Becoming The Muse

Genre: Romance

Picnic with The Princess was not quite what I expected. Anticipation sets you up for disappointment. You have all these fairy-tale fantasies, you see, but real live princesses are human.

The day started great, I woke up bright and early, went to the gym and then wore a long sleeved shirt but with the sleeves rolled up. If you got, it flaunt it right?

Then I waited, and waited and waited.

I fought the urge to call and ask her if something had happened, maybe an accident or maybe she had cancelled the picnic date. The thing about royalty is like;they are like the sun you,  it is all nice and bright till it decides to roast you and no one can ask why. I would know this, my grandfather had been grooming me because between my brother and I one of us would be his heir, the next Chief.

I must have dozed off because I woke up with a start and she was looming over me whispering “Wakey wakey, sleepy head” in that baby voice that’s only cute on babies.

“Sorry I am late, but one doesn’t rush beauty”

I mumbled something in reply and off we went to the picnic at the lake. We had booked a leisurely boat ride at Manyuchi dam aboard The White Mischief.

To go on a boat ride, first you must get into the boat, the pier to the boat was  wet and muddy, it had been raining for the past couple of days. And little Miss Princess just happened to be wearing rather unsensible shoes, lovely shoes but not very practical. She got  stuck fast on the pier and I had to carry her the rest of the way, it’s a good thing I workout.

Finally when we had settled aboard The White Mischief that’s when I realised amidst all the excitement had forgot to get the picnic basket. It’s not like we were hungry we could still just drift along the river and enjoy the ride. But the princess had other plans she was not one to sit silently and just enjoy the scenery, she pointed out everything and used that baby voice again, whoever told her it was flattering lied to her, it got on my nerves ever so much.

Wait till I told my brother X, he would laugh and laugh and probably say my problem is I wasn’t a charmer like he was.

“Shark! Shark!” She screamed.

“There are no sharks in  this river.” I tried to calm her

“Look! There! That dark shape?”

“Its not a shark its only a log do try to stop rocking the boat” But she was getting hysterical by the second; twisting and turning, this way and that and totally  rocking the boat. The thing about rocking the boat, it starts tilting sideways so much that you tumble out into the water you go.

Out went the princess and with splash landed in the water.

“Help!” she cried “ I cant swim “ she screamed.

It’s a good thing we wore life jackets so she was floating about like a balloon.

I jumped into the water and pulled her to the shallow edge of the river.I figured she would be grateful I had saved her life but no first thing she did was to poke me in the chest and say this was her worst date ever.

All I could say was ” But look it was only a log” pointing at what she had said was a shark.

She was fine but her outfit was entirely ruined and she was not amused. She stormed away in a huff. I would have chased her but the boat was drifting away slowly floating along the river, I had to swim out and secure it back by the pier.

It was a fairly easy task and I was done in a little while.

I was surprised to see my housekeeper by the shore waiting with the picnic hamper.

“You forgot this and I thought I would bring it over, but…. I see you had a bit of a disaster date”

“Yeah it didn’t quite work out, and I had rented the boat for the whole day what a waste”

“I__” she started and stopped

“What were you gong to say?” I asked.

“I have never been on a boat.” she confessed

“You are in luck, you know what, I shall take you on a ride let me carry the picnic basket”

We went on the boat ride didn’t talk much, that companionable silence that does not need to be filled with meaningless words.

We sailed in The White Mischief and watched a water lily float away into the sunset.

~The End

My #blogbattle entry themed Float

A continuation you can read previous parts of this story here.

~B

A budding romance story