Hansel and Greytel

Not so long ago, far, far away, a Canadian girl and her travelling companion explored foreign lands.

One morning in Switzerland, she peered into a looking glass. She was shocked to discover that her head had been invaded by foreign, squiggly grey hairs. “Zut alors”, she exclaimed! This will not do! Something must be done!”

The Canadian girl visited the town’s apothecaries and beauty shops. She rejected many of the magic potions as some were for long hair, some were for black hair and some were for curly hair. Finally, she saw the magic box she needed and took it home.

Quietly, the Canadian girl started preparing for her transformation. She unfolded the instructions. Pages of foreign words swirled in front of her eyes. (Part of the problem of the swirling words was due to the Canadian girl’s recent need for reading glasses. Sadly, she did not have any of her own and did not want to borrow, yet again, her travelling companion’s glasses. This matter, however, is for another fairy tale.)

Brow furrowed, she looked at the German, French and Italian directions. “How hard can this be?” she wondered. Armed with her Italian and French dictionaries, she deciphered the cryptic words while following the pictures. Gloves were donned, cream and powder were mixed carefully and shoulders were garbed with towels. She did not want to alert her travelling companion to the important task she was about to undertake. He would just laugh at her silliness. What did he know? His head was already covered with the foreign, squiggly invaders.

The Canadian girl started applying the magic potion to her hair. One streak here, another carefully placed there. “Ahhhh, if one streak is good, another must be better!” she reasoned. Soon, her head looked like it had been iced. Taking one last look at the foreign words (was that leave on for 20 minutes from the start of application or from the end?), she waited breathlessly for her transformation.

Washing out the magic potion, the Canadian girl excitedly peered into the looking glass again. And, what to her wondering eyes did appear but orange hair! And the invaders were still prominent! Zut alors!

And, the Canadian girl’s travelling companion still laughed.

The End.