Carmile and The Converse Shoe
Carmile and The Converse Shoe
Once upon a time there was a princess named Carmile that lived with her father, King of Vanderhoof, and two brothers, Soren and Taris. Carmile wasn’t like any other princess you may have read about in other fairy tales. She wasn’t into tight fitting dresses, hated the colour pink and most definitely didn’t need to be saved by any prince charming on a white horse. Her brothers often wondered why their sister wasn’t like all the other girls they often came across, but never nagged her to change for they loved her for who she was. Her father on the other hand worried about Carmile and often wondered why she showed no interest to the pristine and handsome men he introduced to her in hopes of helping her find a man to provide for her and take her hand in marriage, or at least on a date. Carmile was aware of her fathers disappointment every time she would shake her head at him signalling no, this was not the one, yet she could not be motivated to take a chance on any of them to discover if there was anything interesting behind their perfectly pressed shirts and two shiny shoes.
One day her father finally had enough of seeing his daughter spending her days locked up in her room with her nose in a book or music blasting out of the earphones that seemed to be glued in her ears. He walked up the white spiral stairs at the centre of the house, down the long hall and planted his feet in front of her bedroom door, banging on the wood as hard as he could.
“Carmile open your door right now!” he demanded. On the other side of the door Carmile rolled her eyes, slowly stood from her desk and went to open the door for her father. “ I have come to tell you that I am throwing you and your brothers a party tomorrow evening” he said as soon as she opened the door “we will invite all of the villages youth and you my dear will spend the night searching for a boy of your liking. By the end of the night I suggest you come to me with this boy to win my approval and from then you shall consider dating him. You aren’t getting any younger.”
And with that the King turned and walked back down the long hall, down the spiral stairs and out of his glaring daughters sight.
” What a drag” she said to herself once she shut the door of her room “ hopefully there is someone that has been hiding from my sight in this village that wont be half bad to tolerate for potentially the rest of my life.”
With that optimistic outlook on the situation she then aimlessly scrolled Instagram for two hours and then finally at two am, turned off her desk light and went to bed.
The next day flew by with all the house maids and servants setting up for that nights party. Rows upon rows of tables of food were set, the dance floor was lit with twinkle lights and garlands were hung from the ceilings high beams. Carmiles two brothers spent hours of the day perfectly gelling their hair, doing push ups to fill out their shirts and finally bathing themselves in their already much too strong smelling colognes. She, on the other hand, hadn’t even taken the time to shave her very neglected legs or paint her ten toes and fingers. One thing she couldn’t get out of was wearing a dress. He father had made sure she had a whole set of servants to herself that night to make the dress, force her into it and push her towards the stairs of the ballroom at exactly nine pm when the party would start.
Carmile was surprised that she didn’t completely hate the dress she now wore, its dark blue body flowed to just above her knees, and its small silver beads shined and danced in the light across her chest. What she did hate was the horrendous music her brothers had surely chosen and the crowds of people, none of which she knew, who twisted and twirled around the room. The Princess decided then as she looked across the room at the tables of food, that she was unnecessarily hungry, weaved her way through the crowed to pile a plate full of chicken wings and pie and then sneakily escaped the party and hid in her room. The Princess sat in her room and ate until her plate was clean. She then opened the french doors to her balcony, and in her favourite chair sat for awhile looking up at the stars. A shooting star flew across the dark sky and the Princess closed her eyes and made her wish. Once she opened her eyes she looked back up at the sky just in time to see the once shooting star, erupting into a million tiny pieces that broke out across the sky like fireworks. As she sat mesmerized by the magic of her wish, she was interrupted by a noise, someone stood behind her and cleared their throat, trying to make their presence noticed. Carmile turned around in her chair and in front of her stood a young man with dirty blond hair, bright green eyes wearing kaki pants a loose t shirt and black converse shoes. She was in awe over his wrinkly shirt and the barbecue sauce stain on the centre of his chest. He introduced himself as Tobias and explained that he had been looking for a quiet place to escape the party. He had seen the light on in her room, and eventually her sitting by her open balcony and wondered if he may join her. Carmile did not protest, she simply slid over in her chair to make room for the both of them to sit and gaze upon the stars together. They sat there for hours sometimes not talking at all, other times speaking of things they were passionate about, such as music and reading.
By the end of the night Carmile and Tobias found themselves sitting hand in hand, asleep on the chair. Suddenly a sharp knock on the door shot them awake.
“Your father!” Tobias exclaimed in a panicked tone.
He stood up, squeezed her hand and began climbing down the ladder from her balcony that the gardeners conveniently left there that day, loosing one of his shoes on the balcony in the process. When her father entered the scene she explained to him the situation that had occurred, and how she had found a boy of her liking but he had ran away because of him. The king felt guilty and proposed that they go find him immediately by returning the lost shoe to its rightful owner. Together they entered the ball room where the party still went on, to fetch her two brothers for assistance.
As they searched the dance floor, something caught Carmines eye, someone was walking towards her with a sock on one foot, and a shoe on another. As she slowly looked up, there he stood, Tobias, with a grin on his face, he took a step closer and leaned in, whispering softly in her ear , “Can I please have my shoe?”. They looked at each other and bursted out in uncontrollable laughter, what a night it had been. Carmile returned the shoe and in exchange Tobias stole her heart. She told him she was just on her way to search for him, to which he replied laughing that he was definitely no Cinderella, then more seriously, maybe not even the Prince Charming she was looking for, but that he would treat her right if she gave him the chance. Carmile smiled, this was what she had wished for, and it had come true, he was the man of her dreams.