LJ Idol Week 21: The Way Back
A hush falls over the room as a brunette in a blue dress makes her way to stand at the front of the rows of chairs. One can tell she used to be a beauty in her day, but time and life have gotten in the way. Her eyes don’t sparkle like they probably once did, and when she smiles, as she is doing now, the expression doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Hello, everyone!” she calls, and her voice is surprising. Even though her demeanor is that of someone worn down by life, her voice is still melodic, almost too melodic for the room, like she could burst into a sad song at any minute. “It’s so wonderful to see all your lovely faces. We have a newcomer today I’d like you all to welcome.”
She steps a little to her right as the sound of a scraping chair echoes from the back of the room. Heads turn to watch as a petite redhead makes her way slowly to the front, nervously smiling and nodding at everyone. This one is younger than a lot of them, but the weary expression she wears beneath the smile tells them all she belongs here.
The woman at the front waits until the newcomer is standing next to her; the newcomer is still smiling nervously and nodding at everyone.
“I’d like you all to meet Anna,” the brunette says, and there are murmurs of “Welcome, Anna” and “Hello, Anna” throughout the crowd.
The brunette now turns to Anna and grasps both her hands. “This is your safe space,” she says. “There is no judgement here. Just support.”
The brunette lets go of Anna’s hands and slips gracefully into an empty chair in the front row, leaving Anna all alone up front. She looks around at everyone and coughs nervously, almost bouncing from foot to foot.
Finally, she takes a breath and seems to summon her courage.
“Hi, I’m Anna,” she says.
“Hello, Anna,” the crowd says back to her, and Anna’s shoulders drop a little, like a weight is beginning to be released.
She takes in another deep breath. “I never thought I would have to be here,” she says, looking around at everyone again. “I was so sure my life was the perfect fairy tale. The charming fella. The funny friends. Everyone adoring me.” She pauses then and lets out a soft sigh. The heads in the crowd nod, as if that one sigh can speak more than Anna’s words ever could.
“It’s not so happily ever after now, is it?” says a voice in the crowd. Anna looks over to the woman who said it - a blonde in a gown that looks like it’s seen better days - and shakes her head.
“It’s not,” she says. “It’s awful.”
“Tell us about it, honey!” calls a different voice.
Anna takes another deep breath, her small frame almost shuddering.
“We met when I was really young,” she starts. “He was the second man I’d ever dated. And the first was a huge evil creep. But this one - he was everything I didn’t know I wanted. He went on my crazy adventures without complaint. He came to my rescue more times than not, even when I didn’t think I needed rescuing. He was rather jealous of my relationship with my sister, which I suppose should have been a warning, but I was young, and naïve. I’d spent so much of my life alone and isolated, and I thought he was Prince Charming.”
A snort is heard in the crowd. “Been there, done that,” says the blonde in the gown in a bitter tone.
“But now we have kids and a kingdom to run,” Anna continues, “and suddenly he wants to ‘be free’ to ‘sell ice like in the old days’, and none of this is what I signed up for either! I don’t sleep and he doesn’t help, and when I want to spend a day with my sister, he gets so bent out of shape! I just don’t know what to do.”
She looks sadly out at the crowd. “I wish I could just go back to how things used to be.”
“Oh, don’t we all,” says the brunette who started off the meeting. “Mine is such a beast. Controlling, demeaning to the staff. I thought he’d changed, but probably knowing someone was so horrible they were cursed to live as a literal beast should have been a red flag.”
The redhead next to her shrugs. “The fact that he locked you up and didn’t let you see your father might have been some warnings signs too.”
“What can I say? I wasn’t very world smart back then,” the brunette says.
“Neither was I,” the redhead says. “Don’t feel bad. All jealous of what humans have. You know what humans have? A lot of fucking misery.”
“I should have stayed in the forest,” says a raven-haired woman, holding an apple. “At least there I lived with seven men who worked hard for a living and didn’t expect a simple kiss to bind someone to them for life.”
“Tell me about it,” mutters another woman with long blonde hair and dressed in a simple sundress. “You’d think that one act required the most sacrifice the world has ever seen. I ask him if he can chop some firewood. ‘I saved your life, Aurora.’ I ask if he can watch the kids for a few hours. ‘Don’t forget I saved your life, Aurora.’ Yeah, buddy? Don’t forget I never asked you to!”
The woman - Aurora - scowls.
Anna looks around at everyone, seeming to relax now that everyone else is sharing their stories. Her nervous jitters are gone, and she isn’t quite so tense anymore.
“You all wish you could go back too?” she asks. “I’d give anything to be that carefree girl again, just playing with my sister. We were such normal kids. Except for my sister’s magical powers but you know what I mean.”
“My stepmother was a horrid beast,” the blonde in the tattered gown says. “But I wish I could have just stayed with my animal friends. Fairy godmothers are not what they’re cracked up to be. She didn’t tell me what being a queen really means. Look pretty, stay quiet, have babies, do what I say. Blech!”
“I used to be so free,” pipes up the one guy in the room. For some reason, he has a monkey on his shoulder. “Sure, people were always chasing me and trying to lock me up, but I could go where I wanted and do what I wanted. Now I get scolded just trying to venture out the castle gates to have a walk around town. My friend Gene, who helped get me into this mess through no fault of his own, lives on a boat, and what I wouldn’t give for that life.” He looks wistful.
“So what do we do?” Anna asks. She looks hopeful.
The others in the crowd all start to shake their heads.
“Do?” the brunette says. “This is what we do. We live our life, pretending to be so happy, and then we come here. Where at least we have each other.”
Anna sucks her bottom lip into her mouth as she looks around. “That doesn’t sound right,” she says.
“When people think you’re living happily ever after, you have to keep up the fairytale,” the redhead tells her.
“Why?”
“That’s just how our world works,” the raven-haired one says.
“It’s not so bad,” the blonde with the long hair, Aurora, says. “Cindy” - she points to the blonde in the tattered gown - “makes really good cookies. And Snow” - the raven-haired one - “makes amazing apple pie. Belle” - the woman who started the meeting - “always brings books you can borrow.”
“Yes,” the guy says, and the monkey squawks. “We support each other. And unburden ourselves. So what if you have to go home and put on a pretty face for your Instagram account? It’s the life we signed up for, but we’re all in it together, and that makes it okay.”
There are mumblings of assent as this. Belle stands up.
“I’m afraid that’s all the time we have this week,” she says. “I’d like to thank you all for coming! I hope to see you all back here on Friday.”
The crowd starts filing out of the chairs, heading for the dessert station in the back, but Anna doesn’t move. She appears to be thinking.
Belle walks up to her. “Did the meeting help you, dear?” she asks her.
Anna smiles. “It did,” she says. “It showed me that it’s time to go make a new happily ever after. Not backward, but forward. And I know just where to start.”
With that, she marches straight down the row between the chairs and out the door, as if this were a movie and she is the new heroine. The others look after her. A couple shake their heads.
“She’ll learn,” says a voice. “It just takes time.”
And they all go back to eating their cookies.
Fiction. Probably.
This was written for Week 21 of therealljidol. I hope you enjoyed it! If you would like to read more entries, you can head over here. Voting should come Wednesday night!