Princess Willow and the Enormous Difficult Feeling.

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago. (or was it just yesterday) in a land far, far away. (or was it just next door.) there was a little girl called Willow.

Now Willow was a Princess, because all little girls in fairy tales are princesses. The kingdom wasn’t very big, and the Royal Purse (not a real purse, its just a way of saying, the money the King and Queen had to spend) did not extend to extravagances such as tiaras, or fine robes. Although the queen did have a small crown that she wore on special occasions. So although Willow was a Princess, she wasn't really any different to you.

Kingdoms usually (but not always) have a King, and this one did, and he was a good King, he didn‘t want to make his kingdom bigger, or fight any wars, and so got on well with all the neighbouring kings and queens. Both the King and the Queen were very proud of Princess Willow.

One day something happened, and Princess Willow had a feeling about the thing that happened. Not an ordinary feeling, but a really, really big enormous complicated feeling. In fact it was such a big complicated feeling Princess Willow didn’t want it at all. So Princess Willow pretended that the feeling wasn’t there, thinking it would just go away. For a little while it seemed to work, but then suddenly it came back and seemed bigger and more complicated than ever.

So, after she had washed and brushed her teeth, but before she got into bed ,Princess Willow put the feeling in a box and hid it under her bed. Then she got into bed and after a while went to sleep.

BUT, the next morning the box was on her bedside table with the feeling inside, as big and as difficult as it had been the night before. So Princess Willow put the feeling back into the box, got all her things out of the wardrobe and put the box right at the back and put everything back into the wardrobe on top of it, shut the wardrobe door and went downstairs for breakfast.

When she got to the Breakfast table Princess Willow was shocked. Because right there on the table, just where she always sat to eat her breakfast, was the box with the difficult feeling inside. Princess Willow was very, Very, VERY Cross! Without eating her breakfast Princess Willow Stomped to the hallway got out her walking boots, put on her coat, picked up the box with the feeling inside, and walked out of the front door.

Princess Willow walked out of the garden gate, and walked and walked a long, long way, right over the top of the hill. When she thought she had walked far enough, Princess Willow put the box down, turned around and started walking back home over the hill.

But when Princess Willow came to the top of the hill, there in front of her was the box, she looked back to where she had left the box behind her, it wasn't there. It was right in front of her, with the difficult feeling inside it. 

Princess Willow was very, Very, VERY Angry!

Princess Willow picked up the box, turned around, and walked back over the top of the hill, and then down into the valley, up and over the top of the next hill, and into the next valley, put the box down , turned around and started walking home again.

Princess Willow clambered back up the hill, glancing behind her to make sure the box was where she had left it. When she got to the top Princess Willow walked backwards keeping her eye firmly on the box, until the top of the hill got in the way. With a sigh of relief Princess Willow turned around, and was so surprised she sat down in shock. There in front of her was the box with the difficult feeling inside.

Princess Willow looked at the box with the feeling inside, she looked very hard, as if her eyes could burn the box and the feeling inside, all up in a poof of smoke.

Princess Willow had felt very, Very, VERY cross, and then very, Very, VERY Angry. Now she felt furious, incensed, enraged, livid, put simply Princess Willow was beside herself with RAGE.

Princess Willow walked up to the box, and Jumped on it, crushed it, trampled it, Stamped it flat. After a minute she stopped, and puffing and panting Princess Willow stepped off the box. She sat down on the top of the hill, looking at the Sea between the hills on the horizon, still feeling furious.

When Princess Willow looked back at the box, it wasn’t flat, it wasn’t squashed, it wasn't mangled, it was just, . . There. And the enormous difficult feeling was still inside.

Princess Willow stood up, picked up the box and, walked, and walked, and walked, until she came to the sea shore. Luckily just there, was a boat with some oars and a small sail. Willow was a determined child, and put the box into the boat pushed it into the sea, climbed aboard and began to row. After a little while Princess Willow raised the sail, and sailed the little boat across the wide, wide ocean.

In the middle of the Sea, where she could see no land in any direction, Princess Willow Dropped the box, with the enormous difficult feeling inside into the ocean, and started rowing home. After a while the salt in the air made her eyes sting and she blinked, when she opened her eyes, there was the box, back in the boat, with the enormous difficult feeling lurking inside it. She almost thought she could hear it smirking at her.

Princess Willow turned the boat away ftom home again and rowed on until presently she came to a small jetty on the other shore. Princess willow tied up the boat, picked up the box with the difficult feeling inside and started walking up the beach. She, walked and walked and walked, untill she thought to herself, “I wonder where the end of this beach is?”

