Not all fairytales have a happy ending

Once upon a time there was a girl.  The girl had big dreams and she had planned out exactly how she would achieve them. The girl was super independent and ambitious and she didn’t want to allow anyone or anything to stand in the way of her achieving her dreams. 

But the girl loved and she loved deeply.   Both her family and her friends.  Yet the girl was afraid of commitment and a boyfriend was not part of the plan.  She wanted to be married and have children eventually but she was a girl who saw being in a relationship when she was so young as a distraction and a waste of her time.   After all, no one ever ends up marrying their first (proper) boyfriend…

The girl danced, she sang, she acted, she ran.  She loved parties and laughing and spending time with her friends.  The girl wanted it all and believed she was capable of having it all.  Oxford followed by Harvard, being a top lawyer – those were all part of her plans.

But life doesn’t always happen the way we plan it will, and one day the girl met the boy at a party.  The boy started talking to the girl about running because they were both high-school athletes and the girl thought the boy was nice but she wasn’t interested.  She forgot his name instantly. 

Later that same evening, the girl came across the boy a second time and she was embarrassed because he remembered her name whilst she had forgotten his.  But this time round the boy made an impact on the girl.  He made a joke using a Caribbean slang term and the girl laughed and realised in the same instant that this boy could become the best friend she had ever had.

The boy was six-foot-tall and muscular, he was super cute and he had the deepest dimples that the girl had ever seen.  But the best thing about the boy was that he was so kind.  He was always smiling.  Always.  The boy was super smart. 

The boy had even better grades than the girl did and he wanted to be a doctor.  But the boy was also really sporty, he was an incredible sprinter and he also played cricket and rugby to a high level and the violin also.   He was also a insanely talented linguist and talented writer. The boy was good at everything he ever turned his hand to. 

And the boy was so young but from the very beginning he was so mature and knew exactly what he wanted from life. The boy was a good influence on the girl and she liked the boy a lot but he was not part of her plan.  Therefore, she decided she would enjoy being in a relationship with the boy for 3 months but she would break up with the boy after Christmas to focus on her goals.  But Christmas came and she just couldn’t break up with the boy.  She liked him too much.

After two months, the boy told the girl he loved her and the girl thanked him and told him she wasn’t sure she was even capable of loving anyone like that.  She was afraid of love.  It seemed to her that if you loved someone you gave them the power to hurt you and she didn’t want to be hurt.  Three months later the girl realised that she loved the boy too but even then she was too much of a coward to say it, so she wrote it in a Valentine’s card.

Then the boy and girl did life.  The girl was still fiercely independent but she realised that she could achieve every single thing she wanted for her life with the boy by her side.  The boy was so easy to love.  He was so generous, so good and he inspired the girl to become the best version of herself that she could be.  The girl blossomed and grew and she loved the boy more with every day that passed.  She believed, and she told him frequently, that her capacity to love him was infinite.

The girl loved talking to the boy because the boy was smart and interesting and he was always happy.  He was never moody and he was always positive.  The boy was so proud of the girl and he supported her in her every endeavour.  The boy believed in the girl more than the girl believed in herself and he felt every injustice she faced because he felt that she deserved the best and only the best.  He told the girl that she was the strongest person that he knew. 

From the girl’s perspective the boy was one of those rare people who are just fundamentally good.  The girl felt blessed beyond measure to be loved by a person like that.   The girl would have given up her own life to protect the boy.

The years passed and there were many difficulties and obstacles that the boy and girl faced.  Being everyone’s favourite “Power Couple” came at a cost.  Law and medicine are not complimentary professions and sometimes the boy and girl were ships in the night.  But the girl was insanely proud of the boy.  He excelled in every single thing he did and ended up as a Cardiologist working in one of the most competitive medical deaneries in the country.  He was on track to going to become a Professor of Cardiology and everyone was going to know his name and she knew it.

After 8 years together the boy and the girl got married.  The girl got to be a princess for the day and wore 3 dresses.  It was a fairy tale and it was the happiest day of their lives.

But the marriage was even better than the wedding.   The boy and girl lived together for the first time and they loved it.  After many crazy years of sharing with housemates finally the girl got to live with her best friend.  The girl thought it was the best thing ever.  Even after they had been together for over 10 years, the girl would rush home as fast as she could when she finished work, because she was excited to see the boy and tell him about her day.

The boy was the sun, moon and the whole world to the girl.  She loved to watch him when he was sleeping because he looked as peaceful as an angel.  She loved to be held by the boy because he was big and strong and when she was in his arms, she felt safe.  The girl and the boy lived in a bubble and the boy protected the girl from the world.

Then one day the girl came home from work and she found the dead body of the boy in their home.   The girl screamed and screamed and screamed but it was already too late.  In that moment, when the girl realised that it was all over, that she couldn’t save the boy, her heart shattered into a million tiny pieces.

The girl’s family came to take the girl home with them.  If they hadn’t, she would have killed herself too.   Because in an instant the girl had lost everything.  She lost the person she loved more than anyone or anything in the whole world and she lost all her hopes and dreams of how her life would be.  Life as she knew it was over.

I am the girl and Karl Norrington was the boy and this is our story.

And at the point where our story ends, mine begins…