King Chisulo looked out over the balcony on the stately gardens surrounding his palace and sighed. He had received yet another report through the papers that his only child and heir, Crown Prince Adebayo, was spending increasing amounts of time with his new crush, the racing driver, Ashton Speed. Chisulo was a liberal thinker. He did not have a problem that his son was gay. It had startled him, to be sure, but he had always told his son that he should never be afraid to do what he felt was right in his heart. At the time when he had been teaching his young son this life lesson he was thinking that it would be a useful guideline for his reign when he became king of the land in his turn. He did not think that Adebayo would apply his life lesson in such a way, but on reflection he was proud of his son for his courage in defending his conviction.
Chisulo had raised his son on his own since the death of his beloved Queen, Chioma, in childbirth. It was a bitter blow to the royal household, but the young king bore bore his pain stoically and tried to be both a good leader and a great father. He had proven to be both wise and fair, and the people had hoped that the king would marry again and find happiness for himself as he had brought great contentment and prosperity to his people. Chisulo had never wanted to marry again, for Chioma had been the love of his life and he felt that serving his people well was the way in which he would find greatest contentment in life.
It was into this household that Prince Adebayo was born. His father had given him a liberal education and taught him to live an authentic and fearless life. Prince Adebayo was handsome and talented, intelligent, hardworking, courageous and kind. In fact he was perfect, and would have made, in time, as good a king as his father was.
At age 18, he cautioned his father that he thought that he preferred men and that he wanted him to consider changing the laws of the land to allow him to marry a mate of his own choosing, even if that person was not one of the eligible socialites to whom he had been introduced. His father, King Chisulo, thought that this was a phase and left him alone to sow his wild oats. At age 21, however, the prince still showed no signs of wanting to marry a woman, and the High Council of Advisors became restive and demanded that the king give his son an ultimatum.
Chisulo was troubled. He knew that his son would make a good king, regardless of whom he chose to share his personal life. The problem was that the laws of the land said that the ruler of the land had to pass the crown on to his or her child or it would be the end of the monarchy. If Prince Adebayo insisted on marrying a man and having no relations with a woman then the monarchy would be over with him.
Chisulo examined the situation with the law, saw that it could not be changed and tried to reason with his son about his decision. He explained, again, the concept of doing one's duty for one's people regardless of the cost to oneself. Adebayo was sympathetic, but could not bring himself to think of governing the land without his companion, Ashton. He proposed a bold solution to his father. He offered to relinquish any claim that he had to the throne and urged his father to consider finding a wife for himself and have another child with her! That child would be the new heir to the throne.
The king did not wish to do this for many reasons: he felt that it was unfair for his son to have to relinquish the throne; he did not wish to marry again himself and there was no guarantee that his other child or children would not be gay as well and where would he be then? He thought to push for legislation that would change the laws governing the succession to the throne. This would take a long time, but King Chisulo was confident that he could do something to change the law since he could.
Adebayo smiled sadly at his father. He had made his decision. He was not interested in ruling the land. He wanted to be a race car driver and have Ashton chase him on all the race tracks across the world. He was confident that he was the better driver and he wanted to prove himself in a field of his own choosing.
Chisulo could not believe what he was hearing. He became angry with his son. He banished him from the kingdom; and after a season of sorrow, set out to find a wife and rebuild his dynasty.
News of the king's quest spread like wildfire throughout the land and far beyond its borders. People threw parties in order to introduce the king to their daughters. Governments the world over invited him to their shores hoping that he would choose a bride from among their citizens. Chisulo found himself among the jet set travelling from Jakarta to Jamaica, from Nairobi to Newfoundland. It annoyed the king how busy his social calendar became all of a sudden. He did not wish to align himself with anyone who wished to marry him in order to live a fabulously wealthy life. He wanted a woman who saw her duty to the people as her primary mission. She had to be fertile and have many children with him to be sure; but if she liked him enough to be kind to him and honour him in their marriage then that would be a welcome asset; but he was not hoping for love a second time in this life. It was the recognition of the importance of service to the nation that would be the deciding factor.
It was a year into his search and King Chisulo fell seriously ill. He was exhausted by his schedule of work and partying. His heart was never in it and he just could not settle on someone. He had begun to move about incognito in an effort to find someone who did not try so hard to impress him, but still he was unsuccessful. He had begun to despair because he saw an unsuspected ugliness in the world around him. He had been so successful in bringing prosperity to his people that they seemed to have forgotten the important things in life. Many of the women to whom the king had been introduced proved to be greedy, vain and shallow, their families ambitious for them to marry into the royal family. Their education was being wasted in the pursuit of money and pleasure for their own sake.
It took the king over two weeks to recover somewhat from his illness and all that time he had only one old lady and her granddaughter to look after him. He had been too ill to notice fully how the young woman had wiped his sweaty brow and how she had sponge bathed him and changed his sheets when he soiled himself. He did not realise how much patience it took to spoon-feed him the soup that restored his strength and he would never know that it was her voice that read and sang and talked to him, calling him back from the brink when he had slipped into a coma one night. He did not hear her tears or feel her lips as she kissed his the night before his security detail came to rescue him and take him back to his palace. He did not know that his Chief of Staff, frightened by the near loss of the monarchy, and shocked at how unrecognisable the sick king was, whisked him away without so much as a thank you to the two ladies for their hospitality!
The king had given up on being able to find someone who would be good and true and as he lay in his bed recovering he reflected that he would propose to the daughter of the Foreign Affairs Minister since she, at least, knew the rules of protocol and so would not embarrass him at stately functions. King Chisulo decided to throw a ball for his 41st birthday and make his announcement there.
Everyone who was anyone was invited to the ball, and the other members of the public thronged the streets hoping to see the good and the great pass by. Everyone felt, though no one knew for sure that the king planned to name his bride at the event. There was an excited sense of expectation in the air.