Once upon a time… No. That's not right. You see, the phrase "Once upon a time" usually ends in "happily ever after." This story of does not end happily and "ever after" is cut rather short. This is the story of Griselda, the younger sister of Aurora who is more widely known as Sleeping Beauty. It begins like this…
"Father! You can't keep me cooped up for the rest of my life! I'll have to leave sometime. And for Christ's sake, it's Prince Charming! If I miss this ball, he'll never marry me!!!" Aurora was whining again about her parents' protective nature.
"Aurora, get a hold of yourself!" Father bellowed. "We thought we'd lost you once and we are trying to keep it from happening again. If it were your sister, we wouldn't mind, but you are not! You are much more valuable to us and to the rest of the kingdom than she and we can't just let you go running off on a whim. I'm sure Charming will understand." Aurora stomped out of the room and up the grand staircase. She didn't even notice the bottom of a ratty yellow dress disappearing behind the closet door.
Griselda wiped the tears from her blotchy cheeks and wiped her beak-like nose on the sleeve of her gown. She snorted loudly and burst into tears again upon seeing her reflection in the mirror in front of her. She knew she was ugly but not valuable? She'd heard every word spoken between her parents and her sister in the library and felt shamed by her own existence. Why did I even have to be born? she wondered to herself. Nobody wanted her, nobody even noticed her, except for her sister. That was attention she didn't need. Aurora tended to take out her frustration at her parents on Griselda and she was forced to feign sickness so she wouldn't have to show her bruised face in public. No one questioned her; they just let her sit alone in her room staring out the window, wishing that she were someone else. Even being her sister's maid would be better. At least the girl had the red-headed, be-freckled stable hand that followed her around day after day, begging for a kiss. No man, handsome or otherwise, spared a glance for the young princess.
Even at her christening, she had been ignored. Only one of the fairies had shown up. Her gift had been ill chosen. No wishes of beauty or gracefulness, not even so much as a good singing voice. No, her gift had been the hope of an early death so "the child wouldn't have to suffer through the years with that face." Any time she had walked through the streets in the processions, men, women and children jeered and threw rotten vegetables at her. She'd once heard a child say to her mother, "Mama, why is Princess Aurora so pretty, but that one is so ugly?" The mother and everyone around her just laughed. Griselda could feel her face heating just thinking about it. Everyday she would see the maidservants whispering in the corridors and when she was spotted, they would always giggle behind their hands. They never curtsied for her like servants were supposed to do but whenever her sister was around they would dip so low their noses would nearly touch the ground. Men and boys of all ages fawned over Aurora. They just made rude gestures and crude remarks about Griselda. Some people even had the nerve to cross their fingers against the evil eye.
It was the day of Aurora's wedding to Prince Charming, the snooty, ridiculously rich and handsome prince of the neighboring kingdom. Preparations and celebrations were going like wildfire all over the city. Griselda sat in her room listening to Aurora scream curses at the tailor in the next room. Griselda then heard fabric being torn and someone stomping out of the room and down the hall. The door to her own room opened and someone walked in, sniffling loudly. They turned, yelped in fright and dropped whatever they were holding. Griselda looked to see what it was; diamonds and other gems were covering the bodice and it was made of the finest fabric riches could buy. She could tell by the opulence that it was what remained of her sister's wedding gown. She turned away from it in disgust. Her jealousy raged and she could think of nothing but the rags she was forced to wear day after day, while her wretched sister was spoiled with, well, everything. She heard the tailor sneak back into the room and grab the dress. The door closed quietly and she felt a tear slip down her cheek.
An hour or so later, she slipped quietly down a back staircase, past the kitchens and the servants quarters where she could hear the hustle and bustle of last minute cooking and cleaning and out into the garden. She went to her favorite hidey-hole and lay down. She probably would've cried some more, had she any tears left. Instead, she just listened to the chirping of birds and the rustling of wind in the trees. She pretended she was a bird and could fly away from everything. Suddenly there were cheering voices. The sun had traveled across the sky. Griselda hadn't even noticed she'd fallen asleep. She ran inside to find that everyone that wasn't out in the streets was packed into the Great Hall. The wedding had started without her. And nobody had noticed her absence. Her sister and new brother-in-law were already climbing into the horse drawn carriage to go to his castle to the east. They both looked so happy and maybe even a little bit in love. Suddenly Griselda decided she just couldn't handle it anymore. She knew she would never be happy. No man would want her to warm his bed at night and no child in their right mind would want her for a mother. Neither her family nor the people wanted her, so what was the point of living?
She rushed up to the tower and gazed at the ground beneath her. A crowd was gathered in a semi circle around the carriage, which was almost ready to take off. Now was her chance. It would be her only chance. She backed up and rushed at the window. Vaulting herself off the window sill, she flew into the open air. She felt like a bird, soaring through the sky. Then gravity kicked in and she plummeted to the cobblestones below. The wind rushed past her ears and her body landed with a sickening thud in front of the horses. The crowd gasped and the horses reared back in fright. Aurora peered out the carriage window to see what fuss was about. When she saw the blood, bone and brains all over the pavement, she fainted dead away. Prince Charming yelled at the driver to get going. The man then whipped the horses, which pulled forward and trampled what was left of the young princess into a pulp. That was the last of Griselda. There was no funeral. In the next few weeks, everyone forgot that she had ever existed in the first place, except for a few kind souls who had the decency to clean her off the street and bury what was left in a hole that had been dug originally as a latrine.