May 4, 2006

Dear Patty,

Our beagle, Alvie, comes along when I occasionally read to children at Blanchard Elementary School. Students in their classes wave as he walks through the halls, a princely monarch trailed by his manservant. Alvie reminds me of Sean Connery in "Robin and Marion" -- battle-scarred, indomitable, hairy.

In the classroom, students' jaws drop when Alvie greets them with baying fit for Carnegie Hall. They pet him a few times before going back to their work. A few pats on the back hardly suffice for Alvie. He likes and demands attention.

So does Anastasia, a student who's particularly fond of Alvie. She holds and strokes him while doing her class assignment. Whenever time comes for Alvie and me to leave she asks if she can walk him to the door as any gracious hostess would.

I can't tell you Anastasia's real name because of confidentiality rules. She has had unhappiness enough for any childhood, and her childhood is far from over. But she carries herself like a princess, is dressed by a fairy foster mother to a fare-thee-well and someday, without doubt, will rule all she sees.

Today her assignment was to compare and contrast Cinderella with Yeh-Shen, an amazingly similar Chinese version of the same story. Yeh-Shen is the daughter of a chief who has two wives and a daughter by each. When the chief and Yeh-Shen's mother die she is raised by a stepmother who's jealous of her beauty and dresses her in rags.

The stepmother and her daughter make plans to go to the spring festival. Yeh-Shen is not allowed to attend but asks some magical fish bones for a gown to wear. At the festival, Yeh-Shen's beauty causes everyone to look her way, including the curious stepmother and stepsister.

As she flees the village Yeh-Shen loses one of her golden slippers. A king who comes by the golden slipper orders his men to search the kingdom for the owner. The king is attracted to her tiny feet, creepy given the torturous Chinese practice of foot-binding, but this is a fairy tale.

Many women try on the slipper unsuccessfully until Yeh-Shen comes along. You know the rest.

The stepmothers and stepsisters? A shower of stones crushes them to death. Yeh-Shen lives happily ever after with the king.

Anastasia can't be promised a fairy-tale life free from troubles. But sometimes help does come along in one form or another to rescue you from those who would harm you, remind you of your goodness, comfort you.

Rosanne Cash's music comforts me. To a beautiful melody she sings: "God is in the roses/ the petals and the thorns/storms out on the oceans/the souls who will be born/and every drop of rain that falls/falls for those who mourn/God is in the roses/and the thorns."

Today as Anastasia held Alvie I pointed out to her the mysterious scars that run down one side of his body. "He's just like me," she said.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is managing editor of the Southeast Missourian.