Castles of Winter, Castles of Spring

The Royal Family were taking their winter vacation; they would travel by sea, land and air to get there: a wonderful land where they spoke a different language.  The King and Queen had been there 2 years before and enjoyed it, as they had noticed that they seemed to be more indulgent of children - Shark Boy's behaviour in various eating establishments had required a lot of indulgence.

They would be staying in the same Castle they had stayed in on the previous visit.  The castle also did a lot to welcome young children, there was a place to swim and a miniature castle in the basement of the larger castle for them to play in.

What excited the King and Queen the most, however, was the fact that they would be able to ski.  In fact, they would be able to ski together, as they had before they had become parents, and opportunities to do things together were not that rare, but they were all too short most of the time.  The princes would be looked after by staff at the castle who they knew could do a wonderful job.  There was some worry that the Lightning Kid's condition might be a problem, but it never was.  In fact, they welcomed him with open arms, and better yet, he returned the favour! This was pleasant surprise as he was at a stage where he would sometimes scream at anyone who wasn't one of his parents.

While the King and Queen enjoyed skiing alone as a couple, they looked forward to the days when they could all ski as a family, so Shark Boy was enrolled in ski lessons.  A magic carpet took him part-way up the hill, and he skied down with an instructor.  He took to skiing like it was second nature, which was not that surprising since he'd had a few lessons with the Queen, who excelled at teaching children of all kinds how to ski.  At the end of the day, they would find the Lightning Kid still asleep in a nap, and managed to take Shark Boy out for a few runs on the BIG magic carpet, as per his request.

The new environment and new routine was a little much for the two princes' brains by the end of the day, and so dinners were not terribly enjoyable.  The King must have forgotten to pack his appetite (his stomach bothered him often on the trip), and by the time food arrived, the yelling, rebelling and thrown/spilled food resulted in the family beating a hasty retreat from evening mealtimes.  It's a wonder the poor Queen didn't starve...

Still, on their way home the King and Queen knew their faith in this Castle of Winter had been rewarded.

One of the things they enjoyed on that trip was Maple Syrup that had been cooled by snow, and rolled onto a stick.  The Royal Family had a weakness for Maple Syrup, and if it was ever absent from the royal pantry, it was a dark day in that castle.

So, weeks later, when Maple Syrup festival was running closer to home, they couldn't miss it.  In fact they had been there for the last two years running, once when the Queen was pregnant with the Lightning Kid, and again when he was less than 6 months old, and Shark Boy had impressed his parents by learning and repeating the process to make maple syrup.

The weather threatened rain early, keeping the crowds away, but once the family was there, they were able to enjoy sunshine.  They rode a wagon, and Shark Boy rode a pony on his own, and they walked through the woods where the sap for the syrup was gathered, with Shark Boy on his feet, running, gathering sticks and exploring the entire time while the Lightning Kid was in a stroller.  They enjoyed pancakes with syrup for lunch (after having french toast with syrup for breakfast - I told you they liked syrup!) and on the walk out, the Queen decided that the Lightning Kid should walk a little too.  Despite the fact that he hadn't walked outside before and the terrain was less than perfectly flat, the Lightning Kid walked with gusto for several hundred meters.  There was clear delight in his face, as if he was seeing the world from a new perspective.

The King had noticed this change and wanted to take part in this new part of the prince's journey, so the next chance he got (which happened to be the day after), he took the princes to a place where they could play on miniature castles.  Shark Boy quickly found other children to play with, and normally the King would have kept the Lightning Kid in a stroller or carried him around, but not that day.

He led him by the hand on wood-chips  boardwalks, ramps, bridges and tunnels and even helped him climb a ramp so steep it might as well have been a ladder.  The young prince grinned and giggled the entire time, and worked to stay on his feet.  He could see how walking and running was the path to great games, such as the ones Shark Boy played with the other children, and he put his all into walking (almost running!) and climbing to be able to enter that world.   Discussing it later, the King and Queen felt that another chapter in the Lightning Kid's saga was beginning...

The Lightning Kid and the Musical Munchkins

The King and Queen were raising their sons to appreciate the outdoors, physical activity, movement and music.  For the latter, the Lightning Kid was involved with a group of Musical Munchkins while at the same time, Shark Boy was taking (what else?) swimming lessons.  The King and Queen tried to take turns taking each of the boys to their lessons, one week the King would take Shark Boy to swimming, while the Queen took the Lightning Kid to Musical Munchkins, and the next week they would switch.

