Rise To The Crown- The Story of the Third-In-Line

*Nineteen (2008.8)

The silvery moonlight shone on the ancient city of London, the scent of night fills the air, woven into a soft net that covers all. What the eyes come into contact with are all things covered with this soft net. No matter what plants or trees are, they are not as realistic as they are in the daytime. They all have vague and illusory colors, and each one hides within it the meticulous points that keep its secrets, making people feel like a dream.

Paraphrased from Charles Dickinson's Tale of Two Cities

A black Audi A5 Sportback rode in the middle of the wide road, which was very clean under the scouring of the rain. The neon lights of the shop windows on both sides of the street sprinkled red and green colors on road, like fireworks in a festival.

One of the windows of the car slowly slid down, and a blonde head of our darling Adelaide popped up. Then, a young brunette closed the window for her, while complaining about how the rain was pouring into the car. This made the little girl unhappy, so her father told her to pick a song to play.

It wasn't long until Delly randomly tapped on one of the songs at the top of one of her father's archived playlists, "Hello" by Lionel Richie——Diana's favorite song.

The all-too-familiar tone made William's heart skip a beat.

The cars are coming and going on the road, big and small, roaring their engines, and honking their horns. There are many shops on both sides of the street. The afterglow of the twilight sunset lightly sprinkles on the Nicholas Hawksmoor styled buildings from afar, adding a bit of haziness and poeticness to the lulling city.

A gleaming white pearl oozes out of William's eyes and slowly slides down his cheeks. The gleaming pearl light, like a falling star, slowly disappeared into the sky.

Despite there is a great ocean in his heart, it is only one drop of tears that drifted out.

Kate obviously noticed this, and told Delly to switch to a different song, Delly liked this song and didn't want to. It warmed William's heart to know that Kate understood him, but he still said, "No, no need darling, we'll be home very soon."

But that was a lie, they were far from home.

And the song didn't stop.

_

It was 8:30, half an hour after Kate put Delly on her little bed beside William and Kate's big bed, and went to take a shower. Delly heard the song again. It was coming from the ancient record player in the hallways. She jumped down from her bed and tiptoed outside of the big room, paying close attention to the sound of water. After making sure her Mumma was still in the washroom (and wouldn't catch her sneaking out), she walked swiftly towards the music.

Then, she saw her papa sitting beside the record player and burying his face in his palms. His shoulders were shivering.

Delly had never seen her papa like this. In her mind, he was always strong and resourceful. Delly was sure that he was more resourceful than Mumma because whenever Delly does something that made Mumma laugh heartily, papa will just stare at them with a light smile. That, in Delly's young mind, meant he was smarter, while in reality, that was just William's way of expressing his adoration for her.

Nevertheless, Delly never imagined her papa like this. So weak and helpless.

Delly tapped her papa's fingers, wanting him to let go of their grab of his face so that she can see it, "Puppa..."

"Delly, darling why are you here?"

Delly pointed to the record player beside him, "dis!"

"Oh, hahaha" William let out a hollow laugh. He was laughing at himself for crying, a future king shouldn't cry, and should never let his daughter, his-two year-old daughter, comfort him. He should be the one protecting her, being a strong father for her, not the other way around.

At the same time, he did also feel this was a great chance to tell Delly about Diana.

So, just as Delly wanted to ask what he was doing, he offered, "Delly, you wanna hear a story?"

"Yes, papa, storytime!"

"Once upon a time, a girl married your grandpa Charles, and -"

"and became grandma Camilla, yes papa so what?"

William furrowed his brows a bit that his daughter called Camilla "grandma", but still, he continued, "Delly, no, it's a long story, and I want you to listen closely okay?" Delly nodded and paid attention, she knew this was serious because her papa does not talk to her like this.

"So, she married your grandpa Charles and gave birth to me and your uncle Harry. So, she was my mother, and her name is Diana," after a small pause, he said, "and not Camilla."

"Delly, 11 years ago today, at about this hour, she passed away. She was very young. Very very young," he choked up the last word.

"Oh papa," Delly was so curious about what happened next, but she decided to shut her mouth and gave her papa a big hug first, "Papa, so you miss her."

"Yes, honey, very very much." William stared into his daughter's eyes.

That night, the three slept on the big bed together, with William on the left, Catherine on the right, and Delly right in the middle. Usually, she'd let her Mumma hug her and pat her tummy until she fall asleep, but somehow, today she felt her papa needed her to warm up his heart, so she snug closer to his embrace.

The last thought on Delly's mind was that she should ask either grandpa Charles or Camilla (she isn't grandma Camilla anymore) about Diana, but she also didn't think that was the best idea. She didn't know why, but she knew they wouldn't like it.

(This last paragraph is quite important cause it marked the start of Adelaide stopping to "speak whatever she wants", and starting to actually evaluate what the others want to hear and do not want to hear. She is currently barely 2. This is too early compared to other children. But I suppose it is necessary and almost certainly will happen because of the environment she lived in. Kinda sad)

_

Against the backdrop of the night, and outside of the palace windows, the cars on the street were one after the other, row after row, like a string of dazzling pearls flowing, and like rows of twinkling stars. The ancient streets are still wide and flat, extending in all directions.

There is a fairy tale here in England. There was once a Princess Diana who lived unhappily ever after with her Prince Charles. In the dream she had been sleeping for 11 years now, she is no longer the princess of the fairy tale she used to be in, she is being the princess of another fairyland. I wanted to reverse the rapid passage of time and linger within the real fairy tale world, but the Big Ben refused relentlessly.

The gears in the clock kept running, striking 12 times.