The Silencing Curse

"A Modern Fairy Tale"

Once upon a time in a land far away, a beautiful,
independent, self-assured princess happened upon
a frog as she sat contemplating ecological issues on
the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow
near her castle.

The frog hopped into the princess' lap and said: "
Elegant Lady, I was once a handsome prince, until
an evil witch cast a spell upon me.

One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into the
dapper, young prince that I am and then, my sweet, we
can marry and set up housekeeping in your castle with
my mother, where you can prepare my meals, clean
my clothes, bear my children, and forever feel grateful
and happy doing so. "

That night, as the princess dined sumptuously on lightly
sautéed frog legs seasoned in a white wine and onion
cream sauce, she chuckled and thought to herself:

"I don't bloody think so!"

****************************************************

"The Silencing Curse"

Once upon a time there was a Prince who, through no
fault of his own was cast under a spell by an evil witch.

The curse was that the Prince could speak only one
word each year. However, he could save up the words
so that if he did not speak for a whole year, then the
following year he was allowed to speak two words. (This
was before the time of letter writing or sign language.)

One day he met a beautiful princess (ruby lips, golden
hair, sapphire eyes,) and fell madly in love. With the
greatest difficulty he decided to refrain from speaking
for two whole years so that he could look at her and
say "my darling". But at the end of the two years he
wished to tell her that he loved her. Because of this
he waited three more years without speaking (bringing
the total number of silent years to 5).

But at the end of these five years he realized that he
had to ask her to marry him. So he waited ANOTHER
four years without speaking.

Finally as the ninth year of silence ended, his joy knew
no bounds. Leading the lovely princess to the most
secluded and romantic place in that beautiful royal
garden the prince heaped a hundred red roses on her
lap, knelt before her, and taking her hand in his, said
huskily, "My darling, I love you! Will you marry me?"

And the princess tucked a strand of golden hair behind
a dainty ear, opened her sapphire eyes in wonder, and
parting her ruby lips, said: "Pardon?"
Received on Tue Nov 13 05:37:24 2007