“She’s not thin,” my date states, describing his ex-wife, though I never asked for a description.  “She has brown eyes and curly brown hair.”

I wince, imperceptibly, I hope.

In my mind, I’m peering into a mirror as the Evil Queen and Snow White meld into one.

He notices a shift. “What?” he asks.  I stare at him, hoping, waiting, imploring, but he is bemused, befuddled.

“You’ve just described me.”

“No, no,” he laughs.

I can almost hear hope, like helium, silently escaping.  This does not happen in an instant, or overnight.  So, I deny that this is so, that once pricked a balloon’s demise is inevitable.

“Perhaps he can still become my Prince Charming,” I tell myself, prick after excruciating prick.

Wendy K. Mages, a Professor at Mercy College, is a storyteller and educator who earned a master’s and doctorate in Human Development and Psychology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a master’s in Theatre at Northwestern University. As a complement to her research on the effect of the arts on learning and development, she performs original stories at storytelling events and festivals in the US and abroad. Her stories appear in literary publications, such as Funny Pearls, Hearth & Coffin, The Journal of Stories in Science, New Croton Review, Potato Soup Journal, and Young Ravens Review. A triptych of her poems appears in Scenario.

https://www.mercy.edu/directory/wendy-mages