Fractured Fairy Tales: A SaSS Anthology

by Amy Marie

  “That nurse is the same nurse we have problems with.”

  Merna’s mouth formed the shape of an ‘O’ as it registered that Caitlin would not be the first one to help me now. She was well aware that I’d gone all the way up the ladder to get her out of my daughter’s room. “Gotcha. Well, time to make friends with the other nurses?”

  I shrugged. “I guess. Which ones are showing up? And what kind of coffee is this?”

  “Hazelnut. Extra cream.”

  “Too sweet,” I said, putting the hot Styrofoam cup on the table by Bella’s head.

  “Sorry.”

  “No problem.”

  “The electrician and the one with the weird hair.”

  I scrunched my nose, praying the kid in desperate need of a haircut would not be the one to wake my daughter. Electrician? I could go for him. But the kid with bed head reminded me of Bella’s biological father. The hell I wanted family cycles repeated. It was, after all, why we were in this mess in the first place. Like the curse that put my daughter to sleep, the women in my family didn’t exactly have a great history when it came to picking men. I prayed Merna would have better luck.

  “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” Merna said, like she could read my mind.

  “What’s it cost? Twenty bucks? It was his profile picture! I mean, hell, she’s in a hospital bed and we still do her up,” I said, feeling suddenly protective of my daughter’s honor.

  “Maybe he’s cut it since. But beggars can’t be choosers either. If he’s the one to wake her, you won’t care what he looks like.”

  “True. I’ll buy him a haircut myself.”

  “Oh, how kind of you,” Merna smirked.

  “Oh, shut up!” I laughed, grateful for the rare levity of the moment and hoping that somewhere inside, Bella was laughing too.

  I wondered if it was as stale in my daughter’s head as it was in her room. While Merna and I did the best we could to change out decorations as seasons came and went, and even with suitors often bringing flowers with them, there was only so much we could do in a twelve by twelve square that felt more like a cell than anything else. Pushing away the nightmares I had about Bella being stuck in a filthy room chained to the floor with only a chair to sit in, I pulled my own chair closer to her head and whispered, “Don’t listen to Merna. She’s an idiot.”

  “Hey! I heard that.”

  “Well, you are.”

  “Tell her, Bella. Tell your mother you don’t care about the guy’s hair. If he’s the one, he’s the one.”

  If there was one thing I knew about my quirky kid, who preferred fashion shows to television, it was that the girl liked things neat and tidy. I’d gone with her once to a show in the city and laughed when she winced at the green-haired model with a Mohawk strutting her mentor’s spring line of business casual garb. While she’d insisted it was all wrong, I’d gotten a kick out of the sanguine skirt paired with a warmer orange hue.

  “But the hair doesn’t match!” Bella had growled.

  “So? You need to loosen up. It’s like Christmas – kind of.”

  “Yeah. Kind of.”

  It was just the way it was and had always been with my only child and the kid I’d give anything to bicker with again. God, I missed her.

  Chapter 11

  It was hard to take Duke Larson seriously. His hair was worse than in the picture. I could hardly stand the idea of him kissing my daughter but knew better than to rule him out simply because he had a bad sense of style. Hell, Isabella would probably call the long wisps of wild locks ‘classic.’ Hell if I knew anymore.

  “Doesn’t that get in your eyes?” I asked.

  He laughed, a row of perfect white teeth peeking out behind his pink lips. “Is it a mom thing? My own mother always asks me that.”

  Deciding he at least brushed his teeth and smelt only of cologne, it was hard not to find his dimples cute. Bella, I knew, would too. She’d always loved my smile. She said she wished she’d gotten my dimples instead of her father’s natural resting bitch face.

  Shrugging, I told the kid it must be and gave him the low down. “This isn’t some kind of stare at the sleeping girl thing. Your job is to walk in the room, introduce yourself so she doesn’t freak out—the doctors say she can’t hear but we like to think she can—bend down, and kiss her head. If you’re the one, she’ll wake up.” Saying it out loud, I felt like a moron. But I was used to it by now. At least the kid just nodded his head and whispered that he hoped he could help out.

