The Fallen Prince That Never Was

by A. G. Higgins

  Chapter 3

  Free Butterflies of Summer

  With the voyage underway, the Queen Marry sailed forth upon an unknown horizon. It would only be a matter of time before Captain Frances would discover Zack and Suzan. As expected, when he did he wasn’t too pleased. Professor Clayton would of course deny any wrong doing; least not by he’s means. However, Captain Frances knew only too well of his part, and if it was not for being at sea for too long a day, he would have turned ship and put both guest and stowaway to port. But the price of return voyage was too costly, worthless to his days of sail. Simply, he would have little choice but to continue.

  And so many days passed. But for Zack and Suzan they had been long and not always full of excitement as first they thought. Captain Frances and the Professor had minds of unease. There was always tension, words of unspoken truth over this affair of stowaways. However, Captain Frances thought it best to put his feelings at rest – so too did Professor Clayton. In the meantime the Professor would busy himself with his study, and Captain Frances to that of his ship.

  Some days, just to pass the time, Zack and Suzan would pretend to be pirates, hiding and seeking for one another throughout the ship. Though this would be much to the Captain’s displease, his cold glance of eye always enough to give care for behaviour. But in truth his heart did begin to warm to them. And though he would try not to let it show, those whom knew him best could tell. As for the crew, they would at times show Zack and Suzan of the ship’s running. On warm evenings they would swim in the ocean, and in particular, Zack was keen to learn how to spear fresh fish at sea. At times like this Suzan stayed on deck. She liked to write poems about life, plants and animals. She liked to write about the stars and the moon and the sun. She liked to write about how she felt the world ought to be. The Sisters at the Orphanage would not let her do so. Everything was a sin to them. But sitting cosily on deck now, finding Zack’s attempts of fishing amusing, she would be free to write as she dared.

  At the end of day the crew would gather atop of deck about an open fire. Here they would cook their catch to feast and sing and dance beneath the glorious stars of a night. It was Suzan’s favourite time. She quite liked the sound of traditional music. She quite liked that silly feeling that it gave her as she danced – the Fiddle and the Pennywhistle, the Bodhran and the Accordion – Professor Clayton and Captain Frances joining in with the amusement of all. Of those days at sea it was as though all was right with the world. But upon one such evening Zack sat alone for a time. He was deep in thought as he watched the sun set across the ocean.

  Soon, Professor Clayton came to his side. ‘It’s wonderful, isn’t it,’ began Zack, ‘do you think that you could ever find such an ocean anywhere else in the world as beautiful as this?’

  ‘Perhaps you have heard of oceans which meet the desert? But few have heard of oceans within a desert,’ replied Professor Clayton, ‘now that, my boy... is quite a sight.’

  ‘An ocean within a desert?’

  ‘Oh yes, in some parts of the world – few mind you,’ he said with a slight hint of mastery, ‘they call them Ribbon Dunes; a place where once you could grasp many a grain of sand in your hand, almost elusive in its nature as it slips through your fingers; a place where such now becomes no more than mud, sluggish and frail in its once grand design. That, my young friend, is a sight most beautiful when you have had your fill of an everlasting earth crying out with the want of thirst. To some it would be quite impossible to believe... though it exists nevertheless.’

  ‘Have you seen it?’

  ‘There was a time, once when I found myself upon the north–eastern coast of Brazil,’ he replied with a smile, ‘but let us not speak of how such came to be – some associates of mine would care not to remember.’

  ‘Wouldn’t that be such a sight to see?’

  ‘Perhaps someday you will?’

  ‘Why did you help us?’ asked Zack after a moment of silence, ‘I mean, you could have said something but you didn’t – why?’

  Professor Clayton allowed time for thought, ‘if life’s path is laid before you least unfortunate than others, can you not afford to extend such courtesy to those less enriched?’ he said, ‘the secret to life, my boy, is all but left to chance. When it calls, dare to chance the tide and let fate be your guide.

  ‘I don’t understand?’ said Zack, ‘What do mean?’

  ‘Someday, when you are old and wise, you will understand the true meaning of my words. Until such a time – and I pray that it is far, far less misguided than I – your burden of youth is to simply live it.’

  ‘That’s the secret,’ he asked, ‘to live...?’

  ‘Only one version I’m afraid, but of course there are many others. The question is; which one is relevant to you?’ said Professor Clayton amusingly, his boyish eyes wide and lit with charm.

  ‘So, what about you Professor, what brings you here?’ asked Zack, ‘Which one did you choose?’

