Hook, Line and Sinker
By Tony Hooker
A fairy tale, of sorts.
One upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a friendly kingdom known as Riverdell.
Riverdell was a small, tight knit kingdom, not without its problems, but overall a nice place to live and raise families.
Almost everyone in Riverdell minded their own business, keeping to themselves and contributing to the greater good of the kingdom, although there were some who preferred to complain about the goings on of the kingdom rather than actively lift a hand to make things well. I’m sure that’s the case in all kingdoms, though.
In the kingdom, there lived a prince named Randy. Randy, was a reasonably intelligent man, and talented craftsman, and so found a beautiful princess with whom he began to share his life. After a while, it became known that the prince was battling with some very powerful inner demons, and as such became impossible to live with, and sadly, the princess chose to live her life with her princelings, elsewhere.
For Randy, this seemed impossible. Wrapped in the delusions of his immense self-worth, the prince couldn’t understand that the princess could possibly choose a life that didn’t include him.
The embittered prince then slowly sunk into the pits of despair, his vanity not allowing him to see that he had any faults. Slowly, his bitterness turned to anger. Surely, it must be others who caused him to lose his princess. Without realizing it, Randy allowed a persecution complex to engulf his life. Everyone was out to get him, or so it seemed to the pathetic little prince.
Moving forward, the disgraced prince decided that the rules of the kingdom didn’t apply to him, and therefore began to run into trouble with the Knights of the Kingdom, and spent some time in the local dungeon. As his persecution complex grew, the prince began to believe that his superiors and fellow craftsmen, too, were out to get him, and thus he was soon unable to work at his craft. All of this fed into his delusions. He soon traveled to a neighboring kingdom in the land of New Glarus, where he again ran afoul of the local knights. By this time, it had become impossible for the delusional little prince to admit any sort of responsibility for his actions. He was being bullied and persecuted at every turn, in his mind.
Randy, in turn, lashed out at any and all who crossed his path. He petitioned the king, often, to bring justice to whomever he felt offended him, often with little recompense or sympathy.
I wish that I could end this tale by saying that everyone lived happily ever after, but we all know that for people like the little prince, there will be no happy endings. Just a lonely, pathetic, sad life.
The end.