The Princess in the Wheelchair

The Princess in the wheelchair
Vernacular Minster is a small kingdom somewhere far west. It’s so small nobody has yet decided to give it a place on the map. And in this kingdom lived a princess who was not like a princess at all.
Princess Flavia didn’t laugh. She didn’t sit all day in front of her mirror. She didn’t look outside her window and sing with the birds and she didn’t bring sunshine into her poor widowed father’s life either. All Princess Flavia did was sit in her wheelchair and do nothing at all. This frightfully upset her father, who wanted a normal, happy princess, which he could marry off to a normal, happy prince and then rule the kingdom in peace; but Flavia showed no signs of granting her father’s wish.
In another kingdom a few thousand miles away; another King was being terrorized by his only progeny, his son. Prince Fabian absolutely refused, point blank, to rescue a captured princess in a locked tower, from a fire-breathing dragon. His father the king had commanded him to perform his princely duty, thereby causing the prince to runaway from home. The King, fuming, summoned his Queen and proceeded to have a long argument with her.
“Mary Jane! That boy of yours is going to cost me my reputation! He refuses to perform even one of his princely duties and on top of that, he ran away with my best horse!” screamed the King.
“ Well really, Goodwin. I think we’re raising a very sensible son. After all what is the point of risking his life in rescuing a silly damsel who will just end up getting kidnapped two minutes after he saves her?”
“ Sensible? Princes aren’t supposed to be sensible. They're supposed to rescue princesses from dragons and then marry them. If he doesn’t do that, how will he get married?”
“ Give him time Goodwin.”
“ All right I’ll give him time, but if he doesn’t find a wife within two months I’ll invite all the girls in this kingdom to a ball and have him marry the one who loses her shoe first!”
Meanwhile, Prince Fabian found himself hopelessly lost in a kingdom so small, it had ten houses, a church, a castle, and a welcome sign and Goodbye sign three hundred meters apart. He knocked on the door of the castle, which was opened by the butler and was invited in to see the king. Fabian was given a good dinner and was sent to bed. While he was searching for the room allotted to him, he couldn’t help thinking that somebody else also lived in the castle aside from the butler and the King. He decided to investigate. The Prince peeked into every room until he came into the corner one. Inside was a small girl on a wheelchair, who seemed to be reading the newspaper. This rather surprised him because he wasn’t used to seeing princesses read anything at all.
“ May I come in?” he asked. The princess nodded.
“ Thank you. May I sit?” the princess nodded.
“ Are you the princess?” she nodded again. By this time, the prince was sure she wasn’t a princess. And so he snatched the newspaper away from her and looked at the title.
“Aha! The Washington Post! You can’t be a princess because princesses only read Society!” he gloated.
“ Have you seen a princess in a wheelchair before?” she suddenly asked. When he shook his head, she replied, “ Then why are you surprised to see a princess read The Post?”
“ I guess I’m not used to seeing a princess do anything but get rescued.”
“ Could you rescue me?” she said bitterly. “ No, of course not. You don’t know what it’s like to not be able to do anything. To be a burden on others and to see people who have everything. Who can run, who can walk, and to know that I cant even go to the bathroom by myself. Tell me, do you know what it’s like?”
For a second the prince was quiet, but then slowly he reached down and started pulling up his trouser legs. Underneath were two artificial legs. He looked at the bewildered princess and smiled.
“ I wasn’t born with legs either so my father had these made for me. I know what it’s like to wish to be normal but now I know that even though I may not have everything, I’m still pretty blessed. I haven’t let my handicap stop me. I can protect myself even though I don’t have proper legs. Why can’t those silly princesses help themselves? That’s why I never saved one. Use your weakness to make yourself stronger. That’s the key to success. Good night, Princess. I shall see you tomorrow.”
The next day, to the King’s great delight, Flavia came down to breakfast on her wheelchair and then proceeded to show Fabian around Vernacular Minster. To King Goodwin’s great delight, Fabian and Flavia were married the next month and lived happily ever after for many years.