Two years. Two years had passed since
Bobby rode off into the horizon and abandoned his beautiful princess behind.
Two years had seen that horizon bare and empty, with neither rider nor the love
he carried with him ever cresting its surface. All hope of the love between the
princess and her beloved knight ever awakening seemed lost forever...until the
day he finally returned.
Over the horizon he rode, a single
figure silhouetted against the rising sun. Though the morning rays raced
quickly across the open valley, the rider outpaced them all and arrived at the
castle gates carrying a single trophy, the book of spells that he held high
above his head.
The gates were opened and Bobby was ushered
into the castle. He sprinted up the stairway to the princess's bedroom with
hundreds of curious townsfolk in tow who all wished to see the miracle that
would soon take place before their eyes. For this day held a promise not felt
in the kingdom for many years, the promise that the princess might indeed
awaken and usher in a new age of joy and happiness that had disappeared the
moment her eyes closed.
When Bobby finally reached the princess
he took a seat beside her bed, opened the spell book, and began to read. Spell
after spell he chanted, some spoken in the common language while others in
strange and curious tongues he did not understand. No one knew which spell
might eventually awaken the princess from her slumber as Bobby turned the pages
of the great book and read each one aloud.
After several hours passed without
success, some of the villagers grew restless and began to trickle out as the
hour of day became late. The sun had nearly finished its daily sojourn across
the sky and candles were lit in the bedroom so that Bobby could continue
reading. More villagers began to leave until finally, after an entire day had
passed and the last of their patience was exhausted, only Bobby remained alone
in the princess's bedroom, reading each spell to her by dim candlelight. Page
after page he turned until finally only one remained, containing a single spell
left to be recited. He grew anxious, knowing that this final spell must be the
one that would awaken the princess and bring her back into his arms. Bobby
recited the spell, looked upon the princess's resting face, and waited for her eyes
to open.
Never before had Bobby longed for
anything more than to see the princess's eyes open. Never before was his heart
more broken than when they did not, for despite everything he had done, despite
conquering his demons and reciting every word he knew to break the spell from
which the princess was still bound, she did not wake up. She lay there,
completely motionless and without a single response to Bobby's words as he
broke down beside her and cried. The woman he is in love with remains asleep,
and he knows not what else to do.
"Why will you not awaken my
princess?" he whispered in her ear. "What more can I do?"
"You can speak your own words to
her Bobby," a voice from behind him said.
Bobby turned around to see the village
elder standing there, cloaked in a long white robe that matched the color of
his hair.
"My own words?" Bobby
inquired, somewhat confused. "What do you mean sir, for did you not just
hear me speak to her every word from the spell book?"
"That I did, but those words come
from the mind and are of no use to you where matters of love are concerned. For
though the princess is asleep, it is not her mind you are trying to awaken, but
her heart. Something greater is needed to do that, something that will show her
you have become the man she needs you to be. You must speak to the princess
from your heart, for the only words that can awaken a broken heart are the ones
that proceed from it."
Bobby knelt beside the sleeping princess
and removed the ribbon from around his neck that contained the two wedding
rings. Inside one of the rings shone the princess's name in the dim candlelight,
the most beautiful of all names...Ornela. On the other ring was written his
name, but as Bobby looked at the ring that bore his old name, he watched in
astonishment as the old letters faded away while new ones were written in its place.
His ring no longer bore the name "Robear", but instead read
"Bobby"...for he had become a new man, the man Ornela always needed
him to be.
Bobby took Ornela's hand within his own
and slipped the wedding ring onto her finger. He placed the other ring onto his
and looked in wonderment at the two hands that held each other so lovingly,
each now bearing a ring that bound their hearts together forever. He wiped a
tear from his eye and whispered softly in her ear.
"Ornela," Bobby said, cradling
her head and stroking her cheek gently. "After two years apart, we are
finally together again. I have missed you more than anything...and I know you
have missed me too. Although I hurt you so very deeply on our last night
together in Boston, you are safe with me now. You don't have to keep fighting.
You don't have to guard your heart any longer, for I will protect it forever.
