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*****
The spotlight flickered as the girl walked closer to the center of the stage. This was it. This interview would determine whether or not she’d be worthy of attending Yale Academy.
She tapped the tip of the black microphone in front of her lightly to check is it was properly working and waited for the panelists to give her a start signal. They were flipping through the pages of her personal information and scanning her credentials and achievements.
Cold sweat trailed down the side of her temple as she tried to keep her fingers from fiddling with the hem of her dress. In order to calm her nerves, she took a deep breath and assured herself that she would ace this interview. Her mother told her the big question that they were going to ask- ‘What makes you Yale material?’ and so she practiced the answer non-stop.
Once all of them finished looking through her papers, the stern-looking one in the middle clasped his hands together and said, “Everything seems to be in order. Your accomplishments are impressive and your grades are a good indication of your abilities. Now, we’re only going to ask one very important question…”
She met his eyes as confidently as she can.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” He asked.
She started reciting what she had practiced, oblivious to the fact that her answer was completely different to what was being asked. The big question that her mother was so sure of was wrong!
Said person was standing at the back, waving both of her hands, and mouthing the words “Abort! Abort!”.
She trailed off, her voice slowly losing its tone of confidence as she noticed the panelists’ expressions. They had mixed looks of confusion and disappointment, others already opening the cap of their pens and writing something on the paper. She trailed off and stopped, her heart pounding so loud inside her chest as she felt her throat closing up. Her mind was blocked and her tongue tied up in knots. She couldn’t even force herself to form proper words. Her eyes gazed frantically towards her mother, who was also panicking.
She took a step backward and felt the world around her spin. Her vision quickly darkened and before she knew it, she had already fainted.
*****
Sitting inside the small car they owned, they spaced out, looking blankly at the empty parking lot.
“The interview… didn’t go as planned.” Her mom said while slowly starting the engine.
Suddenly finding her shoes interesting, she muttered an apology, “I’m sorry.” What else could she say? She knew her mother had wanted for her to attend Yale. The school was supposed to be her bridge to a successful life. Why did she have to be unsuccessful in that interview? It was the worst situation her mind had picked to stop working.
“I-It’s Alright. We’ll just have to go with Plan B.” Her mom said after a couple of seconds.
“Plan B!? But mom, I thought that was impossible!” The girl exclaimed.
“Well honey, we’ve got no other option. The school will just have to accept you.” Her voice was firm and she knew that that was the end of their discussion.
And so, Plan B commenced. They found a cheap house in a normal neighbor near the school and moved in. Of course, the house was cheap for a reason, the house next door was very peculiar compared to their other neighbors. Instead of a modern, white residence, it held a lot more remsemblance with a shack. As if it could fall over any time a strong storm were to pass by.
*****
The next morning her mom went off for work. She was carefully following her schedule when she was suddenly startled by a large crash that seemed to have come from the living room. Curious she stood up and walked carefully into the living room. A very big hole on the wall was certainly the last thing she expected to see. She did what any child should do in that kind of odd situation. She called the police.
After confronting the old neighbor, he admitted that he was actually trying to fly a plane when something had gone wrong. To compensate for the damage inflicted on her home, the aviator gave her a jar full of pennies. Later, sorting through it, she noticed that pennies weren't the only thing it containes. She also found a small sword, marble, shell, plane, and a figurine.
Over the following days, the aviator continuously attempted to apologize to the girl and her mother. He folded a piece of paper into an airplane and chucked it into the open window in front of her desk. The old man is really persistent, she thought. Unfolding the toy and soreading it out, she reas the colorful title above- 'The Little Prince'. Naturally, she got curious. She continued to take in the words, her interest growing, not knowing how much the story and the prince would change her life as well as her heart.
*****
A loud rumbling noise echoed through the hot skies of the Sahara Desert when a red plane plummeted down from above, leaving a straight trail of smoke in its wake. As the plane skidded to a stop, an old man emerged from the pile of scraps and broken metals.
He looked around to study his surroundings and saw the lonely huge stretch of sandy dry nothingness. The dessert appeared to go on forever and he couldn’t see anything else except sand. After the sun went down, he went to sleep, having no other choice but to stay because of his broken plane.
