A to Z Challenge -The Letter J - Jackson’s Story

I am participating in the “April Blogging From A to Z Challenge” for 2018.  Except for Sundays, but starting with Sunday April 1, I will be writing a post each day in April.  Working through the alphabet, by the end of the challenge I will have posted 26 writings.  

Tell Me A Story Grandma

My four year old grandson, Jackson, called me last night to ask me to tell him a story.   I have told stories to little kids all of my life.  It started when I was a little kid myself.   I would tell my younger siblings and cousins stories. To this day a few of them still remember details of some of the stories.
I especially love the looks on their faces as they imagine the places I take them to.

I was a little caught off guard when Jax called me so I didn’t have a story ready for him.  I told him
I would think about a good one and call him today.

So here is Jackson’s story.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, lived a little boy named Jackson.   Now this land was a magical land because, you see this little boy Jackson, well he was the king of the land.
He was a handsome king indeed.
King Jackson had the most beautiful mother in the world and although his dad was handsome too, he was not as handsome as King Jackson.  Oh no, because you see, King Jackson was the most handsome boy in the land.
But, sadly, King Jackson was not a happy King.
He didn’t understand why he couldn’t be even more handsome.
Each day he would put on a new shirt, for he thought that a new shirt would make him more handsome.
But when he looked in the mirror in his new shirt, he looked the same as he did the day before.
“Mommy, it’s not fair!”  the little king would whine.
King Jackson spent a lot of time looking at himself in the mirror.
When all of the other littles were playing outside, the King was too sad to play because he thought he thought he wasn’t handsome enough.
The king’s mother was not only the most beautiful mother in the land, she was also the wisest.
“Your Majesty,” she would say, “being handsome is not the most important thing for a king to be.”
But King Jackson couldn’t hear his wise mother’s advice, for you see,  he was whining too loud.
Each year on September 8th, all of the land celebrated.  For you see September 8th was the king’s birthday.  
In this magical land on September 8th  the plants and trees became laden with chocolate candy kisses, cherry lollipops, vanilla cupcakes and cinnamon donuts.
This year was a special birthday, for this year the king was going to be five years old.
The king decided to invite all of the other littles to the castle for the biggest party the land had ever seen.
But each day the royal mailman delivered dozens of letters to the king.
“I must regretfully decline your invitation,” the letters would say.
“Waa, waa,” the king whined. “No one wants to come to my party because I am not handsome enough.”
The king’s mother, who was the most caring mother in the land said,  “Your Majesty being handsome is not the most important thing for a friend to be.”
But King Jackson was whining too loud to hear his mother’s caring advice.
One day the handsome king was sitting in his garden, holding a hand mirror and snacking on a cupcake with no sprinkles, for you see the king did not like sprinkles on his cupcake.
All of a sudden, he thought he heard singing.   He looked up and sure enough there was a little girl skipping down the path towards him.
“La la la la la, I am the happiest little girl in all of the land,” she sang.
The king was puzzled.  The little girl was quite plain looking.  She did not have beautiful brown hair and eyes like the king did.  In fact her hair was pale and her eyes were blue.   She wasn’t even wearing a brand new shirt like he was.
He wondered how she could possibly be the happiest little girl in all of the land.
The little girl came up to the king and bent her knees, and with one foot in front of the other bowed to the king in what was known in the kingdom as a curtsy.
“Hello, your Majesty,” she said with a smile.
He noticed how her blue eyes sparkled.
“My name is Annalise,” she said.
“I am the happiest little girl in all of the kingdom,” she added.
The king couldn’t help but notice her worn blue jumper and tattered sweater.
“You can’t be. No, no, no!” whined the king.
“You don’t even have nice clothes,” he whined.
“I came to tell you that I am going to come to your birthday party,” she said.
“But no one else is coming,”he pouted.
“Why do you want to come to my party?”  he stopped whining long enough to ask.
“I’ve seen you in your garden sitting by yourself and I thought you might like to be my friend,” she said.
“And, you did invite me to your party.  It’s always a nice thing to be invited to a party and an even nicer thing to accept the invitation,” she said.
“It’s called an act of kindness,” she added.
 “If you are kind to others, others will be kind to you,” she said.
“How do you know that?” asked the king.
“My mother, who is the wisest mother in the world, taught me that,” Annalise said.
The king didn’t understand how this girl’s mother could be the wisest in the world when he knew his mother was.
Annalise did come to the king’s birthday party and they became great friends.
He accepted Annalise’s invitation to celebrate her birthday, for that was the kind thing to do.
She coaxed him to come out to play with the other children and he soon began to smile more. He found that he didn’t have time to look in the mirror as much.
His mother began to notice that King Jackson didn’t even whine as much anymore either.
Many years later, when he had children of his own, as he snacked on a cupcake without sprinkles, for he still did not like sprinkles on his cupcakes, he would tell the story of his friend Annalise and how she taught him to be kind.
But more importantly, when his own son, Prince Joseph, would begin to whine, the King would kindly and patiently remind the prince that there is more to being a Prince than just being handsome.