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A Story about Golden Grandmother Medicine

Hello Dear Friend,
I’m writing with updates and another story for you.
So, last week my favourite song from my upcoming album came out on Spotify “More Like Me” and with it I felt like I needed to “come out” with the story behind it. BUT It’s so weird and wonderful I don’t know if you’d believe me. So instead I wrote a story. To really enjoy this story I would set aside 10 minutes and let your mind and heart sink into the tale (if you don’t have time now, maybe mark this email as unread and come back later?)

Since getting my job as a children’s party princess (see photo below) I have started re-watching the Disney back catalogue. The stories, and imagery have inspired and delighted me so much, and I think are the reason I have written the below story.

In this story below fact and fiction do a cheeky dance together, and it’s hard to know where truth ends and myth begins. I am Briar Rose, and Sophie is Cinderella. Or the other way around? I’m not sure!

And if you are wondering what this Golden Grandmother Medicine is, in the story….It’s a sacred vine used in South America to heal mind, body and soul.

As Princess Ariel, Next week I will be Anna from Frozen :-)

In other news, the next song from my album comes out tomorrow! It’s another song that is close to my heart. More on that later.

Side note : If you are reading my emails could you please take 10 seconds to go to my Substack Page and click the “heart” button of this post, so I know you are receiving me. It means alot to know you are here :-)

Enjoy the story

LOVE ALWAYS WINS
Laura

XOXOXOXOX

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Sophie’s Golden Medicine - A Short Story

Once upon a time there was a young woman called Sophie. She lived in a haunted house in a quiet village with her mother, her father and her sister, Elizabeth.

The reason there was unrest in their house was because dark spirits kept following them. They had moved house six times, but still the spirits came. The ghosts rattled the house, made haunting cries and gave Sophie and Elizabeth terrible nightmares.

Her mother tried to capture the spirits and keep them in a bottle, locked in the cupboard. But those ghosts were too crafty for Sophie’s mother. They would pop the lids off and creep through the gaps in the cupboard door to wreak havoc.

This happened again and again. Her family started going mad. One night, in a black rage, her mother grew so angry with the spirits that she smashed one of the bottles.
This wasn’t any old bottle, this bottle contained the darkest and cruellest spirits of all. Sotus, Haita, Agra, Mitta and Embro. S H A M E

When they broke out of the bottle, they swept up the stairs to get Sophie. Sotus made a cut in her right shoulder, then the other four pulled with all their might. They were taking her soul. Sophie screamed in agony “Stop stop!”. Her sister ran into her bedroom and roared and wailed and waved her arms to scare them away. The spirits let go and then flew out of the window.

Sophie crumbled to the floor. Her breathing was heavy and she felt weak. She looked at her shoulder, and there, hanging out of her arm was her soul, limp and dark. She didn’t have the right magic to put it back, so she slung her soul over her shoulders, like a scarf made of silken tar. The weight of her broken soul made her shoulders heavy and her head stoop. This was a bad start to life.

Sophie was very good at hiding her broken soul under make-up and colourful clothes and a vibrant personality. She learnt to sing and dance and act. She lived her life as a wandering vagabond. She was doing mostly OK but, at that quiet time, just before sleep, she would sob and sob and whisper to herself “I wonder if there is a way to be fixed again”

For a short while she lived in London and worked at a hearty cafe, making drinks for those stopping by. One day, there came into the cafe a fellow vagabond named Mosey. He had no where to stay and the owners of the cafe offered him a bed on the floor of the restaurant. Mosey and Sophie loved to talk and one day Mosey spoke about “Golden Grandmother Medicine” Sophie’s ears pricked up. Mosey said with utmost conviction “She saved my life. She put my soul back in the right place”. Sophie felt the depth of what he had said, as she knew the pain of having a broken soul.

“Where can I get some Golden Grandmother Medicine?" asked Sophie naively
"It’s illegal here. You need to travel to the Americas, or maybe if you are lucky you will be able to find some rogues who are willing to serve it to you.” answered Mosey.

In all her travels Sophie had learnt that if something was for you, it would find you.
Whenever she made a new friend, she would ask them if they just so happened to know of Golden Grandmother Medicine. Mostly she received blank looks, or occasionally they said that they had travelled to the Americas to have the special medicine. She spent years asking.

After five years, Sophie gave up. She gave up searching, she gave up trying. She just got on with the job in front of her. She moved back to her little village and stayed with her father, and continued to travel to London for acting, or singing or dancing jobs.

One day her agent rang her to offer her a job far away. It was going to be an eight hour bus ride. She took the job, always taking the next best thing. And there on the bus, was a beautiful girl called Phoebe

“We are going to be friends” thought Sophie.

