Story Lottery - #11 Marbles
“Once upon a time” are magical words to her. She loves to hear her mother repeat them over and over again, and when her mother is gone - but she is not sad when this happens, because her mother has “happily ever after” - she loves her father for saying those words. And when he too is lost - but she is not sad, because he has “happily ever after” with her mother - it is her brother who says the words. She loves him, but he’s not particularly good at reading books about princesses; he likes his books about tractors and kung fu - gung fu, he corrects her - but he reads to her regardless.
Seth is good at reading stories, though. She totes around her storybook in the park and waits for him to find her. Hide and seek with Seth always becomes story time, so she always carries a book for him to read. She doesn’t understand why Seth, who’s old and tall, can read better than Ephraim; maybe it’s a skill you need a boy’s voice for and not a girl’s fluty voice - hey! Ephraim says, I do not sound like you!
Seth takes his time opening the books, his fingers tracing over the covers, searching out for any words that are raised. Then he carefully considers the artwork. But he never reads the backs of books that aren’t first editions; she asks him why, and he says it’s because he doesn’t like reading what Kirkus Review has to say about books, he’d much rather read the book himself. She thinks he sounds wise, so she nods her head enthusiastically, and the bow in her hair comes loose. He sighs, and sets aside the book to retie it for her.
Then, he opens the book, listening for any creaks in the spine, and carefully considers the first few almost-empty pages. On the hardbacks, he doesn’t read the flaps; he says it’s better just to look at the pictures if you want to peek ahead. But he never looks at pictures ahead of where he’s reading; he always goes in order. He turns the book towards her and reads upside down. (When she is older and they are in love, he’ll tell her it’s because he loved watching her face light up and not because it was the proper way to read to a young lady.)
He reads to her, and then she is gone into the world he creates with his voice. (When she grows older she’ll still ask him read her stories, although now they’re much longer and don’t have pretty pictures. But she tries to pick out books with covers that have raised lettering and careful artwork.)
Today, she has a book whose words are missing. Although she already knows the tale, she is still heart-broken to know that someone had erased the words and cut them out. But Seth is magical and can fix anything. So instead of the princess sleeping on a bed of peas, she sleeps on a bed of marbles. She gasps in shock at the change, and Seth continues on. He turns the pages and she looks at his face. She always does when he turns the page; it’s the only time to look at him. He tells her of how the evil enchantress came to her end by slipping on marbles, which had fallen out of the mattress after the brave knight - knight and not prince because Eirika insisted so after the picture prince had red hair - cut it open during his valiant rescue of the princess. After he says the right words to end the story and closes the book, he profusely apologizes for saying marbles instead of pea. But she says, No, no, no, I like it this way, keep it this way.
So after, there is no more “The Princess and the Pea” to Eirika, there’s only “The Princess and the Bed of Marbles.”
More and more Eirika begins to change the story. More and more princes become knights, and then the knights become Seth because one has red hair and all other princes-turned-knights after are named Seth because of it. Seth turns red whenever this happens, and when she asks why, he says it’s because he’s embarrassed and just a little flattered. She asks what flattered means, and he says it means happy. That makes her clap her hands. Her hands are never sticky when she brings books to Seth because books deserve respect and not candy cane red fingerprints.
It’s all rather inevitable then, that sometime when they are older they fall in love. She loves stories with princesses and knights and they are as close as one could come to the classic pair. She grows up to become the heiress of her father’s booming company alongside her brother, and Seth ends up in the police force. But when he’s injured taking a bullet for her and he retires from the force because of it, Ephraim hires him instead. (This is when she begins to find herself searching for stories where princesses marry knights instead of princes.)
If he’s sitting in an office chair looking like his normal self, she’ll ask him to read whatever he’s reading to her. And of course, he obliges. He often has books involving marbles, and she wonders if he does it on purpose. He always has books on marbles and princesses - somehow he’s gotten a hold of her missing-word book - and books just on marbles for when she’s tired and worn away, and she always smiles at this. (It also makes it easy for her to watch him intently and map his face out and ponder how different it would be to do so with her fingertips.)
When she marries him, she makes him a small book titled “The Princess and the Bed of Marbles” complete with the right words and crayoned pictures, and they laugh and keep it by the bedside. Every now and then, she’ll reach over for it and ask him to read it to her. Of course, he always says yes.
(And he’ll sigh and brush her hair back like they did when they were children, and she’ll whisper “happily ever after” to him as she falls asleep.)