  Of that, I wasn’t sure. If he was the one, the first thing I’d do is insist he get a haircut. I could start off as the wicked future mother-in-law for all I cared. I could not imagine my daughter standing at the altar with a woolly mammoth. “Me too,” I lied. “Okay, her room is two doors down to our right, follow me.”

  With that, I turned down the halls and kept my eyes forward. There was no sense in playing ‘get-to-know-you’ with another man who, odds were, wasn’t the one. Glancing down at my watch, I cringed. He had ten minutes to make this work or not. Without the help of Caitlin and with the wrong charge nurse on, we wouldn’t get away with going much past visiting hours. This would have to work quickly.

  Inside the room, Bella looked the best she could. She lay on top of a perfectly made bed in the blue gown I always dressed her in. Her hands were folded over her waist and hair the color of September spread over her pillow just to show it off. Other than the tubes and wires sustaining her, she looked exactly like a sleeping princess. I knew, of course, that Bella was not exactly of royal blood. But we were in Salem and it never hurt to play up any curse. I was too familiar with the legends and who everyone had said I was not to be aware of it. Here, blood and who you came from mattered too much. If it took that same illusion to help break the curse? Well, I wasn’t fighting it. I’d brought my daughter back all those years ago for a reason. Unsure of exactly what that was, it didn’t really matter now. Now, the only thing that mattered was pulling Bella back to earth. God, I missed Catherine. Of all of my mothers, she’d get it.

  We stopped at the door as Duke caught his breath.

  “It’s fine. You won’t break her. If the curse lifts, the tubes come out. She’ll be as good as new.” I knew that wasn’t exactly true. Curse or not, my daughter would have to relearn everything again. It would be months before she could even walk. And talking? That would take time too—and that was only assuming she was really still in there. But what he knew didn’t matter now either.

  “She’s beautiful.”

  “Yeah. They call her sleeping beauty. Haven’t you read the articles?”

  “I got that from your Match ad. But still, seeing her is different. I’m not worried about the tubes.”

  “Fix your hair.”

  Again, he laughed. And his laugh was contagious. The entire situation was ridiculous. This kid had no better chance of being part of Isabella’s happy ending than I did of forgiving my birth mother and hers before for tossing us and continuing this shit. Had things been different and had I not done the same by robbing Bella of a relationship with her father at the mothers’ behest, well, Bella would be in New York City at fashion shows for corporate dress.

  We laughed as we approached the bed, Duke pulling his hair behind his ears into a tiny man bun tied in a tight knot. “Better?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Isabella, I’m Duke,” he said, nodding, more to me than anything; almost like he was asking permission. “I’m here to help break the curse.”

  I put my hand over my mouth. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the kid was actually a prince and I might even kiss him myself. “Okay, go on.”

  I took two steps back as Duke leaned in to kiss her. I watched through squinty eyes as machines beeped but Isabella’s pulse did nothing to quicken.

  “Kiss her again. That wasn’t long enough,” I said.

  Again, he planted his lips on her forehead. Again, nothing.

  Maybe the doctors were right. Maybe she was a
ctually dead…

  “Visiting hours,” a voice said.

  Spinning, I was shocked to see Caitlin at Bella’s door. Had the witch forgotten that we’d come to an agreement? And why was she on?

  “This isn’t even your shift!”

  Caitlin cleared her throat and rolled her eyes. “Someone tinkered with my shift. He needs to leave.” Folding her arms over her chest and her ridiculous elephant patterned scrubs, she glared at me.

  “He’s just about to leave,” I said. “As for you? You’re leaving too. I’ll be staying with my daughter tonight. Next of kin. They don’t make visiting hours for that.”

  “Nope. They don’t.”

  “You can leave now.”

  Duke looked from me to the stubborn nurse. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I should get going. I hope she finds the right man. She’s gorgeous. Really.”

  Smiling at him and thanking him for his time, I told Duke I would walk him out. Glad when he declined, I planted my feet next to Bella’s headboard and waited for Caitlin to follow him. I hated my life. I hated my daughter’s more. Maybe the doctors were right and it was time to end the life support.

