A long time ago, and far, far away . . .

You might have heard the story of the twins. Mother had died in childbirth, father, well, nobody wanted to talk about him much. They were separated, raised in very different environments.

One, a boy named Luke, was taken to a palace. The girl, named Lea, was taken to a dessert. But that’s only the beginning .

See, Luke’s adoptive parents had a gift of sensitivity, and soon realized that although the baby was physically a male, that she had the spirit of a girl. Being open and wise, they allowed her to express her true self.

They allowed her to experiment, to be a tomboy one day and a dressed up princess the next, as she chose. She chose to change her name to Lea, not knowing why.

Life was less easy for her twin. Despite being a girl, her new parents decided to raise her as a boy because they needed a male heir. They renamed her Luke, and refused to allow her to express any feminine qualities at all.

This made the child very unhappy, that she was missing something important, but lacking a vocabulary to express it, she instead tried her best to please her parents, but remained isolated, and often retreated into dreams and fantasies.

The next part of the story is pretty well known, Luke found a message from Lea, and even though she didn’t know who this princess was, felt compelled to meet her. They met, had many exciting adventures, rescued each other many times, and finally learned that they were siblings, and freed the land from its oppressors.

Lea found a good man, and even though it he seemed a bit of a rascal at first, he fell in love with her and became everything she could hope for in a husband. Things were harder for Luke. She was forced to continue in the role of a man to run the family business after her adopted parents died, and even though she had tried to rescue her birth father, he died without ever acknowledging her as the daughter she truly was.

While her sister could return to her palace with her new prince, Luke had no one to share her life with, no one who allowed her the freedom to even express the loss and sorrow she felt. So that’s the story of the twins.

Life doesn’t always have a happily ever after, does it?