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The Un-Magical Kingdom
Four Short Chapters
This is the sequel to The Secret Princess
Chapter 1
Once upon a time, there were two unhappy children who lived in a beautiful magical kingdom. Their names were James and Emily, and they were brother and sister. (They were also a Prince and a Princess)
They had two royal parents who loved them very much, Queen Noel and King Edward.
(As far as I am concerned, there are far too few stories about magical kingdoms and that sort of thing today. I say, bring those stories back, and the sooner the better.)
Where was I? Oh, yes.
If you do not know the magical story of Noel and Edward, you can read all about it in a bedtime story called “The Secret Princess.”
I'll tell you just a little bit about them. Queen Noel and King Edward were only young children like yourself, when they one day jumped into a sewer to rescue a Queen from a fire breathing dragon. They became a real Prince and Princess, grew up, got married, and became Queen and King when they inherited the old Queen’s magical kingdom.
Anyway...even though James and Emily had a whole magical kingdom to roam around and play in, plenty of toys, fat little ponies to ride, and fast bicycles to scoot around on, they were still unhappy. Why? Because they had no other children to play with.
Now we all know that even though we love our brothers and sisters, they can sometimes get on our nerves, and it is best to have a few friends out there to keep the tension down for everyone involved (particularly parents).
So even though James and Emily continued to play together every day, they argued constantly, and were driving each other CRAZY.
One evening, their mother, the Queen, threw up her hands in exasperation, and exclaimed, “If you two cannot get along together, then I will have to separate you. No more play time together!”
Then both children were sent to bed early, after being served only a meager dinner of spaghetti with meatballs, salad, and 3 small slices of bread each, but no dessert. (OK, so it wasn't really meager. But there was no dessert!. )
Chapter 2
Their parents stayed up long after dinner was over to discuss this situation. “My dear husband Edward,” the Queen said, “I am at my wits end with these two children of ours, and I don’t know what to do.”
Her husband Edward was a quiet, thoughtful sort of father, so he had to think long and hard about this. Finally, he had an idea. “I think we should send them into our old world, so they can learn how other children amuse themselves in an un-magical kingdom.”
The queen clapped her hands in delight at this brilliant idea, and said, “But how will we get them there?” and the king replied, “I think it’s time to get the magical fairy dust out.”
So they sprinkled a bit of the fairy dust on each of the children that night, and went to bed, having the most restful, deep, relaxing sleep they had known in many a night.
Chapter 3
In the morning, Emily woke up and reached over to pet her kitten Sprinkles, before gently nudging him off the bed, then ran to the window to greet the new day.
But when she looked outside, she did not see her magical kingdom anymore. Instead, she saw a lot of identically built houses, with many trucks, cars, and vehicles with sirens buzzing up and down the busy street.
It was a nice looking sort of neighborhood, with pretty, tall green trees and clean sidewalks but it certainly was not home!
.
The same thing happened to James. He woke up, carefully lifted his puppy Bugle off the bed, ran to the window to greet the new day, and saw the same identical thing.
“Where the heck am I?” he wondered out loud, and then repeated it again, just for effect.
Then he looked at himself in the mirror and saw that he was still just James, himself. “It must be a dream, that’s all, just a dream,” he thought, so he decided to crawl back into bed and rest a little more.
.
Emily chose that exact moment to come barging into his room. “James," she announced excitedly, "We aren’t home anymore!"
He ignored her and pretended to be asleep.
"Get UP. Look outside!” Emily insisted. She grabbed his shoulder and shook it.
James just groaned and turned over in bed, “Go away, Emily, you are SO annoying, and anyway, this is all a dream.”
Emily persisted until her brother was wide awake. With a weary sigh, he finally got up and peered out the window again. And then he blinked.
“I’ll be darned,” he said in amazement. Then he said it again, just for effect.
The two of them quickly got dressed and ran outside to see what had befallen them.
Chapter 4
Conveniently (for this story anyway) it was a Saturday, so all the children who lived on that street were home from school. Some were playing Hopscotch, some were playing Hide and Seek, and some were drawing pictures on the sidewalk with chalk.
There were no toys, no fat little ponies, and no fast bicycles anywhere to be seen. James and Emily ran over to the children playing Hopscotch and James asked (of no one in particular) “What kind of a game is this?” and the children told him.
Then they ran over to the children who were playing Hide and Seek and Emily said “What kind of a game is this?” and the children told them.