  Chapter 12

  Three days later

  Furious, I stood at Bella’s door. She had five minutes. I was not allowing Caitlin—roses or not—to even contemplate pulling out her make-up. If she was leaving the Maleficent G. Westford Rehabilitation Center for Hope on her own? Well, shit. Good riddance. But it didn’t mean she had to paint my daughter like one of her messed up, unfortunate corpses on the way out.

  “Hello, beautiful,” Caitlin said, moving toward Isabella’s bed. “I’m going to miss you. I came to say goodbye. I brought your favorites – pink, this time.” She pulled the gigantic bouquet of pink roses in front of her, angling it in Bella’s direction as if she had any shot of waking her.

  There was an odd sense of sadness in her voice. Still, I rolled my eyes, wondering what the fuss was about. It wasn’t like Isabella was her only patient. Hell, she didn’t even work here anymore. She’d quit all on her own. And there’d be more patients to come. From what I’d heard, she was moving back to her mother’s house in Jersey. Far away from my sleeping beauty, we’d all be better off.

  “…come back to visit you.”

  The beeping on Bella’s monitors quickened. “Two minutes,” I said from the door. “You’re upsetting her.”

  But Caitlin didn’t look back. Instead, she moved closer to my daughter, sitting on the bed beside her and leaning in toward her face. Taking two steps in the door to get a better look at the monitors, I bit my lip as Bella’s heart rate quickened. “Hurry up,” I added, wishing the nurse had a sense of decency. The last thing Isabella needed was to be upset. The idea that it might bother her the nurse was leaving was something that hadn’t occurred to me. It did, however, tell me, that maybe she was in there. Bella had always hated change. A huge bone of contention with every move we made…

  I grumbled about human decency and the time as Caitlin pulled one rose after another out of the bouquet and put them to Bella’s nose as if she could smell. It was exasperating watching her lay them, one by one, around my daughter’s frozen body like she was another corpse to play with. At the same time, I had to admit, Isabella looked beautiful with the roses surrounding her against the crisp, white bed. She would have hated it, though—too fancy. Too much color. Caitlin would never get that.

  Beep. Beep. Beep.

  Bella’s heart rate quickened, but not dangerously. I tried to understand it. On one level, I could see why Bella would get attached. But to Caitlin? That wouldn’t make sense. She was of Sarah’s blood. She’d be the last Isabella would come to lean on. The other nurse with the pearl earrings who jogged through the hospital with a pedometer in crisp white running sneakers? She was more the type I could see being my daughter’s friend.

  I could not make out the words Caitlin whispered. Moving closer toward them, I only watched as she pushed back Bella’s hair and leaned in. Pressing her lips first to Bella’s forehead, she kissed her. “I promise, I’ll be back. I just need to work on a new place to live.” With that, Caitlin stood up, smiled at me, nodded, and began to walk toward the door.

  Beep!

  Beep!

  Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

  A tidal wave of beeps and sounds I’d never heard before came gushing out of the monitors. “Get a nurse!” I yelled, lunging for the call button near the bathroom.

  But instead of running down the hall, Caitlin smiled and rushed toward Bella’s bed. Turning to tell her to get out, it took a second to understand what was happening.

  “Her eyes are open!” Caitlin screamed. “She’s awake! Welcome back, beauty! We need a doctor, STAT!” She pounded on the nurse call button just above my daughter’s head as I hit another again.

  My heart pounded hard against my ribs as I pulled to the edge of Bella’s bed. Positioning myself above her, I saw for the first time in too many years what I had only dreamed of ever seeing again. Her pale blue eyes looked back at me and darted quickly to the girl beside me. There, they stayed. And that’s when it clicked: the curse was very, very real. My daughter had been woken by true love’s kiss.

  Epilogue

  Weeks later

  The smile on her face was enough for me. It had been years since I’d seen her without a tube down her throat, causing her chaffed lips to be stretched and an endless line of drool to collect at the edges of her mouth. Watching her pull forward in the bed to drink from a straw felt like a miracle. Remembering back to her last smile before the seizure, walking away from a show with Emily, it was surreal to think that might happen again. But it could. And it was all because of Caitlin.

