The Night Before

After such a crazy night, here I was back where it began. My bridesmaids fluttering around the room. It seemed like more of a dream than reality but the nervous buzz in the room and various bumps and bruises let me know it was real. My bridesmaids all stopped and stared occasionally as if they were waiting for me to burst out in tears or break down completely. I had not told any of them what happened as I was still processing myself until finally my maid of honor broke and ask, "Okay, so are you going to tell us or what?"

I decided it was best to give in and get it out of the way so I began the tale, "I was quietly sitting in my bedroom with my mother when it happened. It was after sundown and I was buzzing. I couldn’t believe I was going to finally marry the man of my dreams. So I was sitting with my mother in my room when the craziness happened. Men in dirty clothes burst into the room and began yelling. It all happened so fast that I did not even know what was going on. They continued to yell and then one grabbed my arm and began to pull me out of the room. I tried kicking him and even biting at one point to try and get away. My mother held onto my arm pulling me back until they threw her off of me. They dragged me outside and pulled me through the woods. I tried to be brave but it was hard not to cry. I could see the dream of being married slipping through my fingers.

"Soon, we came to their camp where they put me in the corner. One man tried to console me by saying that they would not hurt me, but he soon grew irritated when I would not calm down. He called for the creepy old woman who I had seen lurking near the back of the camp and told her to shut me up. The old woman continued to try to get me to stop crying but I was upset since I had been stolen from my home the night before the wedding. The old woman became irritated as well asking why I was so upset. I told her through broken breaths what had happened as I tried to stop sobbing. She took pity on my predicament and said she was going to tell me a story. She then began a tale that would feel like it went on for years. She was a very monotonous speaker and soon I began to doze off. She talked on and on and her story intertwined into my dreams.

"When I woke, the men had all vacated the camp again leaving a lame donkey and me alone with the woman who was still speaking. She didn’t seem to notice that I had slept through the entire story as it obviously came to a close. It seems like the story was about love which retrospectively is rude since I was distraught over being kidnapped before my wedding. As she ended the story, the donkey suddenly broke loose and started to run. He was a tad slow and the old woman was surprisingly in shape and she grabbed onto what was left of his halter. She screamed for help as they struggled for power. I soon realized that this was my moment and rushed to aid the donkey. I pushed the old woman down and grabbed the rope attached to his halter. He was stopped short by my hold on him. I then swung myself onto the back of the donkey. I spurred him on promising him a life of ease if he just took me back to my home. I could still make my wedding if he hurried.

"And so here I am. I arrived before dawn and decided that nothing was going to stop this wedding," I explained. My bridesmaids all let out a breath that no one realized they were holding. I turned back to fixing my hair and they seem to get the message not to further press the issue. They went back to their respective jobs and left me to my own thoughts. I stared at my reflection in a mirror and realized how lucky I was to be here and smiled. Today was my wedding day after all.

Author's note: This story is based on the girl in Cupid and Psyche named Charite. In the original story, the Charite is just background for the telling of Cupid and Psyche's love story. The kidnapped girl character seemed to be somewhat hysterical and not very well thought out so I wanted to explore how she felt about the situation developing. I decided to flip the story to her perspective and left out Cupid and Psyche's story to focus on the background story going on while the old woman told about how Cupid and Psyche got together. In the original there is also a lot of background including information about the couple getting married and formal rituals/festivals but I decided to leave those out since they made the story less concise. I also wanted to show what happened before she arrived at camp to give her a valid reason to be upset that we knew from the start because in the original she is crying and the old woman character gets upset until she realizes what has happened, so I cut the confusion out for the reader. I imagined that she was telling the story to her bridesmaids who were confused about where she had disappeared to the night before her wedding. This is definitely a loose interpretation and the original story was more inspiration than a direct retelling. I like to give my characters more attitude than they usually have in original stories, especially female characters because they seem to often be written as some kind of stereotype like in this case the girl is portrayed as hysterical. This means that my characters are usually more brave and mouthy than they are in the original but I think those types of characters are more fun. I did this in this story by having Charite's mother fight back for her daughter, which she does not do in the original.

image information: Donkey, Geograph

bibliography: Apuleius's Golden Ass, as translated into English by Tony Kline (2013).