Editor's note: This story, which in part focuses on the mundane objects of our 21st-century world, is truly enchanting. It is delightfully twisty toward the end.
Once
upon a time in a far-off land, there was a miller who defeated a dragon and
outwitted three trolls to rescue a princess.
After these remarkable adventures, the couple married and settled down
to live a quiet life in their enchanted castle.
The princess -- now a queen -- gave birth to a boy. On his christening, three fairies gifted him
with three magical objects which he was to keep with him at all times.
The
first was a stone which, when thrown into standing water, could reveal to him the
answer to any question. The second was a
top with an arrow painted on it. When
spun, it would always land in such a way that, when it finally came to rest,
the arrow would point the one who spun it towards his home. The third was a shell which -- when held to
his ear -- would allow him to hear beautiful music to soothe his soul.
As
the prince grew, he continued to bring these objects with him in a special
drawstring bag which he tied to his belt.
He'd skip along the edge of the castle's moat with his friends, and --
whenever they discovered a creature they didn't recognize -- the prince would
throw his magical stone in the shallow water.
Words and images would appear on the surface of the water, telling the
boy the name of the creature and what its magical properties were.
When
the prince and his friends would go on adventures in the forest, they never had
to worry about getting lost, for the boy would spin the magical top, and they'd
stand over it with wide eyes until it came to a rest, the arrow pointing them
in the direction of home.
And
when the prince was alone in his room at night, he'd entertain himself by
holding the magical shell up to his ear and listening to the beautiful music
which echoed out from it. So, through
his gifts, the prince had everything that he needed, and then some, but he was
not entirely content.
More
than anything else, he longed to do something exciting. Sure, he had outwitted a witch and threw her
in an oven at the age of five. When he
was eight, he encountered a leprechaun who gave him a pot of gold. At age ten, he had been briefly turned into a
toad by the spiteful sister of the witch whom he had killed. But by the time he turned twelve, he was
tired of battling dragons,breaking spells and rescuing damsels in distress.
What
he really wanted to do was to visit the magical world which he had only read
about in books -- a world where children visited dentists, rode to school on
fantastic yellow carriages called buses, and were lifted in mechanical boxes
called elevators to the top of sky-scraping towers. His parents scowled at his choice of
literature. They tried to replace his
copies of Harriet the Spy and The Boxcar Children with more
appropriate stories of "Rumplestiltskin"
or J"ack and the Beanstalk," but the prince
would not be deterred.
So,
on his twelfth birthday, he packed up his drawstring bag with his stone, his top,
and his shell, and set off to find the enchanted lands about which he had only
read.
He
wandered far and near, without catching a glimpse of any of the wonderful
things he hoped to see. His world was
entirely devoid of trains or planes or automobiles. Not a single bicycle crossed his path, and --
search as he might -- he couldn't find a single accountant or lawyer.
He
sat down, discouraged, beside a well. A
bucket of water had been drawn and upon seeing his reflection in the clear
water, he had an idea. He threw his
stone into the water and asked in a loud voice, "Oh, magical stone! How do I get to that world I've read about in
my books?"
The
prince looked into the bucket, but all he could see was the reflection of the
well on the surface of the water. He
shrugged, figuring it was worth a try.
Climbing upon the stony edge of the well, the boy leaned in and yelled,
"Hello?"
From
below, he could hear a tiny voice crying out for help. Quickly, he attached the bucket to the
pulley, and lowered it down. "Hop
in!" he called. As he waited, the
rope shifted and something fell --plop!
-- into the bucket. When the prince
pulled it up, splashing in the bottom, gasping for air, was a mouse.
"Dear
little mouse," the prince said.
"What were you doing in that well?"
The
mouse squeaked at him, and in a rather bewildered voice said, "Oh,
my! I was just running through the
sewers and I got lost. I don't know how
I ended up here, but this must certainly be a magical place, for I've never
been able to speak to a human before!"
"How
wonderful!" the prince said.
"You must come from precisely the place to which I wish to
go!"
"Good
luck," said the mouse. "As for
me, I shall see what I find here!"
The
prince waved goodbye, hoping that the poor little mouse wouldn't find his world
too terribly dull, and hand over hand lowered himself down to the bottom of the
well.
