Prince & Princess

A very thin woman was standing in front of the school with a timid-looking kid holding her hand. Suddenly the child started moving frantically his small hand in front of his face. The woman tried to stop him. He lowered his hand and after a while he started laughing by himself silently. The woman sighed heavily, looking at the other parents with perfectly normal kids. A little further stood a beautiful blond girl with big blue eyes. She was holding tightly to her mother and apparently had no desire at all to enter the school.

"Mommy, I don't want to go." she moaned.

"Oh, princess, it will be fine, you will find nice, little friends and have a lot of fun." said her mother kindly.

"But the kids are mean! I don't want to be friends with them!" protested the girl.

"Don't worry, dear. Remember the story with a castle and many scary things in it? You will go to the tower guarded by a dragon and find another little princess like yourself. It's never easy, but I'm sure you'll find a way. You will make friends, dear."

The girl still seemed reluctant but in the end she let go her mother's hand and entered the doors of the school.

The thin woman followed the girl's swinging pigtails, dragging her reluctant son after her.

The pair of them entered the counselor's office where an evil-looking woman with a very lined face was waiting for them.

"Good morning, James. Good morning Mrs. Casely." she greeted them with a soft, falsely-kind voice.

James's eyes widened at the sound of her voice, he let go his mother's hand and clapped his hands tightly onto his ears.

"It's Ok, sweetie, there's no need to worry. We will spend another pleasant day together."

His mother took his hands into hers and tried to reassure the child.

"Oh, honey, Mrs. Hurst will take care of you. You must not be scared."

Mrs. Hurst took James's hand and forced him to follow her. She turned around to face James's mother while walking away and said with an evil smile: "Your little James will be perfectly fine with me. Kids end up to love me in the end."

The thin woman remained alone thinking about her beloved child. He was affected by autism and for all the six years of his life she had dedicated herself entirely to his health. Sleepless nights and endless days had been spent trying to improve his condition as much as it was possible before the kid would have to go to school. He did get better after long days with many therapists working to teach him not to block out the world. Since school had started however, James's condition had begun to worsen. He started closing back into himself. His mother couldn't even make him listen to her and when he came back from Mrs. Hurst's he just went to a wall and started banging his head against it.

Mrs. Casely remembered the blond girl and smiled sadly to herself. If that perfect beautiful girl was having problems going to school, then James had no hope at all to fit in. She loved her child beyond anything, his disorder hadn't in any way decreased her affection for him, but would the other kids accept him? She doubted very much.

In the meantime, Mrs Hurst was forcing James up a staircase that led to the upper floor. It was smaller than the others and had only one room that was used for problem kids that needed special treatment. James was struggling and wailing. His voice didn't form into words. It was impossible to understand those indistinct sounds but the utterly terrified expression in his eyes was perfectly clear. Mrs. Hurst shoved him into the small room and closed the door quickly. Then she fixed her small, evil eyes on him and said: "Now, I'm not asking anything from you, just sit quietly while I work, Ok?"

James averted her eyes and went into a corner of the room. He sat on the floor turning his back on Mrs. Hurst and shut his ears with his hands tightly. He remained motionless for quite a long time.

"That's a good boy. You see? I'm not bad if you don't bother me. Just stay there for the next five hours." said Mrs. Hurst with an evil grin twisting her lips.

At the sound of her voice James stood up suddenly and started banging his head against the wall. Mrs. Hurst got up angrily.

"Oh, no. That won't do. First you're making too much noise. Second you can hurt yourself, not that I care, but your stupid mommy can get suspicious."

The evil woman grabbed James by the hair and made him sit onto a chair. Then she opened a cupboard where some old toys were kept and took out some ropes, once used to play. She tied the crying kid to the chair and stuffed his mouth with some cloth.

"There," she said with satisfaction. "Now you won't bother me anymore."

One floor below, the blond girl was staring boringly at the blackboard. She was dreading lunch-time when she would have had to mix with the other kids. She didn't like them, somehow she couldn't fit in at all. When the bell rang reminding them that it was time to eat, the girl hid under her desk. The other children filed out of the classroom after the teacher who took no notice that the girl was missing. When the merry voices and the footsteps died out, the girl crept out from beneath her desk and stepped out of the classroom. The hall was completely empty, everyone was in the cafeteria. The girl looked around uncertain about what to do next. Then the little staircase at the end of the corridor caught her eye. It wasn't as shiny as the rest of the school, on the contrary it was dark and dusty. The girl approached it and started going up the steps.

"It's the staircase that leads to the highest tower of the castle!" she murmured to herself excitedly.

