Cottage Dreams and Strange Fairy Tale Encounters

Fred and Lucy, Brandon and Susan and Belinda and I wanted an escape from this fast-paced society, we craved solitude when vacationing at this remote glamping rental cottage, nestled near the Mohonk Preserve in New York, it was an ideal place for us wanting to take a peek back into Fairy Tale land time. That country cartoon looking cottage sleeps six, allowing for the perfect spot for fairy tale history buffs like the 6 of us to congregate and share our experiences. Then there’s the cottage itself.

Far removed from city life, this cottage offered something different to typical lodges in the woods; it’s easy to enjoy the property’s rustic farm life, rugged terrain and antique cartoon like  furnishings.

Some of the cottages we turned away from were based on historical styles while others feature fantastic designs found only in their creator’s imaginations.

However, even the ones with realistic architectural elements still stand with one foot in reality and the other in a fairy tale.

Infamous legends of the place in which we all chose to spend a weekend living back in a time where it might be possible to experience some strange and unusual events in and out of dream world.

After unpacking and settling deep into this cottage in the woods it wasn’t long after that it had us shaking in our boots, but not from the cold.

I ventured outside of the cottage to smoke a much needed cigarette and the first time I seen the two of them the moon was shining brightly and the white flints that lay in front of the cottage glistened like pieces of silver.

Hansel and Gretel stopped and filled the little pockets of their tattered coats as full as it would hold.

I ran back inside the cottage to wake up my wife to what I believed I had seen.

When I turned on the small lamp on the night stand she looked as if she had been crying. Then she said that she had the saddest dream ever.

The dream began when a homely maid and a scarred ex-GI meet at the cottage where she works and where he was to spend his honeymoon prior to his accident. The two develop a bond and agree to marry, more out of loneliness than love. The romantic spirit of the cottage, however, overtakes them. They soon begin to look beautiful to each other, but no one else. She says that’s all she can remember about that enchanting cottage dream.

I then shared my little encounter with the two fairy tale creatures picking up buckeyes so they wouldn’t get lost returning.

After what we shared with one another we both slept soundly.

The next morning around the breakfast table the other couples started saying what they seen and dreamt of.

Fred told of his dream.

In a remote part of the countryside, a bungled kidnapping turns into a living nightmare for six central characters when they cross paths with a psychopathic farmer and all hell breaks loose. After opening a trapdoor in the kitchen to reveal a secret staircase leading down into the old wine cellar. Belinda is stabbed through the stomach by the Farmer. Terrified, Lloyd (aka me) flees upstairs and jumps out of the bedroom window. Belinda survives her injury and calls out for Lloyd to help her escape too, all with the Farmer in pursuit. Lloyd manages to incapacitate the Farmer with a shovel, saving Belinda’s life. Belinda and Lloyd then urges me to kill the madman before he regains consciousness, but I am reluctant. As the two of  us argue, the Farmer comes to and quickly amputates the end of Lloyds foot with the shovel. As he is about to kill me, Lucy begins mocking me, ordering me to hurry up and do it. Frustrated, the Farmer suddenly turns around and gruesomely decapitates her at mouth-level with the shovel. He then knocks out a hysterical Susan and hangs her by her jacket from a meat-hook in the shed. He then suddenly shook his head and shouted that he didn’t like the way in which his dream was heading and woke himself up only to her screams coming from Lucy’s sleeping mouth. S

Lucy he told us of the dream she had. The beautiful Princess Giselle (Belinda) is banished by evil Queen Narcissa (Susan) from her magical, musical animated land and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn't operate on a "happily ever after" basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer who has come to her aid, even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale Prince Fred back home who favored Kermit the Frog.

We all agreed to take a break from the strange and sometime frightening fairy tale storytelling and the three of us men would go fishing, until me all believed we seen a  large, long-necked creature with one large hump protruding from the manmade lake. Fred asked was it possible what we all saw was the Loch Ness Monsters cousin?

Then suddenly the three women came running from the direction of the forest shouting that they had seen a Bigfoot or Sasquatch who they described as being hairy, upright-walking, ape-like or humanoid creature.

On the way back to the sanctuary of the cabin we ran into Little Red Riding hood, The Three Pigs being chased by the Big Bad Wolf, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and a short haired Rapunzel. Well needless to say we didn’t catch any fish nor did the women collect any honey or berries.  

We didn’t go to bed hungry that night because someone had left us a whole pig that had been roasted on a spit with the apple still stuck in his mouth. Who favored Porky The Pig?

In the morning Susan couldn’t wait to share her dream.

While exploring her new home, a girl named Lucy discovers a secret door, behind which lies an alternate world that closely mirrors her own but, in many ways, is better. She rejoices in her discovery, until her Other Mother and the rest of her parallel family try to keep her there forever. I must use all my resources and bravery to make it back to my own family and life.

Laughter from Goofy can be loudly heard as if it was coming from invisible loudspeakers.

In spite of all the strange happening we all had the greatest time that we could remember.