True Reflections

a reimagined fairy tale

There once lived a king with three beautiful daughters. The youngest two, Hespera and Helene, radiated with winsomeness and warmth, but the eldest, Lucinda, had grown cold and cruel. The king worried it was because she had been so attached to her mother who had died. But no matter what he did, the king couldn’t manage to bring the girl around to be kinder. She was rude to the staff, teased her sisters, and was caught more than once poking a stick at the royal cat. The king consulted with and employed many a wiseman and teacher and none of them had any effect on the girl. The king worried for her and those she harmed. But especially for her as she was now of age to marry and he couldn’t imagine any suitor becoming enamored of her with her caustic, selfish manner.

One day, Hespera and Helene played a friendly game of croquet as Lucinda lay on a divan reading. One of the croquet balls rolled toward her and stopped near her feet. Lucinda snatched it up.

“Throw it here, dear sister,” Helene requested, nervously.

Lucinda sneered. “So that you can continue to annoy me with your constant clacking and chattering? I think not!”

And she threw it as hard as she could into the woods at the edge of the yard. But the king had seen the whole thing, having stepped out on his balcony for some fresh air.

“Lucinda!” he cried. “Go and fetch your sisters’ ball at once.”

Lucinda glared at him. But, while she wormed her way around many things, she rarely defied the king directly. So, with a dramatic huff, she turned and headed off into the woods.

The fallen forest leaves crunched beneath Lucinda’s boots as she stomped her way further and further through the trees. Had she really thrown the ball that far?

She stopped, scrunching her lips in a twist to the side, deciding she had gone too far.

“Looking for something?”

She whipped around to see who had spoken and could find nothing but trees.

“Down here,” the voice said.

She lowered her gaze and saw, on a large lily pad, a hefty frog sat. It was a lumpy thing, mottled browns and ugly greens, and innumerable bumps like so many warts.

“Yes,” the frog said. “Here I am.”

Lucinda stood stunned.

“How are you talking?!” she asked.

“I’m an enchanted creature,” the frog said, matter of factly.

“There’s no such thing,” Lucinda snapped. “This must be some kind of trick.”

“I assure you it is not,” the frog replied. “Now, could it be a small yellow ball you are looking for?”

Lucinda arched an eyebrow.

“How did you know that?” she queried.

The frog just smiled a bit.

Lucinda huffed. “Fine. Do you know where it went?”

“I do.” He lifted his forelimb and gestured down toward the water.

“It went in the pond?”

“Indeed.”

“Well, I’m not ruining my dress for that,” Lucinda declared, haughtily.

“Perhaps I can be of assistance,” the frog offered.

Lucinda squinted, eyeing him, suspiciously.

“You can get the ball from the depths of the pond?”

“Most certainly.”

“Well, go ahead, then,” she said, crossing her arms as if to say I’ll believe it when I see it.

The frog studied her carefully. “I will do this favor for you if you do me a favor in return.”

Lucinda scoffed. “Of course! Nobody does anything out of the goodness of their heart!”

“Or is a good deed not one that should gladly be returned?” the frog proposed.

Lucinda felt as if the frog were testing her. But she couldn’t figure out the endgame.

“What do you want?” she begrudgingly asked.

“If I get the ball for you, you must take me home and you must kiss me at midnight.”

Lucinda laughed. “Why on earth would I do that?!”

The frog cocked his head to the side. “Look into the pond and see my reflection.”

Lucinda’s brow furrowed. But she lowered her gaze to look at the frog’s reflection in the water. To her astonishment, she saw the most handsome prince--blue eyes shining beneath tousled hair holding up a golden crown.

“That is my true self,” the frog said. “You see a true reflection of who I am inside. If you take me into your home and kiss me at midnight, you will no longer see the form that you currently perceive, for you will see me as I really am.”

Lucinda’s eyes wandered as she considered the frog’s words. She couldn’t decide if he was being honest or if it was all some wicked trick. She decided it was the latter and that such a deception deserved to be repaid in kind.

“Fine. I promise,” she said.

The frog instantly leapt into the air and dove into the pond, disappearing into the dark, watery depths. Lucinda watched, waiting to see whether or not he would return. A moment or two later, up he popped with the yellow ball in his wide mouth. He swam to the edge of the pond and released the ball at Lucinda’s feet.

She snatched it up and unceremoniously spun on her heel and marched away.

The frog watched her go. He shook his head.

Later that night, Lucinda sat in her bedchamber, combing out her hair when her window blew open. She turned to find the frog sitting on the sill.

“How did you get up here?” Lucinda snapped.

“I told you I was enchanted.” He leapt to the floor and began to grow.

Lucinda dropped her brush, creeping horror gripping her.

The frog continued to grow, morphing its body with disturbing pops and squishes until it was a towering, hideous creature with searing yellow eyes and horrible talons piercing out of the ends of its webbed limbs.

“I thought you were a prince!” Lucinda choked out.

In a deep, penetrating voice, the frog beast replied: “I am a prince to those who deserve a prince. But you deserve a hideous monster as you are one yourself!”

Lucinda stood frozen in fear.

The frog beast continued: “You are a lying, treacherous, horrible soul. And from now on, when you catch your reflection in a mirror, you will see your true self. A true reflection of who you really are inside. See for yourself.”

He gestured behind her.

Lucinda slowly turned to the mirror. Her eyes bulged and her jaw dropped as she let out a sad whimper before beginning to shake with horror. She whipped her gaze to where the frog beast had been, but he was gone. She returned her eyes to the mirror and, mortified beyond comprehension, she began to scream.

Her chambermaid came rushing in a moment later. She saw Lucinda screaming as she stared in the mirror. Of course, the chambermaid couldn’t see what Lucinda saw in the mirror. But Lucinda just screamed more and more, unable to stop, until, eventually, she had to be locked away in a cell for the rest of her days.

The king grieved his daughter’s fate but knew in his heart she had been lost long ago. And, without her, the palace was once again filled with nothing but love and kindness.

And a frog in the wood nearby enjoyed warm salutations whenever the family’s afternoon walks passed by the pond.