many years. Little did Dympna know, however, that all was not well in her little house. The children had yet to speak to Dympna but she took this to just be shyness caused by whatever troubles they had suffered at the hands of the parents who had abandoned them. She heard them whispering in their room at night and so knew that they were not mute. Let them talk to me in their own time thought Dympna as long as they are happy and healthy that is all that matters.
The children did have the power of speech but unfortunately they did not have the power of clear thought. Having suffered years of neglect and apathy at the hands of their parents Hansel and Gretel had built their own world in which reality slowly became disjointed and the poor children became paranoid fantasists. They whispered tales of giants and trolls and witches to each other late into the night and began to see threat and intrigue in every shadow. Not long before reaching Dympna’s house they had been so convinced that a squirrel and a tree had been plotting against them that they had hidden in a bush for several hours until they squirrel passed their path again and had leapt upon it and broken it’s leg so that they could escape. There had of course been no plot between the quite simple squirrel and quite inanimate tree however Hansel and Gretel were, by then, so beyond having a normal grasp on reality that no-one could have convinced them of the squirrel’s innocence.
The second that the children had seen Dympna they had known what they were up against. They had never seen a woman so old and that could only mean one thing. A witch! It was with fear and trepidation that they entered the cottage. In reality their nutritionally starved bodies were just drawn in by the smell of stew and the promise of warmth but in the not-so-rational parts of Hansel and Gretel’s minds they were being drawn in by some evil magic spell.
As Hansel and Gretel lay in bed on their first night in the cottage they whispered about the witch. “Did you see the way she looked at us?” said Gretel. “With hunger. Surely she means to eat us” said Hansel. They were not entirely wrong. Dympna had indeed looked at them with a yearning in her eyes but it was a hunger to love and be loved again. “Did you see the stew?” whispered Hansel, quaking in his bed. “It had a bone in it. A bone of a boy I’d wager” and so the conversations continued.
As the children grew fatter and healthier they grew no less delusional. It takes more than a few weeks of kindness to heal the damage of years of neglect. Each medicine that Dympna made was viewed as a “potion”, each hug as an attempt to squeeze the life out of them and each pinch of the cheek as a way to test if they were fat enough to make a stew out of. Unfortunately, for Dympna, as they grew more paranoid they also grew stronger.
It was Christmas Eve when the children finally lost all grip on reality. For Dympna it had been the happiest day of her life since Sebastian had died. She had finally found the courage to begin to live again and her heart was almost healed. She went, for the first time in many years, to the nearest village. There she sat for hours as the winter sun glinted off the icing sugar white snow and watched children peering longingly in the window of the toy shop and young couples in love ice skating on the pond. For the first time since Sebastian’s death she felt happiness at the sight of their love and she smiled. Whilst in the village Dympna wrote a letter to her children to tell them of Hansel and Gretel and her plans to bring them up as her own for Dympna had grown to love the children very much.
Dympna bought fresh meat and root vegetables, baskets of candied fruits and jars of honey wine to take back to the cottage. She smiled all of the way home as she planned her special meal for the evening, at which she was going to tell the beautiful children her plans. As she walked she enjoyed the feeling of the crisp air in her lungs and picked sprigs of holly with which to decorate the cottage. Dympna felt like her life, and her will to live, had been returned to her once more.
On arriving home Dympna sat in the garden to rest awhile. Despite the cold she felt hot and sweaty from her long walk and she soon found herself drifting to sleep. While she slept the children watched her with wariness and cunning. They had seen the many treats in Dympna’s baskets and knew exactly what they were for.
“She is planning a feast” said Gretel, eyeing their patron with fear and loathing. “We have not eaten this way in all of our time here. Why would she treat us like this today?”
“It is obvious is it not?” said Hansel, taking on a superior air (as he was a whole year older than Gretel). “She means to eat us tomorrow on Christmas Day. You know that witches celebrate that by eating children and dancing naked around a fire”.