Let go of everything, all your fear and uncertainty, and surrender to your
feelings, just as I have already surrendered my heart to you. You are the only
woman I have ever loved, the only woman I will ever love, and should you awaken
from your slumber and fall into my arms, I will never let you go. You are
her...the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. I love you Ornela."
He leaned over his princess, caressing
her face with both hands and pulling her close. "Wake up Ornela...please
wake up."
Bobby kissed Ornela's lips and the
beautiful princess...
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And here is where my role in telling our
story ends. I have written as much of our fairytale as I can, but I cannot add
another word because I don't know how this story ends. I need your help Ornela.
I need you to write our fairytale's ending. I told you in the second part of our
story that at the conclusion of this tale I would give you the most precious
thing in the world to me so that I can prove to you that I am in love with you.
That is what I am doing right now. I am giving you my pen, and if you know
anything about me you know that this is the most treasured thing I possess. I
entitled this story "Our Fairytale" not just because it tells our
story, but because we are both writing it together. You are just as much of a
writer of our story as me and I am giving you my pen so that you can finish it.
I have never asked anyone to do this before and if you know me at all you know
that letting you write the ending to one of my stories is one of the most
intimate gifts I can give anyone...and I am giving it to you. You will decide
the fate of Bobby and Ornela's love. You will decide if the princess ever wakes
up.
In the past four months I have said to
you everything that is on my heart. I have written you letters, written you
short stories, and even written you a novel. I thought that if I wrote you a
novel telling our story that you would come back to me. I thought that if only
I could find the right words, words so beautiful that they would awaken you
from your sleep and rekindle the passion that must surely lie deep within your
heart, that your love for me would return...but after you have rejected me so
many times, I don't know if those words even exist. I am in love with you
Ornela, but if my words are not enough, if my love is not enough, then I have nothing
left to give.
You told me that you wish you had waited
for me and I know that you wish that you had never given yourself to this other
man. You wish that you had waited and given yourself to me, and because you
have given yourself for the first time to another man you think that I won't
love you the same way anymore. You told me this in one of your letters. Now you
feel trapped in a situation that you see no way out of, just as the princess in
our fairytale could not awaken from her sleep. Do you not know that despite
whatever you have already done with someone else, in my eyes you are just as
pure and beautiful as the day we met? Do you not know that my love for you is
unconditional and is based not on what you have done, but on who you are? The
words that my character spoke to yours as she remained asleep in her bed are
the same that I will speak to you on that bridge in Boston Common Park if you will
let me see you. They are words that I have wanted to say to you for a very long
time. Read those words again Ornela, read them and imagine my face before you
as I speak to you. You don't have to keep fighting the feelings you have for
me. You can choose for us to be together. You can choose to wake up. And when
you do, I will be right here, holding you so that you will never hurt again.
Every day when I wake up I look beside
me in bed and wish that I was gazing into your loving eyes, the eyes of my wife
and best friend. I wish, more than anything, that I had never told you goodbye.
I wish that I had never left DC. I wish that I had stayed for you and then
moved with you to Boston to continue our lives together. If I had stayed with
you in DC we would be married today, living in our own home in Boston...perhaps
we would even have a child together. I often think about what our lives would
have been like together. I think about a wedding that never was, about trips
and adventures we should have experienced over the years, and about the
children that would have been our greatest joy. And I think about something else
too...I think about just holding you in my arms, everyday, while I look deeply
into your beautiful eyes and tell you that you are the love of my life. It's
not too late for all of these wonderful dreams to still come true. We can share
a beautiful life together. This can be our life if you want it to be.
You are the woman I have spent my entire
life trying to find, and when I finally found you I did not recognize that you
were her...you were always her. You are the woman I have fallen in love with,
the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. Ornela, you are the woman I
want to marry. I have never been so sure of anything in my entire life.
After everything I have done over the
past several months, all the letters and stories I have written you, I hope
that you will finally believe that I truly am in love with you. Now I give my
pen to you to write the rest of our story. Will the princess remain asleep
forever or will she finally open her eyes and look deeply into her white
knight's adoring gaze so that they may kiss and live happily ever after?
If you have any feelings for me at all,
please call me Ornela. Please just talk to me.
Te dua. I love you.
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