Lies
She held her baby tightly in her arms and wished that she could keep him there forever, safe from all the evils of the world. A part of her could not believe that she had promised this innocent life to someone else before he had even been born. The reasons she had made that promise were not important anymore because she was not going to let anyone take her child away. She would be the one to hear his laughs, listen to his first words, watch his first steps, and imagine his limitless future. Yet, she could feel this ache in her heart because she was going to lose those precious moments.
She had already given away her most treasured possessions, her mother's ring and her grandmother's necklace, but she only lost reminders of two women she had never known. Instead, she tossed those family heirlooms aside because she valued her life and future more than her past. No, that was not true; she valued two lives more than her cherished possessions. She had saved her father's life by agreeing to those original terms and as much as she loved her father, he did not deserve such considerations. It was his fault that she had been forced to make this decision, and her father should be the one suffering, not her.
Her father had the audacity to make people believe that she could turn straw into gold. She never understood how her father managed to create such a story, nor could her father provide a reasonable explanation for his actions. Every time she asked him about it, his story changed. His most common excuse was that he heard other people talking about the talents of their daughters, and he had to come up with something to make her as desirable as any other man's daughter. Her father's lack of plausible explanations led her to believe that the whole thing started on a night where he had too much to drink, and those nights were countless. She had not forgiven him for creating the story about her lack of talents because she had talents enough. She would never be considered the greatest cook or singer, but what talents she had were serviceable and reliable which was what she believed men really wanted in a wife.
Her father's lie spread throughout the entire kingdom, and each version of the story was more exaggerated than the next. People seemed to believe that she had been blessed by a fairy at birth, and that was what allowed her to create the gold at the moment she touched it. Yet, no one seemed to notice that they were still poor. If she had a gift like that, she would have used it to ensure that they would never be hungry. It annoyed her even more that her father had begun to believe his own story as people continued to gossip, and started enjoying all the suitors flocking to their doorstep every morning. The only thing that those young men knew about her was her supposed gift while before no one had taken a second glance at her because in their eyes, she had been worthless. A small part of her enjoyed and relished the attention, but at the same time, she wanted her old life back when she was unimportant and only had to figure out a way to survive each day.
One day the king enlisted her to their service because even though the royal family was already rich enough, it did not prevent them from wanting more. She tried to make the king see that the whole story had been concocted by the town to get her into trouble but, her futile attempts to explain the situation were dismissed immediately. The king thought she was being modest and humble. His voice also remained stern and cold which made her realize that if she did not create gold, her life and her father's life would have been forfeited.
She followed the guard into a dark chamber with straw piled up to the ceiling, and a spinning wheel in the far corner. She spent hours crying after she had been left alone because she knew that she would be hanged the moment sunlight reached the earth again. All of a sudden, she heard an explosion, and she feared that it was her piles of straw catching on fire. Instead, she was only startled by a little man who was willing to help solve her problems. She should have never accepted his first offer of assistance, but at the time her only thoughts had been about saving her father's neck. She watched the man in awe has he daintily started spinning the straw into a glorious, gleaming pile of gold. The spinning and the rhythm of his work was hypnotic, causing her to fall asleep. At least, she assumed that she had fallen asleep because she could not remember seeing the little man leave after he was finished. She only recalled waking to the dawn, and how much the pile of gold sparkled from those fleeting rays of sunlight.
When the king had seen the pile of treasure, he only wanted more. Right at that moment, she should have made them feel ashamed of their appetite for precious trinkets while ordinary people suffered every single day. No, she remained silent because her impertinent behavior would have gotten her in trouble even though she was valuable to the royal family; she was still a servant, a person without a voice. She blindly followed someone to another room filled with straw which was the size of a barn. She prayed that the little man would come back because it would have been impossible to explain why she had been able to create gold one night and not the next. Fortunately, he did come again and created a humongous pile of gold like he had the previous night, the necklace being her only sacrifice.
Once again, in the morning, the king saw the enormous pile of wealth that he believed she had given to him. This time, he led her to another room personally, and promised that if she fulfilled her task this time, she would be allowed to marry his son. As the king left her in that chamber, she wondered why the king of all people would want his son to marry a peasant. Of course, the king would not want anyone else to get their hands on this girl who could create great riches out of so common an item as straw.
When the little man returned, she did not know what to do because she had nothing of value left to trade for his help. It was at that moment that he used her first born child as the cost for this final performance. Every part of her told her to not accept his offer, but a part of her wanted to be the prince's wife even if it was based on a lie. She agreed to his terms. She really had no other choice, but to make that promise. Perhaps she could have said that she was exhausted from the previous two nights, but a claim that her gift had disappeared was not an option. Months later, she could not determine any other way that she could have gotten herself out of that mess.
She had signed a deal with the devil from the start just by accepting his help that first night. Every decision she made had led her right to this point, and it was her own fault. She never wanted to lose this feeling of joy every time she held her baby in her arms, nor how it had brought her closer to her husband. She married him because she had been manipulated into it like everything else. At least her husband was a kind and gentle man which made it easier to like him.
She kept searching her mind for some loophole in her promise to the little man, but there was nothing that she could use against him. That little man knew what he was doing, and she had been a fool to listen to him. She needed to tell someone the truth, but it would mean facing all the lies that had been following her. She could not add another lie to the list because no one would believe an excuse she would have to create about her child's disappearance. The castle was heavily guarded, and making the possibility of kidnapping nearly impossible.
She looked into her baby's innocent eyes and cherished the look gazing back up at her. If she could manage to get that little man to change his mind about their agreement then every lie she told would have been worth the opportunity to watch her child grow up. Could she take the chance? Would she be able to solve this problem on her own? She had to tell someone and face the consequences for all of her previous lies. An innocent child should not have to suffer because of one foolish mistake, except her child could end up suffering from the mistakes of many people. Yes, she made the promise to the little man, but she still could not rationalize making any other choices than the ones that she made. She was going to find a way out of this, but it was just another lie she told herself.