Just A Little Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, during a time so long ago, no one remembers the date.  There were two kingdoms on opposite sides of a sparkling river.  On one side, in the East Kingdom lived a princess named Etta.  On the other side, in the West Kingdom lived a prince named Keanu.

Before either Princess Etta or Prince Keanu were born, there had been a terrible war between the two kingdoms.  Many people died.  But the war had been so long ago no one remembered why the war began.  All either side knew was the Kings who ruled during the war agreed to a truce to prevent the further loss of life on both sides.  Therefore, a proclamation went out in both kingdoms.  In order to keep peace, each kingdom would behave as if the other did not exist.  “We’ll stay on our side of the river, and they’ll stay on their side,” and it had been this way for over a hundred years.

In the East Kingdom, despite being in a castle full of people, Princess Etta was very lonely.  She was surrounded by all kinds of people: maids, teachers, knights and jesters, except being around so many people just made Etta feel lonelier.  But she could make herself feel better by going up into an old tower with a tall window.  There she would sit staring out the window at the sparkling river.  From here she could even see the West Kingdom’s castle.

In the West Kingdom, even with a castle full of people, Prince Keanu was also very lonely.  He too, was surrounded by many people different kinds of people: maids, knights, jesters and advisors, except being around so many people, made Keanu feel lonelier.  But he would make himself feel better by going up into the old tower with a tall window.  There he would sit staring out at the sparkling river. From here he could even see the East Kingdom’s castle.

Princess Etta’s long hours alone at the tower window caused the King of the East Kingdom to worry about his daughter. He sent for her and she came and sat at his feet in the thrown room.  The King asked, “My dearest daughter, art thou ill?”

“Dearest loving father,” Etta answered, “I eat healthy foods and exercise every other day.  Do not worry thy heart.  I am in excellent health.”

Three days later, the King of the East Kingdom was still worried about his daughter. He sent for Etta a second time.  This time the King asked, “My dearest daughter, is there any thing thy heart desires? All thy needs do is ask for it and it shall be fetched for thee.”

“Dearest loving father,” Etta answered, “What could my heart desire?  Everything I could possibly want or need is provided for me here in this castle: food, clothing, shelter, education… everything.”

Yet three days after that, the King of the East Kingdom was still quite worried for Etta. So he consulted with his wife, the Queen.

“My beloved husband and King, she is not ill, nor is she in want or need of anything.  Perhaps our daughter is lonely,” the Queen suggested.

The worried King of the East Kingdom went himself up into the old tower with the tall window.  He found Etta gazing longingly out the tall window.  The concerned King asked, “My dearest daughter, art thou lonely?”

Etta laughed, “Dearest loving father, how could one be lonely in a castle full of people?” 

But Etta’s sad, lonely heart betrayed her by sending tears down her cheeks, “Please, do not be angry with me for my deception, Father.  I only wished not to worry thee.”

Etta’s father, the East King, was not angry. He was a kind, gentle, understanding man.  He tried to console his daughter with a warm, loving hug.

The King of the West Kingdom had also begun to worry about his son, Keanu.  The King sent for his son.  When Keanu arrived, he knelt at his father’s feet in the Thrown Room.  The King of the West Kingdom asked, “My son, are you sick?”

“My dear Poppa,” Keanu answered, “I eat healthy and exercise. Don’t worry. I’m in excellent health.”

Three days later, the King of the West Kingdom was still worried about his son.  The King sent for Keanu a second time.  This time the King asked, “My son, is there anything you want or need? All you have to do is ask and it will be gotten for you.”

“My dear Poppa,” Keanu answered, “everything I could possibly want or need is provided for me here: food, clothes, shelter, education… everything.  What else could I want or need?”

Yet three days after that, the King of the West Kingdom was still quite worried.  So he consulted with his wife, the Queen.

“My darling husband, the King, he isn’t sick and he doesn’t need or want a thing.  Maybe our son is lonely.”

