Can't We All Just Get Along?

Once upon a time in a pretty typical suburban neighborhood lived a family of four. There was the King, the Queen, the Princess and the Prince. For the most part they were a happy family. The Princess and the Prince were quite capable of peaceful interaction, but seemed to find great delight in pushing each others buttons, despite their 5 year age difference, in a valiant effort to finally push the Queen over the edge once and for all. 


One lovely Fall weekend the Princess and the Prince each received invitations to slumber away from home with respective friends. Initially the invitations were for the same evening leaving the King and Queen with a potential childless night. The Queen briefly thought of hosting an adults only soirée at the castle, but then remembered she is rather inept at staying up past 10 p.m. and undoubtedly her friends would want to engage in revelry late into the night. 


As it would happen one of the invitations got modified and the King and Queen ended up having the Prince away on Friday night and the Princess away on Saturday night. This gave a rare opportunity for each child to spend their own time with both parents and it was lovely. On Friday night the Princess and her parents went to Sushi which the Prince is not fond of. Dinner was easy. There were no insults, accusations or fighting. On Saturday afternoon the Prince and his parents walked to get frozen yogurt and then to the park to play. They ordered pizza delivered to the castle for dinner. Again, an easy meal sans bickering. 


It is now Sunday afternoon on the very same fine Fall weekend. The weather is nearly perfect. The King is off mountain bike riding. The Princess has returned home reuniting with the Prince whom she has seen only in passing since Friday afternoon. The Prince and Princess apparently need to make up for lost time as they cannot find a kind word for each other nor can they decide in this castle of many halls to find different rooms to be in. The Queen has conversed, yelled, threatened and punished and is now considering a bottle of wine for herself and a battle to the death for the Prince and Princess.


The End.