Story a day: Day nineteen

We have made it day nineteen of the story a day prompts. I am quite proud that I have only missed three of these so far. Well, you can’t help being ill! Most inconvenient timing. Ever. LOL! Anyway, today’s prompt is:

The prompt

Re-write a fairytale

The hardest thing to do was to pick the one I wanted to rewrite today. In the end, I have settled for a modern version of the elves and the Shoemaker. Enjoy 🙂

The magic of the night

Trade was not going well for the simple tailor. You see, it was a habit of his to try and help people that were in some kind of trouble. Due to this, he tended to try and give things away to the people he thought were in need. (Mainly refugees who were appearing). This meant that day he had given away an outfit to attend one that he had spotted on the cobbled streets.

George was aware that his wife was not going to be happy with him for doing this. The rent was due on their apartment and they did not have a particularly understanding landlord. However, it just does not seem right to him that somebody was going to be left in need. In his defence, George made sure enough material was left over for the creation of a brand-new outfit. The only problem was that he was unsure if he would have the time to make the outfit before the landlord came knocking on the door.

It was going to be fine. He decided that if he kept telling himself this it would work out.

When he got home that evening he started work on the outfit. Despite hearing the tender encouragement of his wife he started to notice the small mistakes that he was making with the sewing. It was going to take him twice as long to make the clothing because he was having to unpick the work he had done already. In the end, his wife convinced him that he should go to sleep and continue with the outfit in the morning.

That was when the miracle happened.

In the morning, he went to his workshop to find the outfit neatly prepared and ready for him to sell. Naturally, he thought that it would have had something to do with his wife. She pointed out that she was not very good at sewing. Instead, she was concerned that he had stayed up all night and done the work.

George had done no such thing although he found himself starting to question that. Was it possible that he had gone sleepwalking and managed to create the outfit?

However, as soon as he opened his shop a customer in and started to admire the outfit that was then sitting on the table. George had to accept the compliments over to stitching although he was sure that he was taking the credit for someone else’s work. That did not really sit very well with him. Mind you, it was out of pure need for the money that George accepted the payment for the outfit.

He should have been happy with this but he still found himself asking questions about what had happened. So, once the rent was paid he went and bought some more material to make two more outfits. Upon returning home he cut up the material and laid it out like he had the night before. He went to bed waiting to see if the same thing was going to happen.

It did.

The next morning there were two outfits waiting for him in the workshop. George was determined he was not going to take advantage of anybody so he instantly took one of the sets of clothing and gave it to one of the refugees that were trying to make their way towards safety. When he returned to the shop it was to find that the customer from the day before had brought a friend who purchased the second outfit.

He got the material for three outfits and made himself coffee so that he could stay awake and see who was doing the work. His wife also wanted to see what was happening and so she stayed up with him. They were both horrified when they discovered young children sneaking into the workshop from somewhere in the house and start sewing the clothes.

George tried to stop them but they said that they were living in his house and said they felt like they owed him something. This worried George because it was not like he was doing anything like feeding them.

The tailor and his wife made the children a slap up meal, helped them get cleaned up, and even gave some new clothes and a proper bed for the night. George told them that they should never make anything for him for nothing.

The couple ended up adopting the three young children that had once been refugees.