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"But where are the toys, where are the fat little ponies and the fast bicycles for us to play with?" James demanded to know.
A little girl named Olivia came over to them and said, “We don’t have lots of toys and ponies and fast bicycles." |
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"We come up with our own games," she explained. "It’s really more fun that way."
Olivia smiled up at them so endearingly that both James and Emily turned a bit red in the face in embarrassment. It did not take long for them to join in with the other children, and James and Emily spent a lovely afternoon playing all sorts of games that required only their wit, stamina and an upbeat-attitude-to have a good time, and boy, they sure did.
By the end of the day they were both filthy, barefoot, disheveled, exhausted and very, very happy.
The fairy dust was beginning to wear off, and soon they found themselves transported back to the Magical Kingdom, where their parents were eagerly waiting for a full report.
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“How was your day, children?” the queen asked, and both James and Emily exclaimed, “It was AWESOME!!”
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King Edward did not say anything, but he smiled behind his newspaper.
After that, there was no more fighting or bickering, and James and Emily played happily together.
And...with the help of a little fairy dust, they returned to visit their new friends as often as they could.
The End
The Un-Magical Kingdom by
Susan Knight
Copyright 2012 - All Rights Reserved
VOCABULARY
Befallen-(bee-fall-in) Something
which has happened, something that has taken place.
Bugle-(bee-you-gull) A bugle
is a very simple brass musical instrument, a type of horn without any buttons
or valves to change the tone of the sound. James named his dog Bugle. Maybe
Bugle had a bark that sort of reminded him of the
sound a real bugle makes.
Disheveled-(dis-shev-veld) A
person who looks like a bit of a mess, with clothes wrinkled, dirty, or untidy,
and hair all uncombed and out of place. You might end up looking disheveled
if you've been doing a bunch of somersaults on the grass.
Endearingly-(in-deer-ring-lee)
Extremely sweet and lovable.
Exhausted- (ex-AWE-sted) Feeling so incredibly tired
that all you want to do is lie down and rest
Exasperation-(ix-ass-per-A-shun)
"The Queen, threw up her hands in exasperation..." That means
the Queen was really exasperated, which is to say she was annoyed and
cranky and totally out of patience with her children.
Hopscotch-(hop-scotch) This is
a fun and free game that can be played by one or more people. Here's how.
Identically-(i-DENT-ick-lee)
Exactly the same.
Inherited-(in-hair-it-tid) Something
that became yours after someone died and left it to you on purpose. When the
old Queen died she left a signed note (her Will) saying the entire magical kingdom
would now belong to Edward and Noel, so that means the childrens parents inherited
the kingdom.
Meager-(mee-gur) A tiny little
bit. The author was kidding when she said James and Emily only had a meager
dinner and then she went on and listed a whole bunch of things that they really
had to eat.
Persisted-(purr-siss-tid) To
stubbornly continue doing something you think is important, even though other
things might get in your way or other people might try to stop you from finishing
what you were doing.
Stamina-(stamm-min-uh) How strong
you are. Even when you're very very very tired, you still have the strength,
the ability, the stamina, to keep going.
Tension-(ten-shun) This word
has more than one meaning. Tension could mean something (a rope or a wire, for
example) pulled very tightly or stressed in different directions. In
this story, tension means feelings could be stressed, leaving
people upset and worried and cranky.
Transported-(trans-PORT-ted)
To move from one place to another.
Wit-(rhymes with fit) Wit is another word which has more than one meaning. Wit can refer to your intelligence...in other words, how smart you are. It can also mean that you're smart AND funny. You could say, James is a real wit, meaning he's very smart and very clever, or you could also say the Queen was at her wit's end, meaning that she feels like her brain is simply running out of solutions to a problem she considers very upsetting.
About
the Author: Susan Knight holds a B.S.
from The University of Connecticut and an M.S. from Western Connecticut State
University. After working in the Clinical Research field for many years, she
recently left the corporate world to open her own Pet Care business. She also
does volunteer work for a local animal shelter and in her spare time enjoys
writing humorous short stories for adults as well as fun short stories for children.
She lives in Danbury, Connecticut with her two cats, Oreo and Mystic. You may
contact Susan Knight at: KnightSue28@yahoo.com
This author has more wonderful stories online. Find them listed
next to her name in the Author section.
Interim Illustrations: Courtesy of Bedtime Story
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