One day long, long ago before the sky had clouds, in a time when touching was a means of communicating, a little boy named Lex met a little girl named RayRay. RayRay was a very pretty little girl with ten toes and blonde braided hair.

Everything about Lex and RayRay made for perfect harmony. They had tea together, laughed and told silly stories, went for rides and swam in the emerald sea beneath the cloudless sky. This timeless togetherness continued for many, many years until one day a cloud came between them. Lex and RayRay both knew it was only a cloud – though they had never before seen one – but nonetheless it persisted to cover their view of one another and to hide them from one another’s sight. Lex and RayRay were mortified by the cloud which had come between them as never before!

On occasion both Lex and RayRay made an effort to get behind or in front of the cloud.  But never could they see one another from behind or in front of the cloud. The cloud somehow always stayed between them. So at last they gave up trying to live their hitherto cloudless lives, opting instead to live in a cloudy world.

But one morning Lex got out of bed very early, before the sun had risen from behind the trees on the horizon. Lex knew in an instant that although the cloud floated on the horizon immediately above the line of trees, the day was about to change for the better. And indeed it did!  Before long, that is before Lex had finished his breakfast of fruit and toast with honey and peanut butter, the sky began to clear. As far as the eye could see in any direction of the compass there was nothing above but an Empyrean map of blue. The sun, thought Lex, had at last fully dawned between him and RayRay. Once again, he continued, they were free to console themselves with the satisfaction of happiness and sharing; no longer was there anything obstructing their view!

With this profound reassurance in mind, Lex, now no longer yearning remorsefully for RayRay, was set to undertake the unobstructed joy of living, unheeded by cloud or misadventure. Note however, Dear Reader, that this is not to say that Lex and RayRay were reunited; they were not. Rather they were at leisure to pursue the glamour of living without the hindrance of shadow upon themselves. Time had passed between them, that inalterable modification of life which translates what once existed to soothe or disguise, to open a path to discovery.

Therein lies the moral of this story about Lex and RayRay, the prince and the princess. With the effluxion of time, these two marvellous people who just happened to be a prince and a princess from the ether on the other side eventually rose above the whisper of cloud beneath them and continued unhindered to the welkin beyond. It favourably portends for those of us still living under a cloud that we too may one day succeed to spirit our way to the natural firmament of Arcadia.