After
swimming down through the sewers, the prince washed up in a river in the
wonderful world of his stories. He
climbed out of the river and as he wrung out his clothing, stared in awe at the
cars and trucks whizzing past him. He
followed the river's edge until he came upon the most amazing discovery: a fast
food restaurant with a giant hamburger standing before it.
"Marvelous!"
he said, rushing to the door. Inside, he
waited in line and when it was his turn, he approached the counter and
declared, "I would like a hamburger!"
"That'll
be a dollar twenty-five."
The
prince turned red and stuttered.
"I... I'm afraid I don't have any of your currency. Might you take something in trade?"
The
man across the counter just shook his head.
"Next."
The
prince would not be deterred. On a bench
outside, two boys about his age were sharing a pile of hamburgers between
themselves. "Perhaps they would be
willing to barter," the prince said to himself.
"Excuse
me, gentlemen," he said. "I
would like one of those delicious hamburgers, but I have no money with which to
buy one. Would you be willing to
trade?"
"For
what?" a red-headed boy asked.
"Your dopey hat? What kind
of costume is that, anyway?"
The
prince was bewildered, but undeterred.
"It's not a costume at all.
I come from a place far, far away, and this is the type of garment
everyone wears there. I would be willing
to trade the hat for a hamburger, though."
"Nah,
we don't want your hat," the other boy, a blond-haired lad said. "What's in your bag?"
The
prince had a clever idea. "This bag
contains three items of the greatest magic.
I will show them to you... in exchange for one hamburger."
The
boys wrinkled up their noses. "We
don't like magic tricks," the redhead said. "They're for babies."
"Oh,
you'll like these," the prince said confidently. "You've never seen anything like this
here."
"Fine,"
said the blond, nudging his friend.
"But if we have seen it before, we don't have to trade."
The
prince smiled, confident that he would win.
"Excellent. First, allow me
to show you my magic stone."
Glancing around, he found a puddle of water and dropped it in. "Now you may ask it any question, and it
will give you an answer. For instance...
"Oh,
magical stone--"
"--what's
the answer to six minus three?" the redhead asked. The three boys leaned their heads in.
"There,"
the prince said. "One, two, three
boys are reflected in the puddle. The
answer is three."
"That's
lame."
"My
phone can do the same thing," the other said, pulling out his smart
phone. He opened up a calculator app and
punched in '6 - 3'. The number 3 lit up
the screen.
The
prince frowned. "Well, your device
certainly won't be able to do anything like this," he said, revealing his
magical top. He set it on the ground and
flicked his wrist to set it spinning. It
spun and spun, and finally landed, its arrow pointing in the direction which
the boy had come.
"I
don't get it. What's the magic part?"
"It
is pointing me in the direction I need to take in order to find my home,"
the prince said.
"That's
it?" The blond boy pulled out his
phone again. He hit a button, and
instantly a map appeared, with a route plotted in green from the restaurant to
his home. The prince just stared in
amazement.
With
a sigh, the prince held out his final object, the shell. He turned it around in his hand and then held
it out to the others. "I realize
now your magical device is far superior to any of mine. All this one does is fill my head with the
sounds of music. I'm sure yours must do that
as well, though perhaps even better. I
would bet you can hear all sorts of music on your device, instead of the same
song over and over again. I should have
known that this fantastic land would be so much better than my own."
The
two boys just stared at him, and then at one another. The prince looked so sad, so tired, and so
hungry that the boys felt a twinge of pity for this weird kid with the funny
accent and strange clothes. How sad it
must be to come from a place where you couldn't text your friends or play
Tetris or watch funny videos of cats falling off things!
"You
know what?" the redhead said, winking at his friend. "That is a pretty great shell. You win, buddy."
The
prince clapped his hands in delight. The
hamburger passed from the boy's hand to his own, and into his mouth, where the
cheese oozed and meat patty juices ran down his throat. With that first bite of greasy perfection,
the prince knew without a doubt that this truly was the most magical place ever.
W.Klein lives in Michigan with her husband and two sons. She is an avid reader and is currently seeking representation for her first novel.
