The Imaginary Ladder

The two princesses had been sent to the high and airy dungeon without their supper because they had failed to look both ways before crossing the street. 

Their punishment was unbearable mostly because they were hungry, although they knew they were guilty. They looked out of the window and down and shuddered - and they realized they couldn’t escape that way. And then they looked up.

Some time later, the king and queen came up the stairs with a large key and two bowls of ice cream because they knew the princesses had not meant to cross the street without looking both ways and they hoped that they had learned their lesson.

But when they entered the dungeon, the princesses were nowhere to be found.

“Look,” the king said. “A ladder.”

“ But it goes out the window and up into the clouds,” the queen said.

“That’s impossible,” they both said together.

They set down the bowls of  ice cream and went over to the ladder. They tugged at it and pulled on it.

“It seems solid,” the king said.

“But it goes straight up into thin air,” the queen replied.

“There is that cloud,” the king said, but he shook his head in disbelief.

“How could it be?” the queen said, also shaking her head.

And then they both saw the crayons scattered all over the floor and they looked at each other.

“You don’t suppose they drew the ladder with the crayons and escaped from the dungeon?” the queen said.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” the king said and he put one foot on the first rung.

“Are you sure?” the queen said.

“Well, they couldn’t go down,” the king said and he began to climb.

After only a moment’s hesitation, the queen began to climb up, too.

And after a long, long climb during which neither the king nor the queen looked down after the first time, they reached the cloud where they found the two princesses each fast asleep on a white pillowy patch of cloud. The king and queen each softly picked up a princess and carefully climbed back down the ladder. 

And then they carried the princesses down the stairs from the dungeon and back into the castle.  

A then they put the princesses snuggly to bed.

The king and the queen looked at their princesses and they looked at each other and smiled.

“Let’s go back up to the dungeon, my king” the queen said.

“You’re right, my queen,” the king said. “We might as well eat the ice cream before it melts.”

And they all lived happily ever after in their castle and no one ever crossed the street without looking both ways again.