The Porcelain Harlequin By Jamie Marie Carlson A little girl peeped into a box of old toys. At the bottom, buried under old doll clothes and a few weathered children's storybooks, lay a porcelain harlequin doll. Under the detailed, lacy harlequin outfit, it was obvious that the doll was broken. Her legs and arms were sticking out of the sleeves too far, shards poking at the cloth in odd angles. Her elegant black hair spread out from a head which was cracked, the line running down from the corner of the little red mouth to the neck. The little black eyes looked very sad, and the child felt a pang of sorrow in her young heart for the poor porcelain doll. "That doll has a story," the little girl's grandmother said, settling by the old wooden box. "What is the story?" the girl asked. Being in the age where she would soon be a teenager, the girl was curious and willful. The grandmother smiled at her, and nodded. "I shall tell you....." Long ago, there was a beautiful prince. He was admired by all, for his beauty was legendary. But he wasn't satisfied with the tiresome life of a prince, and as he grew older, he began spending his time with lovely women of high class. One day, a girl came to the Prince's castle with her father and mother. She was the daughter of a peasant, and was going to become the King's Court Jester, his Harlequin. The girl was around your age, dear, thirteen or fourteen. She was very beautiful, with long, straight black hair and shining black eyes, her skin as pure and white as Chinese porcelain. Her family was Asian, said to have come from the wondrous land of Japan. The Prince was intrigued by the girl, as this was a very long time ago, back when Japan was still a mystery to the people of Europe. The Harlequin, having never seen a blonde, blue-eyed man quite as lovely as the Prince aside from pictures of angels she had seen in a color bible, was immediately smitten by the Prince's charm. The Prince began to play to her wishes, calling her his Porcelain Harlequin, and the young girl fell in love with him. He assured her that he loved her as well. "Do you mean that?" the girl asked him, as they sat upon the battlements of his castle, looking up at the stars. "Of course! Would a Prince say what he didn't mean?" the arrogant boy scoffed. Blushing, the girl said that no, he wouldn't. Ignoring her protests, the Prince kissed the girl, convincing her that he must love her; for it was her family's tradition that no one should kiss a girl unless they loved her dearly. Alas, the girl's happiness would soon end. The Prince, having been courting a woman for some time before he met the Harlequin, lay down with the European woman one night. She was worried about his playing with the Harlequin. "You will hurt her, playing at love like this," the woman teased. The Prince laughed off her foreboding words. "She is a girl; girls her age will have many true loves. It is but a game, and nothing to worry about," the Prince said, smiling. "I have no intention of wedding her, for she is only a child. You, my dear, will make a lovely queen one day. "The Harlequin will be alright. When this boy cuts her strings, will she not be free?" "When an uncaring boy cuts the strings of a Harlequin, they fall and shatter," the woman chided softly. "It is of no matter. I doubt she really loves me anyway." At these words, the Harlequin entered the Prince's bedchambers. The girl had been hiding just outside the barely-open door, having been on her way to see the Prince. She had never seen him unclothed before, but now it mattered not, for her eyes were so filled with tears. "This little Harlequin loved the boy dearly," the black-haired girl said, offering the Prince a dewy smile. "Woe for the doll, for the boy has cut her strings, and the little Harlequin has fallen, dashed to pieces upon the floor. "However, it is as it should be; no Prince should love a peasant. I hope you happiness in your life, My Lord. You will not have to walk with me in the starlight ever again, carefully pulling my strings to keep me on your path. As you said, you have cut my strings, and I am free." With a last sob, the girl turned and left the bedchambers. A long moment of silence lay heavily on the Prince and his lover. The woman looked up at him with teary eyes. "I told you she would be broken by your games." "All is well," the Prince said with his usual confidence. "She will find a new love." Just as the Prince leaned in to kiss his soon-to-be-bride, a scream reached their ears. Fearing the worst, the two leapt from the Prince's bed, wrapping their bedclothes around themselves. They ran out to the battlements, where a gentlewoman was still screaming between her sobs of anguish. Leaning out over the wall, the Prince gazed in horror to the sight he saw on the ground. There the Porcelain Harlequin lay, her body shattered. The boy had carelessly held the doll up and cut her delicate strings, leaving her to fall to the floor and shatter upon it. The Prince had never realized how much his actions and words could hurt someone until the death of the Porcelain Harlequin. He never married, and his kingdom fell to ruin after his death. The spirit of the sad Harlequin lingers forever where she threw herself off of the battlements, as the castle still stands today. Where the castle and the girl