I have a great story to tell you. It is about a boy from the light who stepped into the dark.
A long, long time ago there once was a boy named Reign Beau. He was a jolly little boy, full of life. He had a smile that he carried with him everywhere he went. He was always laughing, and playing with the other children. Reign came from a small area across the other side of the world called Starville. Everything was so colorful and full life in this place! The valleys were green and purple, the sky was always blue, the sun was always bright yellow, and all of the houses as well. Starville seemed like the perfect place to live, well, except for one minor detail.
You see, in the middle of Starville there was a big white house with nothing else surrounding it. It seemed out of place in such a beautiful part of the world. Everyday when Reign would go to play with the Unicorns, he would skip by the house, curious about what was in there. All of the other children paid no attention to the home and they never had the urge to enter the home. But Reign, well, Reign was different. It wasn’t until one Saturday morning that he decided to enter the home.
When he went up to the front door, he came across a sign that read in big, black letters: ENTER AT YOUR OWN PERIL. Reign read the sign and asked the sign, “What does peril mean? Is that even a word? Don’t you mean pearls?”. At that moment, a thought entered Reign’s head, there are pearls in the house! He quickly turned the handle of the door open, and that permanent smile that Reign always had on his face was transformed into an expression of confusion.
The inside of the house was a blank canvas. Everything was white and there were no rooms, furniture, or any sense of life in the home. Reign walked around the home and in the far left corner he spotted a red and black box. He opened the box and found crayons, rulers, paints, animal figurines, Barbie dolls, action figures, and blocks that were different shapes and sizes. A devilish smile came across Reign’s face as he realized that he was alone in this world with everything at his fingertips. He opened up the black paint and began to color at the top of the of the floor. He only used dark colors when he was painting, and everything he created was nothing that had ever been seen in Starville. After he finished creating his own world, Reign opened the door to go outside and his smile was back because Starville had changed forever.
My Commentary
I told this version of the story to my 10 year old sister. I changed the character’s name and setting in order to accommodate my listener and have her use her imagination in order to comprehend the meaning of the story. I chose to tell the story in a fairy tale narrative after I read the transcript of Thomas King’s interview with Jordan Wilson in which King discusses the different genres he writes, and process of transition that takes place from writing different genres of story.
The name of the character as well as the setting of the story represents beauty. My tone of voice expressed happiness while i was telling the beggining of this story to my sister. It is the same feeling I got while reading Thomas King’s retelling of Leslie Silko’s story of how evil came into this world. In King’s version, my mood began to fluctuate from happy to sad once the twins were born. To me the twins represent good and evil on Earth. They both have different ideas about how their world should be created. In my story, Starville represents the right-handed twin, and the white house on the valley represents the left-handed twin. Once Reign Beau entered the house, he was no longer a part of the peaceful world of Starville. Inside of the house he was free to create and discover whatever he wanted, even if it happened to be something evil.
Hi Rajin! Thanks for sharing this interesting story!
I chucked a bit when Reign Beau thought it said pearls instead of perils; what a mistake to make, huh? We should all be a little more careful when reading signs that could be potentially dangerous! While reading the story, I noticed it was many of reigns “less desirable” (let’s call them that) qualities that led to his creation/discovery of evil, and its introduction into the world. I suppose curiosity is not necessarily a less desirable quality, but I think this story did an excellent job in portraying how dangerous it can be to pursue some curiosities. Moreover, it was his greed for pearls, and for the things he later found in the house, that led to the creation of this new, scary Starville! Do you think that evil (in terms of human nature) already existed in Reign Beau and he let it flow from his fingertips into the world of Starville through his creation, or is it the darkness and dreary colours that you equate with evil? I may have interpreted the story quite differently than you intended and told it a little differently in my analysis of it! Even just writing this comment on your story has really highlighted the power of both the storyteller and the listener to me – so thank you for triggering this insight!
I look forward to reading your future blog posts.
Thanks,
Shamina Kallu
Hi Shamina,
In creating this story, I wanted to come up with a character that parallels Charm. I came up with the name Reign Beau because of it’s physical beauty and the ability to ‘charm’ our skies whenever it is present. More importantly, I wanted Reign to possess the intrinsic desires and curiosities that I believe is central to the identity of Charm’s character. In Starville, it seems as if Reign has everything he could want. His home is full of beautiful creatures and landscapes, but that is still not enough to keep him happy. For me, Starville represents the world that Charm comes from. Reign (just like Charm) was not content with his home and wanted to discover what else was out there.
Some of Reign’s qualities also come from Thomas King’s father. When I read the first chapter of King’s novel, I was emotionally captured by the introduction in which he writes about how is father abandoned him and his family. When I think about home, i think about family. Thomas King’s home was changed when his father left and he felt anger and resentment towards his father as he grew older. In my opinion, Thomas King’s father is an evil human being. I wouldn’t say that Reign is an evil boy, but his human nature contains some evil and greed. When he saw the dreary colors and figurines in the box, he had the choice to exit the home. Instead, he chose to stay. He wanted to create his own world and leave the peace and harmony that was just mere steps away from that house. That little bit of evil in Reign’s soul was finally had a home to be able to escape the boundaries of starville. I would like to think of Starville as Reign’s physical home, and that white house on the valley as the home for his soul. He had never been exposed to evil in Starville, but once he entered that door into the blank white house, he was able to create a world that he desired to live in, no matter what the ramifications may have been for the other citizens of Starville.
Thank you for your comments and insight!
Regards,
Rajin Sidhu
Oops! I meant to say I chuckled a bit, not chucked a bit. That sounds violent!
Hi Rajin, how interesting this story is – I was a little confused at first because you have re-told a different story than asked for; the story about how evil comes into the world at the witches convention is Leslie Silko’s story, the story with Charm and the twins is the retelling of a creation story: the Earth Diver story. Nonetheless, you have certainly told an interesting story with some thoughtful commentary. Thanks 😉