Sometimes I Write

Slowly the king and his daughter became acquainted and eventually became friends. He came to visit her in her kingdom, and occasionally the princess and her family traveled to his. The king also introduced her to the other royal children. The princess enjoyed having more family, but still felt left out a lot of the time. The two princes and their younger princess didn’t really think of the princess as their real sister, so though they were polite and even friendly, the princess was still a bit of an outsider. She didn’t let it bother her since the king was now in her life for good.

Time passed quickly and eventually the king met and married a new step-queen. She was kind and lovely and they were good to all of the royal children. The step-queen had a son that was kind like his mother. In fact, the princess had known him when they were both teens. He and his wife added two more to the line of royal children.

14 years had passed since the king and princess had reunited. Their relationship was good – something the princess was very grateful for.

Then one day the king called the princess to tell her that the youngest princess was getting married. Because she knew the older princess was gifted with song, she wanted the older princess to sing at her wedding. The princess agreed though she was secretly annoyed with the younger princess. The younger princess had been living with her lack-of-commitment prince for six years already and they had a baby princess three years ago. She didn’t understand why the youngest princess was having a big, huge, gigantic wedding feast, though she was glad that the two were finally getting married.

Then she realized the ugly truth. Buried beneath all of the kindness in the princess’s heart was an ugly green streak of jealousy. The princess was shocked by this revelation and sad at her pettiness. Where did all of this come from? But she knew – oh she knew. Though the king had come to the princess’ wedding, he was not involved with it at all. He had been a stranger that day. A loyal friend had walked the princess down the aisle and presented her to her true love. Though the princess was grateful for the wedding she did have, it was not the grand feast now being planned for the youngest princess.

It wasn’t long before the princess realized that the youngest princess’ mother – the evil ex-step-queen, was dreaming up this fantastic feast and that’s why it kept changing and growing. The king arranged for the princess to travel to his kingdom for the feast, and the plans were set. The music was chosen, the grand ballroom was reserved, the Chicken Marsala was ordered, and things were moving forward.

But as the day of the feast approached, the princess slowly had a feeling of fear and dread well up in her stomach. She had trouble sleeping and eating, but couldn’t figure out why. Then in the wee hours of the night, it dawned on her. It wasn’t just about the younger princess. She was going to meet the evil-ex-step-queen for the first time and she was filled with both anger and terror. You see, the evil-ex-step-queen had not only been the biggest reason the princess grew up apart from the king, she also had spent many years making cruel remarks and calling the princess horrible, unrepeatable names to the princess’s family. The princess didn’t understand how a woman who had never met her could hate her so much. Perhaps it was because she had had to share the king’s heart with the daughter he had denied to make her happy.

The princess spoke with her lovely step-queen mother and she reassured the princess that she was loved and there would always be a place for her in the royal kingdom. She told the princess to ignore the evil ex-step-queen and to have a good time at the wedding feast. She encouraged the princess to once again keep her chin up and rest in the knowledge that the king and step-queen loved her very much. The princess had received these same wise words from her true love. If only the princess could get rid of that nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach…

The story doesn’t end here. The wedding feast is in August. The princess will give an update about her story after she returns from the royal kingdom. 😉