When she reached the upper floor a single red door faced her. She tiptoed to the door and tried to hear whether any sounds came from inside. A muffled wailing and a soft murmuring reached her ears.

"This is the dragon guarding its prisoner." she said as if she was explaining this to someone.

She laid her small hand onto the doorknob and pressed to open the door. Mrs. Hurst turned around and stared at the girl horrorstruck. James focused his attention on the visitor too and stopped wailing for a moment.

The words that came out of the girl's mouth startled the woman even more.

"Oh, nasty dragon! I came to defeat you and free your prisoner!"

Then she drew near to the boy and started unbinding him.

"Don't worry, little prince, I, princess came to save you from the evil dragon."

In the meantime Mrs. Hurst had recovered from the shock. She took the girl's wrists and dragged her to the door.

"Go away, you should be in class! This kid is sick, he is undergoing a special medical treatment! If you tell someone what you have seen here it will be big trouble for you, girl. Now get OUT of here!"

James started crying and stretching out his arms as if trying to bring back the girl. She was struggling but Mrs. Hurst was much stronger than she was.

"Don't worry, little prince. I will come back!"

Mrs. Hurst threw out the girl and shut the door. The girl raised to her feet rubbing her slightly reddened wrists and returned to her classroom. She sneaked back under her desk just before the other kids came back and without anyone noticing, she reemerged a few seconds later, ready to listen to hours of boring lessons.

Hours later the final bell rang announcing the end of the lessons for that day. Mrs. Casely was standing by the fountain in front of the entrance. She was looking around nervously trying to find her son in the crowd of kids that were pouring out of the school. She noticed the blond girl she had seen in the morning. She was smiling. She ran to meet her own mother a little further from where Mrs. Casely stood, so she could overhear their conversation.

"Mommy, mommy!" called the girl excitedly.

"Princess! Did it go well?" asked her mother relieved to see her daughter smiling.

"Mommy! I found the tower of the castle and there was a prisoner guarded by a dragon! I couldn't free him though, I hope I will succeed tomorrow!"

"Of course you will, my dear!" answered her mother half-laughing at the nonsense that came out of the girl's mouth. She caught Mrs. Casely's eye and mouthed to her: "She lives in a fairy-tale and there's nothing I can do about it!"

In that moment a wailing sound distracted them. Mrs. Casely recognized it at once as her son's voice and turned around afraid of what was about to meet her eyes. James was running in her direction. At first she thought that he was running to hug her but as he neared she saw the empty, terrified look in his eyes that made her fear for something much worse. Everyone was staring at the running boy and at his transfixed, horrified mother. He reached her and passed by and then threw himself into the fountain. Mrs. Casely let out a scream of horror and then rushed to her son. A few people ran to help Mrs. Casely pull James out of the water. He was struggling and there was no way to calm him down. His body was twitching and he was deliberately not listening to his mother's soothing voice. There was a big crowd of people standing around and watching. One of them approached Mrs. Casely slowly but she took no notice.

"It's him. Poor little prince, he must be really upset."

It was the blond girl. She neared to the struggling kid and patted him softly on his head. James stopped moving instantly and turned to stare at the girl. The terrified expression subsided a little and after a while the kid smiled still staring at the girl.

"I tried to free your little prince from the cold claws of the evil dragon, madam, but I didn't manage. He must be quite terrified but I hope that he will be alright now."

Mrs. Casely stared blankly at the girl not understanding a single word of that nonsense and then it hit her.

"Wait, do you mean that you saw a woman torturing my son?" she asked the girl.

"Well, yes that's what I said, a dragon was keeping your prince as a prisoner."

"Come with me then."

Mrs. Casely rose and walked determinedly towards the school, her son holding one hand and the girl holding the other. She burst into the counselor's office where Mrs. Hurst was gathering a few papers and said aggressively: "You have been abusing my son! This girl saw you!"

For a moment Mrs. Hurst seemed almost scared. Then she looked at the girl and answered calmly:

"This girl's head is full of fantasies, she just made up the whole thing. I'm a professional and I know what I'm doing. Your son is perfectly fine with me, it's normal for him to be a little bit nervous at the beginning."

In that moment James started tugging at his mother's hand nervously.

"A little nervous, A LITTLE? My son just threw himself into a fountain!!!"

Then she turned to face the girl: "Dear, tell us what you've seen this morning."

"I told you, I walked to the high tower and opened a red door. Inside an evil dragon was keeping this prince as its prisoner."

An evil smile of satisfaction curled Mrs. Hurst's thin mouth.

