Sunday, January 24, 2021

Story Write Compilations Volume I Stories 11

 

Hansel & Greta...

 

Author's Note:

The title says it's a Grimm' brother's tale, but this is more in tune to current tech-savvy kids now.

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There lived a family in the cottage on a sizeable farm on a reasonable piece of land which resides in a prosperous country within the plains of the larger continent next to some large oceans on all sides, but our story will stick to a radius of walking distance. For its from here, two kids named Hansel and Greta choose to start a new adventure. Now to give you a background on Hansel and Greta, they are normal kids with the unfortunate choice of having their natural mother died before she can see these kids grow. So the young father of the younger family decided that he needed a mother for his younger kids, and thus he married a lady from the nearby village. Of course, he courted her, introduced her to the kids, and explain the conditions of their marriage which include custody of the kids. So all terms and conditions agreed, they went on a longer courtship before they married. Now Hansel and Greta are bright kids of their age; they have a great time with many things their father gave them and he is rich with wealth but not with time. These are very lucky kids in their world, and they enjoyed it. Now the new mother was not seen as what the kids viewed as the norm. She was upset that it was she who has to do a lot of housework alone while the kids are enjoying their PS, X-Box, GPRS, and GPS. The young mother is so busy that she could not have time to see the kids much while working.

 


So one day, Hansel and Greta left alone as usual decided to pack up for a walk in the woods nearby, and using the GPS for directions they wandered off. They have everything; chocolate bars, candies snacks, and of course Mineral Water, in case of thirst. So the young kids set off to the woods and listening to their MP3 machines.

 

They walked and walked, stopping to look at the fauna and flowers, picking on beautiful dainty ones too even though it could be the last of its kind. After a long walk, they took a rest and drank their water while gobbling on their snacks. They felt hungry soon for real food so Greta said; ‘Let's head back’. They tried to retrace their journey, but they were not sure where they are.

 

Hansel said ‘fear not’ and took out his GPS unit to activate it. But the tree's leaves were blocking it from reading the signal, so they keep on moving on trying to find a good spot with clear reception. They did finally discovered a clearing and off went the unit due to lack of power.

 

Greta said ‘fear not’, I have the batteries’ but she had drained it dry on her MP3 machines. So after trying to locate a power source in the woods ( eco-green power is not introduced as yet here ) and arguing on whose responsibility it was to re-charge the unit, they came across a cottage in the middle of the woods.

 

They went up to the door and knocked. The door was opened by an old lady with a crooked hat and an equally crooked smile, with a crooked body. She heard their story and offered them food and shelter. But she said she had no power source as she lived in the woods. The only power she needed was firewoods and the fire to cooked her meals. But the kids were too hungry to ask more of the old lady who lived all alone in the woods, so they just ate the food offered and soon slept on the bed provided.

 

When Greta woke up, she finds herself in a cage and Hansel was cutting woods for the fireplace. It turned out the old lady is a lonely lady with intentions to keep these kids as slaves. So she made them work and work but only one at any time, while the other sits in the cage.

 

Not too bad as they get 12 hours of work for equal hours of rest, and there was food.

 

But no TV or PS makes Hansel and Greta sad kids. So one day, Greta saw her chance to escape the agony of working here. She boiled a large pot of water intending to make onion soup. She cut the onions and was weeping away, and so the old lady asked why is she crying. She said I cannot do both works at the same time, cutting the onions and tending the fire to boil the water. So the old lady said; ‘I will tend to the boiling’. So she did, and Greta said, ‘ can you see if the water is boiling?’ The old lady being hampered by the poor bone structure in her crooked body took a stool to stand up so she can peek over the edge. She climbed up the stool and peek down the boiling water.

 

‘It's boiling now.’

 

Greta saw her chance and pushed the old lady in and left her to be boiled in the water ( I will skip the gory details for now ). Greta then freed her brother and they both ran out of the cottage.

 

‘How are we going to find our way home?’ asked Hansel.

 

‘Pa always said, if in trouble, run for home. As the home is where love is always there and you will always find it there.’ And so they did; after running for days, they managed to reach home without any GPS to guide them.

 

Both their parents were relieved and the kids pledge not to drink onion soup for a long time. But they got their toys back. And this time they make sure it comes with extra batteries.

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