Storytelling Week 9: Foolishly Falling in "Love"

Marriage; the one thing every little girl dreams about. They envision their prince waiting at the end of the aisle. Their daddy walking them amongst all of their friends, family, and heaps of beautiful flowers. The fantasy starts early and some spend their whole lives working towards it. Two sisters in particular had set their sights on their perfect days. Both of them foolishly focused on the more material things in life. When they envisioned their ideal groom he wasn’t kind, compassionate, or particularly loving. Their main selling point was if he was handsome or not. The older of the two always saw herself marrying an actor. Someone who was truly handsome and was talented as well. The younger one wished to marry a lawyer, a handsome one of course. Both types of men could provide them with the lifestyle they felt they were entitled to.

As they grew into adulthood their childhood fantasies were never far from their minds. Both of the girls worked hard towards obtaining their Mrs. Degree. They set their sights on the ideal man and finally said I do. Their husbands worked tirelessly to achieve all their goals. The lawyer moved himself and his wife out to New York to become a partner in a big time law firm. The actor moved himself and his wife out to Hollywood so he could be closer to all the stars and the action. The girls were split up for the first time in their lives and although they obtained what they always desired things became very hard for them.

They were away from their family, separated from one another, and trapped within loveless marriages. Realization of their foolishness came far too late. When both of the sisters discussed moving back home with their husband’s things did not go over well. Things were going well for the men and they told their wives that they refused to even talk about such things. Verbally berated on a constant basis the women couldn’t handle it any more.

The sister that lived in New York called one of her brothers and begged him for his help. The sisters had three brothers and all three went into the police force. Immediately they hopped on to a plane and flew out to New York to help their sister. The lawyer knew his verbal abuse of his wife was coming back to bite him when her brothers showed up on his doorstep. They demanded that she go back home with them. With her bags packed and ready to go the woman left her husband behind and didn’t look back.

Knowing her sister was going through the same situation with her husband in Los Angeles, she demanded her brothers do the same for their other sister as they did for her. So the brothers flew out to Los Angeles and did the same as they did in New York. They showed up unexpectedly on their doorstep and took their other sister away from her abusive husband. When the two girls were reunited back home they were happier than they had been in their many months apart from one another. The sisters learned their lesson, got divorces, and vowed to never be so foolish again.

Author’s Note: This is a retelling of The Eagle and Whale Husbands that is within the Native American Marriage Tales unit. Within this story two sisters are playing on the beach with whale and eagle bones. The one with the eagle bones decides she will marry an eagle so one comes along and swoops her away. The other decides to marry a whale so one comes along and ties her to the bottom of the ocean. The two realize how foolish they had been and wish to leave their “husbands”. Their brothers eventually come along and rescue them. I put this story into a more modern sense so that it is more relatable. Blindly going into a marriage then being trapped within it seems to be a very common theme in present day dramas.

Falling in "Love"

"The Eagle and Whale Husbands" by Stith Thompson, from Tales of the North American Indians (1929). Web Source: Untextbook