The following is pure fiction. None of the characters are real. The story is in fact derived from a joke that I love. Any resemblance of the sleeping women/girls to either of my older daughters or my wife is strictly a coincidence. The witch in the park is real.
There was once a very happy family - a father, a mother, and three daughters - who lived a very happy life. One fateful day, the family went on a picnic and bought some apples from a withered old lady who had a fruit cart in the park. Little did they know that the old lady was a nasty witch and that the apples were poisoned. The father and the youngest daughter didn't eat the apples, but sadly the mother and the two older daughters did.
After each taking a bite of their poisoned apples, the three women/girls fell immediately into a deep and uninterruptible sleep. They felt no distress and in fact looked to be enjoying a very satisfying and relaxing slumber, but no matter what the remaining two family members did, they could not rouse them. They slept and they slept and they slept. As day turned into night, the father and daughter carried the three sleepers back home and put them gently in their beds.
Once home, they continued to try everything they could think of to awaken their family members: They brought in medical specialists; they brought in herbalists and naturopaths and acupuncturists; and they brought in handsome princes. They made lots of noise, they poked them, they prodded them, they kissed them, and they shook them. They prayed and they cursed and they cried, but nothing worked, and the three sleepers slept on - breathing deeply, looking beautiful and peaceful, but never waking up.
Days passed and then weeks passed. Months passed and then years passed. The three sleepers never woke, nor did they ever age. The father and the youngest daughter gradually lost hope and tried to move on with their lives. They kept their three sleeping kin nearby, though, in comfortable beds with dim lighting and visited them all the time...
The story would end there but for a wondrous miracle. One day, many years later, the father and his (not-so-young) daughter traveled to a distant land and quite by chance came upon the same nasty witch who was then working in a shoe-repair shop. They confronted the witch, and begged her to tell them why she had poisoned their family members and how to break the spell. She happily admitted to the deed, she claimed no reason beyond feeling "rascally", and she told them that to awaken the three sleepers they simply needed to say the words "arise my lovelies".
With tears of joy and frustration streaming down their faces - the answer was so simple after all - the two rushed back to their distant home, ran into their house and sprinted up the stairs to where the rest of their family still slept, as beautiful and young as on that fateful picnic day years ago. The father and daughter stood over the beds, held each other's hands, and solemnly said the words that would break the spell: "Arise my lovelies".
The three sleepers started to stir. Their eyes fluttered. One of them mumbled barely audibly: "What time is it?" The father gently answered: "It's about 9:30, but you've been under a witch's spell and you've all been sleeping for 37 years now."
Another of the sleepers groaned and spoke for the three: "Wow, that's a long time...can you just give us 10 more minutes?" And with that, all three of them rolled over, pulled their covers over their heads, and went back to sleep.
The End.
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