A Black Fairytale

THE STORY

  Once upon a time in England, there was a wealthy princess who lived in a castle by the sea. She had skin as brown as fine wood, and her hair was as as wavy as the very waves themselves. Her face was fair and beautiful and no one dared say different. She lived with her thoughts and a pen. She was alone, but not lonely. Everyday she would take a walk through the woods and dance with nature herself. She sang the songs the people before her. She was happy.

Each day she would walk down the square and listen to the townsfolk. They would shout slurs and yell angry things, they would tell her that brown folks aren't allowed there, and that she wasn't welcome there. And she would thank them. SHe would thank them for exercising their freedom of speech, she would thank them for thinking about her, because hateful or not she had a special place in their heads. She would smile at the man who refused to serve her because she was black and with a confidence man had never seen she would pay extra for half of what the white folk got. She was happy.

On her birthday she would pray to God and thank Him for another glorious year. She would dance through the hallways of her empty castle and glide through chambers and ballrooms she imagined were filled with people of all colors. Black, white, gay, straight, men and women of all shapes and sizes. She would bake herself a cake and eat the whole things, because she'd be dead before she felt insecure about her body. She would let the sea tickle her feet, and she would wear pants and swim and laugh as her hair fell across her face with new found glory. She was happy.

And as she breathed her final breaths she thought about the woods, and the town and it's people, and her dances and dreams, and her lovely dresses, and the hateful comments, and nature and she would smile. She thought about her cake, and her kindness, and the ocean and her hair and her weight. She thought of the nights she cried herself to sleep and the nights she would stay up so late that she forgot where she was in the morning. She thought about the shouting and the death threats that led late into the night. As she lay and took her final breath, beauty returned to the heavens.

The End