It was no surprise that Hansel had concocted this scenario in his head. He had recently begun to think about girls more and, although he could not bear to think of the witch Dympna naked he got some thrill and feeling of being a grown up just from saying the word “naked”. Furthermore, in Hansel’s mind, all witches danced around fires at some point. Probably just before eating children!
“Whatever shall we do?” asked Gretel, beginning to cry. “Don’t worry” said Hansel puffing out his chest and enjoying his chance to play at being both a grown up and a hero. “I will think of something. Stay here and watch the witch as I go for a rest to think awhile” and with that Hansel went for a lie down to do some serious, grown up man thinking.
It was at this point that Dympna began to stir. She felt well rested but hungry and decided to begin to prepare her special celebration meal. As she tried to stand up, however, her back ached from her prolonged rest in the blistering cold and it refused to move. As she tried to stand once more she saw her darling, beautiful Gretel peering at her from across the garden. “Come and help me my darling” she said “I can hardly stand”. Gretel watched for a while longer, unable to move for fear but then eventually (out of duty or momentary compassion perhaps) went to help Dympna out of her chair.
“Thank you my sweetheart” said Dympna “Now come and help me to stoke the fire for our evening meal”. She called me sweetheart thought Dympna as her panic began to rise. It is true, Hansel was right. She is planning to cook us and my heart will be the dessert! As Gretel helped Dympna into the cottage she began to panic more and more. Where is Hansel? she thought why won’t he hurry up? Whatever are we to do? At that very moment, however, Hansel was not thinking of a plan. He had been, however thinking of plans was very tiring work, especially when lying on a bed on which the late afternoon sun glinted through the frost covered window and made a pool of warmth right over Hansel’s bed. Hansel had fallen quite asleep and was not going to be any help to the now deliriously terrified Gretel.
Dympna had a large pot bellied stove in her cottage. It was much larger than any stove that Gretel had ever seen. The reason for this was that it was the only source of heat for the cottage and in winter the forest could get quite cold. Gretel, of course, thought that the reason was that it was large enough to cook children. It was for this reason that she panicked and acted so terribly when Dympna asked for her help.
“Oh my darling child” sighed Dympna, who was now in a lot of pain and regretting not taking more rests on her walk back from the village. “Please could you lean into the stove a little and stoke the fire. I cannot even bend”. Gretel looked at Dympna with eyes as wide as saucers and a face as pale as snow. She could not move. This is it thought Gretel she plans to cook me right now. Oh Hansel, where are you? In the bedroom Hansel slept on. “Darling child please lean into the stove and stoke the fire” repeated Dympna a little louder thinking that perhaps Gretel had not heard her. Still Gretel stood still. Her eyes grew bigger and started to well with tears and her heart beat so fast that she could feel it even down to her toes. She could not move or think out of the pure terror which now gripped her body.
Dympna gave one more sigh. She had seen Gretel like this before. At least once a week she would take to this malady. She would tremor and stare and be unable to move. Usually Hansel took her away and when they returned she was well again but today Hansel was nowhere to be seen. Dympna had not yet worked out why Gretel did this. She took it to p
erhaps be an illness of the brain or heart. What she did know was that when Gretel went into one of her fits it was pointless trying to get her to move or snap out of it. Oh well thought Dympna I shall have to put up with the pain and stoke the fire myself. I must begin to prepare our celebration meal so that these beautiful children can learn how much I love them and want to bring them up as my own. With that thought Dympna leaned slowly down and into the stove, groaning with pain at every movement.
As Dympna disappeared into the stove until only her bottom and legs could be seen, Gretel was struck by inspiration and suddenly found the will to move. She sprung into action and with all of her might gave Dympna an almighty shove. Dympna tumbled into the stove and Gretel locked the door behind her.
Gretel ran to Hansel to wake him up. “We are free” she cried. “I pushed the wicked witch into the stove and she is burnt to a crisp. Let us grab all of the food and money in the cottage and make our escape” and that is, of course, what the poor children did.
They ran away into the forest and travelled for many years from village to village but never found peace of mind
A Fairy Tale Murder Page 2