  I turned to her as I pulled back the curtain, leaving Bella with her new nurse. “You can’t go back to Jersey. You can stay with me,” I imagined my surrogate grandmothers rolling over in their graves as I begged Caitlin Prinn to stay in whispers. While I knew she needed time to get things set back up in Salem, the idea of Bella’s true love leaving had me terrified.

  “Really, it’s okay. I will come back to visit and Bella won’t be here long. She’ll need a more interactive facility. They will transfer her. She’s looking at about a year before she’s where she was—maybe longer.”

  “I have a whole finished basement with a separate entrance. Merna used to stay there. You wouldn’t even have to see me. You could come and go as you pleased—rent free.” Desperation crawled into my voice and I didn’t care. I wanted to shake her. With both hands, I wanted to grab her by the shoulders to make her understand that our families had been living parallel lives all along. I needed her to understand that our continued inabilities to forgive the other had caused the curse to be pushed off and that it was, indeed, real. There was a part of me that knew both she and my daughter still didn’t believe it had been true love’s kiss that woke Bella. But I knew.

  I turned to Merna, lifting my eyebrows to ask for help.

  “She’s right. It’s silly for you to pay rent or travel from Jersey. If you don’t want to stay with her, you could stay with me. We’re like family. What’s good for Bella is great for me.”

  Caitlin smiled, shaking her head. “Stubborn.”

  She reminded me of Mercy, my middle sister, whom I hadn’t spoken to in years since she became bossy about how I was raising Bella. The way she smiled, with her top lip hinting at laughter made me miss my mothers, who’d know what to do with a girl as stubborn as Mercy. In that moment, I could see why Bella loved her. And for as frustrating as the whole thing was, I could understand where Caitlin was coming from. From a centuries old affair, through an orphanage, and now being reunited with the family that started it all—our tainted blood and my story—the girl’s head was spinning. All she wanted to do was be left alone to help her one true love. I got that. Yet, I wasn’t ready to let go.

  “We all are,” I said, forcing myself to let out a laugh and praying she would have the same level of forgiveness as her mother had had. From wh
at she’d told me in the lobby, her mother had purposely left Salem just to get away from the rumors and legends. Determined to get away from families fighting over things they were too removed from to understand, Caitlin’s mother was probably the only sane one in either of the covens’ descendants. It made sense that she’d rather be there. “But, listen. All of this is crazy. A curse. Bad blood. The rumors and the families? What better way to let it go than to pretend it’s not there? You and my daughter’s love could be powerful enough to heal. What’s plagued all of us for years could disappear.”

  Caitlin ran her hands through her chestnut hair, the same color as my own, and smiled ever wider. “That’s what you don’t understand. That’s already happened, Ms. Pry. We’re there.”

  Merna laughed. “She’s right.”

  I wanted to pinch her. But I couldn’t help laughing too. Relief washed over me as I peeked around the curtain to check on Bella. On her first sponge bath this week, she was busy with Caitlin’s replacement and too distracted to be hearing any of this. I was glad. I could imagine her shaking her head vigorously and telling me to back off. She’d be calling me ‘clingy’ and a ‘helicopter mom’—something I never was in spite of what she and Mercy believed.

  It was quite the sight to see. Four women of witches’ blood in a tiny hospital in Salem, Massachusetts coming to terms with the sins of our mothers and sisters. One of us determined to let go. Another determined to hold on. And the third? Well, no one ever really knew with Merna. As for Bella, she was basically missing it all. And this time, as she told her new nurse the water was too warm, I didn’t mind that at all. She’d be back to herself soon enough—arguing with me and aligning with Caitlin. She’d tell me off for the male suitors and ask me how I never knew. I could picture her in only a few months going off on me about the city and fashion school. This time, I wouldn’t try to stop her. Instead, I’d hop on my proverbial witchy broom and visit the girls in the city. We’d eat in overpriced restaurants in clothes too plain for me. And the only cursing that would be happening would likely come from me.