Friday, October 23, 2009

The Reign (Title Pending)

She had the world wrapped around her finger. People would drop whatever they were doing and come running at the slightest sigh of discontent, lest she begin shrieking again for attention. A fleeting glance would reveal folds of excess, wrinkled skin, and a scalp easily visible beneath her few thin wisps of hair; when she opened her toothless maw to call for attention, her slimy pink gums would have repulsed many. However, her loyal servants were blind to these otherwise apparent aesthetic flaws, preferring instead to dote on her, exalting her for (what would be considered by everybody else) the extraordinarily mundane. Why, she could nary lift a hand or even smile without being showered with almost incessant praise.
She was hard to please. When she first began her rule, it was months before her servants were graced with even so much as a smile. They waited and waited, the months seeming like years, for her to pay any kind of positive attention to them. They would do anything to try and please her, bring her food, drink, entertain her by making fools of themselves, distorting their features to make humorous faces. Sometimes this appeased her; she would cease her displeased mumblings and watch, contented. Yet oftentimes, this tomfoolery just irritated her, and caused her to scream at them for not understanding her fickle ways.
And fickle she was, very. Her cravings changed from one moment to the next. She would call for food, often in the middle of the night, yet when food was brought to her, she would refuse it, and whine for something else, a massage, entertainment, or just to be fed more attention; her servants were subjected to this torment night after night, trudging from their beds to the kitchen to see if they could procure some food or maybe another servant with whom to trade shifts. Sometimes, they were so tired, and so desperate for sleep that they were sure she only did this to watch them suffer at her amusement, and after she had decided she was pleased with their toil, she would again fall into a fitful slumber, only to awaken and repeat the process a few hours later.
She seemed to rather enjoy her servants’ pleads for her attention. When they were with her, they would beg her, beseech her, implore her, for just the faintest amount of her interest. Day after day, they would beg her to recognize them, or maybe just even to merely call their name, yet she often seemed to be staring into space through red, swollen eyes much too large for her head. She would sometimes act as though she was playing favorites among her servants, screaming incessantly at one yet laughing along with others, and other times she would ignore them completely, choosing instead to focus her attention on the small trinkets and baubles brought to her for her amusement.
The enigma enshrouding this curious and apparently parasitic relationship between this seemingly unappeasable ruler and her obsequious servants is that no matter how insensitive she was to their feelings, their exhaustion, or their stress, they continued to adore her and run to her whenever she called. But just how long will her rule last? A year, maybe two? Or perhaps until she starts preschool?

1 comment:

  1. Dear Danielle,
    The story about the queen is interesting and it reveals how spoiled the inheritors of the reign are. On the other hand, I got really confused, because in the beginning the woman is described as an old lady with phrases such as “excess, wrinkled skin, and a scalp easily visible beneath her few thin wisps of hair; when she opened her toothless maw” and then in the end comes the sentence “A year, maybe two? Or perhaps until she starts preschool?” I understand you wanted to rhyme it, but this finale of the story does not make any sense. As well the word preschool is in absolute contradiction with the heiress of the crown that is illustrated as a repulsive old lady. The representation of the unappeasable ruler is excellent and detailed, but it actually takes the whole story. This piece of writing would be an excellent chapter in a book, where action later on is expected, but here as a single work, it would be better if you include an episode of the queen’s behavior, so that we see her behavior in action. As well the conclusion that her servants adore her is not pretty adequate, because it is actually their duty to please her. The actual connection between them is based just on their goal to satisfy her, which does not really explain why they “adore” her.
    As an overall, the story is a good description of the character, but some action and events where directly the queen is interfered (such as speech) would be good in order to confirm her individuality as a cruel, spoiled heiress of the crown.

    ReplyDelete