Once upon a time, there was a young lad, named Ben, who was living in a small village near Berlin, Germany. Ben, age twenty-one, was a poor factory worker who fixed broken machines. He worked on these machines from sunrise to sunset just to make ends meet.
One day, when Ben was fixing a machine that had a piece of coal stuck in the wrong valve, he looked up to see an alluring young woman, named Isabella, gazing at him. Ben needed to find out who this woman was. They exchanged names and decided to go on a date.
Ben picked up Isabella at eight o’clock that night. While Ben was driving, his horse and buggy, they decided to go to a lovely diner in town. Ben and Isabella ordered their dinner and began to learn more about one another. Not too long after, Isabella learned that Ben hated his job at The Factory and wished that he never had to have a job ever again.
Isabella suggested that Ben should invent something so he would never have to work again. With that new idea, Ben began to think of something that was greatly needed in the community while he was driving Isabella home. Then, a lightbulb went off in his head. Ben had thought about how to make light mobile, with gas, for people who need to travel during the night. Ben spent all of that night creating his gas lantern. He began to finish his gas lantern and perfect it. Once Ben perfected his lantern, he could paten it so the lantern would always be his.
Isabella and Ben were dating for about six months before Ben decided that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Isabella. On February 15th, Ben and Isabella tied the knot and lived happily ever after, or so they thought.
One month after Ben and Isabella’s wedding day, Isabella found out she was pregnant with a baby girl. Ben was delighted with the exciting news. He could not wait to have a child. Although Ben was captivated with the news, Isabella was worried they could not support their baby girl.
About eight months later, gas lanterns prevailed in the economy. It became so popular that The Factory that Ben previously worked at started producing his lanterns. Isabella became so enthusiastic that the lanterns were selling. She now knew that her and her husband would be able to support their baby.
One month later, the time had come for Isabella to give birth to her daughter. Isabella spent twenty-one hours in labor, but eventually gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Once the baby was cleaned, the nurse took the baby to be swaddled. Once the nurse returned, Isabella had lost her pulse. Ben was in the waiting room, when the doctor came out to tell him about his wife. He began sobbing before the doctor could finish his sentence. Ben was left a widowed husband, and a single father in a matter of minutes. His baby girl still needed a name, so Ben decided to name his daughter Ella after her mother. He cuddled his newborn while reading a fairytale to her. Once the book was finished, Ben told Ella that no matter where she goes, she will always have a fairy godmother watching over her.
Seven years later, Ben was still raising Ella alone. He began to think that he does not deserve to live alone for the rest of his life, so Ben has been thinking about dating again. He decided to go to The Tavern one night where he met a wonderful young woman, named Lady Tremaine, who seems ordinary and sweet. All anyone could hear in The Tavern was the buzzing of Ben and Lady Tremaine. The two of them talked all night until Ben realized how late it was and he needed to get home to tuck Ella into bed.
They both returned to their home. Ben spent the rest of his night in bed thinking about Lady Tremaine. That night, Ben decided that he was going to marry her. However, Lady Tremaine went home to her two daughters and told them that her love spell worked and she was going to marry the richest man in the land.
A few months later, in the spring, Ben and Lady Tremaine got married. Ben helped Lady Tremaine and her two daughters move out of their dingy, old shack and into his gigantic, countryside house. Ella had to adjust to living with a stepmother and two stepsisters.
One day when Ella was playing with her stepsisters, she heard them say that Lady Tremaine only married Ben for his money. As good of a daughter she was, Ella went to tell her father what the stepsisters said. He told Ella that the stepsisters were just teasing her. Ella went back to her lovely room to get ready for bed.
On the next day that Ella went to play with her stepsisters, they told Ella that the day Lady Tremaine met her father, Lady Tremaine put Ben under a spell so she could marry the richest man in the land. Ella went to tell her father what the stepsisters had said today. Ben told Ella that the stepsisters were just joking and what they said was a lie. Ella headed off to bed.
On the third day, Ella went to play with her stepsisters yet again, and the stepsisters told Ella that Lady Tremaine had a plan to kill Ben. Ella went running and weeping to her father. She told Ben what the stepsisters had said; however, he told Ella that the stepsisters were just trying to upset her. Ella nervously went to get ready for bed because she is still worried about what her stepsisters had said earlier that day.
The next day, Ben went snooping through Lady Tremaine’s things in her office. After twenty minutes of searching, he found a book filled with pages all about Ella and himself. Ben heard footsteps coming, so he quickly skimmed through the book as fast as he could without missing any major details.The book told Ben that Lady Tremaine had been planning his death since the day they met. Ben began to think how could I have missed all these signs. With all of these details, I should have known sooner. He put the book back and hid underneath the desk. He soon realized that what the stepsisters had been telling Ella were true. Ben realized that he cannot sit back and do nothing. He made a plan in his head to try and stop Lady Tremaine. As soon as the footsteps passed, Ben headed back downstairs to tell Ella that he must run an errand and that he loved her more than anything in the world.
Later that night when the house was silent, Ben set out on a journey to find someone with magic to help him. He spent about two hours riding into the gloomy darkness. Just as Ben was about to give up hope, he saw little flickers of light. These flickers of light were magical, light blue wisps. Ben had no clue what these flickers of light were, but he decided to follow these wisps because he thought it would lead him to someone who may be able to help him. He was right. These wisps lead him straight to the most magical person of all, Fairy Godmother.
When Ben met the Fairy Godmother, he stood there in awe because a glowing figure with a light blue dress and a magic wand appeared out of nowhere. Ben snapped out of this haze and asked the Fairy Godmother if she could help him fix the dilemma with Lady Tremaine. Fairy Godmother asked Ben to explain his issue which he did. Ben explained that Lady Tremaine was planning to kill him and that he wanted to protect Ella and himself. Fairy Godmother considered the matter and announced that she could help with this horrendous matter. However, Fairy Godmother knew that one of the major fairy rules was that a fairy must not mess with one’s death.
Then, Fairy Godmother told Ben that she could not help him personally, but she could make a deal with him to protect Ella. Fairy Godmother said her magical words “Bippidi Boppidi Boo” and a scroll appeared. This scroll stated that Fairy Godmother will watch and protect Ella for many years to come. It also stated that Lady Tremaine must take Ella into her home and take care of her. However, the downfall to signing this deal is that Ben must die however he is meant to. Ben signed the deal to secure Ella a superb future. Fairy Godmother said her magical words “Bippidi Boppidi Boo” and the scroll disappeared.
Once the deal was signed, Fairy Godmother vanished and Ben headed home. On his way home, Ben had put together the pieces and realized that Fairy Godmother was his first wife in her next life. With that realization, Ben happily returned home just before dawn so no one noticed that he ever left. Lady Tremaine woke up and ate breakfast with Ben. Just after the breakfast dishes were done, Ben fell to the floor and started coughing up blood until he could no longer breathe. Lady Tremaine had poisoned Ben’s breakfast. Lady Tremaine removed Ben from the kitchen as Ella could come down at any moment.
Not too long after, Ella woke up and came downstairs to find only Lady Tremaine sitting at the table waiting for her. Lady Tremaine told Ella that her father had died while on his errand last night and she would just need to get used to her new family. Lady Tremaine took Ella into her house just as the deal proposed.