Sleeping in Flame

"I agree," Dortchen said.

"Good. Then please do."

The two women looked at each other. Lisette told Dortchen to begin:

Once upon a time there was a little man whose name was Breath. It was a strange name, but because he had such strong magic inside, whoever had created him chose a name no human would ever guess.

Papa let go of my lapel.

The little man was content with this magic for a time, but as he grew older, he realized it was not enough in life. What one really needed was love, especially if you happened to be Breath, who was immortal.

One day he was out walking and saw a beautiful young maiden sitting at a spi

"What is your name?" he asked brusquely, not wanting her to know that already he loved her with all his soul.

"My name is Alexandra, but I'm so sad that I have almost forgotten it."

"Why?"

"Because the king is coming tomorrow and I lied to him. I told him I could spin gold out of straw. When he sees that I can't, he'll kill me."

Now Breath could do this kind of magic easily. An idea came to him. Perhaps if he spun the gold for the girl, she would fall in love with him forever.

At the same time, he had had so many bad experiences with love that he was careful about such things.

"What will you give me if I spin for you?"

"My necklace," the maiden said.

The necklace meant nothing to him, but he didn't want her to know that. He wanted her love, but love is a hard fish to catch and one must do it carefully.

The little man took the necklace and sat down at the wheel, and whizz, whizz, whizz, three times round, the spool was full. Then he inserted another one, and whizz, whizz, whizz, the second was full. And so it went until morning, when all the straw was spun, and all the spools were filled with gold.

The girl watched with delight, but never once in those many hours did she ask the little man his name or thank him when he was done. That made him sad, but those hours together with her alone only made his love grow until it was almost too large for his body.

I watched the expression on his face as the story went on. There was a softening there, a sadness for oneself, a sadness for the truth of history. Dortchen spoke quietly, but besides her voice there was no other sound in the room.

So the king had the miller's daughter brought into an even larger room filled with straw and said to her, "You must spin all this into gold tonight. If you succeed, you shall become my wife." To himself he thought: Even though she's just a miller's daughter, I'll never find a richer woman anywhere.

Papa stiffened. "That's right! He didn't want her. He only wanted the gold. I told her that! But she didn't want love either. She wanted to be queen."

Dortchen and Lisette looked at each other, but I gestured for Dortchen to go on. Instead, she looked at her sister and the other continued:

Everyone knows the story. The little man spun gold for the third time on the promise of Alexandra's child. After a year she gave birth. (To me). He returned and told her to keep her promise.

The queen was horrified and offered the little man all the treasures of the kingdom if he would let her keep the child. But the little man knew she had no love for her son because her heart was as white and cold as a star. Breath replied, "No, something living is more important to me than all the treasures in the world."

He looked at me so sadly, nodding yes, that's all true.

Furious that he had denied her, the queen began to rant and rave so much that her true, mean spirit showed itself. Finally, she said, "Go away, little man. I already have a court midget."

"She hated me so much! She couldn't stand looking at me!"

Lisette was upset by his constant interruptions. She cleared her throat loudly. Alexandra said other terrible things. When Breath had had more than enough and knew how much she despised him, he turned one of her fingers into gold to remind her of his powers. But his heart still ached for her, so he gave her one more chance. "I'll give you three days' time. If you can guess my name by the third day, you shall keep your child."

The story continued. The true story of Breath that Dortchen and Lisette Wild had made up to tell the Brothers Grimm more than a century and a half before. The difference was that their version was exactly the same as the one Papa had told me so long ago in the woods outside Vie

Earlier that afternoon, with embarrassed looks on their faces, the sisters had told me how the Grimms had laughed and laughed at the name Rumpelstiltskin. They wanted to record the girls' story, but felt it was much too sad and wrong in its original form. Little magical men shouldn't be able to get away with stealing human children. It was simply too strange and immoral. No, their story would end with the good and virtuous queen guessing the little man's name because she was so worried about losing her child. Of course his name had to be Rumpelstiltskin because it was the craziest, fu

So Breath ran out of the city with the child into the stormy black night and neither of them was ever seen again.

The effect on Papa was as I'd expected. By the time they'd "finished" the story, he was leaning against the wall, crying and nodding at the same time. Someone other than himself finally knew and had told the story of his sad life.

The sisters, on the other hand, were delighted by his reaction. Lisette asked if he was all right. He spoke in a quiet, haunted voice. "Yes."

When they were done, I waited a moment before asking them to do my favor for me. Originally, in Kassel, when I'd asked them to do it, both were astonished. That was all? I'd brought them back only to do this one little thing?

"Yes, ladies. You created the story. Now continue it. Please do me the favor of adding my small end, or coda, to it. For all time. Forever."

"Do you know who they are, Papa?"

He was so distraught he didn't seem to hear me.

"Papa?"

"What? No. Who are they?"

"They created you, Papa. You're based on a man named Retzner who lived near Kassel. A poor man who once, after having done some work for a farmer's wife, wasn't paid for it. To get even he stole her child. That's correct, isn't it, ladies?"

"Yes. We made it up together."

He looked at me emptily. What was I saying to him?

"They made you up, Papa! You're not real. You came out of their heads. Watch!

"Dortchen, would you finish the story now?"

She straightened her dress in her lap and took a deep breath:

Now, the little man named the boy Walter because he was a human child and needed a human name. But because he loved him so, Breath also taught him all the magic he knew. The boy grew up knowing what it was to be human, as well as knowing what it was to possess great magic.

The two of them lived together happily for many years. But even Breath, magic as he was, made one mistake. And he made it because there were many human things he could never understand. He allowed Walter to grow up! Naturally, when that happened, the boy fell in love with a pretty young maiden. He told his Papa that he wanted to marry and start a family of his own. Breath couldn't accept the thought of losing his only love. He told Walter that if he did marry, he would kill him. But Walter was young and very much in love, as his magical father had once been with Alexandra. Walter ignored his father and married the girl anyway."

"What is this? What do you mean, they created me?"