Storytelling for Week 9: Mad Mother

Mad Mother

Once upon a time there was a woman who lived in a small village. She was about middle-aged and lived by herself. The villagers were terrified by her and gave her the nickname of “Mad Mother”. The woman has a son that she cares for very much, but a little too much. Every time the son get s a new fiancé, she kills them. Mad Mother doesn’t want to ever lose the attention from her son so she does this to try and hold her son from then. Little does she know that the son got tired of this and decided to not date again.

Three years passed and the son was miserable. He had no one to love or marry, and every girl in town was scared to even talk to him because of his mother. They all feared for their lives except one girl named Molly. Molly knew about Mad Mother and how killed all of her future daughter-in-laws, but she was determined to win the heart of Mad Mother. 

Molly dated the son after 3 years since is last girlfriend. They grew close and eventually wanted to tie the knot. The son was hesitant at first because he was afraid of the life of Molly, but she insisted that everything would be okay and that his Mother would not be able to kill her.

One day, Mad Mother invited her son and fiancé Molly for dinner. Before dinner, Mother asked Molly to come with here and hunt down a turkey to kill for the meal. As they went into the forest, molly found many turkeys, but Mother wasn’t pleased with them. She told Molly to keep going out further and further until she found a huge turkey. Sensing this was a trap; Molly had been dropping little pieces of cloth on the ground, since the beginning of the voyage. When Molly ventured out far enough Mother ran off thinking that Molly would for sure die out in the woods. Molly had to slowly track her own footsteps. Molly later arrived at the Mad Mother’s and brought back the turkey. She was astonished for she thought that Molly would be dead for sure.

The next morning Molly reached the son’s house and told him how his mother tried to kill him. She told him not to worry for she can out smart her, Molly then went back to Mother’s house and asked it there was anything she could help with. Mad Mother though about it. She had to come up with something what would get her killed. She asked if Molly could go out by the river and hunt down an alligator for a meal. Molly accepted it, and went out with Mother to the river. There were a lot of alligators, but Mother wanted a specific one. She wanted the biggest alligator in the river. Walking in the river trying to find a alligator, Mad Mother sneaked away from the river knowing that eventually she would get eaten by an alligator. Molly soon found the big alligator that Mother wanted and she brought it back to her house. Mad Mother was so astonished that she didn’t know what to do anymore and decided not to kill her. Molly changed Mad Mother’s heart and the family all lived happily together.

 Mad mother possible appearance 

(By: SeB-NeM)

Authors Note:

I decided to base my story from the Native American Hero story called The Jealous Uncle in the un-textbook. The story is about a Uncle whom the people call "Unnatural Uncle." He would kill all of his Nephews before they were a couple years of age. In the original story one of the nephews managed to survive and consistently pass all of the death traps that the uncle threw at him. In the end however, the boy ended up killing the uncle for how bad he treated his parents. In my story I wanted to change the aspect of it and make it a Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law situation. I followed some of the elements of the story with plots and challenges, but the big thing I changed in my story was the ending. I added a happy ending in my story with the Mother finally accepting Molly.