The Wonderful Gift

Now Maria,¨ said the Princess Esmerelda to her sister, ¨try on some of this red.¨
¨It´s pretty bright,¨ said Maria applying some of the bright red polish to her nails. ¨Do girls in the university actually wear it?¨

¨Sure, but that´s why it´s so much better in the city. You get to live with all the cool people and none of these obnoxious boring people. I can´t wait to go back tomorrow.¨
That made Maria sigh. She envied her sister so much for getting to travel to exciting places like the city. Oh well. Tomorrow she would turn fifteen. Which meant that she was just two years away from being sent to the City University for education herself. She would just have to wait.

¨Oh excuse me,¨ said a voice. Both girls turned to see their younger sister, Regina, come into the room.

¨Look who´s here,¨ said Esmerelda rolling her eyes. Perhaps because they were so far apart in age, Esmerelda and Regina had never gotten along well. And now that Esmerelda was away, they hardly spoke at all.

¨Um. . .Maria,¨ said Regina somewhat shyly. ¨Tomorrow is your birthday. . .¨

¨Of course it is,¨ Esmerelda. ¨This entire castle has been doing nothing but plan the party, or didn´t you notice that?¨
¨Right, but I thought maybe we could do something else besides.¨

Maria shrugged. ¨What did you have in mind?¨

¨Well, maybe we could go for a ride in the country and down by the river, we could even go swimming.¨

¨Swimming?¨said Esmerelda. ¨That´s what you like to do. Not what anyone else likes to do. What are you saying? That Maria is a fat pig who needs to exercise more?¨

Regina turned red with embarrassment. ¨No. . .Er. . .Actually, just the other day, Maria told me herself that she was worried about feeling a little chunky, so I thought. . .¨

¨Listen, pest,¨said Esmerelda. ¨Do I look fat to you?¨

Well, no she didn´t. Esmerelda almost looked like a stick covered in skin. Both girls envied her.

¨I´ll have you know that I don´t go anywhere near water unless I´m taking a bath and neither does any girl in the University. Swimming´s for boys, so Scram. ¨

Regina sighed, looked quickly at Maria, then turned and left the room. It was a funny thing about Regina. When Esmerelda was not around, Maria might have felt sorry for Regina or even liked her, but Esmerelda always pointed out just how ugly and hateful Regina was so that Maria remembered to hate her properly.

¨You know,¨said Esmerelda when Regina was gone, ¨She got one thing right. You are turning into a swine.¨

That hurt. It didn´t even occur to Maria to point out that Regina hadn´t actually said that.

¨But don´t worry. My present to you will fix the problem.¨

¨Present?¨

¨Sure, I bet it´s the best gift you´ll get tomorrow, but you´ll have to wait.¨ Esmerelda paused. ¨I wish I could be here when you open it.¨

¨Then you aren´t staying for my party?¨

¨I told you I have to get back to the University, but don´t worry. You´ll love the present. Just try not to scream when you open it.¨

* * *

In spite of Esmerelda´s absence, the party was a big success. (Actually, there were a few servants who believed that because of Esmerelda´s absence the party was a big success, but they wisely kept that sentiment to themselves.)

There was dancing, entertaining jesters, and best of all, food. The royal baker made two types of birthday cake and Maria felt obligated to have some of each.

And there were presents. Her father, the king, gave her a copy of the one volume encyclopedia he had just published. Her mother and most of her relatives gave Maria various pieces of jewelry to wear. Regina surprised her by giving her one of the one-piece outfits worn by swimmers. That was one gift she couldn´t resist complaining about. ¨I´ll look ugly in this,¨she said. Regina looked shy, but tried to put on a good face.

Then, it was time to open Esmerelda´s present. It came with a note:

¨Dear Maria,
Happy Birthday. You might want to open this present by yourself and not show it to anyone. It might scare you a little bit at first, but trust me every girl in the University has one and it´s why we´re all so thin.
Esmerelda¨

Maria had taken the present up to her room and opened it.

She gasped when she saw that it contained a finger.

Gross! Why on Earth would Esmerelda have given me this? she wondered.

Then something strange happened. The finger seemed to stand up in the box and begin moving around.

¨What´s going on?¨

The finger seemed to point by itself in the direction out of the room. For some reason, Maria decided to follow it, so she picked up the box and carried the finger in the direction it was pointing. It ended up leading her through the castle to the feast hall where there was still quite a bit of food spread out even though everyone had gone to bed. The finger pointed at one of the cakes. It was a chocolate one with pink icing. ¨What´s the big idea?¨ Maria asked the finger. ¨I don´t want any more cake now. I´m stuffed.¨She stopped speaking because the finger was crawling up her arm, onto her shoulder and up to her face.

¨I don´t understand---¨ Before she could finish, the finger had crawled into her mouth and was moving down her throat.

She felt an uncomfortable feeling as she vomited. The finger landed in a pool of vomit, but it didn´t seem to mind. It picked itself up and pointed at the cake again.

¨Well, I guess I could have some more now,¨ Maria said feeling her empty stomach. She grabbed a piece of the pink cake and then a piece of the other cake which was yellow with green frosting, and began eating. Neither one tasted as good as it had that day because she had that sour vomit taste in her mouth, but she still enjoyed it. Just when she was sure she had definitely had enough, she felt a tapping on her shoulder. It was the finger again.

¨Well, I really don´t want--¨ The finger ignored her and jumped into her mouth. She vomited another time.

May as well go back to eating, she thought. Although, she felt considerably less enthusiastic about it then she had before. She was still eating and feeling rather flushed when the finger tapped her on the shoulder again.

This time, she decided to try not opening her mouth, so she just shook her head at the finger. The finger crawled and began tapping her face as if begging to be let in.


Don´t open your mouth, Maria told herself.

¨Maria?¨ Maria was surprised to see Regina walking into the room. ¨What´s going on here?¨ Regina made a face when she saw the vomit. Looking at her sister, she asked, ¨Is something wrong?¨

Maria just shook her head.

¨Why aren´t you talking?¨

Maria shook her head again.

Regina walked up to Maria and looked directly at her. ¨What is that thing on your face?¨

¨It´s a fin--¨ No sooner had Maria´s mouth opened, then the finger went down her throat.

A large chunk of vomit came out and struck Regina in the face causing her to fall backwards into the pool of vomit.


¨Right,¨ said Regina picking herself up. ¨I´m getting out of here.¨

¨No wait,¨said Maria grabbing her sister. ¨Don´t leave me alone. That finger. It´s making me eat and throw up. Eat and throw up. It´s driving me crazy.¨

¨The finger?¨

¨Yeah. Esmerelda gave it to me.¨

¨Oh,¨said Regina as if that explained everything.

The finger was crawling up Maria´s leg again. Regina grabbed it and looked at it for a moment. Then, she threw it on the table, slipped off one of her shoes, and began hammering at it with the heel of her shoe.

It lay silent.

The two girls looked at each other, then melted into each other´s arms

¨Regina,¨said Maria softly, ¨Do you still want me to come swimming with you?¨

¨I´d love it if you did,¨said Regina puzzled.

¨Good, because I really want to now.¨

* * *¨

One week later, a messenger brought bad tidings to the castle. It seemed that the Princess Esmerelda had fallen very ill.

Maria and Regina continued to ride and swim. While they would never be as thin as Esmerelda, they were both quite beautiful.