glasses: part two

photo courtesy of MS Word

Recently I submitted a long-ish short story to a magazine.  If you haven’t read part one go read it.  Yes! Right now!  (long pause…) Okay, you’re ready.  Here is part two of my two-part story. 

“Can you help me?” she asked.
                “Yes, with God’s help. That is why I’m here,” the old man replied.  “I’ll get right to the point.  You say that nothing good comes your way; that you’re never picked to be anything important. Well my dear, you need to change your prescription.”
                “My what?”She asked.
                “You need to change the prescription of your glasses,” he said as he came to sit down beside her. “You need to change the way you look at everything around you; the way you see life.”
                “For example the log we’re sitting on…I could complain that it’s very hard and not as nice as a cushioned chair.  Or I could be thankful that I have a place to sit that’s out of the sun. I could be thankful that it’s a nice breezy day and that there’s a bird chirping nearby.  If you think about it there’s so much around you it isn’t hard to find God’s blessings.”
                Merrie pondered this a moment then said “But what about my never being chosen to be anything special in the village play?  And don’t just say that being a castle servant is special!”
                “Well you are in the play,” he said “when there are many who aren’t.  And you have been chosen to be someone special. God chose you to be His darling daughter, His princess; don’t you believe that’s more special than the main role in a play?”
                Merrie turned to the man to say something but he was gone.
 
The next day was the first showing of the village play.  All of the cast were backstage getting ready.  Merrie, seeing Maylien, walked over to her.
                “Hi Maylien, I…” but Maylien cut her off.
                “Stop…if you’re going to say how hot it is or that your shoes are tight or how much you wish you’d gotten the part of the princess then stop…don’t say anything!  I really don’t want to hear it.”
                “Actually I wasn’t going to say anything like that,”  Merrie said. “I was just going to apologize for the way I’ve been behaving lately.  You know, complaining and such.  Will you forgive me?”
                “Umm sure…” Maylien said, a little confused.
                Merrie continued, “And I wanted to say that I’m glad that I‘m not playing the princess.  I know that if I was I wouldn’t have time for anything else.  I was so angry about not getting the part that I didn’t realize it until now.  I guess that Sally being the princess instead of me was really a blessing in disguise.”
                Maylien was shocked. “What happened? You never said anything like that before.”
                Merrie smiled and said “I just happen to have new glasses.”
                           The End