The Princess in Pink
Berlin, 2017
A princess in pink rides the subway
She travels the rails alone
Her hair and her nails and her clothes are all pink
And she carries a silver iPhone.
Her cheeks glitter softly, like stardust.
She wears a silver-gilt crown
A violin case over one shoulder
A heart-stopping hint of a frown
Above, the city is freezing
But down in the tunnels below
Where the princess is riding the subways
There’s never a hint of the snow.
She’s been inside these tunnels forever,
Just her and her silver gilt crown
She was here when the world was younger
Before iron-bound tracks; before towns.
If ever you meet the pink princess
Don’t stare. Never ask her to play –
One touch of that bow to the violin’s strings
Her music will draw you away.
For she plays of a time long-forgotten
When stars could be seen in the sky
When the rivers and ocean were clean, clear and blue
Before buildings and people and lies.
Sometimes she sings to her music
In a voice made of starlight and pearls
And her words, inexplicably haunting,
Set heart, mind and soul in a whirl.
When the song ends the princess has vanished
Leaving you trapped on the train
But her memory stays with you forever –
Along with a silver iPhone.
About the Author
My name is Rachel Stedman, and I write as R. L. Stedman. I live in the wild and windy place of Dunedin, New Zealand, with my husband and two kids.
I write mostly for children and young adults. In 2012 I won the Tessa Duder Award for an unpublished YA work and my first novel, A Necklace of Souls, was published by HarperCollins in 2013. A Necklace of Souls was awarded Best First Book at the 2014 New Zealand Post Book Awards.
Want to find out more about the background to my stories? Then check out my pinterest boards, where I’ve pinned images, links to research material and other crazy things.
If you enjoyed this book, please do leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads, as this helps others find it too.
Find me at:
www.RLStedman.com
Also by R. L. Stedman
The SoulNecklace Stories:
A Necklace of Souls
A Skillful Warrior
A Memory of Fire
A Long, Long Life (A Novella)
The SoulNecklace Stories - Box Set
Stand-Alone:
Inner Fire
The Prankster and the Ghost
Short Story Collection:
Upon A Time
Between the Pages
A FREE Harry Potter Story!
If you enjoyed this collection and you want to read more, feel free to download Between the Pages, a tale about a library, a diet and Harry Potter.
Between the Pages is absolutely free and because it has a creative commons license, you are welcome to copy or to share.
www. https://bookhip.com/HCADTZ
Copyright (c) 2016 RL Stedman
First Published 2016
WaverleyProductions
All rights reserved. This part or any portion thereof may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.
Ten Minutes to Go - first published in Moon-Drenched Fables, 2010.
Cover design by Paper and Sage Design
Illustration: Tony van der Weerden
Created with Vellum
Notes
Questions and Answers about Death and Roses
What gave you the idea of this story?
I’ve always loved stories about Beauty and the Beast (my favorite is probably Robyn McKinley’s Beauty), and I love roses, and of course the rose motif is very strong in the Beauty and the Beast story, so it seemed a natural fit to have a rose breeder as Beauty. And then I saw a beautiful korowai (cloak) in Rotorua Museum. This cloak was named ‘The Cloak of Pain’ which caught my imagination. Gradually as I researched the history of korowai the story of Death and Roses came together.
Did you find Death and Roses easy to write?
No, it was crazily hard, because of all the narrators! I began with only telling the story from Aroha’s point of view but then Ebony crept in, and then suddenly Daphne emerged. But I really liked the idea of having the fairy godmother’s perspective, so I let her speak!
You’ve used Maori references in the text. Are they based on actual myths?
Because I’m not Maori, and it seemed a little disrespectful to appropriate someone else’s cultural history, I only referenced actual events in this story, not oral traditions.
Pania’s korowai (cloak) is inspired by a real korowai. The original was woven in the early 1800s by a kuia (elder) of the Te Arawa tribe and is on display at the Rotorua Museum. This exquisite korowai is beautifully made; tightly woven of white, almost luminescent, fibers. And, quite apart from its beauty, the korowai is an important is a connection to its maker and to the iwi’s (tribe) past.
The Rotorua Museum kindly wrote to me to provide the background to this beautiful object:
“The cloak you are referring to is Te Kahu Mamae o Pareraututu – The Cloak of Pain of Pareraututu. Made of Muka (flax fibre), dog skin, dog hair. About 1800. It was created by Pareraututu to mourn the deaths of her kinsmen at the battle of Pukekaikahu near Lake Rerewhaakaitu.”
I am deeply grateful that this toanga (treasure) is on display at the Rotorua Museum, so Pakeha (New Zealanders of European origin) like myself are able to see and appreciate the beauty of these special objects.
The tradition of the cloak as a savior is a real tradition; there are several histories reporting Pakeha being saved by Maori. Histories speak of both male and females acting as saved and saviors, although for the purposes of this story collection I was interested in the idea of women saving men.
I have placed links to some of these stories on my pinterest board, if you’re interested in looking further. I’ve also linked to an article on korowai and how they have been used in Maori funeral rites.
You’ve set the story in Northern California. Why?
It just seemed the right place! I was interested in the history of North California, especially the rapid transition for the native inhabitants as the Spanish, and then northern Europeans arrived, each group of immigrants bringing new customs, new plants, new diseases.
The language in Death and Roses varies with each narrator. Daphne is old-fashioned but Aroha is contemporary. Was this hard to do?
Thanks to the internet, it was ridiculously easy! The writing style of the nineteenth century is a great deal slower than our own, so I did condense the prose a little, but generally these passages are fairly true to the period. The incident of the chilli pepper and description of the Spanish Mission are based on real travel reports. Again, I’ve posted links to the sources on my pinterest board.
You talk about rose breeding in this story. What (if any) research did you do for this?
I certainly tumbled down a rose-tinted rabbit hole! I looked at a lot of youtube videos on rose breeding, especially roses used in perfumes. For a long time I thought about having Aroha breed perfume roses, but that got way too complex so I stopped. But I learned a lot of random facts. Did you know that essential rose oil is worth more per gram than gold? Perhaps I should grow roses instead of writing books!
What else did you learn when you wrote this story?
I learnt a lot about museums! I have a good friend who’s a curator at Te Papa Museum (the Museum of New Zealand). Steph arranged for my
son and I to have a quick tour of part of the Te Papa archives. Strangely, I found the curatorial process far more interesting than the actual items in storage. The handwritten labels, the carefully tied bows holding the items in place – they all spoke of more than just professional care. They spoke of a deep, committed love.
I suppose love is really what Death and Roses is about, and you find love in the most surprising places.
Upon a Time Page 16