SALAD DAYS Andrew Letai Hamilton College
One fine sunny day, a pair of young princes played together on the palace grounds. They had devised a simple game centered around a bronze goblet they had swiped from the kitchens. The game involved seizing the goblet from its starting position upon a rock, running across the garden, and placing it on another rock, all without being caught by the other boy. It was currently Prince Phillip, the younger of the two brothers, who ran with the goblet clutched in his pudgy fist. Prince Edward, three years Phillip’s elder and approaching his tenth birthday, raced after his brother, stubby legs pounding the ground and scattering the meticulously placed gravel of the garden paths. Ahead of him, he saw Phillip stumble on an errant tree root and fall, skidding across the grass. Edward reached him and slowed his run. The young prince, who would one day be known as King Edward the Redeemer, Scourge of the Wicked, reached out a hand to his brother. Phillip took his hand—the same hand that, years from now, would clap him on the back after signing the decree making Phillip Lord Marshal of all the realm’s armies—and pulled himself to his feet, brushing dirt from his princely clothes. “Thanks,” Phillip sighed. Their mother, Queen Eleanor, would be cross. He could already hear her admonishing him about how a prince must present himself and how that presentation should rarely, if ever, include grass stains. “You’re welcome.” Edward smiled. “I got you, by the way.” “That doesn’t count!” Phillip protested. “I fell!” “That’s not a rule.” Phillip considered this and realized it was true. “Fine.” He shrugged and began walking back to the starting stone. Edward followed. “I saw a dove this morning,’’ Edward said as they walked. “Really?” Phillip’s eyes lit up. Doves were his favorite bird, but though they were plentiful in the capital, they were scarce here at the summer palace. “Where?” “It landed next to the cherry tree outside the dining room window. I saw it during breakfast.” “Why didn’t you tell me?”
38
OAR
LETAI