The City Council: A fictional narrative of rural life in the American West Episode 238: Pete was raised on fairy tales

Life has never been a fairy tale, for any of us, but then, maybe it is. The idiom implies a rosy, bountiful existence, but many fairy tales are far from beatific in their prospects for safe living. It was in this vein of truth-telling that this couple vowed to raise any children they might someday have on the rudiments of reality found in the vast library of European fairy tales where children had to run for their lives, Little Red Riding Hood from a blood-thirsty wolf, and Hansel and Gretel from abusive adults, and that crazy crone.

They tried and they tried to bear a child, but the miscarriages kept coming. They gave up eventually, but then, in their late 40s, they were filled with the spirit to adopt with the dreaming vision to take in a child from their beloved Montenegro. In 1971, their persistence paid off, and they traveled to Kotor the following spring to receive their son, who they named Peter, so literally, in Slavic tongues, he was Peter, son of Peter. But, as fate would have it, in Warhaven, many of the boy’s playmates came to call him by the twins of his monogram, PeePee, which the child took in stride.

Pete Petrovich distinctly remembers hearing the tale of Baba Yaga, that Slavic boogie woman who came at you with a dichotomy, as one who would eat your heart, and then again, as one who would rescue your sorry soul. This confused him, as one supposes all fairy tales are intended to do, to keep little kids on their defensive toes. The way Vlad and Nikola told it, Baba Yaga rode around Warhaven in a mortar, wielding a pestle, seeking young lost souls, and lived with her two sisters up in the darkest forest of the Craggies. She would race cougars and coyotes to wayward children and suck out their blood through their ears.

As new Americans the two teachers read the tales their students learned, those of the Brothers Grimm and of Hans Christian Anderson. These offered creepy content too!

The Dane, Anderson, wrote the “Garden of Paradise,” and given the sad departure from Biblical Eden that Pete knew from attending the Greek Orthodox Church in Garfield, this boy saw from the first sentence that this garden would have its grotesque side too. His parents stressed the sticky allures of sin, how goals may be shattered by the slightest shift in course. He also was presented with “The Tinder Box,” in which a soldier returns from war, and Pete wondered as a small child, if all old women were witches, as seemed to be the bent of these dark tales. This soldier makes an agreement with the witch, but for deceit and greed betrays her and violently kills her, for the love of gold. Then through chicanery the soldier marries a princess and becomes king. This story always led to animated discussions between Vlad and Niokola on the corruptibility of officials, regardless of country or ethnic group; they had witnessed a lot of this in Europe, where despots and dictators had killed with impunity. They had nothing but kind words for American leaders, and now, in Warhaven, felt fortunate to live in a town with a city council of honorable persons.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm of Hesse, Germany, were scholars who studied folklore while Vlad and Nikola were scholars who studied the Grimms and their vast collection of folk tales.

There was their story, “The Robber Bridegroom,” which Pete remembered so well because he had heard it so often. They read the story to him as a child, the tale about the betrothed maiden who was lured into the dark wood by her murderous fiancé but was saved by luck and pluck.

After Vlad had given him the lecture on the birds and bees in fifth grade, Pete heard the story again, with his father emphasizing that marriage was for life and the boy’s ambition ought to be to find a trustworthy and loving partner.

In his sophomore year in high school, when Pete gained the courage to ask girls out, his mother sat him down and related her version of “The Robber Bridegroom,” as “The Robber Bride,” reversing the gender roles and adamantly advising him about duplicitous, fast women and his honor to save himself for marriage. Pete had to think on these grave matters, listening respectfully to Nikola, who spoke with her hands and dramatic facial expressions.

Some of us in Warhaven would agree that fairy tales were the force behind Pete being a loving husband, father, and son, that these stories convinced him to stay close to his roots, and to not chase money over an elusive rainbow.

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The City Council is a work of fiction, written by Jim Tindall, appearing every other week in Columbia Gorge News.