| Subject: Letters to Samson - 2 |
Author:
Holly
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Date Posted: 19:41:17 06/05/05 Sun
In reply to:
Holly
's message, "Letters to Samson - 1" on 18:59:32 06/04/05 Sat
Today, we went to Bickfords. While we were waiting for our food, you let a juicy one on the leatherette bench. Your Daddy and I jumped, but without missing a beat, you pointed at your Dad and said, "He did it."
You make me laugh every day.
----
A Story of You
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, a princess lived in a land of rivers and lakes. She was strong and brave and could ride any horse in the county, no matter how wild. She made interesting, if sometimes unfortunate, choices about her hair and her clothes and was often seen in fuschia bobbie socks and high-heeled shoes. Just as often, she wore lace-up riding boots with flowered dresses. She was fearless. She was wild. And she had issues.
Very big issues.
One Autumn, she traveled to a faraway land of gray towers and steel blue oceans. It was there, at a leprechaun's restaurant, that she met a handsome knight. His name was Andrew, but he was so tall, so handsome and strong, and his sandy brown hair was so very long, that people everywhere called him "Samson."
The knight fell immediately fell in love with the knight, who at first did not know quite what to make of him, as trust was one of her very big issues. He serenaded her with Massacre, Material, Miles Davis, and the knight's own lovely music (he was a talented night indeed) and slowly, at first, she began to warm to him.
Little by little, she got to know him, liking him more and more as she did. She was almost completely smitten when, one night, out of nowhere, a dark rage crossed his face. It was almost as if an ogre had taken charge of him. He yelled, threw things, and stomped about. This frightened the princess at first, but not for long. For now, she knew that the knight had issues, too.
And the princess was in love. She felt her first ever fear with him: the fear that she would lose him or he would leave. She reveled in that fear, the drama, the pounding heart, because she was young and, as we already know, she had issues.
The knight and the pricess married and lived a carnival life with ups and downs between great love and big issues, for both of them lacked impulse control. Then, one afternoon, a messenger came with word that would tear them apart.
The princess had been chosen to study with great wizards back in her homeland. Well, she thought, this is fantastic news. I will pack my things and we....
She realized that the knight would not want to leave his home. Or his music. And so began a monumental breakdown in communication.
The princess had to go study. The wizards were famous, at least in wizard circles, and could teach her the workings of everything in all kingdoms. A princess could use such knowledge, and she meant to get it. But she did not want the knight to hate her, and that is what she feared would happen if she asked him to go with her.
He would go out of duty and hate her for ruining his life. If she stayed, she would hate him for ruining hers. She wanted him to go with her, but she wanted it to be his decision, made freely.
A wiser princess, a princess with fewer issues, might have explained this to her husband, but that was not our princess. She had a ways to go and a lot to learn. Instead, when the time came to talk, the princess made another unfortunate choice.
She said to the knight, "I am going home to study with the wizards."
The knight asked whether she wanted him to go with her.
The princess said, "No."
The knight helped the princess pack and rode with her for three days back to her homeland. The princess hoped that maybe he would see how beautiful her home was, and maybe, once he got there, he would not want to leave. But after he got her settled, he left, promising to visit soon.
True to his word, always true to his word, the knight visited, but the visits were heavy with sadness. The princess did not want him to leave and acted as if she did not want him there at all. He began to believe that she did not love him. This made him angry and ogrish.
She began to believe that he did not love her. And the ogre became less attractive.
And the knight stopped visiting. The princess was alone. She studied hard, thinking that was all there was left to her life. She became very good at the magic and spells, especially good with the words, and was on her way to becoming a powerful princess indeed. Once, along the way, the knight wrote asking whether she wanted him to come live with her. She wrote back "No." Same stupid answer. Same stupid reason. And night after lonely night, she cried in her pillow, wishing he were there.
At the edge of the county, near where the princess kept her horses, there was a toad-man with some dark magic of his own. He cast a spell making himself look like a prince. A prince with a job and a home and horses of his own. He brought flowers to the princess and said to her, "It breaks my heart to see how lonely you are. Why don't you come stay with me. I can give you everything you ever wanted: love, security, even a baby to take care of."
A baby. That was something the princess had always wanted. The only thing was, she wanted her baby to look like the knight. But he was not around, so the princess made another unfortunate choice and replied, "I will go with you to see if I like it there, but you must understand that I love only my husband...."
What the princess did not know was that the words "I will go with you" completed a spell that would take her life on a very dark turn for a very long time. Instantly, she was chained to the toad-man. His prince uniform melted away, leaving bones and warts and back hair. And he pooped his pants.
He dragged the princess to a tall tower with no windows. Days, she spent writing spells for the toad-man to sell for money. Nights, she was alone. When she asked about a baby to keep her company, the toad-man said only that he was the baby around there. She was there to take care of him. Her world grew very small and very sad, and still, every night, she cried into her pillow, wishing for her knight.
Finally, one day, as she was writing the spells for the toad-man to sell, it occurred to her! She was writing spells. Spells! Perhaps there was a way to get herself out of this mess.
She called to the toad-man, "Please, sir, I need to learn more spell theories in order to keep producing new material for you. May I consult with the wizards, just briefly, tomorrow?"
The toad-man thought about it. She was bound to him by the spell of chains. It was not as though she could get away from him. "All right," he said, "I need more money anyway, so make the new ones good ones."
The princess barely slept that night. And she did not cry at all.
The next day, the princess went to wizard school, as she had said. The chains were invisible outside the tower, but the wizards could see them. They gave the princess several ideas for money-making spells, and they whispered to her one very important spell, a spell for chain-breaking.
The princess hurried back to the tower and began writing feverishly. The toad-man soon came to check her work and collect the spells. He read the spells aloud to verify their accuracy. Always, they were right, and always tiny bits of magic happened, but today was quite different. When he read the last piece of paper, his face flushed with fear and rage.
There, on white paper, in jet black ink, were the magic words:
"Get out of my life!"
When the toad-man said them, the chains fell to the floor, the tower fell to the ground, and the princess was free. She ran without thought or belongings to her fastest horse and rode three days back to the land of buildings and oceans.
Along the way, it occurred to her that the knight might not take her back, that he was probably pretty mad at her, but it did not stop her. When she reached his home, he was waiting for her, as if, somehow, he knew she was on her way. He lifted her gently down from her horse and kissed her.
"I'm sorry," she stammered, "About not just telling you how I felt and what I wanted." She added, "I have issues."
The knight nodded. "Me, too. I'm in therapy."
And so, with the help of their therapy godmothers, the princess and the knight began to live happily ever after, so happily, in fact, that they were joined by a tiny prince with eyes as blue as the knight's and a dimple in his chin, just like the knight, and even though the prince had very little hair, his parents called him "Samson."
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