We Can Do It: Wikipedia
Seriously all of my husbands in this life and my past lives have taken me for granted. They think every woman is weak and absolutely "needs" to be rescued on a regular basis. In reality, none of them would know what to do without me. I make sure everything works out smoothly for them and they never have a clue. I've been pretty challenged lately- trying to keep up after five husbands. Let me explain how I got into this predicament.
My name is Holly and I have lived a few different lives- though I can only tell you about this one and my most recent past life because that's all I remember. Basically in my last life, I was promised in marriage to this really gross ugly old lazy man who didn't even make sure I had enough food or clothes. I was a respectable girl though and I didn't want to bring shame on my family, so I lived with it. I put up with all of the filth and lack of food and pretty much anything you would want for a decent life. So anyway at the end of this life, right when the old guy is about to kick the bucket he turns to me and completely transforms into this really attractive rich young guy. I was like "seriously???". He told me that this was his true form all along but that for some reason he had to test my honor and whatnot. He asked what I wanted now that I knew he was an honorable man. I told him I wanted to be loved by him as if he were five men. Well- that was a bad choice of words on my part- this stupid guy took what I said literally and now here I am in my next life- literally married to five men.
It's not all bad- they can be pretty endearing sometimes and all the attention I get is great- but they make SO. MANY. MESSES. Literally and figuratively. I have to clean up their messes in the house all the time- but they are also always getting into battles with their weird family members and then I have to go make sure they succeed or else we all look bad. The latest one had to do with their cousin who is actually a king. They started a big battle with him about something or other and then I had to go to work. I went to their castle and met with the queen- she really enjoys having another girl around to talk to so she totally trusted me. I started setting little things off around the castle generally making people have small quarrels, getting a little bit sick from something I slipped into their food- etc. I even tried to get some secrets out of the king but he was a really creepy guy and tried to take my clothes. I'm pretty close with the gods though so they had my back- as much as he pulled on my clothes, more and more material just kept appearing. Eventually the queen figured out what happened and she got super mad at him but she agreed to let me stay another 13 days. At the end of that period, my guys all came to attack at the same time. They did pretty well in the battle since I had started problems in the castle before they got there.
It can be a bit exhausting trying to keep up with everything but they're my husbands and I love them. I can't say I want this reincarnation to go on forever but I'll enjoy it while it lasts. And hey- someone has got to be around to take care of these five crazy guys.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was inspired to write this story by Nayaran's Mahabharata. The story was based on a huge family and the five brothers were exiled to the forest. I thought the parts about the woman they were all married to was interesting and I wanted to write a story that revolved around her and some of her parts in the story. She did not have a lot of parts in the original book, but I used the basic plot of her life, her backstory, and the miracle with the cloth form the book, and I modified them.
Source: Narayan's Mahabharata: Link to Reading Guide
First of all, love the Rosie the Riveter photo! I thought it was a very fitting yet hilarious addition to your story. Anyway, I really liked your story and the casual point of view inspired by Draupadi. It was a different take on the predicament of having five husbands (who are brothers nonetheless), but your execution was pretty well done! The only thing I would suggest was to have a background story as to why “Holly” is telling us her story: maybe make it her diary or maybe we’re meeting her for the first time or something like that.
ReplyDeleteSydney, I really enjoyed reading your diary-like story of Draupadi and her thoughts on her husbands and the different events that occurred. I really enjoyed reading from her perspective because, like you said in your author’s note, the Mahabharata did not give very much detail to her story and background. I really enjoyed how you depicted her as a strong woman in charge of her own life.
ReplyDeleteSydney,
ReplyDeleteI liked how you did a diary like story because I have yet truly see anyone else do that! I liked how you did it from her perspective and how she has 5 husbands instead of the other way around like the original. I will add that I think you should add more description because even in diaries usually people put a lot of description on how they are feeling. You should add maybe her intense feelings of having 5 husbands because she obviously must feel exhausted or have some intense emotion. Maybe she could truly love one and forced to marry the others? Maybe one isn't so nice to her and another husband she has sticks up for her. I think you could do a lot with this story and the options are endless.