He was more isolated than a fisherman fishing in the middle of the sea. One could say that the pilot was eccentric. His view of the world was different compared to others. He was also lonely, oh yes, but ever since he was a child, people just didn’t see the world in the way he could.
The aviator woke up and immediately noticed something very unusual. Standing in front of him, like it was the most normal thing in the world, was a young boy with golden blonde locks. He blinked owlishly, dubious of what he was currently seeing.
“If you please, draw me a sheep?” He suddenly asked. His voice sounded awfully real.
He rubbed his eyes and stared harder, head tilting slighty to the left in confusion. It was such an odd sight, wuite bizzare. Was he truly not dreaming? What would a boy be doing in the middle of a dessert? Where did he come from? Or perhaps the isolation has affected his mind worse than he anticipated?
His internal musings were cut off as the boy spoke again.
“If you please, draw me a sheep?” He repeated, louder than the first time he spoke.
It took him a couple of minutes to chomprehend the situation and realize that the boy was actually there and was asking him if he could draw a sheep.
“Draw me a sheep,” demanded the boy, dropping the idea of asking politely. He sounded like a prince ordering his servant to do something- no, like a little prince.
“Draw? I don’t know how to draw,” the pilot hesitated, shaking his head.
“That doesn’t matter,” the primce said firmly, quite adamant in wanting to have a sheep drawn for him. When the mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey, he thought.
“Alright,” he searched for the proper materials and then held the pencil in one hand. He drew a sheep on the yellow pages of his sketchbook.
He handed the piece of paper to the little prince who shook his head and said, “No that sheep is too fat,” and so he drew another, “No, that looks like a ram,” and another, “No, that sheep is too old. I want a sheep that can live forever.”
An old memory of the pilot resurfaced. He remembered that he had wanted to become a great artist when he was a child. However, he lost hope in his dream when he drew a certain picture. It was a boa constrictor who ate an elephant. Boa constrictors were known for swallowing their prey whole. Instead of seeing the big picture, all the grown-ups just saw a hat, nothing dangerous at all. Children have creative imaginations. Adults and children see the world from two completely different angles.
And so, he drew a box, “The sheep you want is inside the box, you see?” Pointing to the three holes also drawn inside the box, “Its…. Perfect! I can see the sheep and look, its sleeping!” The little prince was beaming in awe, a happy and jovial expression coloring his face in seeing something more than what others normally can. The minds of children are utterly delightful!
They spent the rest of the day together and learned quite a lot about each other. It turns out that the little prince was not from earth. Before the prince landed on earth, he had visited a couple of other planets where he met different kinds of people with their own complex personalities. He discovered a lot during his journey and learned from the people he had encountered. The little prince grew up on an asteroid called B612. Asteroid B612 had 3 volcanoes and was currently infested with baobabs, giant plants that start off as tiny weeds. The only rose that grew on his planet was selfish and vain, driving the little prince away. Feeling sad and lonely, he left on a quest for friendship and to learn what was truly important in life.
*****
The girl continued to read, going as far as to ask the aviator if he could provide more pages of the story. They grew closer as they spent more time together. Keeping it a secret from her mother, whom she knew would never approve of their friendship and getting sidetracked from her life plan. Everything she did or was supposed to do was posted on her life plan. From breakfast to dinner, exercises to studies, and oresent to future. Her mother refused to leave her life to ‘chance’.
*****
She has grown to like the prince in the storyas more time passed by. His thoughtfulness, curiosity, and personality are the most endearing parts of him. How he handles and faces challenges makes him truly worthy of the title of a prince in her eyes.
She’s also acquired a new companion, a stuffed fox. In the story, the prince befriended the fox here on earth. Under the apple tree, where the little prince met the fox. He was the wisest being that the little prince had encountered out of all of them. He taught the little prince about love and friendship, told him what it meant to care for someone. "It is only with one's heart that one can see clearly," the fox said. "What is essential is invisible to the eye."
*****
The girl was devastated upon learning of what had happened to the prince. The aviator told her that the little prince had succumbed to the snake. The snake who offered to bite him in order to be reunited with the rose that he loved so much.
