a favorite spot they like to play in, and Princess Sunday certainly had one too. The castle grounds where vast and ornate, and near where the forest began there was a lake almost hidden by the tall sprawling bushes and scrub that surrounded it. A large oak tree grew next to the lake. In time, the inquisitive Princess Sunday had found the tree next to the deep lake, and she loved to go there to play catch with her beautiful silver ball in the cool shade underneath the tree's mighty green limbs. Almost everyday Sunday would slip away from the courtyard to the hidden lake and play by this tree. Once a tin soldier came along wanting to cut the tree down, but when he saw how happy Sunday was, he just didn't have the heart. Sunday loved to catch her ball!

Meanwhile, Cinderella was about to leave the ball. The midnight hour had come, but don't despair, she would leave behind a pearl slipper. "Always tell the truth," said The Magic Mirror, "but if you can't tell the truth, leave a slipper."

"If the shoe fits...," added Prince Charmer, but that was before he brought it to Cinderella's wicked stepmother, The Queen of Hearts. What a dominating bitch! The Queen of Hearts went to her Magic Mirror and demanded to know "Who's shoe??!"

The Mirror could not lie so it would hang instead, and tried to calm the Queen's jealousy. "The slipper could not belong to Cinderella, my Queen, or else she would have it. Since Prince Charmer has the slipper it must be his. And as for Snow White, well she is still in here with me."

The wicked Queen of Hearts was not satisfied with this answer and smashed The Magic Mirror into a thousand pieces. The shards of the mirror fell to the ground, each reflecting a piece of The Queen and a piece of Snow White. Once there was only one story. Now there are many.

"Look!" said Hansel, "they are scattered all along the ground! Perhaps if we follow them, we can find our way back home."

"Alas," answered Gretel, "the blackbirds have come. Look, they are eating all the crumbs. All we can do, Hansel, is just keep going on."

The witch smiles at the knocking on the door.

She sings the song of the blackbirds to herself, "Nevermore, nevermore."

After the Queen of Hearts broke the mirror, she became very angry - so angry, in fact, that she went mad. And all she could think of was the slipper and the prince. So she picked up a razor sharp piece of the broken Magic Mirror and hid it inside Cinderella's slipper. Then she went back to confront Prince Charmer again.

"What were you doing with this slipper?" demanded the Queen of Hearts. "If you do not tell me whose slipper this is, I will make The Magic Mirror turn you into a snake like all deceivers are!"

The prince was embarrassed for the Queen's anger, and was reluctant to tell her about the wonderful ball and especially about Cinderella. So he replied, "The pearl slipper is mine, my Queen."

This response pleased the wicked queen very much, and was what she had expected the prince to say. Now The Magic Mirror would turn the prince into a snake for lying to her. She threw the slipper at the prince, pretending disgust, and crowed, "Here then! If this is your shoe, put it on, and leave here! I never want to see you again!"

Prince Charmer picked up the shoe, and to please the queen, slid it upon one of his feet. He was surprised to find, indeed, the shoe fit quite comfortably. He smiled at the Queen of Hearts, then turned to leave. As he did this, he stepped down hard with his slippered foot and the shard from The Magic Mirror cut deep into the heel of his foot. The prince screamed in pain.

Suddenly, with a poof of blue light, the prince transformed into a large green frog!

"Why aren't you a snake?!?" asked the flabbergasted Queen of Hearts to the prince, but true to her own words, she never saw the prince again, for now he was a frog, and so consequently she did not hear his reply. Instead all she heard was "Ribet!" from the frog. Even all the prince's former friends thought he had croaked.

Of course, you and I know better! He was just speaking in tongues, ...frog-tongue, that is. What he said was "Perhaps I did not lie as much as you thought. Perhaps the shoe is indeed half-mine!" or something like that. In this, the frog was right- the shoe was half his - but having the brain of a frog now he did not know what to do with a shoe shared with a princess except of course, look for her.

"I will keep this slipper forever," thought the frog-prince, " until I find my princess!" And so he just hopped away to find a new home, and discovered a rather pleasant lake next to a large shade tree.

Now your eyes are looking sleepy, my dreamy ones. You are already guessing what happens next, aren't you? Well, there is more to this story than you think! Wake up a bit, and I shall go on for you....

Yes, the frog had indeed made his new home in the pond next to the shade tree where the beautiful Princess Sunday would play with her golden ball. And yes, this frog-prince did fall in love with her. Why not! Afterall, she was a beautiful young princess! Wouldn't you?!

Of course, it was very confusing for the frog because all his new frog friends rather liked him as a frog. "You have got to learn to love yourself!" they would say. Some of them even suggested that he should see a frog counselor as he was in such despair.

"I do not want to learn to be a happy frog!" the prince-frog would tell them, but that only made the other frogs more worried for him.

"Here," they said, "eat some flies. They are good for you!"

The frog-prince tried to learn how to catch flies. In time his tongue grew very quick, but the taste always remained bitter. What else was there to do though, when you are a hungry froggie?

"Yuck!! I hate flies!" said the frog-prince, but with every fly he ate he became a little more adjusted, a little more frog. In fact, he would have believed he was entirely frog if it was not for seeing Princess Sunday. After that, he remembered he

was very different indeed. He longed to meet her, to be with her, to taste her lips, but was so very discouraged, him having fly-breath and all...

(author's note: it has been brought to my attention by better readers than I am that the color of my balls don't match. I also have a birthmark as long as we're getting personal! My apologizes to the fans on continuity but I shall remain incontinent.)

Page content and writing ©1998 Bob Rehor