From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   The Prince and the Mermaid   
      
   A Children's Story   
      
   The Prince and the Mermaid fell in love, and the Mermaid cut off her tail.   
   They married and lived in a big castle on the side of the ocean. The Prince   
   loved the Mermaid, and the Mermaid loved the Prince. And soon they had a   
   daughter whom they named    
   Alicia.   
      
   The Prince and the Mermaid loved each other. But the Mermaid was unhappy.   
   First it was just a feeling, and she punished herself for it. She said to   
   herself, "You live in a castle and you are married to a wonderful man. Can't   
   you see that you have a    
   beautiful life?" But her unhappiness grew.   
      
   The Prince was aware that the Mermaid was unhappy, and it ate him inside. He   
   asked her what was wrong, and she said, "I don't know. I'm unhappy. I am   
   sorry." He held her and tried to comfort her. And though the Mermaid knew that   
   he loved her - and that    
   she also loved him - she just could not stop the pain and depression inside.   
      
   As the years went by, they grew apart. The Prince was angry at the Mermaid,   
   and the Mermaid was angry at herself. He kept asking her, "Why can't you be   
   like other wives? Why can't you be perfect?" And she would just answer, "I   
   don't know," and she would    
   cry.   
      
   The Prince's anger with his wife grew. In frustration he would insult her and   
   hit her and tell her that she was not worthy of the life she had. And as he   
   grew angrier, the Mermaid stopped seeing the man she had loved and saw a   
   monster. She thought, "I've    
   married the Prince, and he turned into a frog." And then she thought, "Maybe   
   it was me kissing him that made that happen."   
      
   Feeling her luminous life turned to darkness - and thinking herself at fault -   
   the Mermaid ran out on the beach. Her magnificent blond hair rained on her   
   shoulders and covered them with gold. Her elegant arms and legs scintillated   
   in the light of the    
   moon, as tears ran down her cheeks. She had come to the ocean - to the place   
   from where she had come - to jump into it and drown and end all her miseries.   
      
   Then suddenly from the ocean came an indistinct wail. The Mermaid felt   
   something pulling to her, something tugging her on the heart and her lungs,   
   something calling to her from the water. She came to the water's edge, and   
   coming toward her she saw a face.   
    It was a dolphin, moving in wavelike motion.   
      
   At first she could not make out what the Dolphin was saying. Her memory of her   
   days in the ocean was a blur, and she had trouble recollecting the language.   
   Then she started remembering and understood. The voice said, "You have cut off   
   your tail to be    
   with the Prince. But because you have left a part of yourself in the ocean,   
   you could not truly be with the Prince, and he could not truly be with you.   
   You were out of your medium. You did not know how to live on land, and you   
   were missing your home. You    
   can't live like that any more. Go back to the ocean, put on your tail, and   
   invite the Prince to come swimming with you."   
      
   The Mermaid said, "I can't just leave him. I am married to him, and we have a   
   child."   
      
   The Dolphin spoke in return. "He loved you when you were in the ocean. The   
   more you lived on the land, however, the less he remembered the person that he   
   had loved. If you come into the ocean again, he will see you again for the   
   Mermaid he loved, and he    
   will again love you."   
      
   Reluctantly the Mermaid waded into the ocean. She wrote a note to the Prince,   
   and a seagull delivered it. It said, "My love, I cannot live like this any   
   longer. You are destroying me, and I am destroying you. Come to the ocean, and   
   swim with me. Do you    
   remember when I was in the ocean and you loved me? We can love each other like   
   that again."   
      
   In the morning Alicia knocked on her father's door. "What's the matter?" asked   
   the Prince. His daughter answered, "Where's Mommy?" The Prince asked, "What do   
   you mean, where's Mommy?" Then, seeing his wife's side of the bed empty, he   
   looked around and    
   found the note.   
      
   The Prince flew into a fury and sent for the archers. Surrounded by archers,   
   he went to the ocean. The Dolphin swam to the beach.   
      
   "What's this thing?" asked the Prince. As the Dolphin started to speak, one of   
   the archers, named Atticus, started translating.   
      
   "What have you done with my wife?" shouted the Prince. The Dolphin answered,   
   "She was going to kill herself. I saved her life." "Saved her life?" the   
   Prince continued to shout. "How about saving the family? I married her. She   
   made a vow to be with me all    
   her life. How dare you destroy our marriage?"   
      
   The Dolphin responded, "She could not save the marriage that you had and still   
   live. You loved her when she was in the ocean. But you made her cut off her   
   tail, and she could no longer be the person you loved."   
      
   "Does it matter that she could no longer be the person I loved?" the Prince   
   continued to shout. "She is my wife! I decide what kind of a person she can   
   and can't be. She is the mother of my daughter! She has responsibilities!" At   
   which point the Prince    
   ordered the archers to take aim at the Dolphin.   
      
   The Dolphin looked the Prince in the face. He said, "You can kill me, but that   
   will not save your marriage. You loved her when she was in the water, but in   
   the castle she could not be what you loved. Your life was destroying her and   
   destroying also what    
   you loved. She was dying in that castle - that life was killing her - can't   
   you see that? Kill me and your wife will simply die. Learn to swim with her,   
   and you will again be with her."   
      
   The Prince told the archers to put their bows down. He went back to the palace   
   and brooded for days. On some days he wanted to kill the Dolphin; on others he   
   wanted to kill his wife. He even thought of making huge chains and whipping   
   the ocean.   
      
   There were other women who wanted to be with the Prince. They comforted him,   
   and he thought of being with them. But his thoughts always came back to the   
   Mermaid. "I must bring my wife back," he decided, "whatever it takes."   
      
   As he was walking along a river feeding into the ocean, he heard a voice that   
   said, "Jump in the river." "Jump in the river?" he responded, "What do you   
   mean, jump in the river?"   
      
   "It means just what I've said," responded the voice. "Jump in the river and   
   learn to swim, and then you can have your wife back."   
      
   He thought that was a ridiculous thing to do, but he wanted to gain back his   
   wife at all costs. So he did. He took off his golden robe and jumped in the   
   river. The current carried him to the ocean.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)