Started: 07-21-03 Completed: 04-04-05
A MIX OF FAIRY TALE COCKTAIL
Once upon a time (as all fairy tale stories go), there lived a boy named Maxwell Deanhart living in a nice, quaint and quiet village near the jetty where loads of ships go in and out of the sea. Max was well-known among the village people as the most handsome youngster among his peers. Many girls adore him, and he was an idol to females both young and old. He was the kind of boy all other boys want to be.There was one flaw in his really cute and handsome attire—he was way too adventurous to be living in a quiet village of people who were content with what they have right now. He loved to read comics about battles, good against evil and justice, and has a very vivid imagination, which was quite a problem. His looks didn’t go parallel with his attitude, and girls love and hate him at the same time. The village people thought of it as a shame for he was an upright lad and really right for marriage. The only place he would ever visit throughout this whole provincial village was a worn-out comic bookshop which had seen better days, but sells and rent the best collectors’ edition comic books and graphic novels about Max’s favourite superheroes and villains. The shopkeeper (who was a retiree and a great fan of comic books himself) was kind enough to open the shop just for him to hang out and read, rent or buy his comics, and I tell you, Max could hang out in there for hours when he was younger until his mother had to drag him home.
The only people who could ever tolerate his behaviour were his best friends Bea and Felix. Secretly, Bea had a crush on him and hoped very much for Max to woo her. But she wasn’t too hopeful because she was the daughter of a poor carpenter, and carpenters’ daughters don’t get to marry well-off people like Max, and an even well-off person like Felix (son of a wealthy merchant) would be an even far cry from that.
“You ought to pull yourself together, Max!” Bea complained one day when Max and the gang were hanging out at the jetty watching the ships coming in and out. “Tomorrow night’s the courting ceremony and you have to attend it so that you can find your suitable wife! It has been 3 years in a row and you’ve failed to grab any lucky girl because of your attitude!”
“I don’t exactly want to marry anyone of them,” Max sighed tiredly. “If I want to marry someone, I want to marry a…”
“A princess from a far unknown destination of paradise,” Bea and Felix said in unison before Felix groaned. “Come off it, Max! There is no way you’re gonna marry some mysterious princess out there! Even if there is that kind of princess, you’ll never fit in! You’re no son of a duchess or something, just a son of a famous and quite rich sailor cum merchant.”
“Anything can happen,” Max replied, his eyes full of hope.
“You are going to attend that courting ceremony whether you like it or not, young man!”
Max rolled his eyes when his mother, Virginia Deanhart, gave him a sound yelling. The courting ceremony, to this village, was a part and parcel of their tradition. All bachelors and bachelorettes can attend the ceremony and choose the woman or man of their dreams. Since the age of 18, Max had been dragged to that boring ceremony, only to slip away without a bride 3 years in a row. Now that he’s 21, his mother was worried.
“But, Mom, I told you, I’m not interested in anyone yet! None of the girls appealed to me. I don’t find them attractive at all…”
“That kind of attitude has made you single for the past 3 years, Max. You can’t go running away like that anymore! Now, I’ve got the suit ready for you. You have to go, and I don’t want to hear you wandering near the sea again, is that clear?”
Max sighed as he took the clean, pressed suit handed by his mother. Virginia had always had a grudge with the sea. The sea had killed his father, Blake, when he went on a voyage with his partners Norman and Scott. At that time, legends of mermaids abundant at sea were pretty famous, and his mother had heard a rumour about Blake being lured by mermaids to his death. But Norman told Max that it was a strong wave that swept him away. His other partner Scott was also lost at sea and presumed dead. Max had seen Scott during his younger years—he was a sinister-looking guy with the coldest and most unkind eyes he had ever seen, and he was often afraid of him. Now that Blake was long gone, Norman sold the business to Blake’s relatives and became Max’s butler.
Max took the suit up to his secret attic. In this attic was a collection of marvelous things from the sea, like corals, starfish, frames made out of all kinds of seashells, etc, etc. Unknown to Virginia, Max and Norman often go down to the depths of the sea to collect anything that might be a lead to the existence of merpeople. Despite Norman’s warnings about not to upset Virginia and regardless of Virginia’s forbiddance to go out to sea, nothing could really stop this handsome, hot-blooded young man. The sea instinct practically ran in Max’s blood, just like his old man. Only he and Norman knew of this secret attic. He practically spent his whole childhood in this attic. He viewed this place as his special domain.
Later that evening, as he got ready to wear the suit and go for the dreaded courting ceremony, he saw, at a distance, a kaleidoscope of colours shimmering in the sea. His attic window faced the vast sea, so he could see quite clearly through the horizon. The temptation was too great; he threw away the suit he was about to wear and grabbed his oxygen tanks and all. He threw them down the hedges below and climbed out of the window through his rope ladder and was soon out of the house.
When Norman came up to the attic to find him, he half-expected an empty attic with a suit thrown in a careless heap.
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