The Princess and the rain (1)

Once upon a time, so long ago, there lived a king and queen who had one daughter. 


When the queen gave birth to their daughter, they decided to name her Charley for the name Charley means free man.


There was a polite reason why the king and queen decided to name their daughter an un-princesses name. The reason happened sixteen years ago. One sunny day, the clouds suddenly turned sour and began to pour down with heavy rain. Every one in the Kingdom rushed into their house, closing their curtains and shut their door.


The rain poured and poured for twenty days. 


The king said to himself inside his palace “what manner of rain is this! Such a thing has never occurred in the past before; but it happens now in my reign. I feel cursed!” The king began to ask many questions mostly happening in his own mind. “When will the rain stop? Will it ever stop? What about the people? Especially the poor people? Am I not a very good King? What should I do?”


The king had locked himself in his room. 


The king was not a worrying king but the queen began to worry about him.


The queen knocked on his door. “Dear king, won’t you come to dinner? At least open the door so the servants can bring some food in.”


The king gave no response until the queen declared that she was very worried about him.


The king loved the queen very much and when they were both prince and princess, the king had promised never to make her sad. 


The king said to the queen, “My dear queen, I feel myself to be a very bad king. I cannot understand why there is such an heavy rain all of a sudden. Will it ever stop? What shall I do?”


“Of course it will, my king” said the queen. “Now open the door.”


The king opened the door and his queen embraced him. She encouraged him to come downstairs for dinner. 


Ten days has now passed, and the rain showed no sign of stopping. Before the king went to sleep, he would often watch the rain pour. On this tenth evening, he noticed something rather strange about the rain, that the rain, no matter how much it poured the day before, the water on the ground remained the same. The king explained this sensation to the queen.


“My dear queen, have you noticed that no matter how much the rain pour the day before, it never seems to rise higher the day after”.


“What a strange rain,” said the queen and she went straight back to sleep.


The king pondered all night until a thought entered his heart which caused the queen to be worried. The king was very sad that this plan would make the queen worried, so the king wrote her a note saying:


“My dear queen. My mind is constantly concerned about the origin of this rain and I am very worried about the people in the kingdom. So I have decided to go and see my cousin, Hugo, to ask of him whether he knows something of this peculiar rain. I will be back in a month or so. Lots of love. Your King”.


The king had told a lie. Very naughty of him to lie to the queen. It doesn’t generally matter if someone tells a white lie, but even a white lie leads to more lies. The kings true plan is to know something of this peculiar rain but the king did not have a cousin named Hugo. And the king was very concerned about the people in his kingdom especially about the children. 


The rain had caused everybody to remain inside all day except at noon, when the rain will suddenly cease. This allowed the poor people of the land to gather whatever fruits and food they could find. There was no more time for the children to play. The hour was so precious, that even the birds only flew not for pleasure but to gather up worms for their young ones. 


The king had also noticed this strange event, and knew, that He could not wait until noon to begin his research. The king was reminded that long ago, just when he was only a boy, his great aunty came to visit. 


It was the King’s birthday and many had brought him many gifts. The king’s great aunty brought him a special and an unusual umbrella. 

K.Oni