Ripple Effect by Janis Butler Holm

*Featured Image: “The bros Templeton and Nessy” by Anita Driessen

As a little girl reading fairy tales, I came across the word “replied.” Though a bookish child, I somehow read “replied” as “rippled,” as in

“Because I said so,” the prince rippled.

It seemed to me that a handsome prince would speak in a breezy manner; his language would roll trippingly off the tongue. Even as a child, I understood that royalty can be casual about things the rest of us take seriously.

“I’ve slain the dragon,” the prince rippled.

“I’ll wake her with a kiss,” the prince rippled.

“You will be my queen,” the prince rippled.

“Of course, I have a mistress,” the prince rippled.

THE END.

* Note: “Ripple Effect” was originally published in “Carolina Quarterly” in 2011.

Contributors:

Author Janis Butler Holm

Website

Janis Butler Holm has served as Associate Editor for Wide Angle, the film journal, and currently works as a writer and editor in sunny Los Angeles. Her prose, poems, and performance pieces have appeared in small-press, national, and international magazines. Her plays have been produced in the U.S., Canada, Russia, and the U.K. Find her at: https://www.janisbutlerholm.com

Artist Anita Driessen

Anita Driessen is an illustrator, a storyteller and a painter into tiny worlds. Her layered style of found objects, old letters and whimsical characters invite you in to explore a new world and your own imagination. Overlooking hills and faraway house, Anita lives with her fiancee, her son Micah, and their two cats, Chili and Pepper.