The greatly worried King of the West Kingdom went himself up into the old tower with the tall window.  He put a hand on Keanu’s shoulder, “My son, I’ve had a talk with your mother and she seems to think you may be lonely. Are you lonely?”

Keanu laughed loudly, “My dear Poppa, how could anyone be lonely in a castle full of people?’

But Keanu’s sad, lonely heart betrayed him by causing his bottom lip to quiver, “Please don’t be upset with me for not being up front with you, Poppa.  I just didn’t want you to worry.”

Keanu’s father, the West King, wasn’t upset. The King was a kind, gentle, understanding man. He tried to console his son with a warm, buddy hug.

At the exact same moment, Princess Etta and Prince Keanu looked at the other’s tower and both said, “I often wonder as I sit and stare over there… if there’s someone who sits there with a lonely stare like me.”

How does one cure loneliness?  Neither king knew what to do.  But each Queen had a suggestion, “I have heard rumors of an old woman, who lives near the river.  It’s said she is a powerful healer capable of healing anything.  Maybe she knows of a cure for lonesomeness.”

So, each king sent for the healing woman his wife told him about.  And each ancient woman old was brought before each king in his thrown room, where each king explained his dilemma.

“The cure for loneliness, Your Majesty, is quite simple,” each frail old woman told each king, “True love cures loneliness, Sire.  I will speak now with your progeny alone… No need to show me the way. I already know.”

In the old towers of the castles, each ancient woman approached the royal heir, who sat at the tall window and stared.

“No need to fear child,” each old woman assured each royal heir. “I’m here to help.  Lovely view of the river from here.”  Each old woman actually looked at the tower of the castle in the other kingdom and knew the other was there.

“The cure for what aches in your heart cannot be found within these castle walls.  A quest must be taken.  Once the instructions for this quest are heard, leave immediately, alone, or forever be cursed with an empty heart.”

Well, neither Princess Etta nor Prince Keanu wanted to spend the rest of their lives feeling empty and alone.  They each did exactly as they were told.

“My destiny awaits me,” Princess Etta and Prince Keanu each said to themselves. Princess Etta’s horse galloped threw the thick forest.  Prince Keanu sped on his motorcycle with its rarely used sidecar down an old narrow road through the thick forest.

Princess Etta arrived at the old stone bridge the old woman told her about.  It stretched across the sparkling river to the other side where the West Kingdom began.  Cautiously, on her horse, she approached the old stone bridge.

“Thy destiny will find thee upon that bridge,” Etta repeated the old woman’s words to herself.  As she reached the middle of the bridge, her horse was spooked by a loud roaring noise.  Princess Etta was thrown from her horse and all was blackness.

“You’ll find your destiny upon that bridge,” Prince Keanu repeated the old woman’s words to himself as he approached the bridge on his motorcycle.  For a moment, he glimpsed a horse running off in the opposite direction.

Lying upon the old stone bridge, Prince Keanu found a cloaked figure.  When he pulled back the hood of the cloak, he discovered a beautiful young woman.  It looked almost as if she were sleeping.  But when he turned her over, he could see she had hit her head and was unconscious.

When Prince Keanu came plodding through the thrown room caring an unconscious beautiful young woman, the King of the West Kingdom asked, “My son, who is she?”

“She is my destiny,” Keanu answered.

Prince Keanu carried the young woman to his suite and carefully laid her on his four-poster bed.  “Bring me fresh water and clean towels,” Keanu told a chambermaid, “I will be tending her myself.”

Prince Keanu cared for the unconscious woman for three days and three nights.  At night, he slept in a chair at her bedside.  During the day, he stayed perched on the side of the bed. He held her small hand, changed the cloth on her head and stared at her beautiful face.  He did not leave her side.

Late in the evening of the third night, the beautiful young woman opened her eyes.  “Where art I,” she asked the dashingly handsome young man, who was sitting on the side of the bed.

“May haps thee be my husband,” asked the young woman confused.  “Are we familiar with another?”

The way the young woman talked was a bit strange to the young man, but he understood her.  “No, no, neither,” he answered.

