Letters to Zell Read Online Free PDF Page B

opposite—maybe they’re too fond of retelling stories, reshaping them to what’s safe and comfortable. I should send a strongly worded letter to their equivalent of the Tiara Tattler .
    Then again, if Rory doesn’t want to remember Fred, why would the Humans? He tried to outwit fate with brawn. I suppose that storyline has been done to death Outside. Sure, he saved Rory’s life, but only because Grimmland got hit with four seasons at once and Malice had to put everyone to sleep before they wandered outside and were flattened by a flying cow.
    Of course Rory would never admit to being in mourning or denial or anything else, for that matter. She acts like everything is just a step away from perfect. You and CeCi think she’s got her geese in a row, but she’s completely delusional about her own imbecilic imbroglio. I don’t know how she can be an expert on everyone else and still miss the fact that Henry is an overbearing, overloud, overwrought orangutan. (And those are his good points.) He’s a moron and yet still smart enough to be an effective bully.
    I can understand where he gets his bluster, because he probably has to spin the story in his favor just to look in the mirror in the morning. He can pretend he’s exactly who Figgy inserted into the end of Rory’s Pages—a savior. Here’s her kingdom under its sleepy-time spell and most of the guys trying to break in end up in coffins. At the end of the century—and, conveniently, the spell—along comes Henry. He saunters in behind a couple of servants with sharp axes and avoids so much as a bramble scratch.
    Picture it: At this point, Rory’s already up, but out of it, blinking and rubbing her eyes and trying to sift what she remembers into the right category—dream or reality. She’s still in love with Fred and at first she thinks he’s her miraculous rescuer.
    Then she has the horrible realization that Henry isn’t Fred and Fred won’t ever come back and she doesn’t even have time to be sad about it because she has new Pages to complete. Still, she’s alive and the Realm is safe, so who is she to question Henry’s unbidden advances?
    It isn’t as if her parents helped any by offering to bestow their kingdom upon the couple as soon as Henry produced an heir. And then there are Henry’s parents, who insisted Henry had saved everyone’s life and was owed even more. If ever a wedding deserved its own TV movie, it was probably theirs—or so I gather from reading Entertainment Weekly .
    Despite all their misguided storytelling, I’m not convinced Humans get to decide when things are over any more than Figgy does. We all—Humans and Fairy Tales alike—stop living when we stop dreaming. So screw Figgy. I’ll go and dream where I want, Pages be damned.
    And just maybe with whoever I want, too. Yes, Zell, I’m attracted to girls and guys. I appreciate beauty in all forms. And I appreciate being appreciated by all forms. Besides, I have a very short time to live things up before I marry my very own Sir Come to the Rescue next month. After that I’ll be responsible to a whole palace, and no amount of soufflé will change that.
    And while we’re on that subject, you’ve written lots of nice notes, but nary a good excuse for why you’re not coming to my wedding. I don’t even know why I’m still writing to you, except otherwise I’d have to go share my thoughts with our new friend, Princess Pea Brain (who is still talking about her mattress problems). And that’s definitely not going to happen.
    B

Princess Briar R. Rose
    Somnolent Tower Castle
    South Road, Grimmland
    Dearest Zell,
    Are you sure you can’t reconsider being here for Bianca’s wedding? I’m not sure if CeCi and I are prepared to manage this very Bianca-style event all by ourselves.
    It isn’t even so much the wedding planning, though securing approval for even the smallest detail is impossible. The real problem is that Bianca is so obstinate about love. She already knows