Once upon a time, a lovely princess was born in the west. This baby princess, Laura, was so adorable with her large brown eyes rolling curiously. She smiled a lot and seldom cried. Her parents found that she was an active baby, stretching her arms and legs and rolling her tiny body in the cradle all the time. She seemed so interested in all the new things around her. It was a pleasure to be with such a cheerful child. Laura became the apple of her parents¡¦ eyes.Princess Laura grew up as a happy girl, always so lively and enthusiastic. One day in the middle of the night, Laura¡¦s mother was awaken by some noise. It happened that it was from Laura¡¦s room. She pushed open the door and found her daughter dancing merrily with her teddy bear.
¡¨No no sweety!¡¨ said the Queen gently. ¡§It¡¦s time for you to go to bed.¡¨
¡¨But mom,¡¨ replied Laura, ¡§I don¡¦t feel like sleeping. I want to dance with Mr Teddy.¡¨
The Queen held her daughter in her loving arms and said, ¡§You can dance with him tomorrow. I believe Mr Teddy is tired. A good girl should be in bed slumbering now. Let me sing you a lullaby.¡¨
Although not willing to go to bed, Laura did not want to upset her mother. She closed her eyes after the lullaby finished. The Queen turned off the light and gently closed the door behind her. She went back to sleep thinking that her daughter was now having sweet dreams. Little did she know that Laura talked to her teddy bear the whole night after she left.
Days passed and Princess Laura was now a young lady. She was still as playful and full of life as ever. She was interested in everything around her. She could spend her day running around the palace, getting involved in anything that caught her eyes. Once she was in the garden watching a snail, then a colorful butterfly flew pass and she tried to catch it. She followed the butterfly and went into the kitchen. The aroma of onion soup caught her attention, so she forgot the beautiful insect and bugged the chef to teach her how to cook. When she found a maid with a tray of elegant crockery, she wanted to help deliver tea to her mom. She accompanied her mom for a while drinking tea and playing with her puppy Bo Bo. She chased after Bo Bo until they entered the ballroom. The grand piano looked interesting to her and she started composing strange tunes until another thing caught her eyes. That was pretty much how Princess Laura spent her time every day. Her present lit up the palace.
However, she was too energetic. Her spirits never lowered even when it was late at night. It seemed that she did not need to sleep. Unlike when she was a child, she was not contented to be just accompanied by her teddy bear through the night. She wanted others to join her never-ending games or talks. Every night, someone would have to sacrifice his or her sleeping time for Laura, not even the King and the Queen could be excluded. Not long after that, Laura was nicknamed the Sleepless Princess.
As time went by, Princess Laura¡¦s sleepless problem had become more and more serious. Everywhere in the palace, people could be seen yawning all the time, trying their best to stay awake. Some even slept on their work. The King could not stand that anymore and talked to her daughter.
¡¨My dear daughter,¡¨ asked the frowning King, ¡§aren¡¦t you tired? Why don¡¦t you go to bed and leave those sleepy people alone?¡¨
¡¨I am sorry daddy!¡¨ replied Laura with her head down. ¡§I tired to sleep but every time I closed my eyes, lots of wonderful things came into my mind making me wide awake. No matter how hard I tried, I still couldn¡¦t fall asleep.¡¨
¡¨Oh my poor child!¡¨ sighed the King, comforting her daughter in his arms. ¡§But why asking others to stay up with you? They need their sleep.¡¨
¡¨I didn¡¦t mean to make them suffer,¡¨ explained Laura with tears in her eyes. ¡§I thought it would be nice if I could share the great things in life with others.¡¨
The King decided to have her daughter¡¦s sleeplessness cured. He called for all the best doctors in the kingdom, but none of their pills or herbs could make Laura fall asleep. Finally the King announced that anyone who could help the Sleepless Princess fall asleep would be rewarded with half of his kingdom and a royal marriage with his precious daughter. Princes from all over the world flooded into the country to give their try. The kingdom had never been so crowded before.
A prince from the east came with some rare eastern herbal medicine. He claimed that with his secret formula, Princess Laura would definitely fall into the deepest sleep she ever had. However, Laura was attracted by the strange herbs and started asking the prince lots of questions about eastern medical practice. At first the prince was eager to answer the questions, showing off his medical knowledge. After hours of endless questioning, the prince got so tired, but the Sleepless Princess showed no sign of a break. Laura only took a sip of the dark liquid the prince gave her but the bitterness of the drug made her jumped and wide-awake. The eastern prince could not take Laura¡¦s barrage anymore that he gulped the rest of the medicine in the bowl and slumbered like a baby.
