The idea for this story popped into my head as I was giving someone some change. Inspired by the homeless crisis in Seattle
Cinderella stomped down the path towards the village, basket in hand. It was mid-afternoon, near the time she should be beginning to prepare dinner. Stepmother discovered they were out of tea and sent Cinderella to town to buy some. Never mind she was in the middle of trying to get the kitchen cleaned up to start dinner. Never mind that she had been running around since 6 AM and was exhausted. What Stepmother wanted, Stepmother got.
"Cinderella, do this! Cinderella, do that!" she huffed to herself down the path. "What do we care that you were in the middle of something! Just do what we say!"
She calmed herself down when she got to the village and took a deep breath to compose herself before going into the shop.
"Hello, Miss Ella," the shopkeeper greeted her. "Your stepmother need some ginger tea?"
"Why, yes!" Ella answered, surprise overcoming her grumpy mood. "How did you know?"
"She often buys some when she comes to town herself. Say it helps those terrible headaches she gets," the man answered. He wrapped a pound of ginger tea in brown paper and carefully taped it so it wouldn't spill.
Terrible headaches Ella thought as she walked out of the store. I wonder if they are why she is so cruel sometimes.
That made sense. Headaches hurt. Often her stepmother asked her to bring her a cup of tea. Now that she thought about it, her stepmother often looked pale and tired at those times.
Cinderella looked across the street. A beggar sat there, wrapped in a tattered blanket. A tin cup was next to her. Cinderella was astounded to see the girl was about her age.
There were several provocatively dressed young girls talking to men. Some went into the alleys. Further down the street, young children shined shoes for a few pennies. They scurried off to abandoned buildings.
An epiphany hit Cinderella like a bolt of lightening. Without her stepmother, she would be sleeping on the street with these children. She might be selling her body of a few pennies or a slice of bread. Stepmother might be cruel most of the time but she was still her family and she kept Cinderella with her. She didn't have to, but she did.
When her father died, Cinderella had been so caught up in her own grief that she didn't even think about her stepmother's. What must she have felt like, to have been widowed again. Widowed twice within only a few years! And with another child to raise. No wondered she was so cruel. She was probably overwhelmed. All her grief lashed out at Ella.
Cinderella counted out the change from the tea shop and went into another shop. A second hand store. Mother's Day was coming up and she wanted to get Stepmother something. Even a little something.
She looked around and wanted to buy a pair of earrings that would have brought out her stepmother's brilliant blue eyes, but they were too expensive. She looked around, trying to find something nice, but everything was out of her price range. She finally chose silk flower, the same shade of blue as her stepmother's eyes.
When she got back to the chateau, she automatically went to the kitchen and prepared her stepmother's ginger tea.
"Your tea, Stepm-Madam," she said when she brought it to her stepmother's room. "How is your headache?"
"Horrible," her stepmother replied. She took the cup of tea and sipped it.
Cinderella looked at her sympathetically. "Here, Stepmother. Let me help you."
She sat behind her stepmother on the bed and began to massage her neck. There was a huge knot at the base that Cinderella worked on for at least half an hour. She kneaded the knots in her stepmother's shoulders for almost an hour.
"Is that better?" Cinderella asked. "You were so stiff!"
"Yes, child, thank you," her stepmother said. She turned around and faced her stepdaughter. "You are very good at massage. Kneading bread and dough has made your fingers nimble."
Cinderella smiled nervously at the unexpected compliment. Her stepmother so rarely said anything kind to her that it was always a big shock when she did.
Her stepmother's cool blue eyes swept her up and down. "Next time I have a headache, you will massage it away."
Cinderella nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Of course."
"You can go to bed now," her stepmother said graciously. She waved at the door.
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you."
Her stepmother held her face up and Cinderella kissed her cheek. Ever since she married her father, her stepmother insisted on a good night kiss. Even on days she was particularly demanding and cruel, she made Cinderella kiss her good night.
Cinderella was very quiet the next few days. She seemed distracted, Stepmother thought. Very deep in thought. Her work was still fine but she didn't seem like herself. She would usually make a bit of small talk with the vapid stepsisters, or with her Stepmother. One thing her Stepmother was generous about was books. She had loaned Cinderella Les Miserables and would often ask her how far along she was in it. But now Cinderella said she had been too exhausted to read. Stepmother hoped she wasn't getting sick. She might not have been the most affectionate with her stepdaughter, but she did care about her.
Cinderella sat in her tower room, twirling the silk flower she bought Stepmother. She folded a piece of paper into a card and tried to think of something to write on it. Eventually she settled on a simple
Happy Mother's Day
Love,
Ella
She wrote Stepmother on the front of the note and brought them down to her stepmother's room. She set the note on her stepmother's vanity and covered the flower with a handkerchief. Both right in front of the mirror. Stepmother couldn't miss them.
Stepmother indeed see the flower. A headache was starting to pound and she told Cinderella to bring her some tea. She was going to have her massage her neck when she got there.
The note with Stepmother printed on it caught her eye. She opened it and read Cinderella's short message, just as Cinderella knocked on the door with her tea.
"Your tea, Madam," Cinderella said unnecessarily. She set the steaming mug next to her stepmother. Then she saw the note in her stepmother's hand.
She gave Stepmother a nervous smile. "Look under the handkerchief."
Looking at her suspiciously, Stepmother picked the cloth up and saw the satin flower.
She looked up in surprise. "For Mother's Day," Cinderella explained. "I saw it at a shop when I was last in town." She held the flower next to her stepmother's shoulder.
"It matches your eyes. But I have the receipt if you don't like it."
Stepmother's surprised blue eyes met hers in the mirror. "You never got me anything for Mother's Day before."
Cinderella smiled guiltily. "I know. I'm sorry. I should have. Can you forgive me?"
Stepmother smirked. "Well, if you get these knots out of my shoulders, I suppose I can."
Cinderella began to massage her stepmother's neck with trembling fingers. She couldn't stop thinking about the homeless children she had seen on the street, and how if it weren't for her stepmother, she would be one of them. She had to stop reading Les Miserables because all she could think about was that if anything happened to her stepmother, she would be like Fantine. Working in a factory fourteen hours a day, if lucky. Or selling her hair, teeth and body if not.
"You're awfully quiet," Lady Tremaine commented.
"I know you have a headache," Cinderella answered as she kneaded her stepmother's pale neck. "I know noise hurts."
Stepmother smirked. "Well, aren't you considerate."
Cinderella smiled tremulously. "I try to be."
Stepmother put her hand on her shaking stepdaughter's. "You can go to bed now, child."
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you," Cinderella said. She bent down to kiss her stepmother good night.
As she was about to open the door, her stepmother called, as if in an afterthought, "And Ella? Thank you for the flower."
Cinderella turned around and looked at her stepmother with wide, surprised dark eyes. Lady Tremaine almost never called her by her real name anymore. She'd only signed the card Ella because she thought her stepmother had forget it. But more than that, she could never remember being thanked for anything.
Lady Tremaine smirked even more at her stepdaughter's stunned expression. "Good night, dear. Sleep well."
Cinderella nodded. "Yes ma'am. Thank you. I hope your headache feels better."
She went up to her tower and lay on her bed. Stepmother thanked me she thought.
But more than anything, she thought about those haunting homeless children. She needed to let her stepmother know how much she cared about her, how she understood her grief now. She was too young when her father died to understand anything but her own heartbreak. But she was old enough to understand now.