"You all ready?"
"Yup!" she said with a smile!
"Brush your teeth? Wash your face? Comb your hair?"
"Yup, yup, and yup!"
"Did you give your old man a hug and kiss goodnight?"
"Not yet!" Trijatha said. She then ran up to him and gave him a big hug. Her father picked her up and tucked her into bed.
"Goodnight princess," Trijatha's father said as he turned off the lights and closed the door.
Trijatha laid her head on her pillow, closed her eyes, and fell asleep within minutes.
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| Elk Bath by John McColgan from WikiCommons |
Trijatha was standing in the middle of a field she looked around to see the whole world burning around her. She looked around to see bodies piled up, some without their heads or limbs. Among the bodies she notices her uncle, Ravana, his eyes were open with no life left in them. Trijatha turned to see a beautiful woman and a man that was almost godlike embrace each other after what looks like a long separation. The man then turns to a Trijatha's father and hands him the crown. Trijatha's father places the crown on his head and turns toward Trijatha, now king of Lanka. Trijatha catches her father's eye and he smiles. "Come princess," he says, "let's find your new room."
Trijatha wakes with a start. She closes her eyes but all she can see are the bodies of thousands of men that surrounded her in her dream. "It was only a dream", she reminds her self. The darkness of the room seemed to only hide monsters that could be lurking. Trijatha gathered all of her courage and dashed across the room and opened the door. She had to find her father, he would know how to reassure her. Dads always know what to say after a nightmare. The door to her father's office was cracked open and Trijatha peeked inside. Her father was arguing with her uncle Ravana. Right before Trijatha walked into the room to ask for her dad, she noticed something in her father's eyes. There was hatred for Ravana in them. Trijatha knew in that moment that her dad was capable of anything to get rid of her uncle and fear took ahold of her. She ran back to her room and hid under the covers. Trijatha understood that this was not just another nightmare, this was the future. At some point, her father was going to betray her uncle and there would be a battle that would kill thousands of people, all so her father could be king of Lanka.
Author's note: I based this story off of the novel "The Missing Queen". This is a more modern version of the classic Indian story "Ramayana". In this version, Trijatha tells the journalist about a dream she had before the war about what was to happen. I wanted to tell the story as if she had the dream as a child. I thought it would be tragic for a young girl to realize that her father is not the man she thought he was and to know that one day he would betray those that you love.
Bibliography: The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni (2014)
Zoey,
ReplyDeleteThis story was great! There was definitely a shift in my expectations when she fell asleep. I thought she was in the underworld for a second. I can see how she'd be freaked out. I might be a bit of a cynic, but I definitely thought Vibhishana might have had some extra reasons for helping Rama. Anyways, I really enjoyed your story. Great job!
Chelsey,
ReplyDeleteWhat a creative way to show the downfall of Ravana! When I was reading the story I was completely for the overthrow of Ravana but after reading it from the perspective of not only a child but his niece. It made the story a little more dark than the original writing of it. The depiction of Sita and Rama in this were also so different; here they seemed to be portrayed as murders compared to over throwing an evil queen. Very creative!