Team Ahimsa Blog Relay, Various Contests

Conspiracy - #30DBC

PROMPT November 20th

In your blog tonight/today, write about a story you've been told, or use a newscast story and CREATE a conspiracy theory. Tell us why you chose this subject, and of course, provide 'evidence' that your theory could be rooted in truth.


I must've been about six or seven years old. We were having dinner with Dad's colleague and her family. At one point, she mentioned her son, (let's call him 'J'). She said "So J and his step-mother ..."

I froze.

Step-mother?

But step-mothers weren't REAL, were they? They existed only in fairy tales like Cinderella, solely to starve, overwork and conspire to get rid of their children. J, someone I knew personally, had a STEP-MOTHER?

But there's more. This colleague's ex-husband, with his new wife and J all lived in the same apartment house that Mom, Dad and I lived in. Which meant ... which meant ... (shudder) I had shared the elevator with a step-mother at times!

In the car on the way back, I questioned my parents. Yes, step-mothers were real. No, J wasn't going to be starved, overworked or poisoned. Hadn't I met the lady, wasn't she nice and kind?

But that was the point, wasn't it? They LOOK nice and kind to lull you in to a false sense of security and then - WHAM they pounce. J's step-mother wasn't going to pounce.

The next time I was in the elevator with the lady, I studied her closely. I thought I was being discreet, but apparently she noticed. She smiled at me. "I have a new pet macaw," she told me. "Would you like to come over and see him?"

I got off the elevator on the 4th floor with her (I lived on the 8th floor) and went to her apartment. I was in the house of a step-mother. It looked normal. Nothing appeared to lurk anywhere. The macaw was lovely and she presented me with a beautiful big feather he had shed. She gave me biscuits, and I wasn't even afraid to eat them. I had realized by then that she was friendly.

Why do fairy-tales make villains of step-mothers? Is it because the first marriage is supposed to be sacred and shouldn't be broken, so that a step mother was necessary at all? Is it because step-mothers are convenient scapegoats? I'm not sure. I'm just glad I made a new friend in my apartment building.