Princess Willow looked around her, saw lots of sand dunes, and on the horison some pyramids. Princess Willow realized this wasn't a beach at all, she was in the middle of a Desert. But there was nothing to do, she could not stop, she had to keep going. She dropped the box and just walked, but at the top of every sand dune she climbed, she would see the box, with the difficult feeling inside it, in the bottom of the next valley between the dunes.

So Princess Willow, walked, and walked, under the hot baking sun, wishing she had some shelter from the blistering heat. Until at last with some relief she saw some trees, and she walked towards them. When she reached the trees Princess willow realized it was the edge of a deep dark jungle.

After thinking for a few minutes, Princess Willow decided she would go in. Perhaps if she left the box with the difficult feeling in it, in the middle of the jungle something vicious, with nasty sharp claws and nasty sharp teeth, would eat the box and the horrible difficult feeling inside, and that would be an end to it.

Princess Willow walked into the jungle, stepping over fallen trees, and walking round the trunks of giant trees, in the gloom cast by the canopy far above. In the trees Princess Willow could hear monkeys, and somewhere in the bushes there was something with a deep throaty growl. Princess Willow decided this was deep enough into the jungle, put down the box and began walking back towards the desert looking carefully to see if anything with nasty sharp claws and nasty sharp teeth might have spotted her. But just as the clearing where she had left the box was out of sight, she stepped into a new clearing and there was the box with the difficult feeling inside.

Princess Willow was very tired now and though she picked the box up and struggled on to try and find a better place to leave it, she really just wanted to go home. As the jungle grew thick around her, Princess Willow realized she was, just a bit frightened. Well not a 'bit' frightened, she was a lot frightened. Actually she was terrified. She was scared and alone. Princess Willow put the box down and sat down on a log held her head in her hands and began to cry.

"Hello" said a voice from the trees.

Princess Willow looked up where the voice had come from. Sitting in a branch in the nearest tree was a Monkey, a very scruffy looking monkey.

"Hello" Princess Willow sobbed.

"Whats wrong?" asked the monkey with his head on one side.

Princess Willow was going to be sulky and cross with the monkey, but despite being a bit scruffy, the monkey had a kind face, and all at once Princess Willow blurted out the whole story about the difficult feeling, hiding it under the bed, in the wardrobe, leaving it behind at not one but two hills. Dropping it overboard as she sailed the ocean, leaving it in the desert, but it still being there in front of her at the top of every dune, leaving it in a clearing in the jungle but the next clearing there it was again.

"Hmm" said the Monkey, "I think you need to talk to the professor, he will know what to do."

"Where can I find the professor?" Asked Princess Willow, still sobbing.

"Ah!" exclaimed the monkey, "That's easy, he is busy finding out about pyramids, so all you need to do is walk back to the desert and walk until you see the Pyramids, they are a bit hard to miss, being so big, and you will find him there."

Princess Willow thanked the Monkey, picked up the box and walked to the desert. Somehow she didn't feel quite so tired, or as alone as she had done.

Princess Willow, walked across the desert, until on the horizon she saw the giant shapes of the Pyramids, and she walked towards them. As she got closer she could see a little cluster of tents, lots of different sised boxes with tags and labels on them and a figure in a pith helmet bent over a sheet of ancient parchment on a table.

As Princess Willow approached, the figure looked up to see her approaching.

Although the figures face looked kind, there was something about it that made her think she should be respectful.

Princess Willow, put the box down and said "Excuse me sir?".

The Old man spoke with a very odd accent, which could have been from anywhere in eastern Europe, and as far east as the Urals.  "Hello young lady, vat is it zat brings you out into ze desert?"

So princess Willow explained, the whole story about the difficult feeling, hiding it under the bed, in the wardrobe, leaving it behind at not one but two hills. getting really really cross, Dropping it overboard as she sailed the ocean, leaving it in the desert, but it still being there in front of her at the top of every dune, leaving it in a clearing in the jungle but the next clearing there it was again, meeting the monkey, and the monkey telling her that the professor could help, and where she could find him, walking back across the desert to the pyramids until she had found the professor here.

"Ah, I zee." said the professor in his odd accent. "Let me have a look at zis difficult feeling?"

So princess Willow opened the box, and the Professor looked inside. "Hmm, very interezting" he said.

The professor rubbed his chin. "I zink I know vhat the problem iz,"

"You do!" exclaimed Princess Willow.

"Yes" said the professor, "You really need to give the feeling a name. Then it will not be so difficult any more"

Princess Willow Looked into the box at the difficult feeling, then at the professor, and suddenly she knew what the name of the difficult feeling was, and the professor was right, suddenly it didn't seem such a difficult feeling after all.

And Princess Willow made her way home across the Desert, sailed her little boat back across the wide, wide ocean, and walked home across the hills. And when she got there she realised the great big enormous difficult feeling was nowhere to be found.

What do you think the name of the great big enormous difficult feeling was?