Folk Tales II

This next folk tale was a fun one to write. It comes from a song this time instead of a story. I first heard the song this story is based on a few years ago. Jerry Garcia and David Grisman put out a CD of traditional folk songs, one of which was "Oh, the Wind and Rain". Then, just recently, I heard the new Tom Wait's CD, which has a very similar song called "The Two Sisters". I searched for these online and found that this is a very popular song that has gone through many versions. You can find them here. For the story, I took my favorite parts of each of the versions and constructed a narrative. The story leant itself to having a song included, so you not only get a story, but an original song based on the same style as the folk songs. Hope you enjoy!

The Two Sisters

The candle flickered slowly, casting long shadows across the room. Even the flame seemed tired at this late hour, long past the time that the last horse had clopped down the cobblestone street outside. Inside his shop, by the candle light remaining, the luthier was putting the finishing touches on what had turned out to be a very strange, yet beautiful violin. The governor had commissioned it, and while the circumstances surrounding it were odd at best, Frederick was not one to refuse the governor, or turn down a handsome payment.

With the final string in place, Frederick brought the violin to his chin and lifted the bow. Suddenly he was not in his shop, but was transported outside to a sunny day. Memory that was not his flooded him and he began to play. The bow moved back in forth in a cadence that was not his own and his fingers fretted notes on the neck that were not his will. A song emerged, the melody beautiful and sad, the glistening of ice on a rose bush after a late frost, and he began to sing. The words filled his mouth and pushed for escape. When the song was over Frederick sat listening to the last note echo around his small shop as the room took shape around him again. He sat unable to move, as if waking from a deep sleep. He began to feel the wood of his chair, and then smelled the candle, and watched as it flickered out in a puff of smoke.

***

A gentle wind from the ocean blew as the two sisters sat on the rocks overlooking the harbor. They came here often to watch the boats, busy with commerce, unnoticing, going about the day’s business. Most were small fishing vessels, but often large three-masted schooners carrying freight from England would arrive. Slowly they would emerge over the horizon and arrive in the harbor with an air of a king. Usually the sisters would talk, or Kate would sing the many songs she had memorized, but when a schooner sailed in, Helen and Kate would stare in awe and wonder and watch silently the entire progression. This day, however, did not produce a large schooner, and so the sisters gathered their things and began to walk back home as the sun began to set.

“Ahoy there, fair maidens!” the call came from behind the sisters. They turned and giggled at the young man behind them, one foot on a rock, the other over his eyes as if he were looking from the bow of a boat.

“Hello!” Helen said with a warm smile.

“Johnny, what is it that you want, we are just heading home,” Kate said with a laugh.

“Only to speak with the two most beautiful sisters in town. May I escort you ladies home?”

“Of course,” Helen said, and offered her arm to Johnny. He looked at Kate, then took Helen’s arm. After a few steps he stopped.

“Wait, I just thought of something!” he exclaimed. He knelt and pulled a beaver cap out of his pack and handed it to Kate. “Here! I know how much you loved the stories of Davy Crockett, so I got this for you.” He handed it up to Kate from his knee.

“Oh! It’s lovely, thank you!” Kate said as she tried on the hat. “Helen, what do you think?”

“It’s very nice, Kate,” Helen said and then turned towards Johnny to offer her arm again, but he had turned and was walking beside Kate down the lane.

***

Helen stormed around the next morning as she prepared for the day. She consoled her self on the fact that it was just a beaver hat that Johnny had given to Kate.

“A children’s toy,” she thought, “I am the older sister, I’m sure he will be bringing me a far greater gift. Let Kate have her hat.”

A knock came at the door and Helen peered out the curtains and saw it was Johnny. “See, Helen, you were all worked up for nothing.”

Helen rushed to the front door, took a breath, and opened it.

“Why, Johnny, what a nice surprise, how are you?”

“Oh, fine, Helen, I’m fine…um, is Kate here?”

“Kate? Uh, yes, she is, why?”

“May I speak with her?”

Helen was furious. She turned and stormed up the stairs of the large house to Kate’s room. She knocked and entered. “Johnny’s here, he wants to see you.”

Kate, wearing the beaver hat, rushed down the stairs to the front door. Helen took up a post at the upstairs window and looked down from behind the curtains. The voices trailed up on the sea air.

“You’re wearing the hat!”

“Yes, I love it, it was a wonderful gift.”

“I’m glad you like it. I, um, have another for you…” Johnny trailed off as Kate looked on expectantly. He pulled from his pocket a small box. “It’s a ring…well, you would see that soon enough…I, well, just look at it…”

He handed the box to Kate who opened it and gasped.

“It’s a gold ring,” Johnny said, “I just got back from the Governor’s office, speaking with your father, and, well…”

Before Johnny could finish Kate said, “Yes” and hugged him. “I must tell Helen!”