  ‘Who, me? – Why I am but an old man searching for my place in the world too. It’s seems in my age of old, I have found myself as a gentleman of my time but not of its progress; a relic lost to a society once so splendid?’ Professor Clayton thought for a moment, as though dreaming of a time where he once belonged. ‘But come, enough words must you hear from a foolish old man. Tell me of yourself for so many days endlessly adrift, I have yet to learn of your true origin. May I be kindly permitted to ask as to what path has led you two here?’

  ‘Suzie was five or six when we first met,’ replied Zack, ‘she moved around a lot, one place to the next – too old for homing. Like me, people only wanted younger children; to watch them take their first step or hear their first words. Not us, in the end we would be too old to think of them as our real parents; we’d always know. But the younger ones, well...’ Zack seemed to sigh with a heavy sadness before he continued, ‘I suppose that’s why we stuck with each other? We tried to make a family of our own. We tried searching for a place where we could belong. Like the older kids we hit the streets, surviving as best we could. When hunger became too much we pinched food. We used damp cardboard as shelter at night and learned to love its smell. We never stopped moving. We never stayed in one place for too long. You had to keep moving, if you didn’t the streets could become a dangerous place. Though no matter what, at least we had each other. At least we could believe that tomorrow could bring something better? But if I thought that the streets were tough I was wrong. Sooner or later we knew that we’d get caught. When we did, they sent us to the Sisters of the Blessed.’

  ‘A place less befitting of its name I fear?’

  ‘I mean don’t get me wrong,’ replied Zack, ‘it wasn’t all that bad; Suzie had a warm bed at night, three meals a day and clean clothes to wear. It’s just that the Sisters were more than strict. And no matter the roof over your head, it wasn’t really somewhere you could call home.’Zack began to recall his time spent in the orphanage, ‘in the morning the bell would ring down the lone corridors. Sister Marry loved to ring that old thing, walking from the boys’ dormitory to the girls. Up you got, queuing with the rest for your chance at the wash room. Cleaned behind your ears and brushed your teeth, before getting dressed to percent yourself at the end of your bed for inspection. But if you had a crooked line in your shirt, you had a sore hand for a week – So many times I wanted to break that cane, even if it was across my hand,’ thought Zack while clenching his fist. ‘After breakfast you had morning prayers then schooling. You couldn’t help anyone, even if they couldn’t read too well; the Sisters would make sure of that. Yard time was when I got to see Suzie. At first we tried to fit in with the other kids, but everyone’s got their own problems I guess? Sometimes, me and Suzie, we’d dare each other to climb the trees and see who could go the highest? If you made it without been seen, you could chuck stones down at the sisters when they weren’t looking – Though you wouldn’t always getting away with it. At times like that you got sent to Sister Clancy’s office, the last
place anyone wanted to end up. If you stepped out of line with her too much, it was the workhouse for you.’

  ‘Such cruel a fate,’ said Professor Clayton, Zack seeming distant now, ‘for unjust seems the true care of man; sins we so foolishly deem worthy?’

  ‘I remember once sneaking out from my room, meeting Suzie by the entrance of the bell tower. It was just off the grand hall, and if you timed it right, you could rush up its spiral stairway without ever being seen. Out across the rooftops we’d go, sitting high above our troubles below, just watching the sun set. Suzie would always wish we could float away, float like the free butterflies of summer...

  Do you think that we will ever find our place, Zack? Somewhere beneath the stars, floating away like the free butterflies of summer. Wouldn’t it be wonderful? – Promise, promise that you always stay with me?

  …I promise…

  ‘That evening, sitting there beneath the stars overlooking the cobbled streets below, I didn’t have the heart to tell Suzie that I was going to be sent away,’ conceded Zack while recalling the moment of his promise, ‘I had been sent the Sister Clancy’s office too many times for one thing or the other. You see, Suzie, she had found herself in trouble and I knew that she couldn’t take another going over... I could see it in her eyes.’

  ‘So you took the blame,’ said Professor Clayton worriedly, ‘knowing only too well that it would be your last to bear?’

  ‘What else could I do? It was better me than Suzie – not with where she was going to end up anyway,’ he replied heartedly, ‘Sister Clancy told me that I’d never see her again, not this time.’ Zack lay in thought for a moment, almost as though he were saying farewell to everything he had ever known; saying farewell to a place that he should have been able to call home. ‘Strange isn’t it,’ he said at last, ‘I’ve chosen to run away all my life, and now... now I have to?’

  For the first time in his life Professor Clayton could not find words of comfort. Perhaps, he thought as they both eyed the sunset, sometimes such words would be best left to the sound of silence.

  For Zack, this was to be his last fond memory of their voyage together. Soon the days turned bitter, the mind of man seeming changed by a darkly sea – the Professor most of all? And it would not be long thereafter, before the birth of a great storm would begin. The ship had sailed too far, and the fate of all was cast to the will of tide...