That awful tale of a young girl who was treated badly by an evil step-mother and two ugly step-sisters, so badly in fact that she ended up at a psychiatric hospital outside Lausanne ' where she'd go on and on about mice turning into foot-men, glass slippers, and a pumpkin turning into a coach which whizzed her off to some ball where she danced with a prince ' her babbling of course frowned upon by the doctors and staff ' and no treatment or medication would help ' but her wild stories beloved by all the other inmates ' out of which came a popular fairy tale, and much later a famous Disney film, has another loose thread in it ' the story of Cinderella's twin sister, Minderella, who, after her sister's break-down, one day, pretending to go fetch water from the well, ran away to lands unknown'�

She ended up picking strawberries in France, where she fell in with a band of gypsies. In the evenings, while sitting around the open fire ' they taught her how to juggle, how to swallow fire ' and even how to glue a beard on so it appeared quite natural.

After the fruit picking season that year, she took off for Rumania and joined a circus.

Following two minor incidents with the flame-swallowing catching her beard afire, she had to choose, and kept the beard. Ever developing her talents, she learned to ride standing on the back of a horse trotting around the circus ring ' while juggling, and with the beard ' she soon became the star attraction of the circus.

One day, though, while practicing riding the teeming horse standing on just one leg, she fell, and got kicked in the head. When she came to, she was lying in bed being examined by twin doctors. Against the doctors' warnings, she rose up out of bed, swept aside the curtain-doors of her tent, and stepped-out into a doubled world. Her first week in this state she later described in her memoirs as the happiest time of her life ' there were twice as many trees in the forest, twice as much grass in the fields ' she had twice as many friends.

The novelty wore-off around the time two seedy Russian men presented themselves to the circus directors, bearing behind them two huge covered cages on wagons. 'Olaf, and the Dancing Bear!' they shouted, pulling the curtains down from around the cages, let loose two enormous black bears, then conducted them, like orchestra leaders ' and the bears danced.

Min couldn't help but fall in love with these geniuses, even though they cost her her billing as the main attraction.

(Weeks later, as her sight regained normalcy, and she realized there was just a single dancing bear ' her love for the trainer didn't wane.

Then, a real bearded lady showed up from out of nowhere ' the circus director was impressed. Upon seeing Min, she yelled, 'She's a fake!'� And Min couldn't deny it, in fact, everyone at the circus knew. They knew, because two weeks after Olaf arrived, Min tried with all of her guile, dressing provocatively ' even in pants, and bending over for him ' showing her ankles, her legs ' once even tearing off her beard right in front of him and shouting, 'Look at me!'� ' then storming out of the stalls ' amidst the astonished whispering of the animal keepers.

The next day she moved into his wagon.

One day, outside Prague, while they were taking a rest before marching into the city, an old blind woman came near the troupe, walking along a dirt road. Upon seeing her, Min immediately rose, ran over, pushed the woman down, and gave her a swift kick to the head. Everyone was dumbstruck ' but the circus director took affair, and somehow got rid of the body.

A lion tamer presented himself to the circus director. Though the lion looked a little funny, and was very skinny (the director attributed it to the 'starving artist' syndrome) ' he hired the man and his lion on the spot ' pushing Olaf's dancing bear into second billing, with much smaller lettering on the posters. So Olaf began teaching his bear some new dance steps, day and night, trying to get the bear accustomed to the top hat and teaching it how to twirl a cane ' all ideas he'd come up with ' twisted into him by Min over an entire month of relentless arguing.

She immediately fell for the lion tamer, Gunther. He had no problem looking at her at all ' in fact, his looks made her tremble. He never missed a chance at 'accidentally' brushing up against her ' and seemed so eager to be alone with her, she never let it happen.

But it did happen ' and he was an incredible lover ' not demanding that she put on her beard at all.

Olaf, in his domesticated desperation, began stealing moments where he could to be alone inside their wagon and try on her dresses. She caught him once, was very forgiving ' though the elastic had been stretched, and the seams were splitting. She finally had enough when she caught him trying to dress the bear ' completely tearing her dress apart. She moved into the lion tamer's wagon that very same day.

