Long, long
ago in the magical realm known as NYC, lucky young knights and maidens were given
the privilege of study at the hallowed halls called A&D where they learned the
creative arts… and jousting. It was there that the princess first encountered
the prince. She was a fair Theatre Arts student and as was wont in the hallowed
halls, the students of Theatre Arts oft lived by their own rules. It was an
accepted practice and most monitors of those hallowed halls did tend to look
the other way, except for one knight, a prince in disguise, who was most
fastidious about the rules. The magic began the day he barred the maiden from
joining her stage crew because the sacred bell had not been rung. The maiden
had been tutored in the art of sparring by her father, a grand king, and in
anger she punched the young knight and raced to the safety of her crew.
Aside from a
few rare glimpses in those hallowed halls, the prince and princess had no more
encounters for several years, long past their individual assignments at the
great castle known as A&D. Several autumns later, perhaps six or so, they
chanced again to meet in the massive shelter of the local constabulary —
neither was in trouble but they were both duty-bound to serve their communities
in the practice of Auxiliary Police. The princess’ father, the grand king, did
preside over their unit and looked on this couple with great favor. Together
and in spite of their protest, the two did patrol the kingdom on many eves. And
so finally at one assignment, a Memorial Day parade detail, the two did chance
to speak in a polite way, and before they retreated to their respective
castles, the prince did request the fair princess to join him for dinner.
Thinking that perchance he was merely being jovial, she did accept; realizing
the error she had made, she felt honor bound to accompany him as promised.
They did
dine on succulent East Indian dishes, a first for her, and afterwards enjoyed a
stage show at Ye Olde Playboy Club and it was indeed a merry night. The one
evening was soon followed by two more, nay, four more enjoyable adventures. And
after the fourth venture, merely 14 suns and moons later, the young prince
refused to return the princess to her castle before eliciting a promise to wed.
The princess protested most profusely. She was indeed smitten by his charm but
wary of wedlock. It was only when he promised her safe passage to her home in
exchange for her acceptance that she did utter the words YES. In truth she had
hoped her father, the grand king, would challenge the prince to a duel — to her
surprise the king had been hoping for such a union between the kingdoms and truly
believed that the prince would make the princess very happy. Still protesting,
the princess did begin to love the prince and yearned to become his queen and
he her king. Such a match was made on the 28th of December in the
year 1975.
Forty years
later to the day, the new king and queen still sit side-by-side on their
thrones in a grand castle they managed to conquer in the realm called Hudson
Valley. Together they raised a royal princess and prince and watched with love
as their offspring enjoyed adventures and fairy tales of their own; the new
generation of royals have found their own true loves and are now kings and
queens of their own monarchs The vast rooms of their castle have seen many
laughs and loving gestures through the seasons as well as the pitter patter of
many mythical felines.
And the
fairy tale continues…
