Modern Day Fairy Tale

"In any case there are escapes and ascents as well as descents, both for the heroine herself and for those she helps." Frye pg 89


Jenna Theisen
Dr. Sexson
Oceans of
Stories
February 22,
2012

Modern Fairy Tale

Beth and her friends were talking one
day outside a theater. They just saw a movie of a remake of the Cinderella
story. Her friends forced her to go. She hated fairy tales. The only way they
could get her to go, was to promise her popcorn and a large latte afterwards.
It wasn’t that she hated all fairy tales. She just didn’t like the mushy love
stories. She didn’t think that was reality. There was no way true love could
awaken someone from a deep sleep or a man could find the woman of his dreams by
finding an old shoe she lost. No. She was a realist.

Her friends kept their promise of
the latte afterwards, so they all walked down to the local coffee shop. While
ordering her double espresso, Beth saw the most hideous young man she had ever
seen. He was staring at her from the corner table and was wearing a dirty ball
cap with the logo worn out. He had braces on his teeth and holes in his jeans.
He was definitely in need of a haircut. His long brown hair was ratty and his
overgrown whiskers attempted to cover the acne-filled face. Yeah. He was a
winner.

She grabbed her coffee and that is when
he came up to her. She was so embarrassed to be seen with such an ugly guy,
especially with her friends watching. She was used to random guys coming up to
her and hitting on her. She knew the routine and had her line-of-rejection
ready. Then he surprised her. He stuck out his hand and introduced himself as
Frank. Frank bought a house near town and needed a landscape artist to help get
it ready for a housewarming party. He had heard from a friend that she was in
the business and looking for a job.

Feeling a little embarrassed she took his hand and agreed to work for him. She could
really use the business and he seemed nice enough. At least she would be
working outside and wouldn’t have to see him much.



Two days later she went to his house.
She pulled in the driveway to this huge mansion (probably previously owned by
one of those celebrities you read about in gossip magazines). He was in the
front yard filling in gopher holes when she arrived. He showed her what all he
wanted done and gave her free rein on the rest. He wanted her to use her
imagination and surprise him. Money was no object.

She worked on the landscaping for weeks and he would join her often when he had time. He wanted to learn more about the art of dirt. She was actually surprised about how much she loved to teach him and hang out. They grew to deep really close friends and talked hours each day.
He would text her random jokes to make her laugh and she would always respond
with one of her own. Her friends didn’t get it. He was hideous. How could she
like someone so ugly? It must be his money.

She was very disappointed in her friends. They were kind of snobbish. She was simply being a good friend. Besides, she didn’t care about looks. He was a nice guy. And she didn’t even
care that he had money. It wasn’t like he spent any of that money on himself.
Look at him!

But what Beth saw in Frank was much more than what her friends saw in him. He was charming--always a gentleman. It wasn’t long after that the job was finished and he was getting ready for his house warming party. Of course she was invited. Of course she was going to go. She tried to convince herself the only reason she was going was to mingle with the people and create more business.

Her friends were also invited. They wanted to go to eat fancy food and drink all his liquor. They also wanted to know who an ugly man like himself would hang out with. They also wanted make
sure Beth didn’t do anything stupid and kiss him in public. If it ended up on Facebook, she was done for.

But what they saw at the house was something completely unexpected. The guests were
all dressed in fancy clothing—the men in black tuxes and women in very elegant
dresses. But that wasn’t the part that surprised them the most. The host had
gotten his braces off and revealed a nice straight smile. She had gotten his
hair cut and shaved. He was also wearing a white tux. He definitely stood out.
Yet, the girls did not recognize him as Frank. They just thought he was one of
the guests.

All the girls were staring at the dude in the white tux except Beth. She was still searching for Frank or a drink, whichever she found first. She didn’t even recognize him when he walked up and kissed her hand hello.

This completely surprised her. When she
finally noticed who this random guy was she yelled, “HOLY CRAP!”.