Lora Hates Spam

by Savannah Jezowski

This story is told from the perspective of a princess' black cat, Romeo. It's very fairytale-ish in tone and is centered on the premise that ruling a kingdom is too much work for one person, so the queen must have a partner. To take over from the widowed queen, Princess Isabel has to choose a husband, though he can be anyone in the kingdom, even a commoner.

As it happens, she has her eye on the local chimney sweep and the cat, who is a witch, has put an enchantment on the chimney so that it keeps malfunctioning and they have to call the sweep in again and again. Now if they weren't both too shy to speak to each other, we might get a happily ever after.

Some people blame the fact that the princess can't seem to find a partner year after year on Isabel, to which Romeo says, "I scratched or peed on anyone who whispered it in my presence." That made me laugh.

It's a short and sweet story with a bit of sorcery and a lot of humor in how it gets resolved. Definitely exceeded my expectations.