(derailed fairy tale after Brothers Grimm)

There lived a widow and she had two daughters. One of them, a stepdaughter, was beautiful and hardworking, and the second, her bloodline, ugly and lazy. That widow loved her own daughter much more, even though she was ugly and lazy. The stepdaughter had to do all the housework, she was the Cinderella in the house. Every day the poor girl sat on the road by the well and spun until the thread cut her fingers to the point of blood.

Once she cut her fingers with a thread so much that the whole wound was covered with blood. She bent over the well to wash the patch, and it slipped out of her hands and fell into the well.

The girl cried bitterly and ran to her stepmother and told her about such a misfortune. And the stepmother began to scold her for all the screensavers and finally said:

“You knew how to throw in a rest, so get up now and get it.”

The poor girl went to the well, not knowing what to do. And out of great pity and fear, she jumped into the well and fainted.

And when she regained consciousness, she saw that she was lying on a wonderful meadow. The sun was shining brightly, and thousands of different flowers were blooming around her.

She walked through this meadow and came upon an oven full of bread. The bread began calling to her:

“Oh, pull me out, pull me out, because I’m going to burn, I’ve already died a long time ago!”

The girl went to the oven and scooped out all the bread with a shovel. And then she moved on.

Here she comes to an apple tree, and it is full of apples. Apple Tree asks her:

“Oh, shake me! My apples have long been ripe.”

The girl shook the apple tree, and the apples fell to the ground in a hail. She shook until not a single apple remained on the apple tree. Then she folded the apples into a pile and went on.

Finally, she reached a small hut, from which an old woman was peering out of the window. Her teeth were so big that the girl wanted to run away. But the old woman called after her:

“What are you afraid of, dear child? Stay with me, and if you do well with the housework, you will be fine too. The best thing to do is take care of the bedding, make the curtains as carefully as possible and beat the pillows well so that the feathers fly – then the world will snow, because I am Mrs. Metelitsa, though some people call me Blizzard Bogie.”

When the girl heard such kind words, her heart sank; she stayed with her grandmother and immediately went to work.

The girl pleased the old woman in everything, she beat her pillows so hard that the feathers flew like snowflakes, and therefore she lived very well with the old woman.

She never heard a bad word from her and ate fried and braised food every day.

The girl stayed with the old woman for some time and got bored, and at first she didn’t know what she was missing.

Finally, she realized that she was homesick, and although she was a thousand times better here, she still wanted to return to her native house.

Finally she said to the old woman:

“I am longing for my native land, and although I am very happy with you, I cannot stay here any longer, I would like to go home.”

Ms. Metelitsa said:

“I like that you are drawn home. Because you served me faithfully, I will take you upstairs personally.”

She took her hand and led her to the great gate.

The gate opened, and as soon as the girl stepped on the threshold, a golden rain poured down, and all the gold touched her, until finally she was covered with gold.

“This is for you because you were diligent in everything,” said the old woman and also gave her the patch and the piece of bread that had fallen into the well.

Then the gate closed, and the girl got upstairs, on the ground, near her house.

And as soon as she entered the yard, the rooster flew into the sky and crowed:

“Corn, corn! Gold, adorned!
Our girl is coming,
Golden she becoming!”

The girl entered the house, and her stepmother and sister, seeing the gold on her, rejoiced; they did not know where to put it.

The girl told about everything that happened to her, and when the stepmother heard how her stepdaughter had achieved such great wealth; then she burned with the desire to get such happiness for her ugly and lazy daughter.

So the snoozy-shmoozy woman went to the well, sat down and spun, and in order for the remedy to be in the blood, she pricked her finger, sticking her hand into a thick bush.

And then she threw herself into the well and jumped there herself.

She found herself, like her sister, in a marvelous meadow and followed the same path.

When she reached the oven and heard the bread shouting: “Oh, pull me out, pull me out, because I’m going to burn, I’ve baked for a long time!” she answered: “Ouch! You think that I want to get dirty because of you! Get the hell out” and went on.

Soon she reached the apple tree and, hearing it shout: “Oh, shake me, shake me, my apples have long been enough!” she answered: “Wow! I didn’t have a job! Witless wood! Another apple will fall on my head!” and went on.

When she came to Mrs. Metelitsa’s hut, she was not afraid of her large teeth, because she had already heard about them, and immediately agreed to be hired by her.

The first day she tried very hard, she obeyed Mrs. Metelitsa when she asked her to do the work, because she was only thinking about the gold that the old woman would give her, but on the second day she started twiddling her thumbs, on the third even more so – she didn’t want to get up in the morning.

She didn’t make Mrs. Metelitsa’s bed properly, and she didn’t fluff the pillows so that the feathers flew.

The old woman soon got tired of this, and she told the woman that her service was over.

The lazy woman was very happy, thinking that now golden rain would fall on her.

As before, Mrs. Metelitsa led her to the gate, and as soon as the woman stepped on the threshold, a large cauldron of pitch fell on her.

“Here is your earnings,” said Mrs. Metelitsa and closed the gate.

When the unhappy woman came home, all covered with tar, while seeing her, the rooster flew up to the dark and crowed:

“Corn, corn! Torn, torn!
Moron matron, Sworn, sworn,
Dirty will she be forever!
Dirty will she be wherever!”

Surely, the dirty tar stuck to the sloth so much that it did not wash off as long as she lived in the world.

As for her stepdaughter, she knew the outcome in advance and left this house to marry a hardworking guy in the nearby village… And they lived happily ever after.