Message #2369

[harryhoudini]

The Saving Sea
There was once a beautiful girl fourteen years of age. She was a pretty girl, with a fair complexion and eyes like sparkling emeralds. She always wore a scarf around her hair but even then one could see the wisps of gold biting at her neck. Her hair was the color of honey and her eyelashes flared out like oriental fans enticing anyone who they fell upon.

She was a happy little girl whose father was her hero but her step-mother was a villain and her step-sisters annoying ugly gnats. She would often accompany her father on his fishing boat where he would spend hours fishing to put bread on the table. The girl loved how her father's skin always smelled of sea salt and fresh air. Her father had been all over the world and used to tell her many fascinating stories from distant and remote lands. Then one day he suddenly died. The little girl was very sad and would sit in her bedroom and stare out at the endless sea watching how the lights from the dock reflected on the water. She always kept her window open, as the lull of the waves was her only comfort in life. She would sit and cry enough tears to replenish the ocean, should it ever run dry.

One day, after what seemed like an endless amount of chores were finished, the girl again retreated to her bedroom windowsill. Her step-mother and step-sisters paid her no attention unless there was sweeping to be done, or dishes to be washed, or clothes to be folded. Hours passed and she sat and cried, sat and cried. Then in the middle of the night she seemed to hear a sort of squeaking noise. She leaned her head out of the window and scanned the coastline. And then, spotlighted by the dock lights she saw movement in the water. The girl was never ever allowed to leave her house and thus had no friend in the whole world, but the noise she heard that night beckoned her to approach the shore and she simply could not resist her intuitions.

When she got to the shore, she saw two dolphins with their goofy grins. She started to smile, as their grins were a bit contagious. The dolphins brought back happy memories of the days she had sailed with her father. Then, all of a sudden, they begin to speak to her, telling her they could take her away from this miserable place. The girl, however, was pious and dutiful and said she could not leave her family as mean as they were to her. The dolphins then told her they could take her away on night escapades and bring her back by morning so nobody would be the wiser. The girl reluctantly agreed and slowly climbed into the water, under a canopy of stars, grabbing onto the right fin of one dolphin and the left fin of the other and they swam away trailing the girl behind.

The girl spent that magical night with the creatures of the sea and seemed to become one with the water and felt such intense happiness. Before the night ended, the dolphins took her to Egypt. An old fisherman, who resembled her father in many ways, met the dolphins and the girl at the shore. He had been expecting them. He presented the girl with gifts of ancient papyrus scrolls and glass Egyptian perfume bottles to take home with her. When she reached the docks in front of her house, she ran up the shoreline with a lightness she had never known, crawled through her window and for once slept contently waiting for the next night's journey.

The next day the girl hummed and sang as she did all the chores her step-mother forced upon her. The step-mother, unnerved by the girl's carelessness, went up and searched her step-daughter's room where she found the scrolls and perfume bottles.

The step-mother immediately asked the girl where she got the bottles and scrolls. The girl told her mother that she had the most amazing dream about talking dolphins who had taken her on a journey and that she had acquired the gifts along the way. The mother scoffed at such a story and accused the girl of stealing the items from her own bedroom. The girl got a beating and the mother become the new owner of the girl's recently attained treasures, giving the perfume bottles to one of her own daughters and the scrolls to the other. Though the girl was sad, she did not protest, but took her beating and thought of the journey awaiting her that night.

That night the dolphins took her to visit Japan where again the old fisherman met them. This time he presented the girl with a beautiful white silk kimono decorated with gold thread flowers. But the next morning, again she got a beating and again her gift was stripped from her. This time the step-mother kept the gift for herself and paraded around in the kimono all day long to remind the poor girl of all she had lost.

The next night the dolphins took the girl to England where she received a box of British tea leaves. The next morning the girl got up before sunrise to make herself a cup of the tea, but sure enough the step-mother heard her and stormed into the kitchen. The step-mother had grown suspicious of the gifts and spied on the girl whenever she could. The girl was startled by the step-mother's arrival but instead of trying to hide the tea she offered to make her mean mother a cup. The mother slapped her across the face and flushed the leaves down the toilet and again the girl got beat. But, to the girl the beatings were worth the wonderment of her nights.

