The Unqueen

The Unqueen
By Eila Algood


Once upon a time, in a cold and wintry, hot and boring land, lived a king and queen.  They lived in a glorious log palace, complete with an indoor pool and gym, huge stone fireplaces, brilliant décor and distant vistas from atop the hillside.  With them in the log palace, lived their two children, the princess and prince who were pretty and polite, charming and charismatic.  The dogs and cats rounded out this perfect royal family.  Together, the royals enjoyed their lives with family and friends as well as the common people of the land.  Life seemed bright and brilliant for them, traveling to distant lands and enjoying many of life’s luxuries.  Until (and you knew there’d be an “until”.) something changed.  The king and queen looked like the couple on top of a wedding cake – near perfect:  except, of course, for the king’s affairs which began when the princess was an infant; except, of course, for the passive aggressive behavior of the king towards the queen; except, of course for the emptiness and loneliness in the queen’s heart.  Until (there’s the until) the queen fell in love with a maiden from town.  When the king saw this, he encouraged the queen to follow her heart and go be with the town maiden.  But then (and you could see this coming, although the queen hadn’t) the king got jealous.  The jealousy led the king to nasty, mean, angry behavior towards the queen as he took up with a diner maiden.  The diner maiden became his confident, his lover and his co-conspirator against the queen.  The diner maiden had dollar signs in her eyes and visions of herself as the new queen.  She cleverly fueled the fire of jealousy in the king.  This dark diner maiden and the king had the queen spied upon to gather nonsensical evidence in an effort to break her spirit and send her tumbling from her throne. 
In the meantime, the queen was going about her life without any suspicion of the king’s behavior.  She was a trusting and naive soul who loved her time with the town maiden, feeling more joy than she’d ever known.
The king grew increasingly nasty and mean to the queen.  She’d never seen him so vicious and felt afraid.  The queen had prophetic dreams which were symbolic of her life during that time; frequent dreams of a small plane crashing into one end of the log palace.  In the dream she needed to flee with the princess and prince to survive.  Another recurring dream was of the log palace tumbling down the hillside, landing upright in town, looking much smaller.  What truly happened was this:  the queen learned that the king had her spied upon.  Feeling violated and terrified by the king, the queen fled the log palace with the princess and prince to live in a small, old dwelling down the hillside, amongst the townspeople.  The queen then had some space for privacy, to think and regroup.  There were few people she could trust.  The townspeople ignored her, the king’s family sided with him and even the queen’s father turned his back on his daughter.  The word “lesbian” seemed to have the same effect on people as the word “leper” once had. 
As if the evil actions of the king weren’t enough, the town maiden, with whom the queen had fallen in love, was dying.  Tragedy upon tragedy for the queen would test her courage and her strength.
In the midst of all this chaos, the princess had been terrorized by her father, the king and fled to be with the queen.  The princess was a young teen and needed to get away from this land where she and her family’s drama were so well known.  She moved to another township and attended a school where no one knew her as the princess.  Surrounded by new friends, her light shined brightly in her new home for some years, until the king and his diner maiden, lured her back to the kingdom with jewels and monetary treasure.
Once the marriage between the king and queen was annulled by the Roman Catholic Church (after 19 years and 2 children, how can they do that?), the king informed the queen that he had a (bastard) child with the diner maiden, to whom he would soon marry. 
Only a few months later, after struggling with disease, the town maiden died in the arms of the queen.
Alone, heartbroken and sad, the now, unqueen, pondered her life options.  She took some time to grieve and decide how she wanted her new life to look.  Being a single woman and no longer queen meant freedom:  freedom from the royal responsibilities and duties; freedom from the king (sort of); and freedom to leave the kingdom.
In the meantime, the king and diner queen lived in the log palace with their baby son; the princess (who’d been lured back by the king to the kingdom with jewels and treasure) and the prince along with many of the unqueen’s belongings.  The king and diner queen had an air of superiority that nauseated the unqueen.  She was devising a plan to leave the kingdom soon.
It was a warm spring day in May, at a beachside cottage, when the unqueen gazed into the eyes of a woman who then captured her heart.  It was a healthy and vibrant love they shared.  After some time, the unqueen moved away from the kingdom to be with her new love, co-creating a life based on truth, trust and a deeply committed love.  The princess and prince were sad the unqueen hadn’t stayed in the kingdom, but the unqueen knew being a mom meant more than making their school lunches; it meant setting a good example of living such as having a positive and loving relationship; attending university,  engaging in meaningful work and performing community service.  The unqueen had planned to have the princess and prince live with her once she was settled in her new home.
The mean and angry king stayed mad at the unqueen and wouldn’t let her bring the prince to live with her.  The king and diner queen cast a spell on the princess and prince to keep them in the kingdom.  The unqueen and her new love made special visits with the prince and princess (who was now a woman).  The unqueen knows that the love they have for the princess and prince is what will eventually break the evil spell.  For now, they travel to foreign lands with the prince on wonderful educational and artistic adventures. 
On an enchanted island,  the unqueen and her new love were married, living away from the king, diner queen and their negative, controlling, manipulative, dark energies. 
The newlyweds live far from the kingdom, in a cozy seaside cottage by the beach.  They’re surrounded by new friends and engage in meaningful events.  Their lives are filled with love and affection.. They’re having a joyful and creative “happily ever after” life as wife and wife! 
THE END