Valissa and The Hands That Cared

There was once a little six year old girl named Valissa who was very, very happy and the reason why she was so happy was because she had two parents who loved her and cared for her very much.

And her favourite thing of all would be when her mother or father would lift her up in their hands and whirl and whoosh her around like an aeroplane.

But then, one day, a very sad thing happened.

Both of the girl’s parents had been crossing a cobbled street in town when the driver of a handsome cab who was a reckless, drunken sort of man accidentally ran them down.

And so poor Valissa was forced to leave the house of her parents and live with her aunt; a cold, cruel selfish woman named Mordrella who would make her spend every day cleaning her old house from cellar to attic and every night would lock her into a little room that, if there had been bars upon its window, would have looked exactly like a prison cell and would feed her upon nothing but grey lumpy cold porridge and water or, sometimes, when there was no porridge, a piece of stale bread.

But if that was not bad enough, Valissa’s Aunt was also a very evil witch who had only agreed to take Valissa into her care because, afraid of growing old; dying and going to hell for all her wicked deeds, she wished to work an evil spell and switch bodies with the child.

And to this end, Valissa’s Aunt made the girl change her name to Mordrella and made her wear a long dark wig over her blonde hair and a long dark dress and boots just like her.

“But why do I have to change my name to Mordrella”, the girl complained, “I don’t like the name Mordrella and why can’t I wear nice bright colours”.

“Dear girl”, said her Aunt, feigning concern, “I am simply moulding you as any good teacher would. If I make you like me then you will grow up strong and powerful and wise just like me. Not to mention that Valissa is a silly name; a name for a weak minded little simpleton but Mordrella is a strong name with character and pretty bright dresses are for silly little girls too; if you want to grow up to be a woman then you had ought to dress like one. Now stop complaining and do as I tell you”.

And so Valissa was forced to call herself Mordrella and look just like her aunt but, not only that, Mordella, without telling the little girl, started to put a strange kind of potion into Valissa’s porridge a kind of potion that would make the girl fall sleep but also have bad dreams; nightmares in fact and, in those nightmares, her Aunt would come into her room either as a ghost dressed in a black gown of shadow or a black cat or a raven spreading its black wings or a big black dog with red eyes and, floating over the little girl, would suck the pure, shining spirit of life and youth out of her and, at the same time, breath the soot coloured spirit of weariness and old age into her.

That was how the old witch hoped to switch bodies with Valissa you see and, according to her black book of magic, she would only have to carry out this strange ritual 13 times before the souls of she and the little girl would switch places for ever.

But then one day, something else happened that was also very strange; the door of her bedroom that her Aunt had locked started to unlock and open all by itself and then the little girl, sitting sharply up in bed when she noticed the door open, felt hands taking hold of hers  although, looking down, she couldn’t see any hands.

But then, whoever was tugging upon the little girls hands led her out of her room and down stairs past the room of her Aunt Mordrella.

Now, as she was passing the room, she heard Mordrella cackling and talking out loud to herself.

“Only two more days”, she heard Mordrella say, “Two more days and two more nightmares for little Valissa and then I shall switch bodies with her”.

And, hearing this, Valissa gasped because she realised that her Aunt had been causing her nightmares and that she intended to do something evil to her.

But the hands that were tugging upon hers grew even stronger now; they were tugging her in the direction of the door to the house.

“They want me to run away”, she thought to herself.

And so she went towards the front door of the house but she was not tall enough to open it.

However, in the next moment, just as her bedroom door had; the front door unlocked and opened itself and then, the hands tugging again they led her out of the house and towards the dark forest near to her aunt’s house and, because somehow she felt that she trusted the hands, she ran to where they were leading her, into the dark forest.

But then, her Aunt Mordrella, thinking that her niece was still locked up in her room turned herself into a ghost again and floated upstairs to drain more of the spirit of youth from her.

However, when her Aunt reached her room she saw that the door was open and that Valissa was gone and then, shrieking with anger, the old witch took off her long black dress and her face and underneath was a terrible, hairy monster with sharp claws and teeth which, baying at the moon, bounded, on all fours, back down stairs and out into the night after Valissa.

And then, sniffing the little girls scent upon the evening air, the monster knew that Valissa had gone into the forest and so it charged into the forest after her.

And it was not long, because it ran so fast on its four legs, before the monster caught up with the little girl and poor valissa could hear it growling and snarling as it ran after her.

And soon the monster was so close upon her heels that Valissa could feel its hot breath upon her then, suddenly, to Valissa’s terror she realised that she had reached the edge of a cliff and looking down she saw that below the cliff were jagged rocks and a raging, stormy moonlit sea.

Then, from behind her, Valissa heard the monster stop growling and talk with the voice of her aunt.

“Thinking of running away from me were you”, said her aunt,  “Well I’m not finished with you yet little girl. Now, either you come back to the house or I will eat you up”.

But the little girl shook her head.

“Never. I’m never going back into that house”, she said, determinedly.

So then the beast, howling, sprung upon its long hairy back legs, leaping up high in the air and was about to pounce onto the cowering girl when, suddenly, the hands that had lead Valissa there lifted her up into the air, wooshing her and whirling her around just like an aeroplane before carrying her as fast as a rocket up to the starry dark blue sky.

Then, looking down, Valissa saw the hairy monster that had been her Aunt go crashing down over the edge of the cliff and onto the sharp rocks and stormy sea below.

But Valissa, though she had been terrified earlier, was not frightened anymore because now she recognised the hands that were lifting her up and carrying her through the air; they were the hands of her loving parents.

“It was a long way from the heaven to the Earth”, she heard her father say, “But we managed to get here just in time”.

But then, making a large U turn, the hands of her mother and father lead Valissa back to the house of her Aunt.

“Why have we come back here?”, asked Valissa, “To this awful place”.

But then, up out of the ground there rose an enormous treasure chest which, opening by itself, revealed hundreds of gold coins and jewels and other trinkets; in fact it was so full of treasure that it spilled out all around the chest.

“Mordrella acquired all that treasure through the use of her evil black magic”, said her mother, “Now it and all that belonged to her is yours and so will not have to worry about your future”.

Then her parents took her flying again and this time, took her all way up beyond the stars to their little piece of heaven; a cottage in the clouds made of stardust and moonlight and there she ate cakes made with nectar and tea made with ambrosia and afterwards they saw all the sights of heaven and then taking Valissa back down to Earth they told her;

“Though many storms may come your way;

be good Valissa and hope and pray

and you’ll live a life both bright and gay

and we’ll all be together in Heaven someday”.

Then her parents flew back up to heaven and Valissa did, as they had promised, live a very happy life.