Beauty And The Beast: The Classic Fantasy Fairy Tale With A Twist

by Kristie Lynn Higgins

  Chapter Two

  The Day In The Life Of Jane

  Jane hummed to herself as she entered the publishing house she worked for, carrying a box she had purchased from the local bakery. She had her brown hair pulled back in a pony tail, and she wore blue jeans, a gray Superman t-shirt, and sneakers. She would do it today. Jane would have at least one person remember her name and a sweet bribe would do the trick. She passed several people as she headed for the receptionist area as she greeted each of them by name. They didn't return her greeting, seemingly busy about their own work. Jane reached the receptionist desk, placed the box of goodies on a table to the right of the receptionist desk where a coffee machine was set up, and opened the box. A dozen donuts laid inside. The receptionist was on the phone, so Jane waited till she hung up. There was another woman there, and she was fixing herself a cup of coffee.

  "I've brought donuts today, and I got your favorite, Debbie. You better grab the Bavarian Cream before someone else does," Jane told the receptionist and then she spoke to the woman putting sugar in her coffee, "I even got your favorite, Karen. Cinnamon Twist is also one of my favorites. Eat them while they're still fresh."

  With a big smile on her face, Jane looked from one woman to the other, waiting on some sort of reply from them, but when none came, she said, "My names Jane. I work on this floor."

  The two women continued to look at her blankly, so Jane reached into the box, grabbed a chocolate donut she had purchased for herself, and headed for her office. She yelled over her shoulder, "Don't forget... Eat them while they're fresh."

  After she had left, Karen turned to Debbie and questioned her, "Who was that?"

  "I'm not sure," Debbie replied as she turned and glanced in Jane's direction as she headed through a hallway. A fog seemed to cover Debbie's memory of the woman who had brought donuts and as time went on, more and more of the phantom-like woman faded from her mind. Debbie added, "She acted like she knew us. I wonder who she could be."

  Karen questioned her, "Don't you think you should call security? You just can't have anybody walking around the building."

  Debbie reached for the phone, then paused as the fog magically lifted a bit, and Debbie said, "I think that woman works here. I just can't remember her name."

  "She must not have worked here very long," Karen said. "I don't ever remember seeing her before. The odd thing was that she knew both of our names. She should really introduce herself or no one will know who she is."

  A man walked up to the desk and asked, "Who are you talking about?"

  "What do you mean?" Debbie uttered, looked to the other woman who also didn't have a clue what the man was talking about, and then she honestly answered, "We weren't talking about anyone."

  Jane continued on to her office where she worked as an illustrator. She took a bite of her donut and found it hard to swallow as she got a little choked up over her failed attempt to break what seemed like a curse. She put a lot of effort in selecting the donuts and spent weeks figuring out what the people on the floor favored. Jane remembered the look they gave her, the familiar gaze that bore no recognition in it, and she knew to them she was but a stranger. She was lucky this time they didn't call security on her. The loneliness of never connecting with anyone plagued her life, but she wouldn't let it win. Jane would find a way to break the wall that surrounded her that hid her from everyone and once she broke free of it, someone would remember her. Jane felt she should have friends and was determined to make them.

  It had been five years since she started the job as an illustrator, and she loved the work she did for the company. She mostly worked on art for children's fairy tales, and her artwork hung all over her office. She currently worked on a version of Beauty And The Beast for one of the company's popular authors. She finished eating her chocolate donut, then walked over to the sink, and washed her hands. Her office was equipped with a small kitchenette. One of the perks for being one of the top illustrators for the company. She had the perfect job and loved what she did, but she couldn't seem to connect with anyone. Jane's affliction, as she sometimes referred to it, tormented her since she was a child. The world around her seemed to disconnect from her or was it that she was disconnected from them? She didn't know, but tried not to let it bother her too much. Jane hoped one day her life would change.

  She went and sat at her desk and started again on a drawing of a stained-glass window with an old woman in it holding a rose. It was one of the opening illustrations for the book. Jane went about her work day and greeted everyone she came across. She knew everyone's name, but they mostly seem to look at her as if they had no clue who she was. Jane always wondered if they were just being rude or truly didn't recognize her. Sometimes Jane wondered if she was cursed like one of the characters in the fairy tales.

  Jane put the final touches on the drawing of the old woman, then peered at the character's face, and felt something was missing. She twirled a small silver ring around her left pinkie as she thought about it a little more. Jane knew something was missing, but she couldn't put a pin on it. She decided she would come back to the character tomorrow after she had a good night's rest and see if the MIA item would come to her then. Jane leaned back in her chair and stared at the ring of intertwined tiny flowers she fidgeted with. There was something she couldn't remember. It always seemed like there was something she couldn't remember.

