The King's Sandals

Isabella entered the king's chambers. She had traveled hundreds of miles from her farm, but it was necessary to save her village. They were starving from the famine, and the king had sent no help as she had requested in her letter. She had to look him in the eyes and let him know he couldn't let his people starve without consequences.

She had waited in line for hours, and now it was finally her turn! However, upon entering the throne room, she didn't see a king sitting on the throne, only a man standing beside it. The only thing on the throne was an old pair of sandals.

"Hello, I am Jerald, the king's right-hand man. How can the king help you?"

"Excuse me, but is the king unwell? Where is he?"

"As you come from such a small town in the south, perhaps you have not heard of the king's travels. Before he took the crown, he wanted to enjoy life for a bit. So he left to explore the surrounding nations."

"How long has he been gone?"

"Ten years. But as you can see from his pair of sandals which guard his throne and rule his nation night and day, he is still a strong leader."

"Do the people know about this? How has he not been called back by his subjects?"

"Some people who live near the castle are aware of the king's absence, but their lives continue on as normal and they are not bothered by it. I suppose people who live far from the nation's center, such as yourself, may not have heard the news. We did not think it necessary to inform everyone since the king may be back any day now. "

Perhaps this is how other countries are run? Isabella thought. Maybe I'm crazy for thinking this is weird? I should just tell him my problem and get the help we need.

"You mean to tell me that while my village is starving, the king is ON VACATION?!?"

"Miss, just tell me your problem and I will help. With the guidance of the king, of course."

"What guidance? What king? It's a pair of sandals!" Enraged, Isabella left the chambers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a long day of meetings and advising, Jerald was exhausted. While his title was "right-hand man," he was truly king. He led the nation and its people. After a decade of doing it, his favorite part of the day was to sit back and enjoy a glass of wine. He had long given up hope that the king would return to fulfill his position. And so, day after day, Jerald performed all the duties of a king without the glory or recognition. He wasn't sure how much longer he could go on like this.

He took a sip from his goblet and stared out his window. Rather than seeing the quiet horizon with its green trees and full moon, he could only focus on a bright orange light coming from the distance. "It can't be sunset," he wondered aloud. "I'm looking east."

As the mass of bright orange became bigger, he finally recognized it: hundreds of torches held aloft by a mob of citizens that was getting closer. He finished off his goblet of wine. "Well, it was a good run, I suppose."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leroy,

I regret to inform you that after ten years of royal bliss, you have lost your kingdom. It appears a woman was not happy to discover your sandals had been symbolically leading the nation all this time. She informed the citizens of your whereabouts and united them to take the castle. If you would like your sandals back, you can find them hanging from the gallows.

All hail Queen Isabella!

Jerald

Author's Note: Keeping with the theme of power, this story is about how a king lost his. I love stories with strong female characters who drive the story. In this story, we have men in power who are incompetent and expect people to simply accept his decisions. Perhaps we can imagine that people living closer to the castle had to know what he was up to, but it took a girl from a small village to do something about it.

This does not have much in common with the original source material I was inspired by. In the Ramayana, when Rama leaves to go on his great adventures, he leaves his sandals to show that no one else can be king.

While I would have loved to write more about how Isabella overthrew the king to become queen herself as it has to be such an interesting story, I decided that this simply wasn't the platform to do that. With the limited word count, I decided to focus more on how Isabella went from simply coming to ask the king for help to thinking of rising up against him. The letter from the king's right-hand man tells us the result of what happens when you make this woman angry.

Ramayana. Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).