“My name is Keanu.  Do you remember your name?”

The young woman thought for a moment, then answered by sadly shaking her head no.

“If you remember anything, what do you remember,” asked Keanu.

Keanu’s speech was odd to the young woman, but she understood him.  She thought for a few moments.  Then she answered, “A quest… I was on a quest to find… no, no to be found… by my destiny, me thinks…  How queer that must sound to thy ears.  For it sounds such to mine own.”

Keanu smiled at the young woman, “It makes perfect sense to me.  And until you remember your name, I’ll call you Destiny.”

Destiny smiled back at Keanu.  As they smiled at each other, they both realized something.  They realized they were in love with each other.

A few weeks later, Keanu and the beautiful Destiny were married.  During a game at the wedding reception, the new bride found a spiraling staircase.  Her new husband chased her up the stairs as she laughed.  She stopped at a tall window and looked out.  There she saw the sparkling river and the old tower of the East Kingdom’s castle.

Keanu wrapped his arms around Destiny and shared, “I used to spend many lonely hours staring out this window.”

A tear escaped Destiny’s eyes.  “Wondering if someone there was a lonely as thyself here,” she added.

“Yes, how did you know,” asked Keanu surprised.

“I remember now,” she answered.  “I did as thee from the window of that tower there.  My name is Etta… Princess Etta of the East Kingdom.”

Keanu was quiet a moment.  Then he responded, “None of that matters to me.  You’re the woman I love, my wife and I’m spending the rest of my life with you.”

Etta was afraid, “But it will matter to thy parents.  What shall we do?”

“Tonight we won’t worry about it.  We’ll retire early to our suite like any couple on their wedding night.  We won’t speak of this to anyone else tonight.  We’re not letting anything spoil our wedding night.”

The next morning, the newlyweds hadn’t finished their breakfast when there was a knock on their door.

“Prince Keanu,” a knight stepped inside the door, “I’m sorry to interrupt.  But your father wants you to join him immediately in the Great Entrance Hall.”

“Is there a problem,” asked Keanu.

The knight answered, “We have visitors from the East Kingdom.  Your father wants you present for this historic occasion. They just arrived with peace banners high in the air.”

The newlyweds held hands, fingers intertwined, as they entered the great hall together.  There was a man knelt down before the King of the West Kingdom.  He was explaining to the King about his lost daughter.

“We scoured my kingdom in search of her.  But found nothing until we came to the old stone bridge that extends over the river which separates our kingdoms,” the King of the East Kingdom shared, “I have come to beg thy assistance.  Not as a King, but as a father who fears his only child is lost forever.”

“I can only imagine, as a father myself, what you must be going through,” said the King of the West Kingdom, “We will help. It’s the least we can do.”

Etta couldn’t stand off to the side and watch her father suffer.  She ran forward.  “I’m here father,” she shouted and threw her arms around his neck.

The King of the East Kingdom cried happy tears as he hugged his daughter, “I thought I had lost thee forever.  Thank heaven thou art safe.”

“I am not lost to thee,” Etta responded as she stretched out her hand to Keanu.  Keanu took her hand and knelt before the King of the East Kingdom. “Father, this is Keanu,” Etta introduced him.

“Our son,” added the King of the West Kingdom standing with his wife the Queen.

Etta explained, “He found me after I was thrown from my horse.  I struck my head.” She showed her father the scar on the corner of her forehead.  “I suffered from amnesia.  I could not even remember my own name until yesterday eve.”

“You remembered yesterday,” the King of the West Kingdom felt deceived, “and you told no one.”

“Etta told me, her husband,” Keanu informed his father. “Besides, it was our wedding night, I would not have not spoiled.”

“Wedding night,” inquired the King of the West Kingdom.

“Keanu is my husband,” Etta informed her father, “We were married yesterday morn… Mother will be so sad she did not see.”

The words “married” and “husband” rang through the King of the East’s head like resounding church bells.  The King of the East Kingdom was filled with new worries.   “My dearest daughter, ist thou sure of this?”

