Little Remarked Upon Vanishings and Disappearances

Jonathan Cosgrove is a professional writer who, despite the best of intentions, spends most of his time avoiding that. His most recent work appeared in the Arterial Bloom anthology from Crystal Lake Publishing. Contact him on jonathancosgrove.com or on Twitter @jjingo_gaijin.

Author Comments

The seed of this piece came from Kate Bernheimer's essay, "Fairy Tale is Form, Form is Fairy Tale." In one section, Bernheimer states that in fairy tales there is an "intuitive logic." Using the story, "The Rosebud," she illustrates how elder daughters are introduced only to be forgotten a sentence or two later in favor of the story of the younger daughter.

"And that elder daughter--what has happened to her? Can you imagine submitting a story to a writing workshop in which the first paragraph introduces two brothers, but one of the brothers is never mentioned again?"

"... the older daughter is simply a noun; and yet she exists in the story, has existed in there, for so very long."

This was my simple, lighthearted attempt to give forgotten siblings of fairy tale princesses some much needed spotlight.