The Forgetful Princess

Once up on a time there lived a princess, named Aletheia.  Now, she was not a beautiful princess, like you normally find in fairy stories, nor was she a very wealthy one.  In fact, she appeared to most people to be rather ordinary. 

Well, depending on which day of the week you would meet her, that is.  For poor Aletheia was living under a cruel curse, placed on her by a very wicked wizard - the curse of forgetfulness.  But it was not the usual absent mindedness, like perhaps your mum and dad have – she didn’t forget where she had left things or miss people’s birthdays.  Aletheia’s forgetfulness meant that from one day to the next she would forget who she was.

She remembered where she lived, and so could always make her way home, and she could remember who other people were, as long as she saw them quite a lot, but otherwise people seemed like strangers to her.  And more worryingly, she often seemed like a stranger to herself.

However, clever Aletheia had found a way to cope with this.  Every morning when she woke up, she would stand in front of the magic mirror she had inherited from her grandmother, who happened to be a witch.  She would ask, “magic mirror, please do say, who it is I should be today.”  Now, most days the magic mirror would say the same thing, that Alethiea was a very ordinary and plain person who worked in a shop.  So Alethiea would go to the wardrobe and put on her boring uniform of black trousers and a white blouse and head off to work in a shop all day.

But some days, the magic mirror would be in a mischievous mood and play tricks on Aletheia.  He would tell her that she was an opera singer, a painter, or a fairy, or some days even a scary monster, and Aletheia would have to hunt around in her wardrobe for the appropriate costume to wear.  Then she would spend the day singing in a high voice that scared all the birds away; or she would set up an easel in the street and paint the portraits of passers-by; or she would skip around town in a tutu granting wishes.  Or sadly, some days, she would even go around scaring people by hiding round corners and shouting rude things at them (which is what she thought scary monsters did).

Now, this went on for a very long time, but one day the magic mirror got fed up with being asked the same question every single day.  So when, as usual, Aletheia stood in front of him in her pyjamas and asked, “magic mirror, please do say, who it is I should be today,” the mirror refused to answer her.

Aletheia stood in front of her magic mirror, feeling more and more frightened, and, being quite persistent, asking the same question over again.

Eventually, the magic mirror took pity on her and said, “Alethiea, the time has come for you to decide who you are and what to be.  You don’t need me to tell you – you need to go out into the world and discover it for yourself.”

“But what if I get it wrong?” she asked with tears brimming in her eyes, for she really wasn’t a very brave princess.

“So what?  Other people get it wrong all the time.  Just try on lots of costumes until you find the one that suits you.  Or better yet, be lots of things!”

And with that, the spirit who inhabited the mirror and made it magic, was gone.  It became an ordinary mirror like everyone else has in their homes.

Aletheia felt very sad and was tempted to stay in her pyjamas and go back to bed, but instead went to her huge wardrobe, which by now was brimming with costumes she had collected over the years.  She stood there looking for a while and then selected the boring uniform which was right at the front of the wardrobe, because she wore it most often.

Which is perhaps disappointing, dear reader, but maybe she’ll pick out something more interesting tomorrow?