The Lightning Kid had many friends and fans at Musical Munchkins, but the King and Queen were vexed at one development in the sessions that seemed to creep up.  Rather than sing and play with toy musical instruments, an increasing amount of time each session was being spent on arts and crafts... which didn’t seem inherently musical at all.  These crafts involved scissors, glue and small pieces perfect for putting in the mouth and/or gagging on.   

The first time the King encountered this activity, he had the Lightning Kid sit the activity out.  This was painful and upsetting to him, as he saw it as the first of many times that the young Prince might be excluded from an activity he wouldn’t be able to do, and have to watch from the sidelines.  BUT THE GROUP WAS FOR CHILDREN LESS THAN 2 YEARS OLD!  While the other munchkins seemed to put things in their mouths less than the Lightning Kid, and often seemed more developed overall, they and their parents still all struggled with making the craft activities anything less than an unmitigated disaster (one mother used the dreaded R word to describe the proceedings, earning a firm yet fairly polite rebuke from the King).

The next week, during the Queen’s turn at Musical Munchkins, a similar craft activity took place, and the Royal Family’s annoyance increased.  While they wanted a change, they found themselves too busy to lodge a formal complaint, all while considering leaving the program altogether.

When it was the King’s turn again, he had two options: skip the lesson and stay home with the Prince, or take him to Musical Munchkins in spite of their reservations.  The King figured they would take the good of the sessions while leaving the bad.  In fact, there were no crafts that day (perhaps someone else had found the time to register a complaint) and yet the King still found some frustration; he wanted the Lightning Kid to walk more (as the other children did) and when he tried to encourage it, he found the Prince’s bottom to be pulled to the floor as if by some magical force.  While he disliked being bull-headed about the Prince’s development, he knew he would soon be in environments with more children who could walk, and wanted to know he would be safe and capable of keeping up... more or less.  

While the King was not entirely satisfied by how much the Lightning Kid was walking during the Musical Munchkins session, he couldn't help but notice another stark difference between the Lightning Kid and the other children: he was by far the most engaged and engaging child there.  He went around to the other children’s parents and greeted them, he tried to get his hands on toys the second they were available, he scooted and searched around the room for ways to get into trouble.  When the King had a split-second that didn't involve keeping the Prince out of trouble, he observed the other children, they sat placidly in their parents’ laps, a docile look on their faces, some passive, some outright shy.  While that looked to be a lot easier to manage than what the King was used to in terms of taking care of children, he wouldn't have traded places with the other parents... the Prince was full of lightning, as usual, and that was the way his family liked it.

The Lightning Kid School of Cooking

The Dungeon

​According to the Canadian Institute of Health Research, 1 in 5 Canadians will experience a form of mental illness at some point in their lives.  Personally I am challenged by bouts of depression; I believe they are, on balance, fairly mild and mostly manageable, though I have sought counselling on occasion also.  Depression is a topic that I cannot cover in-depth in this space, but I can share my own experiences with it - stories like this can only serve as a memoir, not an educational treatment... every person’s depression is different.

​Every once in awhile, the King found himself in a dungeon.  This had been occurring well before the birth of the Lightning Kid.   It had occurred before the birth of Shark Boy, before his marriage to the Queen, before he’d ever met her.  He was often asked why he was in the dungeon - how can a King be in a dungeon? What put him there? Was it a giant monster? Some enemy?

Being asked this frustrated the King - he didn’t have a real answer, and he doubted having one would do anything to help him get out of the dungeon itself.  Fresh air and exercise seemed to help him stay out of the dungeon, but once he was in, those sorts of things became harder to do, and he found himself almost unwilling to leave if he could.

The most recent time he was in the dungeon, he started to try to drag himself out, he looked down to see if he could spy what manner of creature could be holding him back.  At first he saw nothing, but as he looked closer, he noticed there wasn't any monster... at least not just one.  There was a tiny gremlin - 'the things you haven't fixed'.  Then he saw another - 'what makes your job difficult' and another 'lack of sleep'.  'Self-doubt', 'Missed deadlines', 'what have you forgotten?', 'Fear of the Lightning Kid's Future', 'Fear of Shark Boy's Future', 'Health scares in the family'... so many of them clung to his robes.  Any one of them, or even in pairs or groups of threes could never have overpowered him... but they were co-operating and pulling in concert, and as such the King was unable to fight them off.  Escaping from a hold, however, is more a matter of wriggling than of brute strength.   And so, a few at a time, he escaped the gremilins... most temporarily, some by distraction, some by out-maneuvering, some by ruthless aggression.