Phoebe had a short brown bob, elegant clothes and she wore a Claddagh ring on her left hand. Sophie asked about her ring. “This ring” said Phoebe “is a traditional Irish ring. The heart represents love, the crown loyalty and the two clasping hands symbolise friendship” Sophie could see that Phoebe’s soul was a bit heavy on her shoulders too. People with heavy souls, can often recognise another in the same predicament. “My father died when I was a child” said Phoebe. Sophie’s eyes widened and they both sat there in the sadness for a moment.

Sophie and Phoebe had an eight hour trip ahead of them. Although Sophie had given up her hunt for Golden Grandmother Medicine, she still found herself asking. “Do you know a place where I can get hold of some…”

To Sophie’s surprise and delight, Phoebe exclaimed “Golden Grandmother Medicine?Oh. Yes, I do!” With a hushed tone Phoebe said “I know someone, who knows someone who owns a small inn who serves the medicine you are after”

When they had finished their job, Phoebe handed Sophie a slip of paper with a name and an address.

Sophie couldn’t wait. The following week, she travelled by train to the secret location and was welcomed by the owners of the inn with warm hugs, hot tea and smiles. Even though she had just arrived, she felt a sense of belonging she had never felt before. Mahana, the owner, pointed Sophie to her bed, and explained that they would serve the precious medicine later this evening.

Sophie rested, and waited. She wondered to herself “Will I be put right?”

At 7pm, all the travellers, sat and listened patiently while Mahana and the other workers at the inn said prayers and made preparations.

Sophie was handed a serving in a golden goblet. It was sticky, like a thick molasses. It smelt foul, and it tasted even fouler. She drank down the bitter brew. Then, she sat back in her bed, and rested for a little while, to wait for Golden Grandmother to work on her. She sat up and her stomach churned and gurgled until she couldn’t hold it any longer and she vomited back up the vile brew.

She closed her eyes and she shot up and up and up to where she was before she was here. And there were her true mother and father. They looked like a hybrid between earthworms and humans. Long worm like bodies, a worm head, glowing. They stood there all together; mother, father and their earthworm child in warm embrace. And then in front of them, lay the body of Sophie.

The small earthworm child was filled with a strong will. “I want to go down to the human world. I want to be Sophie.” The earthworm slid into Sophie’s still form, and her whole body came alive. She was pulsating. Her heart grew. A light filled her body and it buzzed, and hummed and whirred. She slipped and slided through space and time feeling pure elation. “I chose to be here. I want to he here”

When she awoke from her Grandmother dream, she felt different. She wasn’t sure her soul was back in it’s right place. But definitely something had worked. She spent two more nights at the inn. She ate soup and homemade bread, porridge and peanut butter, fresh fruits and herbal teas. All lovingly prepared by the inn’s cook, Fifi. The kind company, the medicine, the food and the sacred land seemed to be working on her.

Sophie returned home to her village. And sometimes when she was lucky, she awoke in the middle of the night with the vivid memory of Golden Grandmother filling her body with bliss. She drew ink pictures to remember what she saw and felt.

After a few weeks the memories of happiness began to fade and her old sadness started choking her again.

She wrote to Mahana and asked if she was able to visit again soon. Many travellers were content to visit the inn once, and that was enough to make them better. Some returned once a year. Others needed more. Sophie, she needed more.

Mahana agreed that she could come and visit the inn twice per month until she felt better. Sophie made many friends at the inn and was always welcome.

Because of Sophie’s broken soul she had spent her life developing her personality and creativity, and this mostly made people warm to her. But occasionally, this would bring out other’s own darkness and she would make enemies.

Unfortunately one of the workers at the inn started to hate Sophie. Henry told her she shouldn’t sing, and embarrassed her and belittled her. Eventually Henry told Mahana that he hated her so much, that she was no longer welcome at the inn. Sophie was heart broken because she felt like she needed more help from Golden Grandmother to put her right.

Mahana told her, under Henry’s orders, she wasn’t welcome back. She begged and begged. Sophie wrote to Henry, she wrote to Mahana and she prayed and prayed. They agreed she could come back one last time, and then she wouldn’t be welcome back ever again.

On her last visit to the inn Sophie felt so troubled. It hurt to be hated. She thought she had found a place of belonging but she no longer belonged here. She drank Grandmother’s Golden Medicine for the last time. And something horrible happened. Golden Grandmother made a small incision at the base of her spine and with surgical precision, removed her soul. Sophie awoke in excruciating physical pain, and she felt numb and hollow because her soul was gone.

And now she was to go home to her village, where she didn’t belong either. Her friends had turned their back on her, her work had dried up, and she was in searing pain. Her mother and sister had gone mad from their haunted childhood, so they wouldn’t be able to help either. She was scared. As she left, Mahana’s beautiful wife gave her a rainbow amulet, and said to her “Call me, if you need me”

Sophie didn’t know what to do when she got home. She was so sad and hopeless. She spent her days sobbing, and her nights praying. For three weeks the same, day in and day out. Until one night she announced to her father “I would like to be put out of misery. It is kind to kill an injured animal that can’t be repaired. I have tried and tried and I can’t be repaired. Please can we arrange for me to be put down?”

