Not a Fairytale Read Online Free Page A

me. She says I’m going to miss her when Ma puts me in the new high school. Rukshana’s father wants her to stay on at the Catholic girls’ school, so she won’t get ideas about boys. Why are parents so stupid? Rukshana doesn’t even like boys.

Cinderella’s Wish
    Once upon a time there was a little girl called Cinderella, who was treated very badly by her family. Her father had two wives, and whenever he went away with her mother he would leave Cinderella behind with his first wife and their two daughters. As soon as her parents left, the stepmother would hand Cinderella a uniform of rags to wear and give her a list of jobs to do in her father’s cornershop.
    Sometimes, when she was finished sweeping the shop, filling the paraffin bottles, packing the fridges with cooldrinks and washing out the drinking straws, her stepsisters would ask her to play with them. But they could not find a game to play that made them all happy. The older step-sister wanted to sit in front of the mirror and get the younger girls to paint her face with make-up. The younger stepsister wanted to catch butterflies and tear off their wings. Cinderella wanted to play school-school. Since they could never decide on one game, they soon stopped trying to play together or even talk.
    One night Cinderella got into bed feeling fed-up. She was tired of her step-mother making her work in her father’s shop and she hadn’t seen her parents for months. As she tickled her cat Tommy-Tiger under his chin, she said to him, “I wish I had a different life!”
    Suddenly a bright light filled the room and Cinderella watched as Tommy-Tiger jumped off the bed, stretched his furry muscles and turned into a woman, the same height as her, dressed in a loose silver burqa which left her emerald eyes showing.
    “Tommy-Tiger, you’re a woman! How could you keep a secret like that from me?” cried Cinderella.
    “No, you silly child,” said the voice behind the shiny material. “I belong to the jinn race. I’ve been watching over you for years. You have a very brave heart. I’m here to grant you a new life. You’ll have new clothes, jewels, and of course a prince for a husband, and you’ll bear him many fine sons. Let’s begin. First, you’ll need— What’s wrong? Why the sad face?”
    Cinderella looked into the jinn’s green eyes.
    “It’s kind of you to give me a new life, but I don’t want to get married, and definitely not to a man I’ve never met, even if he is a prince. My mother and stepmother are married, and they don’t seem all that happy.”
    “So you don’t want me to change your life?”
    “Oh I do, please Tommy-Tiger! I want my wishes to come true. I wish,” Cinderella looked down at her palms and then spoke in a small whisper, “to study.”
    “Well, Cinderella! That’s the strangest wish I’ve heard in all the hundreds of years I’ve been granting wishes, but I’ll do it.”
    Cinderella reached over and hugged the cloaked figure; it was like holding warm, perfumed air.
    “Will you stay with me, Tommy-Tiger? You’re the only creature in the whole world I love.”
    “Of course I will! I’m your guide forever, and I love you too. Now take a step back, child, and look at your surroundings.”
    Cinderella let go of the jinn and her mouth dropped open. Her bedroom had vanished, and they were standing in the middle of a gigantic library filled with books. Cinderella wept for joy.

Family Lice
    I T ’ S A W EDNESDAY MORNING IN THE D ECEMBER HOLIDAYS , and Ma is cutting my hair on the front stoep. I want to go to a proper hairdresser but Ma says my hair is kroes, and she’s not wasting money on it. The sun burns down on my scalp, but she gives me a piece of Lunch Bar to munch on, and soon I forget what she’s doing. I can smell the red carnations from where they are planted near the garden gate – they’re my favourite flower. They smell of cinnamon.
    I’m going to be in Standard Five next year. I hope my new teacher’s as