PRINCESS PETROVSKI GROWS UP

Summer Arrives in Prince Petrovski's Gardens by Foutoux
All Rights Reserved Copyright L. Ivison 2013

Summer was a coming in.  In fact, it had come in.  The struggle between Spring and Summer was over and summer was the victor.  Gone the half-clad branches, the hundred varieties of green, the buds, the cherry blossom - the great fanfare of summer had arrived with the buttercups, the chestnut trees with their strange blooms, the rhodedendrons and the Goddess of all flowers - the Iris in its glorious mauves and yellows.  The sun had not yet been hot enough to burn the grass, the wind had not yet blown hard enough to burn the leaves.  No, here was a perfect display of Summer's wares, a promise of hot days to come, an adieu to frost and snow, a momentary truce.

Princess Petrovski grows into a beautiful Woman by Foutoux
All Rights Reserved Copyright L.Ivison 2013

None of this was noticed by Princess Maria who having just turned l5, and saw the world from one perspective - her own, an inner world of turmoil, conflict and rebellion which destabilized her gentle father Prince Petrovski  and perplexed her kind mother.  The child of 3 years ago with her charm and curiosity had transformed into a disagreeable creature but, nevertheless, as fresh as a summer's daisy, her skin as dewy as any spring morning and hair which tumbled in golden waves.

The gentle Prince, now in middle age became preoccupied by the virtuoso tantrums of his daughter who sulked and raged through the Palace.  He feared that as his only child his Principality which stretched for a thousand miles to the North and to the South in the Province of R. would be ruled by a tyrannical Princess and destroy the peace he and his father had spent generations building.  The only thing that subdued the Fury was the Princess's cat, Snowy, a kitten as round as a snowball with two violet eyes.  The kitten would sleep for hours in the Princess's arms, lie on her shoulders as she walked on the vast Palace lawns.  She yearned to leave the Palace, the endless gardens which so delighted her parents.

One evening, her father persuaded her to come with him for a walk in the gardens.  The disagreeable child agreed and as they walked through the avenue of beech trees, she pulled hard on a twig and snapped it off and immediately threw it to the ground stamping on the fresh green leaves.  Suddenly the Sun disappeared, and it began to rain in huge warm drops and the Prince and his daughter took shelter under an Oak Tree.  All the birds had stopped singing, and only the wind and the rain could now be heard.  A crack of lightening hit the tree they were standing under and set it alight.  The two, terrified ran back to the Palace.

From that day forward the Princess tiptoed around the Palace, spoke in courteous whispers to both her delighted parents and spent hours in the Palace Gardens, picking roses and tulips and lilacs to offer to her mother.


FOUTOUX
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COPYRIGHT L.IVISON 2013