von Jerry Pat Bolton (Copyright)

Once upon a time in a far off land called Temptationville there lived a beautiful princess named Love.
Love was adored by her father who lived across the big mountain in a valley named Lonely. His name was Forgetmenot. Love did not know her father. Love lived in a big castle with King Sunflower and her mother, Queen Rose.
Everyone in Tempationville worshipped Love. Love lived in grandiose style. She was showered with gifts from the people of the countryside. Love was so happy. Everyday was her own special holiday.
On Love’s sixteenth birthday, King Sunflower and Queen Rose gave her the biggest birthday party ever given in Temptationville. All the people came bearing gifts for the lovely princess.
There were dancing in the streets and joyous adulation for the beautiful Princess Love. The people spread their gifts in front of the Gift-Giving Temple. Everyone was so happy because they were able to show their feelings for Princess Love.
Forgetmenot left the Valley of Lonely and came down the big mountain to watch. All Forgetmenot could bring as a gift was the Special Feeling within his heart. Forgetmenot was very poor.
As the happy people piled their gifts before the Gift-Giving Temple, Forgetmenot stood off to the side and watched with happiness within his heart which was almost unbearable. Each time someone presented their gift Forgetmenot reached across the void with the Special Feeling in his heart and blessed each gift.
Love did not know who Forgetmenot was. Forgetmenot had left Temptationville many years before and climbed the big mountain to the Valley of Lonelfinger and held her as she wept.
But as Princess Love cried she felt a sudden burst of energy springing from within her, which was at first, very scary. She overcame her fright and allowed the strange sensation to fill her whole being.
She pulled away from the embrace of King Sunflower and Queen Rose. Her little heart was pounding at an alarming rate and she felt as though she knew . . . She wasn’t quite sure what it was that she thought she knew but she suddenly felt she knew far more than anyone else in Temptationville. Quite without realizing why Princess Love knew that she, and she alone, was aware of things no one else could comprehend. She felt so . . . superior to the rest of the people.
Princess Love ran back to the box which held her present. For by now, as far as she was concerned, it was the only present she cared about. She grabbed the box, ignored pleas from King Sunflower and Queen Rose, she ran to the castle and to her room with her treasure.
The odd-shaped, prickly gift that Princess Love took with her became her all. She found that when she would prick herself with the spiny plant, the world of Temptationville, with its happy people dissolved into pettiness and contempt.
The everyday activities which once had seemed so beautiful, now only spawned rejection from Princess Love. It was as if everyone were like children at play. Playing childish games of life. It was all so very beneath her now.
Princess Love acquired such an attitude that she was unable to even converse to anyone about anything. No one seemed to be tuned into her and couldn’t understand and she thought they were absurd.
Everyone except Count Cacti.
The Count returned to her when she needed him the most.
And Love found that she needed him because each time she would prick herself with the spiny plant the needle-sharp point would fall from it and become useless. And every day she needed more and more of the self-inflected wounds for her body and soul. But it always seemed that when the plant was about to become barren of the little points Count Cacti would show up with another one.
He would only bring one at a time, however, and Princess Love wanted more of them because she felt insecure without it. The little plant had become her world.On Princess Love’s twenty-first birthday she decreed to the people of Temptationville that they should bring only the small, spiny plant for presents and nothing else.
Princess Love needed to know that she would have an endless supply of the special plant which had become her only reason to live. And by her decree, she would not have to worry anymore.
The day of her birthday arrived and all the people of Temptationville arrived with their gifts. Princess Love watched the somber people from her window, high in the castle. There were no laughing and dancing. The people of Temptationville were sad.
King Sunflower and Queen Rose stood before the people with bowed heads and tear-stained eyes. They were also saddened by Princess Love’s strange enchantment with the little plant.
All the gifts had been laid round the Gift-Giving Temple and the people had silently departed.
Except one man who Princess Love did not know, but that Queen Rose recognized as Forgetmenot.
Forgetmenot had come down from the mountain from the Valley of Lonely again for his daughter’s twenty-first birthday.
This time he brought her a present. A Magic Mirror.
Forgetmenot walked to the Gift-Giving Temple and looked up at Princess Love as she watched from her window. He placed the Magic Mirror next to the many little plants the people had brought. Then he rose and looked again at Princess Love before leaving.
Princess Love, incensed by this strange, tattered man who dared not bring her the cherished spiny plant, ran from the castle to the Gift-Giving Temple to confront him.
She picked up the Magic Mirror, intending to smash it to the ground. Before she did so, she looked into it. The Magic Mirror seemed to explode her image from within it straight into her very soul. She looked at her face staring back, and from somewhere deep within herself came the terrible truth.
The truth of who she was.
The truth of who she used to be.
The truth of who she had become.
It was all so real, and the moment weighed upon her. The past five years seemed like an awful nightmare.
Then Queen Rose came to Princess Love and told her who the man was that left the Magic Mirror.
Princess Love ran after him.
Forgetmenot and Princess Love walked back to the Gift-Giving Temple and set fire to the hundreds of tiny plants.
Forgetmenot climbed back up the big mountain to the Valley of Lonely, but now Princess Love talked to him with her Magic Mirror.
She had broken her Magic Mirror in half, so that now they both had one. And they talked to each other from Temptationville across the big mountain to Lonely.
And they all lived happily every after.