Helen’s stomach turned, and she moved to sit in a chair near the window, clutching her fists so tight her nails dug into her skin. She breathed, hearing the footsteps of Kate coming down the hall, and tried to control herself. Kate burst into the room.

“Look! Johnny, he’s downstairs, and well, look!”

“That’s lovely,” Helen mustered, “I’m happy for you. Say, why don’t we take a walk by the river, down towards the boats and you can tell me all about it.”

“Yes, let’s go this afternoon.”

***

Helen sat all day becoming angrier and angrier. She had vicious thoughts, and cursed her sister, Johnny, the town, her father, the house, her room, the chair, and anything she could think of or see. It was not only unfair, it was against all nature and tradition. She, as the oldest, should be the first to wed, not her annoying younger sister. She was practically a child! Not mature and refined like herself. Her father should know this, Johnny should know this, they all should!

She knew that she could not be seen this angry, and so tried to calm herself, at least externally, before her afternoon walk. When the time came, Helen had a placid demeanor, especially considering the squall going on inside. The sisters walked along the river that flowed towards the ocean. Kate was talking at a rapid rate, describing every detail. She sang and skipped down the lane. Helen said little, but smiled and nodded. Finally, they came to a rock overlooking the river where they often sat and talked. Kate stood up on the edge, looked down the river, and took a long sigh of contentment. Helen could stand it no longer. She rushed at her sister and pushed her in the river.

Kate felt the icy water and struggled to swim as her dress floated up around her and got tangled in her arms. She got her head above water long enough to hear Helen yelling.

“He should be mine!” Helen yelled as her sister was caught in the current. Helen walked along the shore as Kate struggled to swim and stay afloat.

“Give me your hand, sister!” Kate called from the river. “Give me your hand and you can have anything you want! My inheritance! My things! Please give me your hand!”

“I do not want your things,” Helen sneered as she walked along the river, “but I will have your true love!”

Helen rushed off back towards the house as Kate sank and swam. She fell below the surface, grasped at branches, tried to swim towards shore, and finally gave in to the current.

***

The miller stood outside, taking a break, and admiring the beautiful day. He looked up river and saw a figure rushing towards him. Either a mermaid or a milk-white swan, he thought to himself as he grabbed his hook and ran to the shore. He reached in and fished the woman out of the water and pulled her up to the shore. He moved her wet blonde hair from her face and saw it was Kate, the governor’s daughter. He stood over her and bent down for a closer look, not believing his eyes, and started to pick her up when around the side of the house rode three soldiers.

“Stop there William!”

The miller looked up, letting the dead girl drop from his arms. Two of the soldiers came up to him and put him in cuffs.

“I must say, I didn’t believe it when Helen ran in and said that you attacked them, but now I see it with my own eyes. Dear Lord, the governor will not be merciful. Take him away!”

***

Three weeks after the hanging of William the miller and two weeks after the memorial service for Kate, a man carrying a box under his arm knocked on the front door of the governor’s mansion.

“Frederick!” The governor said as he opened the door. “Good to see you, I trust you have completed the violin”

“Yes, I have, sir.”

“How did it come out?”

“Well, I must say, it was a strange request to be ordered to make a fiddle from the bones and hair of a person, but considering the circumstances, I think it came out well.”

“Is it any worse than abandoning her to the ground to rot? Putting her in a box, lowering her beneath the earth, and leaving naught but a granite stone to express her full life and personality? Just wilting flowers and blown grass to express the music of her soul…No, I refused to do it. Instead, she will live on in music, sounds that will echo forever to express her life.”

“Yes sir, I understand”

“Why don’t you pull it out and play. I’d love to hear how it sounds. Helen! Come in here, the violin is ready!”

Helen and Johnny came in the room and sat down as Frederick pulled the instrument from its case. He had not played it again since that first night in his shop and had been scared to even look at it. Perhaps it will not happen again, he thought, but just as he raised the instrument to his chin, he was again whisked away. The violin began to play him, and along with the same mournful song that would melt a heart of stone, the same words were sung again:

Yonder stands there my father strong
And my dear sister who could do no wrong
The ships sail in and the ships out
But I loved you true and without doubt

Then along came Johnny a courting here
Happy so much was I that I never shed a tear
The ships sail in and the ships sail out
But I loved you true and without doubt

Then what should happen but my true love choose me
And a joy I’d n’er known, like a bird, set me free
The ships sail in and the ships sail out
But I loved you true and without doubt

Though without my knowing, a tempest raged
A once righteous ship was sunk and caged
The ships sail in and the ships sail out
But I loved you true and without doubt

‘Twas a Jealous heart that brought her down
For it was Helen who pushed me in to drown
The ships sail in and the ships sail out
But I loved you true and without doubt

Many songs do sing the free, true wren
But none but this shall I sing because of Helen
The ships sail in and the ships sail out
But I loved you true and without doubt

Helen stared forward incredulous. Her hands still sat folded in her lap, but her face was red and hot and her heart beat in her throat. The entire room was silent and still as the last note echoed through the hall.