Finals Week - Cinderella and the Gardener

Prompt: Write an alternate ending for a well-known story

Source: None

Response:

And, of course, the slipper fit Cinderella perfectly. So Cinderella and the Prince began dating, but they soon found that they had very little in common for the Prince had never set a fire or scrubbed a floor and Cinderella could not read a word of Latin or mount a horse, much less ride one. And they went their separate ways.

The Prince married the Princess of the bordering kingdom, a girl who was simple, but kindly enough and he loved her dearly. They had two children, a boy and a girl and, though they were foppish and a bit spoiled their father raised them to read, write and even speak flawless Latin, and he was devoted to them.

Cinderella took a job as a governess to one of the aristocratic families and managed to teach the rotten children some matters before she fell in love with the royal gardener, who brought her vibrant, bright roses and spoke about flowers more passionately than most preachers spoke about heaven. They married and lived in a happy little cottage on the castle grounds. They raised their gaggle of children to know the value of nature’s beauty and hard work. They lived and worked happily together for many years. And the gardener brought Cinderella vibrant, bright roses every day they were in season until the day she died, long after the Prince’s son had become king and Cinderella’s oldest daughter had become the nursemaid to that king’s firstborn son. And every day after until he followed after her, a few days after the king’s second son was born, the gardener tended the flowers that grew on Cinderella’s grave and wound about her headstone.