"You see? This girl's talking absolute nonsense, nobody would give any credit to what she is saying. It is my word against hers, I'm afraid. If you don't like my teaching you will have to change school. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do here."

Mrs. Casely stared at her for a moment and then stormed out of the office, muttering under her breath: "I will change school, yeah, but not before I kick you out of it."

The next morning Mrs. Casely entered James's room and stared at her sleeping curled up son for a moment. She would have had to send him for the last time to the terrible Mrs. Hurst, this was the only way to unmask her. She took the boys jacket and slipped a small tape recorder into its pocket. Then she went to the bed and woke up James gently. As soon as he saw his mother, the boy turned his back on her. She tried to get him out of bed but he refused. After a while she forced the boy to sit upright.

James didn't look at her. She started speaking softly in order to persuade him to go to school. He started shaking his head frantically and then he began wailing as usual. Except this time his voice seemed to form the same word again and again.

"No eesoner! No eesoner!"

"What are you saying, dear? I can't understand! What's the matter?" asked his mother worriedly trying to guess what the boy could have meant. He added a word.

"Dago! No eesoner! Dago! No eesoner! DAGO! NO EESONER! NO! NO! NO!"

A wave of understanding reached Mrs. Casely.

"Dragon. Not prisoner." she whispered breathlessly.

"You won't be a prisoner, I promise. We just have to defeat the dragon and I will need your help, my little prince."

The boy quietened at these words but still didn't look up.

"Look," said his mother almost pleadingly,"If you go to school today, you will never be a prisoner again, you will never ever meet another... dragon and you will be able to play with the nice princess as long as you'll desire."

At these words the boy got up.

"Eenses" he said determinedly.

"Yes, princess, my dear." said his mother smiling with relief.

James and his mother reached the school. With a heavy sigh, Mrs. Casely knocked on the office door and met Mrs. Hurts evil grin. Mrs. Casely felt James's hand trembling. She looked down at her son and whispered: "Remember the princess, it will soon be over." The boy calmed down a little.

"Oh, I see you too have started talking nonsense. Interesting." Mrs. Hurst's cold voice reached their ears.

"Yeah... sure. Be good to my son, Mrs Hurst." she answered dryly and walked out of the office.

Mrs. Casely spent all morning walking around the school nervously. She was afraid that Mrs. Hurst could have done serious damage to her fragile son. Since school had started, he had stopped looking into her eyes. Probably he considered her to be on Mrs. Hurst's side since it was she who sent him to school every single day. He did look in the girl's eyes though. That girl was strange, she was the only person that could get James out of his own world. Mrs. Casely hoped very much that the girl would spend some time with James.

Finally the school doors opened and the kids started pouring outside. And there he was. James was walking along with everyone else, he still had the same terrified look in his eyes but somehow he was calm. Mrs. Casely noticed that the girl was walking with him. When they got near her the girl said:

"Hi! Your son told me that today was his last battle with the dragon and that now he will be free! He is really brave!"

Mrs. Casely stared at her nonplussed. James rarely put more than two words in a sentence and even if he did it was hardly comprehensible. He couldn't possibly have told the girl all that.

"He... told you that? Are you sure?" she asked the girl.

"Yes of course he did! Can we play together a little?"

Mrs. Casely nodded silently. Then she remembered the small recorder and took it out of James's pocket.

She then went to a bench, sat down and started listening. It was dreadful. It was a mixture of Mrs. Hurst's cold, horrible words and James's desperate weeping. Sometime there were sounds that surely were caused by James's head banging repeatedly against a wall. Mrs. Casely was horrified at what her son had been put through. Every word of menace said by Mrs. Hurst on the tape was like a sword cutting through her heart,

A woman approached Mrs. Casely.

"Are you all right?" she asked softly. Mrs Casely looked up. Her face was now very pale and lined with tears. Her thin, white hands were shaking and clutching the small tape recorder.

"I'm Astrea's mother. You must be the mother of that boy that threw himself into the fountain and for whom Astrea took a liking." said the woman with a pleasant voice. "Oh, here they come." she adding pointing at the two kids. Astrea and James were coming towards them, holding hands. James was looking at his mother now and was actually smiling.

"I suppose you will now leave this castle, but can I still play with your prince sometimes?" asked Astrea.

"Of course you can! Now just go to play for another while, I have to throw out the... dragon out of the castle!" said Mrs. Casely now smiling. With her eyes with tears of sorrow replaced by tears of happiness she watched her son skip away happily with his new friend.

"I will come with you." said Astrea's mother quietly.

The two women turned their backs on the kids and entered the school.