The Bedtime Story

“Bedtime!” called eight-year-old Aaron’s mother. “Aw, five more minutes?” he questioned. She agreed as long as the five minutes were spent in bed quietly looking at books. Knowing that Aaron wasn’t one for reading, Grandpa chimed in saying, “How about I tell you a story?” “Yeah!” came Aaron’s response.

“Okay, let’s see. Which story should I tell you?”

“Tell me the one about the rain that you used to tell Mommy when she was my age.”

“You mean the one about the first thunder and lightning storm?”

“Yeah, that one!”     

“It all started long ago, in the land of Genevieve. There was a small group of gods and goddesses who lived in the wondrous, unseen caverns of Utopia. There was the central goddess, Aaralyn and her husband, the central god Zane. No one knew who the two had descended from and no one questioned it. Aaralyn had no siblings, but Zane had three, two being his sisters and one his brother. His two sisters, Abbra and Aayushi, became close friends with Aaralyn. She came to call them her own sisters. The husband of Abbra was called Carvin and Aayushi’s husband was called Markon. The four were the helpers of Aaralyn and Zane. They were not individual gods or goddesses of a particular thing. Everyone got along just fine, except when Aaralyn’s brother-in-law came to visit. Zane’s brother, Finian, was the only one in all of Genevieve who dared to undermine the throne of Zane. Ever since he was banished to the hole known as Nowhere, where he became ruler of, he had been bitter toward his brother and everyone else. He had several minions whose names no one really knows.”

At this point, Aaron interrupted Grandpa asking, “What’s a minion?”

“Well Aaron,” Grandpa replied. “A minion is someone who is like one’s helper.”

“That makes sense.”

“Now, where was I? Ah, yes. Finian had several minions.” Grandpa continued. “He also had a wife who was known as Acacia. All couples are said to have never had any children. Instead, all mortals were grown from little drops of water and when they died, their bodies were taken to Nowhere. As you probably guessed, Finian was very jealous of his twin brother Zane. One day, he grew tired of harvesting so much jealousy and decided to pay his brother a little visit. He entered the rocky place that was home to Zane and his family and demanded to speak to his brother. When Zane entered the room, his brother attempted to seem pleasant.