I’m joining my writing group in attempting to write every day in September by following along the Hooked on Writing daily prompts. The assignment for Day One was to create an ordinary scene from a day in the life of a fantastical character.

Cinderella jerks awake to the unmistakable sounds of glass breaking downstairs. She groans as she sits up, stiff from another restless night. Her husband wanted her to sleep in this morning, but as another crash echoes off the floor underneath her feet, she knows she can no longer postpone the inevitable. She cringes as her feet hit the cold, stone floor and wonders once again where she left those dang slippers. Her eyes meet her reflection in the gilded mirror once impeccably cleaned, but now chronically smudged with flecks of toothpaste. As she attempts to corral her blonde hair into a bun on top of her head, she tries to remember the last time she washed it. Shrugging her shoulders, she sighs and grabs her robe and throws it over the yoga pants and tee shirt that have become her standard daily uniform.

She pads down the hallway and notices the finest carpets from faraway lands now play host to abandoned Legos and headless Barbies. She almost trips over her stepmother’s cat, Lucifer, on the grand staircase. She imagines the old lady laughing up at her from the grave as her last vengeful act—bequeathing the monster to her least favorite child—almost breaks her neck. Cinderella wonders if sheer meanness is going to help him outlive them all. She makes a mental note to add litter to the grocery list.

She winces as a wail rises from the kitchen and pauses to gather herself before she officially begins this day that will be identical to the one that came before and the one before that. She braces herself for the disaster she expects to walk into. She heads into the kitchen and grabs a handful of cheerios left on the marble countertop as she makes her way to the long, wooden table running the length of the kitchen. She spots two curly blonde heads bent over art projects and feels her breath catch in her chest. 

She remembers once upon a time, she thought life was hard and exhausting and all she wanted was an escape. Now here she is living her happily ever after and it doesn’t look anything like she expected. But as she goes to the kids and breathes them in, kissing smudged cheeks and holding dimpled hands, she sees a glimpse of her reflection in their eyes. And she knows that here in the trenches of motherhood, doing the hard and holy work of breaking cycles and raising kind humans in an unkind world, this is right where she wants to be. Happy endings are overrated. She would choose joy over happiness any day.