The Princess and the Pea
by Rachel Wilson

Once upon a time there was a prince who was searching for the perfect princess as a bride. In order to be perfect, she had to be a real princess, not one who just took advantage of the nice clothes and money. She had to be pretty, but not a gorgeous model, have a nice career going for herself, be willing to do work for charities, have children, and be involved in world issues. The most important quality she had to have in order to be a real princess was to be able to sleep on top of twenty mattresses with a pea sitting on top of the bottom mattress. As the prince searched for his perfect bride, he found many women who passed all the credentials of being a princess, but none of them really caught his eye. These women didn't get to make it to the final round of sleeping on the mattresses for this reason.

One stormy night when the prince finally lost all hope in finding this all-around woman, there was a knock heard at the city gate. The old king saw a princess standing in front of the gate in her business suit, soaked from all the rain and just looked a mess from the storm. She told the king that she was a real princess and wanted to meet the prince.

The old queen had been just about tired of all these women coming to the palace saying they were real princesses and decided this woman was just going straight to the last test. Since she fit all the credentials and more, the queen figured the prince would be satisfied as long as she passed the pea test.

The princess found it odd at first that she had to sleep on top of twenty mattresses, but she figured she shouldn't complain since it was a place to stay out of the rain and it was a chance for her to meet the prince. Her only worry was falling off the ladder trying to climb up or having the mattresses topple over in her sleep. Yet again, she thought of the prince and how she could have this perfect life while still being successful outside of home life.

When the morning came, the queen came to the princess to ask how she slept.

"I had such a rough night. I kept tossing and turning. There had to be something in the mattress because I woke up black and blue all over. What kind of mattress leaves you black and blue in the morning? I feel like I should've been thrown down a hill or something."

The queen, seeing the princess obviously felt the pea through the mattresses, decided she was in fact a real princess and took her to meet the prince. At this point, the princess didn't even care to meet the prince because of the pain she was in from that damn pea.

Once the prince met the princess, he was very impressed and felt it was love at first sight. He found her to be beautiful even with her bruises and disheveled hair from the night before. They talked for the next few hours and found they had very much in common. She found him to be very respectful towards her and the issues she believed in. The princess found him to be the kind of man where it's too good to be true since many men don't feel woman are quite their equal in all aspects. He offered to split everything equally with her, even the royalty checks.

When the two decided to marry, the prince wanted to put the pea in a museum to show the rest of the kingdom how he found his real love. Overall to him, it didn't matter how she looked or dressed. What mattered to him was that he could find someone so passionate about their work and helping others from the pure goodness of heart to share life with. The princess was happy to find someone who didn't finally just care about her looks and went along with her to help fight for women to become equal in this male oriented society.

Now, this was said to be a true story, but how often do women come across a man like this? Especially one who is from royalty?