Three twin princes from Fantasyland arrived to take their goes. Prince Kenny, Prince Gary and Prince Juan each brought a gift for Princess Laura. They believed that by making the Princess really tired, she would eventually fall asleep. Prince Kenny gave Laura a football. Laura took a fancy to this funny round ball with hexagon pattern. Kenny taught her a new game called soccer, which demanded a huge amount of energy. He thought Laura would be so exhausted after a soccer game that she would fall into a deep sleep. However sport only made Laura higher in spirits than ever. She now got a passion for soccer. She kept Kenny staying up all night to play with her. Even someone as strong as Kenny could not stay conscious without sleeping for days. Laura¡¦s last score hit Kenny¡¦s head before entering the goal and he passed out.
Prince Gary brought the Princess a 40-inch television with super bass, surround sound system and cable TV. He assumed that with pure concentration to a monitor all the time, the eyes would be so tired that it is not possible to keep the eyelids up. Laura was fascinated by all the programs shown on TV, even the boring documentaries interested her. She had fun switching channels with the remote control and became a couch potato. Not long after Laura started staring at the screen, Gary was already snoozing in the armchair.
Prince Juan introduced Laura to the computer and Internet. Laura learnt fast and managed to use the computer well in a short time. The new technology and all the interesting things on the net amazed her. Once she was at the computer, she could not leave her seat. She clicked on different websites and became the posting queen of message boards. Although Juan was famous for being a web-surfing night owl, he could not compare himself to the ultra-energetic Laura. He dozed off on the keyboard several times. After two days, he gave up and jumped onto a bed snoring like a pig.
All attempts from other princes failed and they left the country with disappointment. Seemed like Laura was going to remain as the Sleepless Princess forever. Just when the King was about to give up hopes, a strange prince from Down-Under arrived. His name was Neko. He was a handsome prince with limited words and an expressionless face. To Laura¡¦s surprise, Prince Neko did not bring anything with him to make her sleep. That made Laura more interested in him. He seldom talked and only responded to Laura¡¦s questions and comments with a yes or no and sometimes just a blank stare or a mere smile. The most extraordinary thing that made him stood out of the crowd was that he could accompany Laura the whole day without even taking a nap in between.
One day, Laura asked curiously, ¡§You are so different from other princes. You don¡¦t talk. You don¡¦t smile and you don¡¦t ¡K¡K sleep! Don¡¦t you feel tired playing all day with me?¡¨
For the first time, Neko answered her with complete sentences. ¡§Yes, I do feel tired.¡¨ Explained Neko. ¡§You have no idea how much I want to fall into a deep slumber all these years. However I can do without rest when I have to. There are too many tasks for me to accomplish that I don¡¦t have time to sleep. How about you? Why didn¡¦t you sleep?¡¨
Laura pondered for a while and replied, ¡§Well, I don¡¦t feel like sleeping. It¡¦s a waste of time to sleep when there are so many wonderful things in the world for me to see and explore. Whenever I closed my eyes, new ideas just rushed into my mind and I felt even more spirited than ever!¡¨
¡¨Then I bet you missed one amazing experience in life,¡¨ said Neko with a grin, ¡§something that you would never get when you refused to sleep.¡¨
¡¨What¡¦s that?¡¨ asked Laura impatiently. ¡§Tell me! Tell me!¡¨
¡¨Dreams.¡¨ Neko answered casually as he turned and left, leaving the Princess alone in the garden confused.
The next day Prince Neko approached the still puzzled Princess with a suggestion. He proposed that they should have a competition. The person who fell asleep first would win. Laura accepted the challenge right away. She told herself that she must win the game. She concentrated her mind on sleeping only. Soon there were noises that had never appeared in the palace. Laura was snoring loudly. Seeing that Laura was not the Sleepless Princess anymore, Neko smiled and left for his long lost deep slumber.
The sleeping Princess made a wonderful dream. She dreamed of herself flying in the sky like a bird, lying on the clouds and sliding down a rainbow. She woke up the next morning in delight. She had never felt so refreshed before. Laura went to meet her hero and thanked him with a big hug.
¡¨Thank you so much for helping me fall asleep!¡¨ said Laura gratefully. ¡§Sleeping now has a new meaning to me.¡¨
¡¨It¡¦s my pleasure to help you, dear princess!¡¨ replied the smiling Prince. ¡§It¡¦s not that you couldn¡¦t sleep, you were just not willing to sleep in the past.¡¨
¡¨You are right, I was a fool to miss such a great thing in life.¡¨ Said the blushing Princess, ¡§You know what? I had a sweet dream last night. I even dreamed about you! Promise me that from now on you will be in my dreams every night?¡¨
¡¨Yes dear, I promise!¡¨ answered Neko, holding his princess tight in his arms.
The King was so grateful with Prince Neko in curing his precious daughter¡¦s sleeplessness. He kept his words and gave Prince Neko half of his kingdom. A grand royal wedding was held in the palace. The whole country blessed the charming couple and celebrated their marriage for a week. Princess Laura and Prince Neko lived happily ever after.
