Surviving the Andersen Brothers

Playing Cinderella

I took a few quick breaths and peeked on the other side of the stage curtains. Zach was in the direct middle of the very first row in the audience, Charlotte was to his right. Pa’pa, Me’ma, James, and Lilly were a few rows higher, maybe the fifth of sixth row back but they, too, were in the middle. Caleb, Jacob, and Walter were on the balcony to my left. The auditorium was packed full.

            I backed away from the curtain and tried to shake the nerves away. There were so many people out there.

            Lucas approached me then, dressed as the handsome Prince Charming but his eyes were different, blue as can be—but it was like he saw the light. He wasn’t angry or hateful, a small smile played on his lips. He extended a hand to me then.

            I watched him, uncertain, hesitant. I took his hand, shaking it gently.

            “Break a leg, Cinderella,” Lucas said.

            “Break an arm, my Prince,” I told him.

            Lucas smiled at me.

            “Ready, everyone!” Vincent whispered loudly. “Places!”

            I looked over the set we had in place, a kitchen with a window that looked on to the Palace. There was a wooden table with one chair, a stone stove, a basin for washing dishes, and an old, tattered rug with a door that led off stage and a door that led to the back. I scurried to my opening spot on the stage, in the chair, looking longingly out the window at the Palace.

            The lights on the stage turned on.

            The curtains were pulled back.

            “Oh, how I wish I could get away,” I sighed, falling right into the character of Cinderella. “I am a slave in this house—the house that once belonged to my father. That poor man, that woman worked him into death.”

            I stood from the chair and walked over to the stove, grabbing the broom that leaned against it. I began to sweep at the ground when Olga and Mildred walked into the scene.

            “Cinderella,” Mildred, stepsister number one, shrilled, “I need you to clean my room, wash my clothes, and mop my floors.”

            “Mine too,” Olga, stepsister number two, demanded. “Don’t take all day with it either!”

            “As you wish,” I allowed.

            The make-up they worked on Vanessa and Samantha was amazing. I almost couldn’t tell that they were the sisters standing before me. They had huge noses and moles in awkward places with warts on the tip of each of their noses.

            “Prepare our breakfast,” they demanded together. “Now.”

            I nodded my head and went to the stove while they left the stage.

            Just then, Lucas bursts into the scene as a handsome, slightly disguised stranger looking for a place to hide. At this point, I do not know that he is Prince Charming.

            He collides with me and we topple to the ground.

            “Oh, my goodness!” I cried. “Who are you? What are you doing in my house?”

            He clasps his hand over my mouth to quiet me. In that moment, the sound of giggling girls and a stampede of footsteps can be heard.