I’ve won the lottery! Oh, all right, I haven’t won the lottery. But I’ve hit the jackpot in a different way. I stumbled across a travel diary written by Cinderella. It was stuck to the underside of a hidden drawer in an antique dressing table. I have no way of tracking the original owner of the table, but at some point during her travels through time and space, Cinderella herself must have used it. She kept a diary of her experiences, and I have to say that I don’t feel right about keeping it to myself, so I’m going to share some of it with you here. If times get tough, I may have it auctioned by Christie’s.

Time: 9th Century
Place: The Middle Kingdom
Alias: Yeh-hsien
Notes: Mother and Father died and left me with the other wife. She and her daughter treated me like a slave from then on. I had no comfort until I met the golden fish living in the depths of our dirty, forgotten pond. The fish was simply an amiable companion until I discovered its powers. I got flood, blankets, anything I needed. When I needed proper clothing for the festival, the fish granted my deepest desire. My tormentors were stoned to death for their troubles, while I married a warlord. I miss Mother, but she has been avenged.

Time: 1634
Place: Naples
Alias: Cat Cinderella
Notes: I’m not sure how things got so complicated. When Father remarried, I had a terrible time with my new stepmother. She was so awful that I listened to my nurse when she came up with a scheme to get rid of the woman. I don’t approve of unnecessary violence, but the neck breaking was quick. I don’t think she suffered. But how could I have known that my nurse, the wicked thing, had children of her own? What an evil brood. I was put to work, of course, immediately after the nurse married Father. I slept in the cinders with the cat when I could find the time. The nurse, who once pretended to be my friend, showed me how brutal a woman can be. But my cunning gained me the favor of some fairies who saw to it that I would attend the King’s feast. He couldn’t take his eyes off me. We were married once he matched my lost shoe to my poor little foot.

Time: 1697
Place: Paris
Alias: Cinderella
Notes: This was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. My stepmother and stepsisters were hard on me, but not as brutal as I’ve seen. I slept by the hearth on the floor, and sure, I still got covered in ash, but at least I had a rug between me and the flagstones. I did appreciate the fairy godmother, but I must admit that she was a little wearisome. I’m used to fetching, mending and coming up with ingenious ways to outwit my foes. Of what use is all that hard work and skill building if I don’t get to apply it to my own situation? I appreciated the rats and mice coming to my rescue, and the pumpkin carriage was truly original, but what of it? The fairy godmother was kind and thoughtful, but I sensed a smidgeon of smugness. Call me ungrateful, but I wouldn’t have minded having to stretch my faculties a little.

Time: 1812
Place: Germany
Alias: Ash Girl
Notes: I can hardly talk about being “Ash Girl.” Father did not die, but remarried after Mother did. My stepmother and two stepsisters were cruel, and Father did nothing to stop them. He even beat me black and blue when my stepmother convinced him that I was being conniving. How else could I survive? I slept in the kitchen, I did all the work and when I asked to go the ball, my stepmother threw the lentils in the fireplace and told me to pick up every last one. Even after I called on the birds to help me in the task, she threw them in again. I cried out to the tree that grew from my dead mother’s bones. I was gifted with a dress to wear to the King’s ball. Three times I went to the ball and three times I fled, but one of my silver slippers gave me away. Of course, my stepsisters would hack off their toes and their heels to try and fit into my slipper. But it was mine, and the truth prevailed as it always does.

Time: 19th Century and much earlier
Place: Canadian Maritimes
Alias: Rough Face Girl
Notes: I found myself in a kind of dream. An older legend and a French-Canadian tale merged, and I found myself in the middle of the whole thing. I have heard of later versions of this tale that smooth over the difficulties I faced. Those tales say that I got my scarred face from tending the fire, but it was not so. My family was abusive, singeing me with hot coals and forcing me to labor hard. No one in the village would help me. I had no hope beyond surviving each day and seeking the eyes of anyone who seemed like a potential savior. Help did not come. There was no prince but only an invisible man who all the girls hoped to see and to marry. I was the one who saw him, and I was the one who went away with him. Some truth seekers believe that he was not my husband but death, come to put an end to my misery. Some storytellers say that my story is not a Cinderella tale, but truly an allegory of loss faced by the Mi’kmaq Nation with the coming of Europeans. It is beyond my ability to tell you any more than what I faced during the telling of one version of this story.

Time: 1950
Place: Hollywood, CA
Alias: Cinderelly
Notes: What a bore. It’s one thing to have cute little animals helping me in and out of my coach, but it’s quite another thing to be treated as if I haven’t the wits to boil water. The birds and the mice did everything. I didn’t even feed myself for heaven’s sake. And what’s with the fairy godmother? I know I’ll sound ungrateful, but the woman was a dumpling. In her case a little bit of mystery would have helped. And what happened to my face? I was too sexy for myself, if you know what I mean.

Time: 1988
Place: Zimbabwe
Alias: Nyasha (“Mercy”)
Notes: I’ve done this one before, long ago, but had forgotten it until John Steptoe brought it back to life. I have a sister and she and I are beautiful and a blessing to our happy father. My sister is very good at hiding her inner devil, until the day when the King seeks to wed a worthy young woman. I don’t fight to become his bride, but my sister is determined. Unfortunately for her, the darkness within her cannot be hidden, while my inner light attracts the King’s notice.

Time: 1997
Place: Frell
Alias: Ella
Notes: And now, for something completely different. I had a lovely time being Ella. I had my wits again, and my sense of humor. There was a sweet prince charming, but I only like him as a friend at first – certainly not enough to throw my slipper at him on the first date. And he, what a darling, was a friend to me. There was a new twist, too. This time I was under a spell cast by a thoughtless fairy (A far more realistic scenario, don’t you think?). The spell forced me to be blindly obedient to any command given by any person. I liked the fact that I was under a spell. It made me look less a dunce for being such a “good girl.” I had a best friend, and a bit of a journey, both of which took me out of the usual rags-to-riches routine. My stepmother was wicked, but too self-involved to bother me very often. The stepsisters were delightfully stupid and shallow.

Time: 2000
Place: Spice Islands, Indonesia
Alias: Damura
Notes: My stepmother and stepsister were vile. Their cruelty forced me to cry out to the animals for help, but Grandmother Crocodile heeded the call. She was a beast of a fairy godmother. I couldn’t have loved her more. She helped me get the guy, of course, but having a frightening, dangerous beast as a mother figure gave me a sense of my own power and worth in a way I have never known before.

Cinderella has also been to Egypt, Russia, Mexico, The Caribbean, Spain, Ireland . . .
She is as well traveled as any fairy tale gal, and more so than most.

Recommended reading:

Cinderella: Ashes, Blood, and the Slipper of Glass by Terri Windling

SurLaLune Fairytales by Heidi Anne Heiner – annotated version of Cinderella and history of Cinderella

Cinderella Around the World

Native Languages of the Americas: Glooscap Stories and Other Micmac Legends

Children’s Books (review of The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin)