The Last Normal Years

A Che Servono Gli Amici? P3

The Cinderella story came back to me for the sixth time, and I continue on with the reading. "Cinderella nodded with her eyes cast down.

"Well, then, you shall go." said her godmother. I hand the book back to Musa, and she read two lines too. "Then she took the girl and bade her go into the garden for a pumpkin. Cinderella picked the finest she could find and carried it back to her godmother, though she could not imagine how a pumpkin could help her get to the ball."

"Then her godmother scooped out the inside of it, leaving nothing but the rind, and struck it with her wand. Instantly, the pumpkin turned into a fine gilded coach." Stella finished the next two sentences and hands the book across to Tecna who read the next two lines. "Next her godmother went to look in the mousetrap, where she found six mice, all alive. She told Cinderella to lift the trap door, and as each mouse came out, she tapped it with her wand."

Tecna gives it back to Flora who now read three lines right now. "One by one, the mice were turned into dapple-gray horses, and soon there was a fine set of them to drive the coach. But they would still need a coachman, so Cinderella said. "I will go and see if there is a rat in the rat trap. Perhaps we might make a coachman of him."

"You're right," replied the godmother." I read aloud again for the seventh time but three lines instead of one or two. "Go quickly and look."

Cinderella brought the rat trap to her and there were three rats inside."

I give the book to Musa once again.

"The godmother chose the one with the longest whiskers," Musa continues the story on. "and as soon as she had touched him with her wand, he became a fat coachman with a most imposing beard." The second sentence made us all giggle loudly.

"Now that's funny!" Flora and Stella keep chuckling away.

"Mankind has such bizarrely wild ideas." Tecna comments immediately. "I need more."

After everything quiets down again, Musa reads her last line from the book. "After that she said to Cinderella. "Go again into the garden, and you will find six lizards behind the watering pot. Bring them to me by their tails."

Musa hands the book to Stella. Stella read the next three lines. "As soon as the girl had done so, her godmother turned them into six footmen, who jumped up behind the coach and held on as if they had done nothing else their whole lives. Then her godmother said to Cinderella, "Well, my dear, here is your carriage. I hope it pleases you."

She hands the book to Tecna who reads the next three lines. "Oh yes!" the girl cried. "But am I to wear these rags to the ball?" Her godmother simply touched Cinderella with her wand and at once her clothes were turned into a gown of gold and silver with jewels embroidered on the skirt."

Tecna hands the book to Flora who reads the next three lines. "Then she gave Cinderella a pair of glass slippers, the most beautiful imaginable. But as the girl was making ready to leave, her godmother warned her that she must return home by midnight. If she stayed one minute longer, her coach would be a pumpkin again, her horses mice, her coachman a rat, her footmen lizards, and her clothing would turn back into rags."

Now it was my Seventh turn to read aloud from this fairytale. "Cinderella promised she would not be late and she went off to the ball, her heart pounding for joy. The king's son had been told that a great princess, unknown to all the company, would soon arrive, and he ran out to receive her himself. He gave her his hand as she sprang from the coach and led her into the hall where everyone was assembled."

I gave the book back to Musa who picks up where I left off. "At once there was silence. So awed were the guests by the mysterious princess that they left off dancing snd the musicians ceased to play. Then a hushed murmur swept the room."