Hansel & Gretel Re-Made

Hansel & Gretel Re-Made

            On a sunny day in late August, Sara and Chris were outside planting flowers for their mother who was very sick. They hoped the flowers would cheer her up because she could not plant them herself. Chris, the oldest of the two had come up with the idea the week before, and since then they had spent every moment they could in their mother’s garden pulling weeds when a can pulled up to the curb with a sign on the side that ready CANDY in bright red letters.

Sara and Chris didn’t have any money, so they quickly raced into the house to ask their mother for some. As soon as she heard the news, she immediately told her children that they were never to go near the van. “The man is a stranger” said their mother, “you must never talk to him or take anything he tries to give you. Now run along and play, I’m feeling very tired.”

So the children went back to the garden and continued to pull weeds. A few hours later Sara was just about to suggest they take a break and go inside to have some lemonade when she looked up and saw the man from the candy van walking toward them. “Hello” he said. “My name is David, what’s yours?” Sara remembered what her mother said about talking to strangers and took a few steps away from the man when Chris spoke up. “I’m Chris, and this is Sara” he said. Sara grabbed his arm and pulled him away. “You can’t talk to him! Mom said so” Sara cried out. Chris shook her arm away and walked toward the stranger.

He was dressed in a way that made Sara quiver with uncertainty. The man wore black pants and a collared shirt that was partially hidden by a long black trench coat and a hat that covered one of his eyes. She did not understand how Chris could not be afraid of the stranger.

As Chris talked to the man, Sara noticed that he had a strange twitch in his eye, and she could not bring herself to look away.

Then as if she was being woken from a dream, Sara heard Chris say “what do you think Sara?”

“Huh?” She asked confused. She hadn’t heard a word of their conversation.

“Do you want to look at the candy and get one? He said we could each have a piece for free, and it’s all homemade!” Chris said excitedly.

Sara thought about what her mother had said and tried to pull Chris away. “No” she said, “I don’t want to see the inside of his van, and I don’t want candy from him. He’s a stranger. Mom said we shouldn’t even be talking to him.” “Don’t be so scared Sara, he’s nice.” And with that Chris walked toward the man who escorted him to the van.

Running to the van behind Chris and the man, Sara announced she was going with them. She wasn’t going to let Chris go in there by himself.

As they stepped into the van they heard the doors close behind them, and felt the engine start up with a whir and a bump, and suddenly they knew they were being driven away from their home, their garden and their very sick mother who would never know that they had been taken away.

Creative Writing Piece

Emily looked up from her newspaper at her mom who was on her way out. “Do you have to go? It is getting dangerous out there” Emily cried exasperatedly. “Yes I do. I am doing this for you and your future children.” Her mother kissed her on the forehead and quickly left the house. Emily looked back down at the newspaper’s headline that said Women’s Suffrage Movement and sighed. The date at the top of the paper said February 10th, 1849 and the women’s suffrage was on their way. She was worried about her mother who helped create the Declaration of Sentiments and was now a main role in the Women’s Suffrage.
It had been 29 years since women decided they wanted the right to vote, and Emily thought they were fighting a losing battle. Women would never be given equal rights she thought.
In every corner of the room though, it seemed things were changing. Newspaper clippings lined the counter, and methods of change were spread across the kitchen table, leaving very little room for Emily to eat. She got up slowly from the table so she didn’t disturb any of her mother’s papers and walked over to the counter and picked up an apple, some of the only food in the house.
Outside the window the world was changing, and everyone knew it. Women’s rights was only the first step in a long war against men, women no longer wanted to be powerless in America.
Emily recalled only a year ago when the women’s reform really took off, they agreed that “women [are] autonomous individuals who deserve their own political identities.” She was deep in thought as she walked back to the kitchen table and accidentally bumped into it, sending papers and newspaper clippings flying across the room. She ran to pick up everything before her mother came home when she saw it. The Declaration of Sentiments was right there, it had been hidden underneath all of the newspapers, but now she saw it. Emily slowly picked it up, she was curious to see what it said word for word. She glanced halfway down the page to see the words “We hold truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
At the very end of the page were signatures, some men and some women. She glanced at the men’s signatures and couldn’t believe her eyes. She counted them one-by-one and found 32 men’s signatures. She collapsed in the chair next to her. Breaths came in short, slow bursts as she re-counted all the times men had told her that they would never support the women’s suffrage, that nothing would ever change for women, that this was a man’s world and women should accept it. The fact that so many men would care enough to put their names on a paper that supported the equality of women astounded her. She walked back over to the window and wondered aloud to herself, “maybe women will have the right to vote.”
Her mom came back through the door and Emily walked quickly to her and gave her a hug. “Tomorrow I want to come with you to fight for our rights” Emily said to her mother who smiled back with a tear in her eye. “Of course you can come, we could use all of the help we can get” her mother replied. The world was changing, and Emily was determined to play a vital role in her future and her children’s futures.