Once upon a time there was a young boy who was imprisoned inside his mind. He thought that he was in a dark stone tower. The tower had a door and one window opening to the bleak world below. He was sad, but he liked being sad. He was waiting for a beautiful princess to ride in on a white horse and rescue him. He imagined the grey sky rolling back to reveal blue sky and sunshine as she passed. Imagining the princess’s beauty (gold curls and flushed cheeks) gave him pleasure, but then pain as day after day she did not come.

One day he tried to jump out of the window. Instead he talked to the cold wall. He couldn’t jump because he was scared; it was a long way down. He was scared of the foggy world below. He was safe in his familiar tower. He did not want to face the world without his princess to make it good. It was too unknown and would be too difficult to face. So he talked to himself about how unhappy he was. He made himself believe that he loved the dark and that he was special because of that. Then he banged his head against the wall. He slept much. In his dreams he was sad and alone in the dark. A year later he died. He never knew that the door in the tower had been unlocked. He had never tried opening the door.

Kind people surrounded the boy lying on green grass. They reached out to help him, but he drew away. His last words were, “She never came.” “Who?” they asked him. He did not hear. “I’m dying in the tower.” He turned cold as the people asked, “What tower?” They were confused, because his eyes had been open and there were spring green leaves and buds peaking out of the tree above him. The people buried the boy next to the clear tricking brook as the birds sang in the blue sky and the gentle sun warmed all it saw.