A Bedtime Story

I started this blog for a number of reasons but the biggest of the lot is the fact that I like writing things down. Though they're my main subject, my thoughts on knitting and radio aren't straight enough to form a post at the moment and I feel like writing something down. And so here's something a little different that I want to write down, if only because I never ever want to forget the first time I made up a proper bedtime story for my niece.

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Scene: Night time. A woman sits on a sofa knitting a Damned Frog. She's clearly babysitting because she has the requisite Babysitter Treats ready beside her. Suddenly there's a buzz on the baby monitor, followed by a little whisper.

Holly: "Auntie Becca. Auntie Becca. I'm not tired!"

Auntie Becca goes upstairs to find her niece looking rather pleased with herself after she has managed to wait a whole 30 seconds since her parents left the house before getting out of bed.

Auntie Becca: "Come on, Holly, get back into bed."

Holly's face falls as she realises Auntie Becca isn't going to say "Okay, forget sleep, let's play!"

Holly: "I don't want to!"

Auntie Becca: "But you have to try to sleep. Come on, back to bed."

Holly (reluctantly getting shepherded back into bed): "I don't want to!"

Auntie Becca (a little desperate): "But if you don't go to sleep then you won't have any dreams. What do you think you'll dream about tonight?"

Holly (sulkily): "Don't know."

Auntie Becca: "Well, I think you're going to dream about a princess. A beautiful princess who lives in a castle with her parents. What do you think the princess is called?"

Holly: "Don't know".

Auntie Becca: "Well, I don't suppose she needs a name for now. But she lives in the castle and it's on the top of a huge hill. And her room is in the tallest tower of the castle, so she can look out over the whole kingdom. She can see the fields all around the castle and the people travelling around. She can see people coming to see her father the king and she can see the really big river that stretches right across the land. It goes past the castle and off into the distance, past a huge forest and away into the distance where the princess can only see mountains.

The princess lives with her family and her friends but sometimes she wishes there were other princes and princesses for her to play with. So when she feels lonely she loves to look out over the kingdom and see how beautiful everything is. She particularly likes the days when she looks out and - really, really far away - she can see a group of white horses by the banks of the river near the edge of the forest. Now, the princess has never ridden on a horse but she's always wanted to so one day she says to her best friend friend, "Let's go and find the horses!" and her best friend thinks that's a brilliant idea. So the princess and her best friend - what do you think her best friend is called?"

Holly: "Don't know"

Auntie Becca: "Well, I think her name is Jenny. So the princess and Jenny pack up some food and the set off early in the morning to walk along the river until they reach the horses. On the way they meet a lot of people, they have some nice chats but no one knows anything about the horses. The princess and Jenny walk all day until it gets pretty dark. "I'm sure this must be the place," the princess tells Jenny. "But there are no horses here now," Jenny says. "No," the princess agreed, "And it's too late to walk back home now. What will we do?" Jenny thinks for a minute and says, "Well, I'm pretty sure I saw some lights in the forest. We should see if there's a cottage, they might let us stay over."

So the princess and Jenny go into the forest. But instead of finding the lights of a cottage, they find hundreds of beautiful little lights shining in the trees. There are more lights than they can count and they're all twinkling and pretty like the little lights in your garden, Holly. They look up into the trees and realise that there's a whole village of treehouses up in the branches of the trees amongst the sparkling lights. There are people up in the houses and they wave to the princess and Jenny, and they call for them to come up.

The princess and Jenny climb up into the treehouses and the people are lovely. They give them a tasty hot dinner and a bed to sleep in, which makes the princess and Jenny very happy because they've been walking all day and they're so tired. So they spend the night sleeping in the treehouse up amongst the sparkling lights in the forest.

The next morning they get up and their new friends give them a tasty breakfast. The princess tells the treehouse people all about the horses and how they've walked all the way from the castle to see them. But the people laugh when she talks about the horses, which makes the princess a bit annoyed.

"But you wouldn't find the horses out in the field," one of the villagers says.

"Why not? I've seen them by the river lost of times," the princess says.

"Yes, they come to the river to drink sometimes," the woman says. "But they're very shy so they wouldn't be there if they saw you coming."

"But we've come all this way to see the horses!" the princess says. "We'll have to look for them until we find them." And again the villagers laugh.

"You can't look for them, princess, they're flying horses!"

Well, this surprises the princess a lot. But she thinks about it and she realises that the horses have always been so far away that she couldn't have seen their wings. Now she wants to find them even more than ever!

"Come on Jenny," the princess says. "We're going to go and wait by the river until the horses come back for a drink." So the nice people in the treehouse village give them a picnic and show them the path out of the forest to the river.

