Note: This story tied for the grand prize in the newspaper contest thingy, GO NINA!!
Slowly, dressed as a sweep, Philippe drifted into the streets of Gwinn. He watched as all the girls in town appeared in their expensive dresses. Probably going to the ball. His parents were holding a ball to ‘find our dear Philippe a suitable princess’. What make their mothers think that he was such a catch? Just because he was a prince didn’t mean he was without bad habits. Philippe was, in fact, addicted to pickles. That, he doubted, his parents had put into their proclamation.
As the sun set and everyone in town was rushed to the palace in their carriages from Coaches ‘R’ Us, Philippe lingered in the town, munching on a pickle he had stolen when the brine had been abandoned.
Suddenly, there was a flash of light and a fairy appeared in front of him with a vacuum cleaner in hand. “Did somebody rent a fairy godmother?” she beamed.
“Who are you?” asked Philippe, frightened.
“Didn’t you order a fairy godmother?”
“No.”
“Oh dear.” She pulled out a piece of paper and began mumbling, “Did I turn left at Maple?”
“Who are you looking for?” Philippe asked.
“You probably don’t know her. Her name’s Ella.”
Philippe shrugged and munched on his pickle. “Can’t help you.”
“Wait!” She snatched the pickle out of his hand.
“Hey! I was eating that!”
“It’s stamped ‘Brine Incorporated’.”
“So?”
“Ella’s letter was soaked in brine. Where did you get this pickle?”
“Over there.” He pointed.
The fairy grabbed the vacuum and his arm and rushed over. There, seated on the floor of the pickle shop sat a girl with her hair and clothes soaked in brine.
“What are your worries?” the fairy godmother asked.
The girl looked up, “You’re Sandy, the fairy godmother, right?”
Sandy nodded.
“I want to— wait, you’re Prince Philippe! Um… you want a pickle?”
He seized it and took a bite. “Hey! You want to come to the palace with me?”
“Sure!”
Sandy then stepped up. “I’ll make you a gown and all that, but first, put something on your feet.”
The girl snatched the first things she saw, two pickle jars, and put her feet inside.
Sandy waved her magic vacuum cleaner and instantly, Philippe and Ella were transported to the palace, both dressed finely. As they entered, however, with everyone watching, Ella’s slipper cracked and a piece of glass pierced her foot. The slippers had been made of glass!
Immediately, she was rushed off the hospital, leaving a glass slipper (separated from her foot, it transformed back into a pickle jar), on the steps. The ball was then dismissed as Philippe told his parents that he must marry Ella.
Unfortunately, however, Ella was a very popular name. It just so happened that 98% of all the girls in town were named Ella.
So, Philippe went to the hospital and tried the pickle jar on the foot of every maiden that was named Ella (in other words, all of them). Finally, he tried the shoe on the foot of the last maiden and it didn’t fit.
He looked up at the girl’s face.
“It’s me!” she shouted, “I had to get surgery and now my foot is swollen!”
Ah! So that was why. The pickle jar proved to be irrelevant and Philippe and Ella faked a marriage to get Philippe’s parents to stop annoying him about
it.
De End!! (Quick, funny, and weird, huh?)
