Fairy tales are all about damsels in distress waiting for 'prince charming' to save them. My story was no different but it was so twisted from the truth.
I was in distress but I wasn't about to wait around for a man to rescue me and there sure as hell was no prince charming.
There was also no evil stepmother. My mother didn't die and neither did my father. They just weren't together anymore. I think it was easier for him to act like she was dead than to admit that she left him for someone else.
Either way both of them moved on with their lives and I got caught in the middle.
Collateral damage, I guess. Not long after, my mother remarried and they had a daughter. Speaking of which, how come there are no fairy tales with evil stepfathers? I think that's something that should be addressed.
Women aren't always the villain you know despite what fairy tales will tell you. They're all about evil queens, sea witches, or witches in general when you really think about it. Isn't it strange? Almost makes you think the writers don't like powerful women.
Anyway like I said, my mother remarried and they had a child. Suddenly I wasn't the most important thing in their lives anymore. In fact, they didn't care about me at all. Everything was 'Do this. Do that. Why isn't this clean yet? Go to the store.'
Everyday that went on I felt more and more like a prisoner being kept to do the housework and less like a person. If I was tired, I was lazy. If I was sick, I was faking.
Things were similar if we had company. I still had to do things but instead of 'Get me a drink!' It was 'Can you please get me a drink, and get one for yourself too.' It was worse than normal because everyone thought they were being so sweet to me.
If I complained I was ungrateful. I didn't appreciate everything they did for me. A roof over my head, the clothes on my back and the food in my stomach. And I didn't even have to do anything for it. Just a few chores to help out.
The laundry, the dishes, the cooking, the sweeping the mopping, make the beds, put away the food, get them things when they asked (ordered). How hard was it? I was the problem of course, not them.
I didn't think it was possible but it got even worse when my sister got older. Everything was my fault. If something went missing or she broke something nobody would believe it. 'She wouldn't steal from us.' 'How dare you accuse our angel of that!' (Okay so I'm exaggerating that last one but they might as well have said it.)
One time she broke my mothers favorite vase. I wasn't even in the room but it was my fault for putting it too close to the table edge when I dusted. Perfect little Molly could do no wrong and they wouldn't hear anything different.
If she hit me it was the same story. They never saw it happen and didn't believe she would anyway. I was clearly making it up just to get her in trouble.
Despite being 'too lazy' I decided it was time to get a part time job and start saving up money. Which brings us to my 'prince charming' the closest I had to one anyway.
He was a friend of mine. Someone I had known for six years but that's all he was, a friend. People often insist on seeing things that aren't there and people speculated there was more to it than that.
He got me a job at his work and I started saving money with the single minded goal of getting away for my current situation. Since keeping the money at home wasn't an option, I decided I would keep it at his house. I knew he wouldn't steal from me and he was the only one I trusted.
That was my life for a few years. Get up, do chores, work, sleep repeat. It was tedious and exhausting but in the end it was worth it.
He may have helped me by holding onto the money but it was my work that saved me not some prince charming. But the stories will never tell you that because they don't want women to be strong. Better to pump out some trash about poor defenseless (useless) women who need a man to survive.