The Ugly Princess
Helen Alexander
Copyright 2014 Helen Alexander
helenalexander.weebly.com
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters in it are completely imaginary.
The Ugly Princess
The Ugly Princess was so ugly that even her own mirrors ran away at the mere sight of her, hopping away on their short stubby legs and handles. The ones that couldn't run away, because they were affixed to walls or had heavy frames without legs, shattered the moment the Ugly Princess approached. (They were magical mirrors, so that as soon as the Princess passed by, they either went back on tip toe to their usual places or, had they shattered, gathered all their glass fragments and became whole again.)
All the mirrors in the palace where the Princess lived had been instructed to never let her catch a glimpse of her own reflection. The Princess never went outside the Palace, and thus had no idea that she was ugly. In fact, she thought that she was quite beautiful. She had been told so by the Big Mirror in the dining room. The Big Mirror had a pretty red cherry wood frame, in which it could rotate. Every time the Princess approached, the Big Mirror would do a swift about-face, creaking a bit on its hinges, for it was rather old.
One day, however, the Princess got curious to know what she looked like. She turned to one of the Little Mirrors, which was sleeping on a sunlit spot on the windowsill. It was momentarily caught off guard and tried to run away from the Princess on its three stubby legs, but she reached for it quickly and caught it. She put her hand on the surface of the Mirror, without looking into it, and brought it close to her face. Then she whispered: "Little Mirror, Little Mirror, why do you run away from me?"
The little gold-framed Mirror was an honest but polite mirror. It softly replied, "Princess, I have been instructed to do so by your Fairy Mother, and I must obey. I do not know why." The Little Mirror then wiggled its short legs emptily in the air in an attempt to get free, but the Princess suddenly held it up to her face. Before the mirror shattered, she caught a brief glimpse of herself. She threw down the Little Mirror with a scream.
"Oh!" she cried. "I'm so ugly!" She covered her face with both hands and cried for exactly fifteen minutes.
Meanwhile, the Little Mirror had picked itself up off the floor and managed to put its glass face back together again, so that only faint lines showed where it had broken, and they were beginning to gradually fade away now, so that, all in all, the Little Mirror looked almost as good as new.
It was a brave Little Mirror, too, and it approached the Princess as she was crying and tapped her on the ankle with one of its stubby legs. The Princess glanced at it, but saw her own reflection again, which sent her into a new fit of crying.
"Don't be sad," the Little Mirror said.
"How can I not be sad?" cried the Princess through her tears. "I am the ugliest princess that ever lived!"
The Mirror couldn't quite find what to say, and so it just scuffed the polished red parquet floor with one of its feet.
"Maybe," the Mirror said, at length, "I'm not the right kind of mirror. Maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps you should ask the others for a second opinion."
"You think so?" asked the Princess.
The Little Mirror was honest, but it was also very polite, and so it said: "I'm sure of it."
And they both walked out of the Princess' room and down the somber, candle-lit passageway that was the main hallway of the Palace. All kinds of portraits lined its dark walls: great past kings, queens, and princes and princesses, and not one of them was ugly. The Ugly Princess sighed sadly as she and the Little Mirror went on.
Together they went into the big dining room which contained the Big Mirror in its pretty cherry wood frame. The Big Mirror spotted the Princess in the doorway and was about to do an about-face, but the Little Mirror piped up from the floor at the Princess' feet.
"Wait!" the Little Mirror said to the Big Mirror.
"Don't come any closer!" the Big Mirror warned in a heavy and bossy baritone.
"Wait!" repeated the Little Mirror.
"What for?" the Big Mirror inquired.
"Maybe we're all wrong and the Princess is not ugly after all," said the Little Mirror. "Reflect the Princess. We promise that we won't tell on you to the Fairy Mother."
"Well, all right," replied the Big Mirror indecisively, after giving it some thought. "But this is highly unorthodox."
"Come closer, Princess," the Little Mirror suggested, and the Princess stepped closer. She slowly approached the Big Mirror, which was trembling in its frame out of fear.
When she saw her reflection, the Princess was not surprised and began to cry again. The Little Mirror approached her and said, "Lets try another mirror, Princess."
"Oh, what's the use?" the Princess cried. "I'm ugly! No mirror could tell me otherwise." And then she cried some more.