All went well until one listless day when Gunther let it slip that his lion was not a lion at all, but a large dog he clipped to look like a lion. Min was shaken, 'sticking one's head into the gaping mouth of a large dog is not so impressive' ' she didn't know what to do ' so she ran to the circus director and told him immediately ' then ran away from the circus in shame.

She ended-up in Vienna. But the first day of her arrival, on the crowded boulevard, she saw a blind man walking with a cane, being led by a child ' she immediately rushed over, pushed the man down, and gave him a swift kick to the head. She was arrested.

She explained to the judge how she had once been kicked in the head by a horse, and it had doubled her vision ' her action was simply meant to bring the sight back to the blind man. He ordered a psychological evaluation.

After listening to her story, Dr. S. Freud, pronounced that Min had become infatuated with a bear in a dress ' since her fantasy could only be imagined by those with sight, she transferred her desires on to those with none ' and attacked them to prove her vagina was superior to the penis of the bear.

The circus director, having gotten news of Min's incarceration ' led his troupe to Vienna and secured her release with bribes.

By this time, though, the circus had grown. There were five Mongolians who not only juggled, but juggled back and forth, while performing acrobatics. New clowns had joined ' who were not only funny, but begged apathy. There was a fire-eater who not only ate fire, but doused himself with gasoline and set himself ablaze ' all the while smiling. And the new head-line act was a Lithuanian midget who shot himself out of a cannon.

She thought to return to Olaf ' but he was busy training a new bear ' 'Besides,'� he told her, 'I really only loved you for your beard.'�

She worked in the stalls and at setting up the tents and at the concession stands to pay back her debt to the circus director. She thought to throw herself at him, but he was only interested in the bearded lady ' though the bearded lady always punished his advances ' saying she was no one to be had as a mouse, for example, or, stroking her beard, retorting ' 'You are no philosopher ' with your stringy mustache!'�

Min spent more and more time amongst the 'freaks' ' the incredibly fat man ' who it took a whole series of levers and pulleys to place from in his wagon to and from his tent ' he weighed 400 kilos ' the horse-face girl ' the rhinoceros man ' the two-headed dragon lady, and the bearded lady. Who became very friendly with her ' even flirted, which made Min blush.

After having sex with the bearded lady, she discovered 'she' was a man, and ran immediately and told the circus director ' who was so distraught ' he accused her of lying ' but then saw it on her face, offered her old job back as the bearded lady, and after that he pretty much went in to hiding.

Min received a letter from a foreign mental institution wherein they grieved to tell her her twin sister had passed away in some unforeseen accident ' where the head doctor of the institution, having read of a new cure for blindness, had thought one of their mules, if kicking her sister in the butt ' might cure her obsession with dreaming ' though at the mule's kick, she landed unfortunately upon a pitchfork ' but died painlessly.

She immediately took-up with the midget who shot himself out of a cannon. He'd never had a girlfriend before ' and his amorous adventures are well know from his memoir ' 'I Used to Shoot Myself Out of a Cannon' '

So the circus ended-up in Bulgaria ' and morale was low. Min one day marched into the director's wagon, over-manned him ' pretty-much raped him, though seemingly impossible ' she did have to force a finger up his ass.

She moved in to his wagon that very same day.

Now that she was 'Queen' of the circus, everyone bowed to her. Though the director occasionally came out to direct his circus, it was Minderella who really ran the circus ' and everyone knew it.

'Everyone here who is a fake, go home!'� The gathering had been advertised as a party'� still at the podium: 'Everyone here with talents mortal beings cannot possess, go home!'� ' they all thought to leave. 'Everyone who is different, without other merit than that, go home!'�

Soon it was only the director and his chosen who remained.

They lived a quiet life ' he became a small town bank director, what with his acuity with finance ' she took-up sewing ' and created some of the most wonderful dresses ever imagined in Europe.

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