The princess and Jenny find the field where the horses came to drink. They can see hoof marks in the ground so they know it's the right place but there are no horses in sight. So they sit down on the grass and wait.

They wait all morning there in the field but they don't see any horses. They open up the picnic the treehouse people gave them and.... what do you think they have for lunch, Holly?"

Holly: "Cheese sandwich!"

Auntie Becca: "Yes! They have cheese sandwiches! Fortunately the picnic is really big because the afternoon goes by and there are still no horses.

"Maybe we should go back," Jenny says.

"But these are flying horses! Don't you want to see flying horses?"

"Of course I do, but they're shy so they won't come. We have to be sensible, we should at least go back into the forest and see if the treehouse people will let us stay again."

But just then, they both see someone coming into the field. It's a young man and he's all muddy and he looks very tired but he's smiling and he's walking straight towards where the horses drink from the river.

"Hello!" the princess says

"Hello," the young man says, "My name is John. What are you doing here?"

So the princess tells John all about how she and Jenny have come to see the horses.

"That's why I'm here too!" John says. "I come to see the horses all the time."

"But they're too shy to come close," Jenny says.

"Don't worry," John says. "They know me. They'll see you with me and they'll know that it's safe."

So the three of them sit in the field together and eat some more of the picnic while they wait and the sun goes down. But they don't have to wait long before Jenny points up into the evening sky and says,

"Look! What's that?"

"It's the horses!" John says

In the bright light of the moon they all see a flock of horses spiralling down towards the ground. The horses are more beautiful than the princess had imagined. They have lovely white wings with soft, long feathers that sweep up from their backs. They're the most beautiful thing she's ever seen.

John walks up to the horses and they nuzzle his hand.

"Come on," he says to the princess, "come and meet them"

So the princess and Jenny make friends with the horses and the horses like them as much as they like John.

"Shall I tell you a secret?" John whispers to the princess. "Sometimes the horses let me fly on their backs. Would you like to fly with them?"

"I'd love to!" The princess says. "What do I need to do?"

"Well, the horses love a snack, do you have any of your picnic left?"

"Yes! Do they like cheese sandwiches?"

"Of course!"

So the princess feeds the horses some cheese sandwiches and they love them. One of the horses dips its head and neighs and the princess climbs on its back.

"Come on, Jenny," she says.

"Oh no, I'm not flying on a horse!" Jenny says, because she's afraid of heights, "I'll stay here with the picnic basket."

The flock of horses leap into the air, one horse has the princess on its back and another has John. They hold tight as they fly up into the sky. The princess' beautiful dress and her hair are flying out behind her in the wind as the horses fly round and round, taking them up high then swooping down low. The princess laughs as they fly round because she's having just as much fun as John and the horses. They go so high that she feels like she should be able to touch the moon, then the horses fly back over the field and she waves at Jenny down below.

After a long flight, the horses bring the princess and John back down to the ground. The princess gives the horse a hug and says thank you. The horses take off again and fly up into the sky, out of sight and back to their home.

"Do you come and see the horses often?" The princess asks John.

"When I can." John says. "I'm quite busy but whenever I can get away from the castle I come and see the horses."

"The castle? What castle is that?"

"My father's castle is the other side of those mountains," John says. "I can look out of my window and see the horses."

"But I thought my father's castle was the only one near here! You're a prince?"

"Yes, you're a princess?"

"Yes!"

So the princess and Prince John talk and they realise that they have quite a lot in common. They agree that they should probably get back home but they arrange to come back two weeks later and see the horses again.

So Prince John goes back over the mountain and the princess and Jenny stay another night with the treehouse people before they go back home. They tell the treehouse people all about meeting the horses but they don't tell them the secret about flying on the horses' backs.

Two weeks go by and they meet again in the field by the river. The princess and her best friend Jenny see that Prince John has also brought his best friend with him. What do you think his name is, Holly?"

Holly (sleepily): "Umm..... maybe another John?"

Auntie Becca: "Well, that might be a bit confusing if they were both called John. I think maybe he's called Peter. And I think that Peter and Jenny probably have a lot in common too.

So the princess and Prince John spend a lot of time together and so do Jenny and Peter. Each time they go to see the horses together they realise they like each other more and more until they fall completely in love and get married.

The end.

*****

And so ends my bedtime story for an almost-three-year-old princess-obsessed girl who doesn't want to go to bed. It's not exactly word-for-word but it is rather-lame-ending for rather-lame-ending. Poor Completely Pointless Jenny, at least she ended up with a boyfriend and he even had a name of his own.