Another Fairy Tale

Shards of silence fell over the group. The Voice boomed again;
“Airies and Airymen. These are times of great uncertainties. We must find a solution to this crisis at once or face extinction”

The owner of the Voice was a pompous looking man. The overhead lights cast an eerie glow caused by the reflection from his orange and green coloured robes. He sat erect with his hands folded on the rectangular ivory table that filled most of the space in the room. On his head, sat the Voice. It was the last surviving member of its clan. It belonged to the Emperor since he was a boy of eight. Long before he made a fool of himself without clothes.

“If we don’t stop her before tomorrow, we are all doomed. Gone will be the days of riding on our glorious past. Oh! It will all be such a waste. Such a poor little waste”, Mrs. Hood cried hysterically.

Mrs. Hood had been a heroine in her hay days. Now, the red cap looked a little ridiculous on her scanty haired head. It had taken a long time to convince her mother to poison her grandma. The old hag was ninety and still sitting on mansions and palaces all over the country. She had taken advantage of the Wolf’s secret crush on her. She wasn’t that little after all. She had convinced him to take the blame and in turn they could live happily ever after. It had all worked out well till a certain Grimm got whiff of the plot and was about to publish it. He and his brothers had to be bribed to rewrite the sound bite and it was a huge hit. The book followed soon after and the royalties were decent even by today’s standards.

They all had tales. Ms. Beauty for one, who was in the business of manufacturing spindles of a special kind. These were supplied to terrorist organizations and could put people to sleep. Forever. Alexander, Hitler, Stalin and even Taliban paid a huge premium on these machines. She too had to rely on Grimm brothers to present a palatable story about her real business.

Cinder also had an interesting tale. Mr. Charming had wanted to marry her, a commoner. These days it was only too easy. Princess Katie and Prince William couldn’t even imagine the difficulties of those days. Mr. Charming had to go to great lengths to put a romantic, dreamy eyed spin on things. He had utilized public sympathy with the ‘Shoe that fits’ campaign. Eventually, it had all worked out well. They had to approach Grimm for publicity and image management. Her step mother and sisters had only been too happy to play the part. Who wouldn’t with that kind of money in the offing?!

The Emperor himself, who now chaired the meeting, had a lot at stake. When he had been caught in a compromising position with his partner, he had to turn to Grimm to turn things around. Being a homosexual was an idea that was abhorred in those days. A man in his position could lose everything.

They were all faced with an impending catastrophe. Everything created so painstakingly could fall to bits. One crazed woman could undo it all. Turn things to shambles. They had long ago stopped their appearances in public. They were content with their race being re-branded as fairies instead of ‘Airies’ and dished out in glossy story books and Disney toons. They had taken to disguising as humans. They would secretly laugh, when once in a while they peeked through a window and heard such fairy tales. But overall, life was good. The money was good. And above all, their secret was safe with the Brothers.Untill yesterday

The phone rang. It was barely five. He had slept late after dropping Rumpelstiltskin to the airport. He woke up with a groggy head to only find himself frantically beckoned by the new android that Rumples had gifted last Christmas.

“The Emperor speaking”, he barked on the phone.

“I know who you are”, a shrill voice sounded at the other end.

“I have no patience for crank calls at this hour”, said the Emperor, annoyed.

“ Grimm told me everything. I know who you are. Unless you are willing to listen and give what I want, am going to spill it all out. I have proofs. Spindles, poisoned apples and best of all pictures of you in your naked glory”
The Emperor forgot to breathe. For what seemed like an hour but was only a few seconds, the Emperor saw his world fall apart. He now whimpered, “ Who are you and what do you want?”

“Who I am, is unimportant. Let’s say am one of the grim exes”, the woman at the other end chuckled, pleased at her own wit. “What I need is to get a deal on the inside. I am too old now, but I want my bother to be an Airie. The only twist is that he doesn’t want to be a part of your happy mushy world. He wants to be one of the Bad Ones. He has got his head around being remembered as a legend. The problem is that he has no credentials. The only worthwhile thing he has done was being friends with an organization in Pakistan. But he wants to be remembered as the greatest terrorist of all times. Such that one day, mothers tell stories about him. He wants children to talk in hushed tones and say, ‘Osama could live ten years amidst guns and nukes. And when he died, the U.S President himself left all agendas to make an announcement.”

And now the only thing that was in the way of ‘Tale of Osama and the U.S Military’ was the Voice in the Emperor’s head. That stopped him from being party to creating and living another gigantic lie. Or in the local parlance, another fairytale. Would the Voice win?