A Story: The Fearful Girl Who Never Woke Up

Once upon a time there was a girl who was very afraid. She was afraid to live, she was afraid to die. As you can see, this created great inner turmoil in this girl daily, every minute of the day, and every second of the minute. One thing that the fraidy girl was afraid to admit was that she was afraid to do the thing she most loved to do; this girl loved to write stories. But, because she had been so full of fear for so long, she was out of practice and she was afraid to start. She didn’t think she could do it anymore. Oh sure, she convinced herself, I will someday. Another thing she was afraid of was that Someday would come and go and nothing would have happened in between. That was probably her worst fear of all.
This fearful girl sat in a tower, a tower with only two windows, facing north and south, so the poor young girl never saw a sunrise or a sunset as they were rather small windows too and a little too high up for the girl. She could only look up and see pieces of the sky during the day and lie down on the stone floor at night and stare at a few of the stars. She wasn’t afraid of the stars. She loved them. They were her best friends, the only ones she could count on in her lonely life.
The girl’s parents, the king and queen, did not know how afraid the young girl was. They put her in a tower because they said that that is what one did to a growing princess. And someday (“Someday!?” sighed the young girl) she would rule the kingdom and she needed all the training she could get.
The young girl had a tutor who taught slowly when the young girl wanted to learn faster and taught too fast when the young girl needed him to go slower. As a consequence, the king and queen said she had to stay in the tower for a few more years than usual so she could finish learning all of her lessons. This frustrated and relieved the young girl. She wanted to look out at the sky and see the whole thing, but she was also afraid of becoming queen, because it would be such a big responsibility. When the young girl thought of becoming queen, she ran to her bed and pulled the covers over her face to protect her.
To keep her company, the king gifted to the young girl two kittens and several birds. The birds could not be kept in cages, however, as they were wild birds and had to be allowed to fly out of the windows and return only when they wanted to or when the young girl got the chance to call to them between queen lessons. The two kittens were wonderful, but the young girl never seemed to have time for them either, as her lessons lasted from morning until evening. After lessons, the young girl had to eat and then go to bed with only a few minutes to spare. The two kittens learned to get along with each other and play together. Sometimes the young girl would look up from her lessons to see the two kittens running happily around the tower, playing games without her.
Little did the young girl know she was actually under a spell. What she did not realize was that she was in a deep sleep and the life that she thought she was living was actually one long dream. She was not a soon-to-be queen, but in all reality, a young girl in a coma in a little town called Springville, Utah.
The young girl didn’t know it, but she was afraid to wake up and face the world. So she never did. The End.