Once Upon a Time...

Bettina Cochran

Section: 10 a.m.

Let’s go back to a time and place where there is no middle class. Here in this time and place there are the rich and the poor. In this life, people were either born to be great, or they are born to the lowly. People’s status could not be changed; from the moment they were born their destinies were set in stone. However, Fate has a way of chipping out a different path for those who dared to follow.

In this little kingdom, that has long been crumpled, lived once one of the great families of Europe. Their nobility ran its root into the very beginning of time. They were prefect just as “great” people were back in this time. The only thing they lacked was a child to make their fantasy world a reality. However, the years went by and the Duchess could conceive no child.

Then, ill fate came into play for the country in general. Famine was spreading throughout the land. The famine did not harm the duke or the duchess, but it did, however, affect those around them like their servants, for instance. Now, Fate does her little dance.

There within the castle was a servant couple, Peter and Jessica, and Jessica was with child. They were both extremely happy but also sad at the same time. It was one of those bittersweet moments. At this time of famine, Peter and Jessica worried about how they were going to feed their child.

Well, the day comes, and Jessica gives birth to twins! The dismay was written on her face. She knew that she and her husband could not support two children at this time.

When word of the twins and the couple’s predicament reaches the Duchess’s ear, an idea occurred to her. She, of course, discussed her idea with the Duke first, and he agreed to it, but he wanted to keep the idea a secret from the townsmen.

So the Duchess went to the new parents to inform them of her plan to relieve them of such a heavy burden. The Duke and Duchess agreed to take one of the girls to raise as their own child because the duchess had already passed her childbearing years. After discussing the idea, Peter and Jessica agreed to give the Duke and the Duchess one of their daughters. Jessica, however, asked one, small favor in return, and that was to name her child, and they agreed to it. The child who was once born to poverty and now to prosperity was named Fern. The child who remained with her birth parents was named Jane.

Because the girls were twins, Peter, Jessica, and the Jane certainly could not stay near the village, so the Duke gave Peter and Jessica a nice size plot of land with a cottage in place that stood in the middle of the forest. The Duke wanted to make sure that no one ever found out about the other child. So the couple and Jane were thrown off into the woods, but Peter and Jessica thought at least one of their children would have a good life.

Fern did have a good life; well, she had a glamorous life. In Fern’s world, however, beauty meant everything. She was too short, so she had to wear shoes to make her tall enough for women’s standards in that day in age. The shoes that she had to wear, however, made her feet bleed. She was forced to wear a corset that nearly crushed her ribs, so she could hide her thickness around her waist. To all appearance though, Fern was a perfect picture of nobility. She strived to live up to her family’s perfection, and in the mist of all of her striving for perfection, she lost her soul, her personality. She was a beautiful, empty shell of a person.

As for Jessica, Peter, and Jane--who moved in to the forest-- things seemed to be looking up for them. Even though they were cut off from the rest of the world, life was good. They had a stream that was filled with fish for their table and water for their drinks, and there was plenty of wild game to catch in the forest.

Jane grew into a lovely girl. She was a tad plain when it came to her clothes, but her fiery red hair and pale skin out shown her simple cloth. She was the gemstone in her parents’ world.

Tragedy was bound to strike again though in this perfect world, and strike it did. One evening when Peter was on his way home, he was attacked by a bear. After the bear had left Peter for dead, Jessica and Jane managed to bring Peter back to the house, but he had already lost too much blood. Jessica knew that Peter would most likely not last throughout the night, so she told Jane to go ahead and go to bed; she would stay with Peter. Jane reluctantly went to bed, and during the night she heard a cry. Jane ran down to her parents’ room, and saw a snake sinking its fangs into her mother. Jane took a knife to the snake’s head. It was too late though the snake’s venom was already seeping through Jessica’s veins. In the late hours of the night, Jane lost both of her parents, leaving her alone.

She wept for days on end without ever eating or sleeping unless she just fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. After lamenting, she managed to bury her beloved parents. She would not have to be alone for long though. Since the duke had given Jessica and Peter his hunting cabin, suspicion of the forest began to arise. There was talk of an old, dark magic being stirred in the forest. People were beginning to hear trees whispering, and trees seemed to move on their own accord at any given time of the day. Inside the forest, the trees seemed to be sympathetic for Jane.

During this time of talk rising about black magic, young men began coming to court young Fern, and Fern saw her life caving in around her. She would be trapped in an endless life of parties with the diamonds around her neck that weighed her to the ground. She decided that she had to escape from this life because her father had already picked out her husband, Sir Charles Worth.

Sir Charles Worth had a sense for adventure, and in his town wanderings, he picked up on the talk of black magic. He saw his chance to seek glory and fame by destroying the heart of this evil that cursed the people caught in the shadows of the forest.

He went back to the castle to prepare for his departure into the forest. The Duke begged him not to go, but Sir Charles Worth would not listen to reason. While everyone was busy either begging Sir Charles Worth not to go or helping him prepare to go, Fern tired of suffering for her beauty ran off into the forest. It felt so good to her to be free of her parents. Soon, however, she came to wish that she could find her way back, but the trees had rearranged themselves. She was lost in a sea of trees. The woods had suddenly become very unfriendly, and now the woods had closed in around her. Fern just collapsed on the ground and began to cry.

Meanwhile Sir Charles Worth had found himself lost in the woods, and the trees had rearranged themselves for him so that he came to a once well-traveled road. As he traveled down the road, he heard what sounded like a lady in distress. He followed the voice ‘til he came to a small rundown cottage, and next the cottage by a stream was a young maiden crying.

He got off his horse and walked up to her and asked, “My lady, what is the matter?”

She turned to him, and he was shocked to see the face of the young Fern staring him into his eyes. “Lady Fern, what are you doing out in these woods?” Sir Charles Worth asked.

She had stopped crying by now, but she continued to stare at him. “I’m sorry, my good sir, but I am not who you speak of.”

“I am taking you back right now. These woods are not safe for a young lady, such as yourself, to be in.” He did not even notice that Jane was dressed differently than Fern!

He placed Jane onto his horse with Jane kicking and screaming for him to let her go. The forest parted for him as if there had always been a path through the forest. He didn’t take time to question the forest’s motives for this, but just as soon as they were out of the forest, the road vanished in a sea of green shrubbery.
During this time, the real Fern prayed to God that Sir Charles Worth would find her once he was inside the forest, but her prayers would never be answered. Sir Charles Worth had found Jane as was the forest’s plan, and everyone believed that Jane was the real Fern even though she claimed to be a girl named Jane. Doctors said that she had hit her head at some point while she was in the forest and had suffered some memory “misplacement”.

People, however, seemed to like this new Fern more so than the one before. Fern now had a personality along with beauty, and Sir Charles Worth was content staying with Fern instead going off on adventures. Lady Fern’s “memory” would never return, but everyone for the most part was happy. The Duke and the Duchess could not even tell that their Fern was still lost in the forest, so Jane became Fern. As for the real Fern, she was never found. Where she collapsed in the forest, is now where a rare form of a fern can be found. It is also said that if a person were come up to the fern in even the driest of seasons, the fern would look as if it were crying.