The Scullery Boy Remembers

By Farida Dowler

The scullery boy was forgetful. As the lowest ranking member of a small castle in a small country based upon a sheep’s wool economy, Colin’s tasks were few. For sixteen hours a day, he had to wash the dishes, scrub the floors and light the fires. Still, Colin often went missing. The royal chef always found him in the rose garden. The chef would box the scullery boy’s ears and demand that he return to the floors.

Colin did not want to wash dishes or scrub floors. He wanted to entertain Princess Rosa. He might forget his appointed tasks, but when it came to stories, his memory was impeccable.

“Will you tell me the story again, please?” Princess Rosa asked. She knew there was a lot of power in the word “Please.”

“All right then,” Colin said. “I learned part of this story from the second footman. I learned another part from the parlor-maid. The third part… well, that’s my secret.” In truth, Colin had told the story so many times that he’d forgotten which parts of the story he’d made up.

“The story goes that the king and queen were miserable because they wanted a child. Then, while the queen was bathing in the river, a frog told the queen she was going to have a baby. It’s incredible, but frogs tell fortunes sometimes. Then, you were born, and the king summoned fairy godmothers to your baptism. There were thirteen fairies in the land and there were fourteen beautiful bone-china plates edged with gold. The king said, ‘That’s fine, everyone else can eat off of the silver-edged plates.’ But then, someone (no one ever confessed) dropped two of the gold plates on the floor and smashed them. After that, the king invited only twelve fairies. They came, blessed you with wisdom, grace, courage and all the gifts that a person needs to rule a kingdom.

“Then, the thirteenth fairy showed up. She was furious that she hadn’t been invited. She said that your punishment was that you would never get to learn to spin wool into yarn. She made the king destroy every spinning wheel in the kingdom. The king was devastated, as at the time it was the custom for royalty to prove worthiness by the quality of the yarn they spun. That is why to this day, there are no spinning wheels. We send all of our wool out to neighboring countries and have them export it to us at outrageous costs.”

“That’s very silly,” Princess Rosa said. “Why didn’t my papa simply have more spinning wheels made?”

“That’s part of the curse, you see. He’s tried, but they don’t stay. They just splinter into matchsticks,” Colin replied.

The princess was about to tell Colin how she would break the curse when she was queen, when the chef stomped into the garden. “There you are!” the chef said, scowling. “Begging your pardon, your highness, but this scalawag has work to do.” She grabbed the scullery boy by his ear and dragged him back to the kitchen, for there was much to prepare. Tomorrow was Princess Rosa’s 15th birthday.

The next day, the castle bustled. Amid all of the activity, Colin slipped away and found Princess Rosa. “Follow me!” he said. “I’ve found something!”

The princess and the scullery boy held hands and ran across the garden, through a narrow walkway and over to the side of the castle that had been under reconstruction for several years. “I was exploring this morning, and I found the door to this tower open. It’s usually bolted. I was curious, so I went in. The stairs seem to be sturdy, but we should still be careful.”

Princess Rosa and Colin went up the stairs, opened the door at the top, and peered into the room. In the shadows, there was a wheel attached to a table. Something pointed glinted from the light of one window.

“I think it’s a spinning wheel,” Colin said. “But why isn’t it splintered like the others?”

“It is odd,” Princess Rosa said. She walked over to the spinning wheel and examined it. “I wonder what one has to do with it.”

“Careful!” Colin said, but it was too late. The princess had reached for the distaff.

“Oh,” Princess Rosa said quietly.

There was blood on Princess Rosa’s fingertip. She swayed. Colin caught her. Oh no, now I’ve done it, the scullery boy thought. He was confused, as the princess and he had bumped and bruised themselves many times throughout their childhoods as they played in the castle garden.
Colin wrapped the bleeding finger with his handkerchief and carried the princess down the stairs. At the bottom, he saw an old woman. “We need help,” he called out, and then stopped, aghast. The old woman had wings.

“You poor lad,” she said. “How confusing this must be for you. Still, I am glad that the princess has had you for a friend all these years.”

“Who are you?” the scullery boy said with as much iron in his voice as he could muster.

“I am the twelfth fairy who foretold that the princess would fall into a sound sleep upon her fifteenth birthday because of a spinning wheel. It could have been worse. It was my sister, the thirteenth fairy, who cursed the princess with death. The king tried to circumvent the curse completely, but in his anxiety to rescue his daughter, he obscured the truth and brought about the very thing he feared.”

The scullery boy thought of the stories he’d told the princess, and it was as if he had swallowed a stone. “How do we wake her?” the scullery boy asked.

“We wait,” the old fairy replied. “The magic will only hold for so long, but it is like a poison that needs to drain away. Most of the people who live here now will leave this castle, but some should sleep alongside her and keep her company. When she wakes, her memories will be muddled, and she will need some of her old friends to help her learn to live in a new century.”

“I will stay,” the scullery boy said. “I will keep her company in sleep, and when she wakes, I will help her remember who she is.”

The roses from the garden where the scullery boy used to tell the princess the story of her birth grew up around the castle. Over time, the magic slowly seeped away, though some of it remained so that while Princess Rosa slept, she did not age, nor did those who kept her company. Many would-be heroes tried to break the barrier of thorns and failed.

When the scullery boy next opened his eyes, Princess Rosa was already awake. She was laughing as she held hands with Prince Adan, the hero who kissed the curse from her lips.

Princess Rosa married her hero and ruled the kingdom wisely. Colin never married, but remained in royal employment. While some grumbled that a mere scullery boy didn’t deserve his good fortune because of his part in bringing the curse to pass, Colin was promoted to court storyteller. To this day, he makes Princess Rosa laugh with outlandish tales and dramatic interpretations of epic deeds. The old woman with wings guards the royal children from bad wishes.

Sometimes, Colin watches Princess Rosa lean over to kiss her hero, and he aches. He remembers the days he spent alone with the princess in the rose garden over a hundred years ago. Sometimes, Colin wishes he could forget, but he’s glad he cannot. He knows his memory is a blessing.

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