Once upon a time, there was a long river that ran across a large kingdom. It glistened like shimmering glass around large, well-built houses and thick oak trees that furled their leaves peacefully throughout the day. But if you walked along the river long enough, the conditions of the citizens changed drastically once you neared the farther end. Sidewalks were cracked, homes were always in disrepair. Weeds poked around the porches of houses with chipped paint and broken fences. It had been this way for so long that the citizens resigned themselves to thinking that it was just the way it was supposed to be.

It was from this side of the kingdom that Cinderella had been raised before she moved into the home of the widow. The widow's husband had lived incapacitated with an incurable disease for many years, and left his wife everything he owned at the time of his death. The woman was very sorry to lose her husband and mourned him for a long time, but soon decided it was time to move on. As a way to fill the void that he had left in the home, the widow decided to adopt a child who had recently been orphaned.

Now, the widow was a strict and strong-willed woman. She had taken care of her household, and raised two daughters that were building up their careers. She expected the best for her daughters, but also expected the best from them.

One daughter was very sharp, could do long mathematical equations in her head and was studying to become an accountant. The other had a love for reading and wrote for the town newspaper while working on novel she hoped to publish soon. The two sisters were very busy women, and as a result had very little time to spend with their mother or new adoptive sister.

The orphaned child, on the other hand, had been raised very differently at that point in her life. She was not used to being given anything easily and had been working alongside her parents since she was very young. Her mother had died after an afflicted life a couple of months before, and her father had abandoned her altogether shortly after, overwhelmed with guilt.

The girl was miserable in her condition, and did very little but cry and sleep. This frustrated the widow, as she had no patience for moping little girls. So she made her do the chores and cook, hoping that it would change her attitude. But the girl carried the water, made the fire, cooked and washed without a word, lost in her own depressed memories. She sometimes could not get the dust from the fireplace off of her arms, which is why the family began to call her Cinderella.

One day a letter arrived at the house. The king was holding a ball for all of the eligible maidens in his kingdom so his son could choose a wife. When the widow discovered this, she thought, "What an amazing opportunity for one of my girls to make their fortune quick!" and began pondering how to better their chances of marrying the prince.

There was only a month left to get ready for the ball, so she made all the necessary arrangements for their dresses and cosmetics. Her two daughters were very excited to attend, but Cinderella asked her adoptive mother not to buy her anything, as she did not feel like going to a ball. The widow was irritated, and took Cinderella's practicality as ungratefulness. She made her do even more chores, and now even sent her out to get groceries by herself.

Once Cinderella began spending time at the marketplace, and talking to the friendly people, she began to recuperate and realize that there was still a way for her to be happy.

Cinderella became very interested in helping others and learning more about their lives. She discovered that there were more problems in the kingdom than she was aware of. Many citizens were unhappy with the king, and were not hopeful that the prince's reign would improve anything.

Gradually, Cinderella gained a passionate need to aid her kingdom, and began to think of ways to better their situations.

As the ball approached, everyone became busier; the dressmaker was sewing six dresses at a time, the baker was creating and discarding hundreds of cake recipes, and the hairdressers were dying and cutting more tresses than ever. Cinderella helped where she could while her adoptive sisters had started strict diets and almost fainted when they tried to do any work. They thought it would be worth it if it caught the attention of the prince, whom they had idolized for as long as they could remember.

Cinderella was disconcerted that so many women in the kingdom thought they had to go through pain to seem beautiful and marry. After all, she had heard that the prince was not very nice. He had wasted much of his father's fortune on new clothes and horses, and never left the castle to see his subjects. Some even rumored that he was not interested at all in helping the kingdom.

Nevertheless, the day of the ball finally arrived, and the sisters took time off from their work to haul on their enormous adorned dresses, powder their faces and arrange their hair. The widow also tried to look younger by hiding her wrinkles and tightening her waist to accompany them to the great ball.

Cinderella, on the other hand, simply watched them get ready and heave themselves out of the house and into the carriage. She had decided that the ball was just a thinly veiled display of women for the prince, and was firmly against partaking in any of it. So she thought she would use the time to read some books and clean the fireplace, which was piling up with ashes.

Once the house was empty, Cinderella tried to read a philosophy on democratic government while she sat near the fireplace. She rubbed the dust from the cinders, the ashes that gave her a name, between her fingertips, and thought for a second of everything she had gone through the last year, realizing that something had to change.

The widow and her daughters came home late at night, red-faced and with aching feet, complaining of the prince's attitude. He had danced with a single girl the whole night just because she was pretty, and did not even propose to her since she had run away before the end of the night, leaving behind a little golden shoe!

The next morning, the prince began a tour of the kingdom to find the girl who owned the golden slipper. He had become infatuated with it and was determined to marry the girl who fit it.

Cinderella heard of this, and wondered at the prince's judgment, since a shoe could fit any number of ladies. It might even fit her.

The prince visited the widow's house first, where the two sisters were waiting eagerly.

When the prince arrived at the house, he tried the slipper on one of the sisters, and it fit perfectly. So he took her on his horse as his bride and rode off to the castle, where they married the next day.

After a couple of weeks of being married, the sister realized that the prince was a huge bore, and did not let her continue her studies to become an accountant. So she confessed that the shoe had not actually been hers, divorced the prince and returned to her mother, telling her that "All the riches in the world, and all the beauty in the world, are not as valuable as my happiness."

The other sister thought she was a fool, and waited for the prince to come along, since she was the same shoe size as her sister. When the prince tried the slipper on her, and it fit perfectly, he took her on his horse as his bride and rode off to the castle where they married the next day. After a month of marriage, the second sister understood why her sibling had left the prince. He forbid her to write for the newspaper, and told her that anything she wrote in her novel would be edited to fit the protocol of his kingdom. So she confessed that the shoe had not actually been hers, divorced the prince and returned to her mother, telling her that "All the riches in the world, and all the beauty in the world, are not as valuable as my happiness."

When the prince tried the shoe on Cinderella, and it fit, he took her off to his castle where they married the next day. Now, Cinderella thought very little of the prince, and quickly saw that he had only married in order to be able to inherit the kingdom's riches when his father passed away.

However, Cinderella noticed that he enjoyed spending time with the cooks, who taught him a little bit of their trade. So on a day that a very important legislative meeting was to take place, Cinderella distracted the prince by telling him that she could not believe he was capable of making lentil soup, and took his chair at the meeting while he cooked.

The other men of the legislature let her sit because she was the future queen, but soon grew to respect her when they realized she had some great ideas for new reforms and initiatives.

Cinderella eventually appointed many new representatives from every part of the kingdom, and encouraged them to help her make decisions and improve their homeland.

Since Cinderella was so smart and capable, the prince was free to become a chef, which is what he really wanted to be all along.

Her adoptive sisters began a campaign to help women develop better self-esteem and take their happiness before beauty. So they were rewarded for valuing themselves before anyone else, and went on to have lucrative careers in their areas of choice.

The widow used Cinderella as an example and started a boarding school for young women. She eventually educated some of the most successful women in the realm's history.

Cinderella was very happy in her new position and became one of the most compassionate and useful leaders that the kingdom had known, improving the conditions of the poor and inspiring young women to stand up for the injustices in their communities.

The prince, meanwhile, went down in history as the king with the most divorces in history, although he did make a very delicious pigeon pie.

Cinderella sometimes wondered who the slipper really belonged to, but since no one said anything, she decided the job was better off in her hands than anyone else.

The End.