Grimm Fairy Tales

Momiji relaxed into the plush, wing-backed chair, drawing his hand lovingly across the cover of the gilt-trimmed, leather bound book. He loved fairy tales, he couldn’t really say why. There was just something about them. They were truthful about things that other people ignored. Beautiful and horrible. He opened the book to where he had left off yesterday and settled back to read, enjoying the quiet and the warm rays of sunlight that bathed the room through its picture windows.

“Momiji-kun,” he heard a soft voice ask him, “what are you reading?”

Smiling, he looked down into the face of his favorite cousin. She reminded him so much of his sister, only her he could actually play with.

“Kisa-chan!” he exclaimed, letting the book slide to the table and jumping up to tackle her in an enthusiastic hug, while looking around warily for Hiro. Not that he would have acted differently if the boy was there, he just liked to know if he was about to be hit.

She relaxed into his hug for a moment, looking up at him adoringly, before craning her head to look at the book where it lay open on the table.

“They’re fairy tales,” Momiji told her, picking up the book and holding it out so that she could see the illustrations. “These ones come from Germany, about two hundred years ago.”

Kisa drew her legs up so that she was curled up next to him on the chair and set her head on his shoulder so that she could see the book without him holding it at an awkward angle.

“What’s this one about?” she asked curiously.

“It’s called Hansel and Gretel.” He replied, brushing his fingers across the illuminated title. “It’s about a brother and a sister who are caught by a witch.” He pointed to the illustration showing the siblings standing in front of a candied house.

She frowned slightly, “what about their parents? Are they going to rescue them?”

“No, their mother didn’t want them . . .” Momiji said the last so quietly, he wasn’t sure that she’d heard.