On the forth night when the girl went to meet the dolphins at the shore, they had a plan. The dolphins knew of a certain prince from India whose destiny was to marry the girl who wore the blooming chudamani hair ornament from India. The hair ornament holds the shape of a lotus and is made completely of gold and silver. The dolphins told the girl that once she received this precious gift from the old fisherman she was to remove the scarf from her golden hair and place the ornament at the place her hair parts. The girl had doubts, explaining to the dolphins that her step-mother would surely take this gift away from her as she did the others. The dolphins told her to have faith and to do as they said. And so that night she received the hair ornament and the following morning at sunrise she removed her scarf and placed it in her long flowing hair and left her bedroom to begin her daily chores.

When the girl entered the kitchen to begin cooking for her step-mother and step-sisters that were already sitting impatiently at the table, their mouths dropped upon seeing the beautiful jewels in her hair. The step-mother was fuming and this time the poor girl was beat over and over again, and more harshly then the other times. Meanwhile, the step-sisters fought and argued over who would get the hair ornament. The step-mother finally decided the eldest should have it and promised her other daughter the Egyptian perfume bottles the other sister had taken.

The girl was so sore from her multiple beatings that she could hardly move, but the step-mother would let her have no rest and after making the girl put the raggedy scarf back over her hair, sent her to wash the walls.

The ocean was unusually harsh that day. The waves beat relentlessly against the shore and the wind whipped the sand into furious flurries. The elements seemed to be lamenting for the girl and the cruel unfairness of her family situation.

On the other end of world, the old fisherman paid a visit to his friendly master, the prince. You see, the old fisherman not only caught fresh fish for the royal family's nightly supper but he had a far more important mission as well. The prince had thought of the old fisherman as his confidante, taking a special liking to this servant, over all of the others under his rule. The old fisherman knew the secret that whosoever wore the hair ornament was meant to be the prince's wife. Aside from fishing, the fisherman was to keep his eyes open for a fair girl with golden long hair, sparkling emerald eyes, and lengthy full lashes. The prince had countless dreams about this mystery girl and was sure she was the one destined to be his wife. He was sure she would pass the test of the blooming lotus.

Once at the palace, the fisherman told the prince he thought he had found the girl of his dreams.

That day, the prince took off on a voyage that would lead him to his future wife and brought the fisherman along with him. However, when he got to the little house by the sea and knocked on the door, he was astonished by what he saw. The ugly step-sister stood in front of him, with the ornament in her stringy, greasy, brown hair. The dashing young prince looked at the fisherman who just smiled. He then looked back at the stepsister whose hair instantaneously began to fall out in clumps. She started to scream as she saw her own hair piling up around her. The poor fatherless girl who had done nothing but good her whole life came running to see how she could help the step-sister who had been so mean to her. However, in midstep the step-mother pulled the girl by the tails of her headscarf and threw her back against a wall, yelling and screaming that the poor fatherless girl was to blame for this misfortune. But, when she did this the scarf fell from the girl's head and her long golden locks came cascading down over her shoulders. It was then that the prince looked up from the hair accumulating on the floor and over into those shimmering green eyes that hid under a multitude of lashes. The prince himself grabbed the ornament from the step-sister's hair and placed it in the hair of the young beauty slummed against the wall across from him. The ornament then blossomed into a real lotus flower with beautiful red and white petals and the prince knew she was to be his bride.

The prince and the girl were married out at sea, where the dolphins circled the ship performing acrobats for the happy couple. The old fisherman became like a second father to the girl and as punishment for stealing the sacred hairpiece the step-mother and her daughters were gagged, tied, and thrown into the ocean to drown. All along, the fisherman had known the step-mother would steal the ornament and her crimes would finally be recognized and punished - and they were.