“You didn’t let him go with the snake, did you?” The girl asked as a strange, horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach deepening.
“It was not my choice to make,” he replied in a somber tone. After the prince was bitten, his spirit flew away and all that was left was an empty shell. There’s nothing sad about old shells, the little prince had said before departing.
“But- But that’s it? That’s the ending? I wish you never told me that story in the first place! I hate you!” She shouted, slamming the door and storming her way out. She liked the prince. She enjoyed the way he discovered and learned parts of himself, the passion he showed. And the story had ended like that? The aviator said that he was going to look for the prince. She never really understood that until now. The little prince was in one of those stars, far, far away.
The girl spent the next few days dazed, focusing all of her time on studies and other stuff that would distract her. Her mother noticed but did not say anything. That had been their routine until one day, red lights flashed through the neighborhood, accompanied by loud beeping sounds often used by ambulances and police cars.
The girl’s heart clenched as she saw the old aviator being carried inside the ambulance. After going home from the hospital, she knew she had to put things right. Just as her mother went to sleep, she started searching for ways to sneak out of her room. She climed out of window and down pipe beside it. The next thing she knew, she was falling down and onto the other side of the fence as everything went black. She didn't have much time! It was the last day of summer already!
Shortly waking up in the aviator’s backyard where he kept the red plane, she turned it on and went on a journey to search for the prince with her fox who came to life after she fell out of her room.
Thinking of the prince and where he might be, sent excitement and some other feeling course through her veins. She knew what she needed to do, for the aviator, for the fox, for the little prince, and for her. She wondered what the prince would be like in person. Would he be kind? Charming? Outgoing? Well, there was only one way to find out. The fox and the girl soon noticed that there weren’t any stars in the night sky.
*****
Crash-landing on another planet run by the businessman, they meet the conceited man who was also from one of the planets the prince had visited before going to earth. Narrowly escaping him, they finally saw the prince. She finally saw the boy who she had grown to love. But he looked different. Instead of a young boy, there was an adult in his place. She failed to convince the man that he was the little prince from the stories. After everything that happened, the little prince had forgotten. But it didn’t matter because she would do everything in her power to make him remember.
Mr. Prince took her to an academy. The teacher, upon seeing that the girl was still a child, revealed a machine, which would ‘recondition’ her into an adult. Then, the little prince saw the drawing that the girl had with her, a box with three holes. There was a prickling sensation at the back of his mind as the memories started flowing in. He remembered that the machine was also used on him.
*****
After freeing the stars in the businessman’s vault and escaping the planet, the girl and the fox brought Mr. Prince back to Asteroid B612. The rose died after the asteroid had been completely infested by baobabs. The prince was overwhelmed with grief.
The girl felt greatly upset for the prince, but also envious of the rose because even in death, the prince still loved her.
“I’m so sorry. You were supposed to be with her.” She sobbed, her voice cracking as tears continuously flowed down her cheeks. The words felt right and yet so wrong as they tumbled out of her mouth.
“Don’t cry,” the prince said.
“How can you not be crying?” She couldn’t understand. He loved her, did he not?
The sun started to rise and the image of the rose shined brightly. The crack of dawn looked so ethereal and beautiful it almost made her forget what was happening. She looked back at the prince and was stunned to see a youthful visage. He was young again, a little prince once more.
Holding her hand, he said, “She was not a common rose, she was the only one of her kind in the whole universe. I remember her, I remember all of it. She’s not gone. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.” Her heart was hurting as the prince said these words, but again, it didn’t matter. All that matters is that her prince was happy. The words of confession were on the tip of her tongue, but alas, she did not say it. She savored the moment, knowing it wouldn’t last and she would have to go back to earth.
The next morning after arriving back on earth, she and her mother had visited the aviator first thing in the morning. She told him of her adventures the night before and that the prince can still remember him. Her mother also realized a lot of things in the past weeks. She realized that she was almost never there for her daughter, just working instead of spending time with her only child. There were only two of them, the girl’s father was no longer in the picture. They spent the night stargazing on the roof of their house, just the two of them. The girl smiled, even though her feelings to the prince were unrequited, she was satisfied. Because she knew, wherever he was, he was happy, and so was she.
*****