Do you know the story of the Big Sister and the Little Sister? Oh, the Big Sis was so beautiful. She had long golden curls right down to her knee caps and eyes as blue as the summer sky. She smiled and sang as she went about her work. She painted portraits for a living. Half the village had the Big Sis paint their picture and the Lord of the Manor sent for her and asked her to paint him in his splendid robes. The Big Sis was certainly a credit to her family. They were so very proud of her.
It was a shame about the Lil’ Sis. She was small and spindly with hair the colour of a common carrot and eyes as green as duckweed. She tried to paint portraits too but she lacked her sister’s skill. She scribbled and blotched as best as she could but all her painted people looked like pumpkins. The family sighed and shook their heads in despair.
One day a strange girl came tripping through the village. Her face was as white as the moon, her hair as black as night. She asked the Big Sis to paint her portrait. The Big Sis used her costliest pigments and her finest brushes. The portrait was a success and the strange girl seemed delighted. She gave the Big Sis a bag of gold and kissed her on the lips. The Big Sis smiled and thanked the girl in her pretty way and as she spoke her honeyed words a little sticky moisture dripped from her rosy lips.
The strange girl did not ask the Lil’ Sis to paint her portrait. She did not kiss her or give her a bag of gold. She did not even speak to her, although she gave her one disconcerted wink as she walked past. The Lil’ Sis stared after her until she was out of sight.
The Big Sis smiled and smiled and every time she spoke more moisture formed at the corners of her lips and dribbled daintily down her chin. Her mother mopped the moisture, and then tasted it in wonder. It was the sweetest, most delectable honey. Every time the Big Sis smiled, every time she spoke, the honey dribbled. It was quite an inconvenience. The Big Sis had to carry a little glass jar to collect the sticky golden fluid, and every morning she had to change the linen on her pillow. The Big Sis’s mother filled jar after jar of the fabulous honey and sold it at five whole sovereigns per pot. The King himself sent for a pot and when he tasted it he said he must meet this magical girl and make her his Queen so that he could suck the sweetness straight from her lips. He sent his gold carriage for the Big Sis and she stepped inside, waving to her parents and her Lil’ Sis.
The Lil’ Sis wanted to go in the King’s gold carriage too but it was out of the question. So she followed on foot, running after the rapid wheels of the carriage, running until her feet were sore and bleeding. The carriage went into a dark forest but the Lil’ Sis ran after it, although she knew, everyone knew, that the forest was a fearful place, harbouring savage bears that could kill with one claw.
She could hear the bears growling. They came padding through the tall trees, their eyes crazed and yellow, their noses high in the air, smelling a strange sweet scent. They smelt the Lil’ Sis too, but when they saw her wild hair they cowered away from her, thinking it was fire. They smelt a far sweeter scent. The wondrous cloying golden stench of honey. They spotted the carriage. The smell grew overpowering. They tore out the horse’s throat, they felled the King’s coachman, killed the King himself, and then they set upon the Big Sis. They gobbled her all up until not one golden curl was left.
The Lil’ Sis watched for a while. Then she walked on by herself. And after a while she smiled.
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