Cinderella – The Epilogue by Saul Sackstein

"...and so the handsome prince fell in love with the beautiful Cinderella and they got married and they lived happily ever after..."

So it ended – and so it shall stay - forever and forever always - because no one is going to ruin this perfect, happy ending...

There will be no room in my story for the weary and cynical to tell us how Cinderella grew old, embittered by her children and tired of her prince.

There is no place in my story to hear how Cinderella's beauty, gnawed away by childbirth, motherhood, menopause and Prosac, faded, how her breasts sagged, how her eyes dimmed, how her long hair turned white and how her love died.

There will be no room for the opposition benches to remind us of the prince's unbridled quest for political power and personal wealth, of his corrupt running of his realm, of his invasion of neighboring countries and of his subjugation of other peoples. No need to recall the wars and conquests, the squalid refugee camps and the civilian massacres, nor the suicide bombings and the terror which followed in their wake.

There will be no place in my story for the leftists and liberals to remind us of how the once impoverished Cinderella despotically and vainly commanded an exploited entourage of servants and slave girls - who saw to her every need and whim - from her hairdos to her meals, from her polished floors and fireplaces to her fashion demands and the accumulation of her world–renowned shoe and slipper collection.

The feminists too must be silenced – for there is no place to mention the sexual harassment and even rape, committed by the prince within the castle walls, of his philandering and adultery – which included - it is believed- the princess' own step-sisters - who after plastic surgery, bunion operations, silicone implants, Botox injections and vaginal tightening procedures, proved – apparently- to be a lot less unattractive than was initially believed.

The conservationists and animal lovers amongst us have no place in my story too, lest their tale of the agonizing death of the mice, the lizards and the rat in glue traps and from poison, somehow ruin the romance of it all.

There will be no shattering of the glass slipper. The happy ending of the story will last forever - for it is there to comfort us - old and young alike. It is there for us at the end of our day, in the brief seconds before wakefulness turns to sleep, before reality becomes dream. It is there to remind us that in the end everything will be alright, that good shall triumph over evil, that poor can one day become rich, that there is love in the world and that there is hope for us all.

There is only one end this story can have and this is it:

"and so the handsome prince fell in love with the beautiful Cinderella and they got married and they lived happily ever after..."