  Standing and stretching, Jane decided she would take a short break and walked around her office. Hundreds of drawings from dozens of fairy tales filled her walls, but her most precious drawings she kept in a scrap book, and she went and flipped through it. Two characters dominated the book. One was of a red rose, though Jane couldn't figure out why she insisted what usually was an item or prop in the stories was a character. The other character was... well... he... Jane flipped through the pages of his drawings and many of them focused on his feral blue-green eyes and many more of his lips. She slammed the book shut as she blushed. Jane found if she wasn't careful she'd be drawn into the make-believe world. She smoothed her hand over the cover. Sometimes she felt these fictitious people were the only friends she had. Jane sighed, then went back over to her desk, and started on a new drawing of a man wielding an ax.

  Hours went by as she sketched then an alarm went off on her phone. The alarm told her it was time to stop. If she never set the alarm, Jane found she would work through the night drawn into the world she sketched. Jane hit snooze, put some finishing touches on the drawing, then stood as her alarm went off again. She tidied up her workstation, and headed out as she always did and just as she was leaving, Karen and Debbie were also heading out the door.

  "Hello," Karen said. "Are you new here?"

  "Not really. My name's Jane. I'm one of the illustrators."

  "Oh..." Karen replied back.

  "Hey new girl," Debbie began. "We're going out to dinner. Do you want to come along?"

  Jane was about to tell her again that she wasn't new at all, but when Debbie actually invited her somewhere, she quickly forgot about the correction and replied, "I'm in." She searched her person and found that she had forgotten her wallet that she usually kept in her pocket; it was on her desk back in her office. "I just need to go get my credit card."

  She ran off and quickly collected the wallet and placed it in her jean's back pocket and rushed back to the exit of the building. Karen and Debbie were waiting there along with two other guys and another woman.

  "I'm ready to go," Jane told them.

  Debbie looked at her as if she had no clue what she was talking about and then Debbie said, "Ready to go where?"

  "To whatever restaurant we're going to. I think this is the first time you've invited me anywhere," Jane told them.

  "Who invited you to come?" Debbie asked her as she looked to the other four people.

  A few of them shrugged as a few more glance around us if they had no clue.

  "You did," Jane answere
d her. "You invited me to go out to eat with you. Karen was standing right there." Jane turned to Karen and asked her, "You heard her invite me, right?"

  Debbie and Karen were notably getting upset as the conversation progressed.

  Karen replied, "I don't know when Debbie was supposed to invite you, but I didn't hear a thing." She turned to Debbie and questioned her, "Maybe you invited her before. Did you invite her earlier in the day and forget about it?"

  "I think I would remember inviting someone," Debbie told her. "I don't even know your name, but that doesn't matter. I wouldn't care if you came, but my car is full now with the five of us. Maybe next time you can come."

  The five of them started out of the door as Jane watched them leave. She had flashbacks of when she was a child. She clearly remembered children on the playground who would invite her to join in on their game and when she would start playing with them, they would look at her like they had no clue why she was joining in. Even the different foster parents Jane had over the years would sometimes look at her like she had broken into their house, and she was either there to vandalize their stuff or steal their food. Most of the time that unperceiving look went away before it became a serious problem, but one time, Jane had to convince one couple to call the child welfare place to prove to them that they were her foster parents instead of the police. Because people were always forgetting her, Jane never made any connections over the years, and it troubled her deeply, but she tried to keep an optimistic outlook on her future. She knew one day she would find someone who would connect with her and remember her, and that one day she would find the perfect man who would love her and marry her.

  Jane rushed out the door after her co-workers and yelled after them, "I have my bike with me. I can ride it to whatever restaurant you're going to. Did you hear me? I can..."

  She watched as the group of five made their way to the parking lot and either they didn't hear her or they pretended not to. Jane gave up, knowing trouble only followed if she persisted, so she headed for her bike and rode home. Jane gave herself a pep talk as she rode along. There was always tomorrow... She could try and connect to someone again tomorrow.

  The town the publishing house was located in was small and on a mountain. Jane rented when she first moved to the town, but after about a year, she made enough from her illustrations to put a down payment on a small cottage in the woods and live there by herself. Many times she thought about getting a dog to help with the loneliness, but her long hours away from her home prevented her from ever going through with it.

  Jane stopped by the grocery store before heading home and carried a small bag in her backpack as she peddled her mountain bike. When she reached home, she parked her bike just inside the door, grabbed the bag from the backpack, entered her kitchen, and made herself some homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese. She ate her supper, watched a little TV, and then headed to bed.