“Father,” Etta’s brow was furrowed, “I love Keanu.”

Keanu assured the East King, “I love your daughter with all of my heart.”

The King of the East Kingdom did not wish to spoil his daughter’s newfound happiness.  So, he hid his worry with a smile and announced, “I have found my daughter alive, well, happy and healthy.  And with her, find I have a son as well.”

The East Kingdom’s knights cheered, and the West Kingdom’s knights cheered with them.

Except all was not happily ever after, there was paper work to be done on the uniting of the two kingdoms that had spent so long existing as separate entities.  The day the papers were signed was supposed to be a day of celebration at the East Kingdom castle.  But just as the celebration began, so did the arguing between the two kings.

The East King’s voice was firm, “It is customary for the husband to leave his family and cleave to his wife.  They shall live here in the East Kingdom Castle.”

“Don’t be old fashioned,” insisted the West King, “Nowadays the bride goes to live with her husband.  They’ll live in West Kingdom Castle.”

Then suddenly, the two kings were in each other’s faces shouting about who was right and whose ways were best, the old ways of the East of the new ways of the West.

The queens looked at each other not knowing what to do.  The whole room stared speechless. Only Etta and Keanu tried to stop the argument, but were ignored by their fathers.

All at once both kings decided the whole thing was pointless.  They turned away from each other, looked at Etta and Keanu, pointed at them and ordered the knights, “Separate them!”

Etta and Keanu both shouted, “NO!!!”  They ran, but knights blocked their path. They clung as tightly as they could to each other.  Servants tried to help them by getting in the way of the knights.  Some servants clung to the prince and princess in an attempt to keep them from being pried apart.  But screaming servants were simply grabbed pulled and tossed aside until knights from both kingdoms reached the couple.  Then large unmerciless hands began to pull the couple apart.  The newlyweds begged to be left alone.  The knights apologized and said they had to follow orders.

Knights held onto both Etta and Keanu. Only their fingertips were not yet pulled apart and had begun to slip.

A violent wind blew open the double entrance doors of the ballroom.  Two old women floated through the doorway into the room.  Their faces were mirror images of each other.  Frightened knights dropped Etta and Keanu to the floor.  The newlyweds scrambled into each other’s arms.  They looked up at the two women that hovered in the air and recognized them as the same women who’d sent them on their quest.  The newlyweds were unafraid; even though, everyone else in the ballroom was terrified.

As the two witches hovered together in the air, they spoke. They spoke in unison, alternated every couple of words and finished each other’s sentences.

“Too many years,” they said together. One began, “Too many years,” the other finished, “for sisters to be apart.”  “We won’t let it happen again… There is no dilemma here. The true loves have a solution.  If you would only be wise enough to listen,” and they motioned to Etta and Keanu.

Etta and Keanu stood up and faced their fathers. The two kings had to listen or face the wrath of the two witches.  They could have been capable of terrible things and were obviously very powerful.

Keanu spoke first, “Our fathers and kings, our solution on where to live is a castle of our own.  We spoke with architects of both kingdoms.  It will straddle the river near the old stone bridge, which will allow it to exist in both kingdoms at the same time.  Working together, they finished the plans a week ago.”

Etta looked from father to father-in-law as she spoke, “It will take builders from both kingdoms, working together, twelve to eighteen months to complete.  We decided until it is complete, we will live in both castles, two weeks in one and two weeks in the other.”

“But tradition,” the East King started and was hushed by the witches.

“Neither way is wrong,” said Etta.

Keanu explained, “Both ways are fine, but we have our own way.  We’ll blend the new ways with tradition.”

The witches spoke, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.  One problem may have many solutions.”

The two kingdoms were finally united by true love and twin witches.  Princess Etta and Prince Keanu moved into their own castle with its own tall tower.  Instead of a tall window it had a balcony, from which Etta and Keanu could see both the East and West castles.  There they were finally able to live happily, and were never lonely again.