my step-family. I put the animal out of its misery, nearly filling the bucket with its sweet milk.

My bedding was beyond repair and I spent a second evening in the barn. The animals were more pleasant company than those three.

Dear Diary

Wednesday, 1^st day, 9^th month

I did my weekly shopping in the village today. I heard none other than the rumors of the Prince and his frustrations at not being able to locate this Cinderella person. A proclamation had been posted, offering a position with the royal household to any person who helped the Prince achieve success in his search. There were rumors that he changed from determined to try all possible means to find her to despondent over not being able to with great rapidity. Those in the palace were hesitant to make themselves known to him, fearful of his temper.

There is a section of the village that has view of the Palace. Many is the time I've taken additional time and made my way over there, just to gaze at it in all its splendor. Today I looked upon it with many emotions flowing through me. Would that I could come forward and become the Princess. What changes that would make in my life. I was awakened from my dreams by a soldier telling me that I had no business being there and to move along and get about what I should be doing. I wondered what he would say if I told him I was the one the whole palace was searching for.

I was able to find some heavy fabric, suitable for stuffing with straw. I stole it into the barn and hid it so I wouldn't get chastised for wasting money on such frivolity as a bed. I spent the latter part of the evening filling it and setting it aside in an unused stall. I'd taken to spending my nights with the cow and the horse and the chickens and had found it much more to my liking than being in the house with the pigs. As long as I kept up my duties, they seemed content for me to be away from them during the sleep period.

Dear Diary

Thursday, 2^nd day, 9^th month

The lout from next door convinced Bertha that he had news worthy of her sword swallowing talents. I was awakened and yelled at when she discovered me after she'd dropped to her knees in front of him. I went around the barn and listened at a knothole. Not to her services; I'd heard chickens cackle and pigs grunt on many an occasion. After the job was complete and he was buttoning himself back up, he told her that the Prince had proclaimed that he was on a quest to get every woman in the kingdom to try the crystal slipper I had left behind in my haste to get away from the ball. His sorcerer had told him that the slipper would fit but one — the woman he now believed to be his true love.

I saw Bertha wiping the seed from her face as she ran past me on her way to the house. For the rest of the day, the only thing I heard from any of them was various plots to get a slipper made for a foot half the size of theirs to look as if it had been designed for them. At times they would also talk about their plans for taking over the Palace and the Prince's life as soon as the three of them had made their way inside the royal gates.

Dear Diary

Friday, 3^rd day, 9^th month

Today was both the most wondrous and the most terrifying of any day in my life. One would think the night of the ball, with the attentions of the Prince as well as those of all in attendance would have been too much for a poor girl like me, but it happened so fast and was so unbelievable that I just behaved as if it were the most natural thing to occur. Plus, I believe there was some added courage provided by my fairy godmother, else I would not have said or done half the things I did at that ball.

The lout greased Bertha's tonsils on two concurrent days. Today's payment was the news that the Prince and his royal entourage would most likely reach our home today in his quest to find the foot that fit the slipper used to drink champagne at the ball.

The rumor was that the Prince was alternating between joyful anticipation of finding the sought after foot and foul temper at not encountering it. One of his footmen had been soundly whipped for making a comment about inviting another woman into the prince's bed that the Prince found uncalled for.

My day was spent scrubbing, powdering, painting and dressing my mistresses. Since all were hoping to fit into the slipper, I was also required to bind six feet in coarse cloth, as tightly as possible. The objective was to get their size twelve feet of a size similar to mine before the prince appeared with the slipper.

I am aware that none in the royal family deigns to dress himself. They have servants to draw their baths, to lay out their clothing and to dress them. So, the entourage that accompanied the Prince in his quest to find the next royal foot shouldn't have surprised me. They had trumpeters, soldiers with spears and swords, others carrying banners and four men for each of the two carriages. Drivers, doormen and I know not what. One carriage for the Prince, another for four royal servants to do the actual footwork. Two to wash and dry the foot and one to hold the foot in the air while the other attempted to fit it into the slipper.