What had upset and confused the king was indeed the birth of
a child. The child was a son and under normal circumstances that fact alone
would be enough to bring joy to the king and to his subjects. But the son who
was born was not the child the king expected. This child had a deformed body and
an unspeakable countenance. The king wanted to love his son but his physical
ugliness was more than the king could bear. He had the child taken to a private
chamber to be cared for out of his sight until he could muster the courage to
accept him as he was.
The queen was deeply hurt and surprised by the king’s
attitude. She did not understand how the king could judge his child only by his
features. Did he not carry the same blood as the king? Was he not the son of
the king? But the king would not relent. He kept his son in private quarters
and ignored him.
As an infant this fatherly rejection made no impact on the
child for he had the love and attention of his mother and loving attendants. And
so he grew at the rate of any child. Since he had no means of comparison the
somewhat insular conditions of his existence had no particular impact on him nor
did the absence of his father. The prince’s apartments and courtyard were
furnished with spectacular resources for his care, entertainment and education.
He never noticed the absence of a mirror and since his mother was beautiful, he
assumed he was beautiful too.
His mother had an apartment next to his, but it was
understood that it was private and not to be entered. He took no complaint with
that arrangement as a small child but we are gifted or cursed with curiosity as
children depending on your point of view and the prince began to wonder about
the room his mother went to when she left him.
The queen had long since learned to love her child as he was. There was no consideration of his differences. This led to a comfortable and
happy relationship. Her only worry was that he would discover his differences
and be injured by the knowledge that he was different. With that in mind special
attention was given to keeping him ignorant of his looks even though those
around him were charmed by his personality to the point of forgetting his
unhappy countenance.
The beauty of the human condition is such that if there is
beauty in our actions our looks take on less importance at first and then are magically
changed to match our behavior. Perhaps never by all, but certainly, by those who
know us. And so it was that the prince was to his retinue, a most beautiful
child until one sad day when a happy, but careless chamber maid left his mother’s
apartment door ajar.
To the prince, who had been left for a rest period, it was
an open invitation for an adventure into a new world. And he could do no less
than accept the invitation; he was after all a happy, healthy and normal little
boy with natural curiosities. So even though he had been schooled on the
importance of privacy and the courtesy of allowing his mother to have her own
space, the door was open and he had never seen inside the room.
Reluctantly at first and then with great intensity he moved
toward the open door and the promise of adventure. He looked inside and there
across the room was a strange object hanging on the wall that looked like a
pool of water. He walked toward it to see what secrets it held.
To be continued…
©Herb Ratliff, November 28, 2012, All Rights Reserved
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