There once was a beautiful princess named Carlotta. She was the apple of her father, the king’s eye. He adored her! She was kind, smart, very, very funny, and most of all wise beyond her years. She lived in an enchanted kingdom by the sparkling crystal-clear sea with sand so sparkling white it looked like snow. She loved to go to the beach and create the most fantastic fairy sandcastles, complete with bathrooms for just in case the imaginary kings, queens, princesses, lords, ladies, and servants who lived in the castles needed to use such things.
When she became bored with making castles, she would swim in the ocean and frolic with dolphins who were her friends. Her absolute best friend though was Regina, a beautiful mermaid who was the Imperial Princess of the kingdom of the Crystal Sea. Regina and Carlotta would have the most wonderful time hunting for treasures in the ocean, playing hide and seek, and playing catch with a golden ball that was a gift from the king.
One day after a most wonderful time of playing with Regina and her dolphin friends, Carlotta returned to the castle and started to sneeze. “Oh dear,” said the queen. “Oh my,” said the king. The queen touched Carlotta’s forehead, and it was burning hot, and her beautiful apple cheeks were flushed with fever.
The king called for the best doctors in the land, and they all assembled around Carlotta. “Hmmm,” said the first doctor. “Ahhhh,” said the second doctor. “Well well,” said the third doctor. The fourth doctor, a lady named Ingrid, examined Carlotta thoroughly and said, “Princess Carlotta has a nasty flu. However, Carlotta is strong and healthy and she will recover. Nevertheless, she will not feel very well for a few days, and she will have a fever.” “Oh dear,” said the queen.
“Have no fear,” said Ingrid, “for I have prepared an elixir for Carlotta that will help lower her fever.” She then produced a slender lavender vial from her medical bag and administered four drops onto Carlotta’s tongue. “Now she must go to bed and rest.” Carlotta was sad. She would miss playing with Regina and the dolphins, but she did not want to make her friends sick, so she went to her bed.
That night, Carlotta woke from a most frightening dream. It was so scary, she woke her father, the king. This distressed the king so much that he called for Ingrid, whom he had promoted to castle doctor. Ingrid knew that the bad dream was caused by the fever. Ingrid knelt by the frightened princess and said the dream was bad, but it is not real. Then she produced a magic wand from her bag.
“This is the wand of truth. When you have a bad dream, wave this wand and the ugly dream will vanish, and you will see the truth.” “What is the truth?” asked Carlotta, perplexed. “You will see,” said Ingrid. “Sleep with the wand and if you have a bad dream, wave it away with the wand of truth.” “But I cannot do that when I’m asleep,” said Carlotta. “You can do it in your dream. You are in charge even though you may not feel that way.”
Carlotta went back to bed and fell into a fitful sleep and dreamed of a scary lizard looking at her with red eyes. It was terrifying, but Carlotta remembered what Ingrid had told her—she was in charge of the dream. She waved her magic wand. The scary lizard cried out, “Nooooo!” but Carlotta said, “Tough luck, buttercup. This is my dream and I’m in charge.” She waved her magic wand again, and the scary lizard vanished.
Then she began to dream again, and in Carlotta’s new dream she saw a beautiful kingdom by the crystal blue sea with Regina, her mermaid friends, and the dolphins. Beside her was her father, the king, who was helping her create the most beautiful fairy castle in the gleaming white sand—and guess what? The castle even had a powder room, just in case.
Carlotta woke from her bad dream turned to a good dream and knew the truth. The bad dream was not real, but the good dream was the truth. She no longer felt afraid and felt safe, for she was in charge. She slept restfully throughout her illness and dreamed the sweetest and truest of dreams, and she recovered fully from the flu.
Days later, she returned to the beach to seek out her best friend Regina, but the dolphins told her that Regina was extremely sick and having bad dreams. “Wait here,” said Carlotta, “I will be back.” Carlotta ran to her room and found the wand of truth by her bed and rushed back to the beach. “Give this wand to Regina and tell her to sleep with it, and when she has bad dreams, tell her to announce that she is in charge and wave the wand in her dream and the bad dream will vanish and it will be replaced with a good dream—a true dream.”
“But before you go,” she added, “please tell Regina that when she is well, I would like my wand back.”
The End