A Flawed Fairytale

"So where were we?"

He asks the child, resting her head on his shoulder, and she replies while covering her diminutive but widespread yawning face, with the her miniature palm, in which writing fate is still left over the lines, for the astrologer to read someday,

"The girl got abducted by the monster."

Her voice depicting the extent of sleep's charm over head now, which was literally going to fall in a jerk or two, with the shut of both eyes.

"Yeah.... And the king, didn't want the prince to go save the girl, because he wanted her to marry a princess of neighboring kingdom!!!!"

"So did he leave her there alone?"

The sleep for a moment seem to go down against the zest of a child's first curiosity over the strength encompassed in the so-called "unstoppable force of love".

"No!! The prince, determined to save the love of his life, escaped the palace with the help of his best friend, who was the military general, and together, with the help of some military troops they went forth to rescued the girl."

"Then daddy?"

The dream weaver in the munchkin asks with her sleep now gone buried under the amazement and subconscious desire for it to be a happy ending.

"They fought with all their might and made the impossible, possible."

"Then??"

Her enthusiasms increasing in proportion the advancement towards climax of the tale.

"They took her back to their kingdom and dazzled at his son's accomplishment and unwavering love for the girl, the king had a change of heart and he let her marry the girl of his dreams.

And the lived, happily ever after!!!"

'That was such a goooodd story daddy, do prince actually come in real life too? Even if their dad's want to stop them?"

Her smiling innocence raising questions the man's heart has answers to, but won't tell, so he just looks back with a reciprocated smile, to say,

"Yeah, they do, now hurry up and get sleeping already, you've school tomorrow."

Not killing her hopes from the world, but also not letting her curiosity ask another question, he puts an end to the tale, because he has another one to look after.

Walking his way through the lonely lobby, he thinks of the monsters he fought, the times he escaped, the friends who became generals and troops, time and again.

All for the one girl, who wasn't quite the princess, that his father would be pleased to have, but certainly the love he would be elated to be with.

Looking back today, in the few steps to his room, his own life, seems like the adaptation of that tale, as he thinks this over in his head, while holding the knob to the bedroom gate and entering, he here's the voice,

"The story was really good today. Seemed like your own tale didn't it?"

"Yeah, good think she liked it, and went to sleep now, fairytales and princess stories often work simply amazing!"

He replied to the lady in night gown laying at the right of the bed from his view, next to the lit night lamp, holding her phone in hands, surfing internet, speaking to him while scrolling through social media.

All while himself making the efforts of pulling up the blanket to finally put a rest to the day of effort by laying on his side of the bed. As he kept the spectacles down onto the table, she exclaimed in reply to him,

"Especially when it's about princess/lady and prince getting a happy ending together, despite all odds!!!"

"Yeah.." He sighed.

"But why did you lie to her in the last question?"

She asked curiously, as if wanting an answer, but expecting a complete different and unsatisfactory one, but still choosing to stay mute,

"It isn't very important for her to know that not all kings had a change of heart in the end."

He replies in a tone of regret.

"You still miss her?" She asks with a tone with something underlying beneath.

"Sometimes, it feels as if a strongly incapable prince who lost his greatest victory."

He replies before acting to have gone to sleep.

"I wonder if she should know how the princess got the greatest penance for being innocent, loyal and loving."

She mumbled to herself before stroking his head one last time with the same affection he has ignored for years, before switching the lamp off.