Week 10 Story- Grace and Leo

*Story told based off of Week 9 (African Unit) Reading*

Once upon a time, in a very windy village, where the plains were never-ending and the prairie grass grew tall, there lived two siblings. A sister, Gracelyn, and her younger brother Leo. Only a year apart, the two siblings did everything together. Wherever Gracelyn went, Leo was only a few steps behind. Whatever toys Leo played with, Gracelyn also wanted to play with. While they were the best of friends, this did not change the fact they were still siblings, and fought like such. When there was an argument between them, everyone else knew to clear the room. It was like watching fire and ice mix together, a catabolic event!

On this particular day, the wind was blowing stronger than usual, which meant that a storm was probably coming. Mother called for Gracelyn to go down to the river and fetch more water that they could boil for drinking, in case a storm was to arise. Gracelyn saw this as an opportunity to get out of the house, and away from Leo, so she quickly left. Earlier that day, her and Leo had gotten in a large fight. At school, Leo had been joking around with his buddies, and told everyone that Gracelyn sleeps with her toy dolls! She was furious with him! How could he embarrass her like that? Needless to say, she was grateful for the opportunity to be away from him.

When she arrived at the river, she knelt down and began scooping water into her basin. On her third scoop, she knelt down and all of the sudden a horrible head emerged from the water. Gracelyn jumped back with fear, spilling her basin in the process.

“Don’t be scared young girl!” said the water monster.

“Who are you?? What do you want from me?” cried Gracelyn.

“Well, I am the monster of this river, and you are taking my water, therefore, I will now eat you” Stunned, Gracelyn began to run, but the monster quickly caught her leg.

“Please, no!!” Gracelyn cried out. “If you want something to eat, I will give you my brother!!” The monster loosened his grip on her leg, intrigued to hear what she had to say.

“When night falls, come to my home, and take my brother instead, he will be the one sleeping under the red blanket”

The monster agreed to this, and let Gracelyn go. She quickly ran home, and found things to do to keep her busy until it was time to go to bed. When night fell, the siblings retired to the room that they shared, and went to sleep. Sometime during the night, Leo grew too hot under his covers, and threw the blanket off of him. It was dark so Leo could not see where he threw the blanket, but it landed on Gracelyn’s bed. A few hours later, the monster from the river snuck in, and looked for the bed with the red blanket, per Gracelyn’s instructions. He found it, scooped up the child, and left.

When morning came, Leo awoke in his room alone, curious as to where his sister was...

The Mother and the River Monster

Author’s Note: When I read the original story, Motikatika, I was so fascinated at the idea of a story based around bad karma. In the original, it is a mother that encounters the river monster, who was sent by her husband to fetch the water. To spare her own life, the mother promises the monster that he can have her son to eat. The son, Motikatika, hears this all happen however, and sabotages his mother’s plan to save his life. In a mix up of events, the monster ends up taking the husband, instead of Motikatika. I thought the idea of sabotage was so interesting in this story, so I wanted to re-create something like that.

Bibliography: Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, African Lang Stories