"Perhaps, then, you should go outside the Palace and ask the others," the Little Mirror advised, and the Big Mirror rotated heavily once inside its frame.
"Oh, but do you think I should?" wondered the Princess, for she had never been outside her Palace before.
"You could try, Princess," the Big Mirror replied.
And so the Princess put on her big feathered hat and took her royal walking stick and ventured outside the Palace. Everyone who saw her bowed politely, because she was a Princess, after all, but then they all ran away in a big hurry. The Princess returned to her Palace in tears.
Little Mirror and Big Mirror looked at her, and she did not have to say a word for them to understand what happened.
The Princess sat down on one of the dining room chairs and began to cry again. Her crying was so sad that, bit by bit, the Little Mirror began to cry too, in a thin, wailing tone that was not unlike the Princess' crying. Then the Big Mirror joined in the crying chorus as well, shaking and sobbing loudly in its red cherry wood frame.
It is debatable as to exactly how long this crying would have continued, were it not for a quiet knock on the Palace's door.
The three fell silent. Little Mirror ran up to the door and asked, "Who's there?"
The response was a very muffled one, and Little Mirror had some trouble understanding what the visitor was saying.
"Could you please repeat that?" the Little Mirror asked, but there was no answer. In fact, it seemed as if their visitor had already left.
When Little Mirror opened the door, there was no one in sight: only a small box, tied with a pretty yellow ribbon, sat on the doorstep.
"Huh…" pondered the Little Mirror, and took the box and carried it inside for the Princess.
When the Princess opened the box, there was nothing in it except a mirror, which was lying face down among some wood shavings.
"That's not funny at all," the Princess said in dismay.
"Look at me," the New Mirror said suddenly in a very muffled voice, for it was lying on its face. It had a simple, somewhat rough frame made of dull bronze, and looked nothing like the fancy gilded mirrors in the Palace.
The Princess picked it up and looked at it, and could not recognize the face she saw in the reflection.
"Who is this?" the Princess asked no one in particular.
The Big Mirror and the Little Mirror both looked into the New Bronze Mirror and were surprised as well, for it showed a very pretty Princess who was not ugly at all. Then the two Mirrors looked with suspicion at the New Mirror, and then at the Princess, and then again at the New Mirror, and then at each other.
"The New Mirror is a liar!" the Little Mirror cried.
"No, I am not," responded the New Mirror calmly. Its voice had a hollow, bell-like ring to it, so that each word seemed to echo for a while before falling silent.
"I've always said the Princess
was beautiful," the Big Mirror said in its bassy tone, and did a slight turn in its cherry wood frame.
"Then you're a liar, too!" the Little Mirror replied fierily, and did a little angry kick with its foot in the direction of the Big Mirror.
And the Princess looked at the three mirrors, and did not know which one she should trust.
"How dare you call me a liar?" the Big Mirror exclaimed indignantly. "Why, if I wasn't so attached to my frame, I'd call you out to a duel this very minute!"
The Little Mirror then proceeded to make a few jumps at the Big Mirror, attempting to kick it with its legs, as the Big Mirror spun around in its frame trying to hit it back, while the New Mirror ran around them both like a referee, attempting to intervene in their fighting.
"Stop it!" the Princess cried, and the three mirrors immediately stopped their fighting and became still and silent. They looked at the Princess, and she looked at them.
"There's only one way to find out," the Princess said, and picked up her big feathered hat and her royal walking stick and once more went outside the Palace.
To her amazement, no one ran away at the sight of her anymore. Everyone greeted her cheerfully, and she happily greeted them back.
When she returned, she saw the Bronze Mirror lying face down on the floor. Its glass was broken, but it was not a magic mirror, and so it could not put itself back together.
"What have the two of you done?" the Princess demanded of the Little Mirror and the Big Mirror, who turned away from her and dared not look upon her face in shame.
"Look at me," said the Princess, and first the Little Mirror, and then the Big Mirror turned to face her. The Princess looked just as beautiful as she had in the New Mirror.
"I don't understand this at all," the Princess said. "And you two, you should be ashamed of yourselves, attacking a poor defenseless mirror while I was away."
The two mirrors tilted away into the shadows and did not dare to look at the Princess anymore.
"We're sorry," they both said.
The End
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