Lauren Sparks

The Sparks Notes

A Modern Fractured Fairy Tale

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Once upon a time, a bright-eyed, bushy tailed family of four decided to embark on a road trip adventure from Texas to Illinois.  You see, 90 days ago, the first-born son moved to this far-away land with his bride and four small children to save and better lives through his medical residency.  Due to relatively recent job changes, the hero of this story lacked the time to take vacation during the summer months.  So we waited lo, these many months for the long Labor Day weekend to arrive to travel far and yon.

 

The original plan was to whisk the two beautiful princesses, aged 18 and 13, from school at 10am the Thursday before commencement of the weekend and to return in the King’s coach on Monday, the holiday itself.  Due to the scheduling of  an important athletic dual at the middle school coliseum, we chose a later departure time of 7:15pm, retrieving a feast from the kingdom Chick-fil-a en route to new lands.

 

We made tracks, post haste, due north as the sun set in the west.  Three hours time and 240 miles into our journey, the King stopped his coach to allow his passengers to relieve themselves.  It was at this juncture that the King and Queen discovered that the Queen had failed in a most important duty.  Two of princess Shelby’s three anti-seizures potions had been left behind at the castle.  The dragon can be dangerous and even deadly without the properly prescribed weapons.

 

The King, in his frustration, tried not to make the aging and forgetful Queen (who can no longer pawn these things off on “chemo brain”) feel any worse than she already did.  They stood outside the coach at the petrol market debating their options.  The queen suggested turning back toward the castle to retrieve what they lacked.  As it was already after ten o’clock in the evening and this course of action would add approximately six hours travel time, the King looked like he might order the beheading of his beautiful (what?) queen.  We decided pushing the team of horses forward and ringing for the on-call royal physician to submit an emergency order to an apothecary near the home of the eldest knight (and the family’s destination) would be most wise.

 

After finally resuming travel, the queen juggled messenger hawk between the eldest knight, pharmacists and various apothecaries before finding someone who would fulfill the order for the potions after the sun rose again.  Princess Shelby did suffer a little (consequences of the Queen’s lack of diligence) from missing one dose of potion that night.

 

The party pressed on, stopping only one more time for relief and refreshment, but finding the conditions not very suitable for resting on the journey.  The coach finally pulled up to the young knight’s estate at 5:15 the following morning.  The weary travelers blew up their bed and crawled into it for a couple of hours sleep before the royal grandchildren beckoned.  And they all spent a wonderful, busy weekend loving and playing and enjoying fellowship.

 

There is no real moral to this story.  Only that sometimes you are the tired you’ve everest been.  THE END.

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Comments

  1. I love the way you put this into a fairytale mode. Dare I say, surely you jest? Pray tell yon potions are always available the corner apothecary, for fair maiden or damsel in distress.

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