Today he would escape the dungeon, but he knew he could end up back in it.  The man who had freed him was the same man who had imprisoned him - his own self.

Lightning No More?

The Lightning Kid had once had his hair cut by his own grandmother... it was essentially a bowl cut.  While some found this more objectionable than others, the King and Queen were willing to tolerate it ... for a while.  Still, the hair continued to grow (as hair is prone to doing), and the Queen was becoming decreasingly tolerant of those who referred to the Lightning Kid as a princess rather than a prince upon first laying eyes upon him.

So she took him to the business that had done a good job of Shark Boy's first haircuts... and so the Lightning Kid turned from a baby, to a handsome looking little boy!

It was a bittersweet moment for the King and Queen; they were pleased with how good he looked, but the idea of him not being a baby anymore was saddening.   Then a greater worry occurred to them: without long hair standing on end, would he still have his Lightning?

Later that day, the Queen took him to a private chamber for nursing, and rather than settle down for the feeding, the young prince would not stop looking around and trying to interact with the other children.  Pretty soon, none of the mothers were able to peacefully feed their children and were forced to leave because the children all wanted to watch the Lightning Kid.  It seemed like the Lightning Kid hadn't lost his thunder!

The Test

It was true throughout the Kingdom that people liked to avoid having problems.  It was also true that people wanted to have children, and children could cause enough problems to frustrate even the most patient.  When people thought of children like the Lightning Kid, many thought they would have simply too many problems or problems that were too great, and so they sought to use tests to avoid having children like him.

Earlier tests were not as popular, since they were somewhat dangerous put the child at (a slight) risk, regardless of the result of the outcome.  When better, less risky tests were invented, many rejoiced at the opportunity to make reasoned, informed decisions, and the test (as near as anyone was willing to discuss it) was considered to be 99% accurate.  The King was himself a big advocate of reason and information, so he sought to make a little demonstration at court.

Once the court was gathered, he had his servants bring out a display of shells.

"Each of these shells, represent an instance of a test to determine whether a child will be born with the same condition as your Prince, The Lightning Kid.  There are 100 of them, and one of them is false - the result is incorrect.  Any decisions made based on that one test will be misinformed."


The King turned to the other side of the room, and waved in servants with more shells.

"These shells represent births.  There are 529 of them and one of them is a child with the same condition as the Lightning Kid.  I've read that the chance of having such a child is as high as 1 in 300, and as low as 1 in 700, so I've picked a number somewhere in between.  If every one of these births had been tested, there would have been at least 5 incorrect results.

While a child like the Lightning Kid will almost definitely have trouble learning and understanding more difficult concepts,  problems with the heart, with growth, with digestion and the rest are all only possibilities.  And these same problems can crop up in other children - those that would pass these tests that are being celebrated."

He paused, and made sure that he had the audience's undivided attention.

"Let me be clear: if you expect your child to be perfect, if you aren't prepared to deal with at least some health issues, big or small, short or long-term - then you are not prepared to have children. Perhaps that would be a better test."

Darker Days

In the depth of winter, days had begun to turn dark.  The Lightning Kid found himself in constant battles with the Boobless Wonder, and their clashes had been epic and brutal.  The young Prince had managed to draw blood on the beast through pinching, biting and scratching, yet it would never go away for long.

In order to be able to stand guard against the Boobless Wonder, the Lightning Kid figured the best strategy would be to avoid sleeping at all costs.  He went on a strike from naps almost entirely, and fought against falling asleep at night... who knows what the Boobless Wonder could get up to while he rested?

Losing this much sleep meant, of course, falling victim to a cold or two that were very fashionable around this time of year.  The Lightning Kid and his brother Shark Boy co-operated through their illnesses to keep the castle from being quiet during the night;  besides the Boobless Wonder, who knew what other creatures might relish a peaceful, quiet environment in the castle...

The brothers found the King and Queen to be of little help; they seemed to be tired (and irritable much of the time).  In fact, they seemed to be openly plotting to find ways to get the boys to sleep more!  The days had turned dark indeed...

The King and Queen took the Lightning Kid to find out what the results of a test on his heart were.  More of the same - no great flaws found, yet not perfect, and it would need to be looked at again.  By contrast, a different test revealed that the Tiny Titans had been hard at work... The Lightning Kid's hearing was perfect now!  Even when the days are dark, there is light to be found.