music, books, love and kindness

Sometimes I turn my dreams into short stories. This was a dream I wrote about as soon as I woke one morning back when I used to have good dreams...or at least hopeful ones. I don't personally believe in reincarnation, but I do like the thought of eternal love and a small and silly romantic part of me likes to think there are mystical reasons for why we sometimes feel we've met someone before even though it's our first time to meet them. I've been keeping a dream journal for over seven years now and it not only helps me with dream recall, it helps me try and work through the bad and recurring ones.

Happily Ever After May Take Some Time

A short story

 

Once upon a time two princesses fell in love, during a time when things of this nature were not just frowned upon, but punishable by death.

Caught in the woods one day, holding hands and exchanging vows of the sort no one but the two of them could ever truly understand or value, the girls listened in fear as their fathers each made a vow of his own: they would be forever separated and kept in towers divided by kingdoms until both recanted and agreed to marry princes of their parents’ choosing.

The slightly older of the two girls, deeply protective and torn up with guilt, could not bear to see her beloved taken away only to be banished until a worst punishment was pronounced. She cried out that it was all her doing, that she had forced the younger one to play along with her, that it was all one-sided and pure evil on her part.

No one, even those who most hated and believed them to be sinners of the most unnatural kind, could deny that the two shared a real love usually reserved for that between men and women. Still, no amount of protesting would change the king’s mind.

That night, in the tower, the older girl begged for someone to help.

Soon, a fairy godmother, not her very own but one used by all in both kingdoms, appeared.



The older princess asked for her beloved to be spared, adding that she would take on both of their punishments if only the younger girl could be saved.

Agreeing reluctantly, the fairy godmother warned that the older girl would indeed suffer, suffer very much indeed, that that was the price of their true love.

Tears streaming down her face, the older girl nodded eagerly, saying, “Anything, anything, that will keep her from facing the worst.”

The fairy godmother’s face took on an expression of peace and compassion. “Very well, then. Your beloved, in order not to suffer, must have her memory completely wiped of you and your time together, of your love together. She will not fall in love with the prince she is to marry, but neither will she suffer from comparing him to the love of her life. She will be neither happy nor sad, just accepting.”

The older girl had hoped for more for the princess she loved so very much, but acceptance (she supposed) was better than unhappiness. She nodded, less eagerly this time, but just as determined.

“And what must I do on my part?” She asked quietly.

“You, unfortunately, my child, will remember everything, how much you love her, how much she loved you, how your treasured times in each other’s company meant the world to both of you. You will marry a prince and be miserable, but you will at least know you spared the suffering and death of your most beloved.”

The older princess continued to silently cry, then, when she could speak again, thanked the fairy godmother, who smiled maternally and turned to go.

Halfway across the room, she suddenly swiveled and faced the older girl once more. “There is one more part to your end of the deal, my child.”

“Yes?” The single word came out strangled and already worn and weary, as if a million years without her true love had already gone by.

“You two will meet again someday, in a far away place and time that is more accepting of your love. Unfortunately, you will have some sense of memory and love for her, a vague recollection of her wonderful soul, but, of course, you will not recognize her future human incarnation. She, however, will not remember one single second of your time nor of you and your unreturned feelings for her will torment you unless you can prove yourself once again worthy of her love.”

The older princess brushed the backs of her hands against her eyes, looking like a little child. “I do not understand.”

For the first time since she’d arrived, the fairy godmother grew peeved. “What is not to understand?”

“Well,” the older princess hesitated, as if worrying she might appear ungrateful after all her rescuer had promised. “It hardly seems fair to have to start over again after we will have already gone through so much in this lifetime.”

Now, the fairy godmother just plain snorted, amazed at both the naivete and gall of the girl. She was not so mad or unkind, though, that she couldn’t sense where the princess was coming from. “Do you love her?”

“Very much so, fairy godmother.”

“Well, then, my child, you know what they say…all is fair in love and war. You will get your day again and if all goes well and love perserves, your true love perseveres, then you will finally get the happiness you two richly deserve. But remember: nothing good comes easily.”

The older princess bowed and thanked the fairy godmother for all her help and long after she had gone thought and thought and wondered about it all. Her heart and her head hurt so much, but sleep was not an option, even if she could have found slumber.

So she thought some more and remembered the early days of their friendship and how hard, how very hard, they had tried to fight their growing romantic feelings…to no avail. And she realized that as long as her princess was okay, as long there was even the slimmest, tiniest, remotest, possibility of someday being together again, she would go through anything…tower imprisonment, parental disproval, even marriage (lasting God knows how many years) to a man she did not love.

Because, somehow, somewhere, somewhen, she knew their day would come.