The Princess of Walmart
The Princess of the Always-Low. Once there was a Princess named Wally, who lived in a castle of corrugated steel at the edge of a town that had, a long time ago, been a town. She was not beautiful. She was not kind. She was not wise. She was, in fact, exactly what her father the King had ordered, and what the King had ordered was a Princess who could read the price of anything, but never the value of anything, and who could measure the length of any line, but never the length of any life. The Princess's job was simple. Every morning, she walked the aisles of her father's Kingdom — the Kingdom of the Always-Low — and she lowered every price, and she lowered every wage, and she lowered every standard, until every other Kingdom in the land had to lower its prices too, and its wages too, and its standards too, until finally there was only one Kingdom, and the King was the only King, and the Princess was the only Princess, and the price of everything was very, very low. And the pe...