She went back up to her bedroom, in a continuing state of hell and lay in her bed and sobbed some more. It got really really quiet, and then Golden Grandmother whispered in her ear “No eating, no speaking. If you want to find peace go seeking. Nothing by mouth except water. Stop talking. Go out into nature” After weeks of misery this plan felt good. So the next day she packed her satchel with a large bottle of water and her rainbow amulet and went out to the river. She walked and walked, and sat, and cried. She wasn’t sure how long this would last.

On the first day she started to feel the injury on her spine soften and open a little. The trees and the river and the blue sky were pouring into her wound. Was mother nature filling her up? She found herself humming an ancient tune

On the second day she stared up at the sky and said “Why am I, and so many others, so miserable?” and the sky said “Because you can’t be in the present moment.” And as he said those words he sent a swoop of swallows down and they chittered, and sang and danced around her head. Their red chins, and blue wings sparkling in the sun.

On the third day she grew tired and returned to her bedroom. There an angel called Sasha came to visit her and told her the story of the fall. Of Adam, and Eve, the apple and the serpent. “Sometimes we must fall from grace to return to grace with greater humility and wisdom” Then Sasha explained that although fear and evil felt huge like a giant and towering monster, Love was so much more powerful. Love was like a tidal wave that could sweep it all away. LOVE ALWAYS WINS.

Sophie wrote a note to her father to go and buy some watermelon. She wanted to eat tomorrow and return back to her normal self.

Later that evening she had visitors from the other side of the veil. Her cousin Simon, and her Grandfather Ivor sat with her and witnessed her. She felt seen in her sadness. That night she went to sleep in the knowledge that this was nearly over.

The following morning she awoke and ate the watermelon. She felt sad sand strange and couldn’t look at her father. She overheard chatter of “Something is wrong with Sophie” and “She just can’t cope with life” and “This is very embarrassing for our family”

She wasn’t really back. She was a ghost. A tired ghost.

She knew of a medicine woman, Geraldine, in North London, who served a holy trinity of sacred medicine who might be able to help. She didn’t tell the medicine woman what had happened, because she was scared that then she wouldn’t give her the trinity. When she arrived Geraldine said prayers and prepared, whilst Sophie and one other fellow traveller waited. Geraldine administered the trinity. The first by burning points on her skin, then with drops in her eyes, then powder up her nose. More vomiting and wailing, and agony and then NOTHING. Just lying there in nothing. Just space, and quiet and nothing.

She took the train home. Still quiet, still nothing, but rejuvenated. Everything inside her had been rearranged and cleaned. She now had the strength to rearrange her life. The Trinity told her to travel north to a temple in Etwall. She needed space from her old life to start again. She slept in the dormitory in a long room, which fitted sixteen beds. She worked in the cafe at the temple. She took part in pujas and ceremonys and she remembered who she was. She stayed there so long that they offered her own room, in what was the stables. There her neighbour was a man from Eastern Europe called Jablko.

One day they had a big celebration at the temple and Sophie offered to dance for the revellers. She put on her colourful costume and entertained the crowd. There in the crowd stood Jablko, who she could see was watching her with pure delight. After her performance he came to her and said “I didn’t know you could do that, that was amazing!” Sophie grew fond of Jablko, and when she found out he was leaving to go down south to pick apples, she had to follow him. He showed her the beautiful orchard that he had worked at for eight years, and there and then they fell in love.

Because Sophie and Jablko had both lived their lives as travellers they didn’t have much. Sophie’s kind father offered them a room at his house. The same old haunted house. Jablko protected Sophie from the evil spirits. Sophie started to rebuild her work as a dancer and got a job at her local inn. This one didn’t serve Golden Grandmother Medicine, just your usual ales and pies. They were happy, and their love strengthened them both.

Jablko asked Sophie if she would give him a son. Sophie had spent so many years of her life sad, heavy and alone, she had never considered becoming a mother. Jablko asked with so much love and certainty, that it felt right. Nine months later they gave birth to their little boy, whom they named after his father. Little sweet baby Jablko. Jablko means apple, and their little boy was the apple of their eye.

After their son was born they returned to work, with a new kind of dedication to serve their young family. Jablko started trading in antiquities, and Sophie returned to her singing and started to teach. They found their own home. It had a sage green front door. From their front window they could see a golden willow tree, and from their back window a chesnut tree. They were right next to a pasture with sheep and a little stream. Their little boy liked to throw sticks into the stream.

They grew strong roots. They walked the land, got to know their neighbours, and took care of their son. Sophie didn’t want her son to grow up with the unrest she had experienced. So, they kept their souls in place with rest, quiet time and creativity. Jablko gave Sophie a Claddagh ring, to mark their union.

And they lived happily ever after

The End

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