The Cell

A Short Story
by Robert S. Cosmar

The prison cell was dark and damp and Prince Challoff sat pondering the woeful meaning of his situation. For the past several years, he had sat in the dismal cell thinking about his father and wondering why he had not come to rescue him.


The prince ran away several years before, during his rebellious youth, and joined a group that opposed his father and his political policies. After the rebellion was surpressed, the angry prince was placed in this cell in a  line of prison cells containing the other conspirators, because he was still angry with his father.

Over time, due to the solitude and frequent letters from his father, the prince's whole attitude began to soften.   Gone was the righteous anger, the rebellious spirit, and his know-it-all attitude. Still, the prince was in prison and his spirit was slowly being crushed.

He could not understand why his father did not come and rescue him. The letters from his father, sent by messenger, were both forgiving and accepting of him.  It did not make sense to the prince that his father would forsake him like this.

One day, the son decided to put aside his pride, drop all of his pretenses and ask his father outright in a letter why he had not released him from this cell. He cried as he wrote the letter and he felt his heart open and the years of regret poured from his pen onto the paper.

After a few days, he received a letter from his father:

My dear beloved Son:
It seems there has been a terrible misunderstanding.   All this time, you have thought you were in prison, but the door has always been unlocked.  You were free to go at any time.  I thought you were aware of this. The guard outside of your cell is not there to keep you in the cell, but to constantly protect you from coming to any harm.  My son, you can leave whenever you choose to leave. 
Love always,
your father

The prince was stunned by his father's words.  The truth finally sank in that this misunderstanding and his own false perceptions were all that had ever kept him imprisoned.  He learned a valuable lesson that day -- never to accept anything at face value and to be more aware of his life and the circumstances surrounding him.

Things are never as bad as they seem.