  Tomorrow was Saturday, and she would have the day off to... to... She would find something to do with her time off. She put her pajamas on as she heard a rainstorm move in outside. She also noticed that the temperature inside the cottage had dropped a little. Jane was about to get into bed when she heard a knock at her door, so she cautiously went and answered it without opening the door.

  "Who is it?"

  "You do not know me. I am an old woman," the voice on the other side replied. "I have lost my way, and it is cold and rainy out here. Could I come in and dry myself?"

  Jane had heard many stories over the years about strangers showing up and killing everyone in the house, so she was reluctant to let the person in. Jane moved to the window beside the door, pulled the curtains to the side, and saw the old woman who was dressed in a long, hooded purple robe with a gray shawl wrapped around her shoulders. Her clothes were soaked, and she was shivering. She hated to turn the old woman away, but she was also afraid to let her in.

  "Did you're car break down?" Jane asked and then she said, "I can call a tow truck for you?"

  "I was walking. Would you please let me in?"

  "I'll call the police for you, and they can come pick you up and take you wherever you need to go."

  The old woman said, "I would preferred to come in and dry myself just a little while. I will be no trouble, and I can offer you a rose as payment for your troubles."

  Jane heard how cold the woman was and the desperation in her voice, and then the old woman started to cough and it sounded bad. Jane decided she couldn't turn her away, so against her better judgment, she opened the door and let her in. The woman came in and seemed to float across the floor, and Jane also noticed she wore a half mask that covered the left side of her face. The white mask looked like it was made of porcelain. Jane tried not to stare as she showed her to the kitchen table, then she got the old woman several towels to dry off with, and she even plugged in a hair dryer to help dry her clothes and long gray hair. The woman gratefully gave her a long stem red rose that had yet to open, and Jane filled a glass vase with water and placed the bud in it. Jane warmed up the tomato soup and toasted a couple pieces of bread for the old woman. The old woman gobbled the hot meal down gracefully, and then Jane decided she couldn't send her off into the rainstorm to get soaked again, so she offered her the living room couch, and the old woman gladly accepted.

  The two of them sat at the table, and Jane noticed over the course of the night the old woman peered at her unlike anyone had peered at her before. The old woman looked at her as if she recognized her and this made Jane feel accepted and not so isolated from the world.

  The evening progressed, and it came time to go to bed, so she tucked the old woman in on the couch, then Jane went to bed, and for the first time, slept through the night without dreaming the dream. The next morning, she awoke to find that the old woman had left and there was a note on the table written on some old parchment, and Jane read it.

  You do have a kind heart, but your kindness only makes your world that much sadder. Take care to keep the light in your heart, for it is the only thing that will save you. It is the only thing that will save us all.

  Jane thought it was a little odd as a thank you note, but didn't linger on it too long. She found the rose sitting on the counter in its vase, and the bud had still to open.

  The cottage was quiet in a lonely way, so Jane decided that she would go for a bike ride. She ate breakfast, put on brown cargo shorts and a red Flash t-shirt of the comic book hero, then prepared a small picnic for herself, placed the lunch in her backpack, and grabbed her bike. Jane opened the door and noticed that it was very foggy outside and that she couldn't see more than an arm spans in front of her. She rolled her bike out across her gravel driveway and decided just to wait there a few minutes to see if the fog would start to break, but it didn't, so she turned around and headed back for her cottage. Jane would have to wait till the sun rose higher in the sky and burned away the fog. She rolled her bike in the cottage's direction for a long time, then she stepped off the gravel road a few feet, and decided to pause as she never came to the structure or the wooden fence that surrounded her cottage. Now that Jane thought about it, she didn't remember ever passing her fence as she left the cottage. Jane decided that she shouldn't keep going and get herself lost or fall off the mountain, so she waited a while for the fog to let up. It seemed like a whole hour went by as she waited. Jane removed a sandwich from her picnic and took a couple bites of it and then the fog finally started to lift. She no longer stood near the gravel road; actually, it and the cottage were no where in sight, and trees she didn't recognize surrounded her. Jane wondered where in the world she could be.

  She wrapped up the partially eaten sandwich, put it back in her pack, then thought about what she should do next. Jane removed her cell phone, but she had no signal. She was on her own, nothing new. Jane couldn't believe how lost she had gotten in so little time, and she decided she couldn't stay there, so she would climb higher up the mountain that way she c
ould figure out where the town was and then go from there. Jane turned her bike and pushed it up the mountain.