1416934715(FY) (21 page)

The whole tree seemed to give itself a shake, its limbs reaching upward as if stretching after a dream of standing motionless for far too long. And then, in a rush so full and joyous
it
almost made a sound, every single branch burst into bloom. Our eyes were filled with the sight of blossoms of pure silver, our noses with a scent as sweet as honey.

“This is why they say love stories end ‘happily ever after,” I whispered. For surely, if this was anything, it was the power of true love. The power to bring life and hope where none had been before.

Hand in hand, Pascal and I left my mother’s garden and walked back to the front of the house. As we approached, the candles I had placed in all the downstairs windows flickered, and then went out.

And that is how I knew the truth. My story had been given the start of its happy ending at the very same time in which
it
had first begun: just before midnight.

The tree above my mother’s grave grew and bloomed as the love Pascal and4 shared together did, every single day for the rest of our lives. It is blooming there still, for all I know. For Old Mathilde had the right of things. True love never dies.

A funny thing happened on the way to the ball.

When my editor and I first discussed the possibility of having me add the story of Cinderella to the Once upon a Time series, I decided it would be interesting to refresh my memory about the early versions of this incredibly famous tale. So I marched to the bookshelf in search of my copy of
The Complete Tales of the Brothers Grimm.
Sure enough, “Cinderella” was there. I thought I knew, in a general sort of way, what to expect. Boy, did I get a surprise. Because almost the first thing their rendition does is to mention the fact that Cinderella’s father is still alive.

Intrigued, I turned to an even earlier version, that of the French author Charles Perrault (1628-1703), generally considered the father of the modern fairy tale. Like the Grimm boys who came after him (late seventeen hundreds to mid eighteen hundreds), Perrault draws heavily on older, oral folktale traditions for his stories. Would Cinderella’s father show up here as well? The answer was yes.

Okay,
I thought.
Wait just a minute here.

Both renditions do make similar points, that the father falls so that under the control of his second wife he will do whatever she wants. He then pretty
much vanishes from the tale completely leaving Cinderella’s stepmother in control But the fact that he was there at all simply proved too intriguing a notion for me to pass up.

If Cinderella’s father is still alive, but takes no action to save or protect her, what might this say about both him and the woman to whom we are all accustomed to assigning the role of the bad guy? What would happen if I put a father back into the mix? With that, my own version of the story was off and running. I decided to add my own tribute to Perrault by giving my heroine the French version of her name: Cendrillon.

About the Author

C
AMERON
D
OKEY

is the author of nearly thirty young adult novels. Her other titles in the Once upon a Time series include
Sunlight and Shadow, Beauty Sleep, The Storyteller’s Daughter,
and
Golden.
Her other Simon and Schuster endeavors include the Charmed books
Picture Perfect
and
Truth and Consequences; Here Be Monsters,
a book in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series; and
The Summoned,
an Angel series tide. Cameron lives in Seattle, Washington.