One Long Picnic

Once upon a time, a young girl packed up a picnic basket and left the castle she was born in. She only intended to sneak away and go to school in the next castle over and that is exactly what she did for the first couple of years. Since school was considered a good thing in her kingdom, her father and mother did not put up a fuss. In fact they put up a great deal of money so she could continue on.

The money might not have been the best idea, because it freed the girl from having to join the ranks of pot scrubbers and boot blackers in the kitchen. She used that time to hob knob with the court jesters and poet laureates, even the local bard once in a while. The people she met were astounding. She might have stayed there forever, but one day an angel swooped down and carried her off to his kingdom. In order to preserve her good name she married him and spent the next thirty years trying to be happy in a castle called Heavenly bliss.

In his castle they allowed jesters and poets and other entertainers, but one was expected to keep her distance from them and the girl was not good at that. She put on the obligatory balls and spent hours with her ladies in waiting in chapel, but her heart kept walking the countryside with those kindred spirits she missed.

One day the angel brought home a new girl and the old one packed up a picnic basket and left the castle she had lived in for so long. She avoided mirrors and never sang in public, but bit by bit, she found that the people she liked enjoyed her almost as much as she did them. What a revelation that was!

In fact it was almost unbelievable. She forgot she was old and not perfect and began to just do the things she loved. She still could not look in mirrors, or sing in public, but she could tell great tales and because of her schooling, write them down.

Finally she had her own home where there were no jesters, or entertainers, just friends of the heart and she never packed another picnic basket the rest of her life.