APPENDIX: An Arcadian Fairy Tale
From On the Discovery of Biological Truth in Fairy Tales,
by Dr. Alan Fallaize (Otterbridge University Press, year 61)

A young girl was taken as a concubine by an older, more powerful man. He was stocky and one of his ears stuck out farther than the other. But she loved him instantly, and in the true meaning of the word.

It was this man’s habit to take and discard young women, who then could leave or stay, according to their choice, as servant to the next mistress. When it was her turn to be discarded, the girl stayed. She did this knowing well the pain that would come from knowing her True Love was sharing a bed with another woman.

He said he planned to marry this new woman. Still the girl stayed. He took away many of her clothes, and left her with only one shoe. Still she stayed. He moved all the rooms of the house, switching them so she could no longer find the place that was hers. But she knew it was a trick. Patient, still she stayed.

On the day of the wedding, she saw the man was old, grizzled, graying, and this made her feel more tenderly toward him even than before. But now she knew, by these signs, that time was running out, and unless she took charge and told him of his folly, it would be too late for happiness.

Accordingly, she told him: I am your Real Love. If you do not realize this, and send the other women on their way, and begin a true life with me, it will be too late, and you will miss your True Life and Happiness.

He looked at her and saw it was true. And he did as she said. And they had their True Life and were happy, so far as it is possible in this life to be.