by Tony Nalley
“I think I scared it away!” I said all heroic like. “At least I don’t see it no more.”
“Well you need to come back inside with me and leave that snake alone!” My mama said.
Whirlin’ around and gesturin’ towards the apartment houses where the girls lived, my Mama said. “You’d better go home too girls. You don’t want to be out here all alone, if that snake comes back do you?”
The thought of that snake comin’ back made both girls run screamin’ to their apartment house!
Mama smiled and laughed to herself for reasons unknown to me, and then we went inside too!
The knight had defeated the Dragon but had left without as much as a kiss from his fair maiden. Not that he wanted one mind you. A true knight knows that justice is its own reward.
For a knight must stand with honor and chivalry, to protect and defend the downtrodden and the weak.
The fair maiden I had saved from the Dragon was the first girl that I ever fell in love with.
My next love was for a girl in my second grade class. She would pass me notes when the teacher wasn’t lookin’! And she’d get the other boys in my class to catch me and hold me down on the playground, so that she could kiss my face!
I’d wipe those kisses right off of my face! I tell you that!
I wonder what ever happened to her.
I was such a kid!
***
October 1799
Father Joseph Flaget met with Louis Philippe d’Orléans in Havana by urgent request. They met in his office suite overlooking the bay. It was midday and the sun shone brightly upon the pale blue waters.
“Bon après-midipère. Il est si bon que vous me rencontrer à nouveau aujourd’hui. Vous savez de ce Père boîte?” Louis spoke in French tongue. “Pardon me Father. I spoke without thinking. Let us speak in English that others may hear but not understand our words.” he said smiling. “Please have a seat.” He turned to his servant then and said, “Francois, apportez quelque chose de nos invites à boire.” as he clapped his hands towards him. “He will bring us refreshments. Please make yourself comfortable Père.”
“I wish to thank you for the monies you have helped collect for me. And if you will permit me, Père, I have one further request?” he stated as a question. From an open a drawer within his desk he removed and held out a small box to the priest. “Do you know of this Père?” The Duke displayed the box, made of fine hand carved wood and aligned with gold, silver and pearl inlays.
“This golden box holds the ‘Sang Pierre’, the Stone of Blood.” Louise said. “It is also known as the ‘Martyr’s Gem’. Early Christians used stones such as this to carve scenes of the crucifixion. And according to legend, these stones were first formed as Christ’s blood fell at the foot of the cross. But of course my friend, you do know this. Yes?” he said as he smiled and waited for the priest’s acknowledgement and then continued. “This stone …it is different Père. It is said to contain the innocent blood of a young woman, wrongfully accused of witchcraft, and executed because of my family.”
He stood then and walked around his desk and leaned against its front edge. “It has been in the possession of my family since the ‘Burning Times’; times when those who practiced witchcraft were burned in the fires. Legends say that this stone holds a power, a mystical power over those who are cursed to walk between two worlds; by the light of the day as mortal man, but by the light of the Hunter’s Moon as that of the ‘werewolf’.” he said as he smiled. “But I do not partake in such superstition as this.” he said dismissing any possibility it held.
“Much of the story has faded in my memory.” he gestured with his hands as he told of the stone. “But one thing remains; it may never be touched by human hands; for whoever touches it Père, will walk the earth forever as a ghost, a spirit; apparition! Though I am not a superstitious man Père, you undertand that I am also not a fool!”
Francois re-entered the room carrying a silver tray.
“Ah! Refreshments! Have some Père?” Louis offered and they both took from the servant’s tray.
“But even so...” he paused as he continued to sit upon the edge of his desk and took a long sip of the cool drink from his glass. “…even so, there are those who are hunting this.” he said almost laughing at the thought that someone would want it. “Who are hunting this still!” he paused in silent reflection. “And for as long as it is in my possession Père, I am hunted also.” he pulled back then with box in hand holding it out to the priest. “It is time for the curse to pass Father. I am done with it and need it be gone, it must leave my house. You understand Père?”
Louis Philippe d'Orléans knelt down then at the chair before the priest. Father Joseph listened in tentatively as Louis Philippe placed the golden vessel of the ‘Sang Pierre’ into his hands and continued to speak.
“As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, I am the ‘Prince du Sang’ Prince of Blood, soon to return to my homeland, where I will be King. There is Revolution as you know well, where they desecrate the house of God and our country. But I will reclaim what is rightfully mine! But for this, this that has been handed down through my family’s line can no longer be a mark upon our house Père.”
He bowed his head then as he kissed the hand of the priest.
“Forgive me Père, but understand that once you accept possession of this, once this passes from the House of Bourbon to the Papacy I will forevermore deny its role in my family’s history. We shall have an unspoken bond between us, yes?”
“Rex Quondam vos nominatur, PRAEPOSITUS nobis fiet?” Respondit pater in Latin. “Suscipiam et traderent in manus ipse Summus Pontifex, sed et mittam ei gratiam et pictura nobis erit disserendum artificiata?”
“Once you are named King, we will be made preferential?” The father replied in Latin. “I will accept this and deliver it personally into the hands of His Holiness the Pope, but you will send favor to him and we will have the artifacts and paintings we had discussed?”
“C'est fait.”
“It is done.”
Meanwhile, on the European continent across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Mediterranean Sea, Napoléon landed his armies in Fréjus. Within a month the French Revolution would come to an end with the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire (9 November 1799) in which General Napoléon Bonaparte would overthrow the Directoire and replace it with the Consulate.
Four
Words of Silence
Invisible words hold power. When used correctly they could wield energy so devastating that it could take a kid a lifetime to overcome! For example, my mama told me when I was little that there was an invisible fence out there in our front yard. And that I couldn’t go past it!
Now I was smart enough to know that there wasn’t a real fence in our front yard.But if I ever crossed over that invisible fence line, my Mama would’ve come down on me like a month of Sundays!
It was proof enough to me that whether or not the words held a literal meanin’ …my mama’s hand to my back side made it real!
Behave was also an invisible word. The word in itself held a plethora of meanings. A two syllable word that could hold you in your tracks; and make you back up and take another look at it! It was an invisible stop sign kind of word. A word you most often didn’t hear until after you’d already passed it. To tell you the truth, even to this day I don’t know as I have ever quite figured out how to do that word before passin’ it!
I lived in a world filled with invisible words such as these; invisible words and un-discernin’ facial expressions. If a word could stop you in your tracks, then a look could grab you and penetrate your very soul.
I thought about things like this often, even at a young age. I don’t know why, it was just the way I thought …but I would soon lose myself again and return to my imaginations:
…I wiped my sword clean of the blood of the Dragon and returned it to its sheath. The journey home to my father’s castle, though made in haste had been a necessary recourse.
/> The maidens had been rescued and the valleys had been saved from their impending devastation. Although there were no ticker tape parades or festivals thrown in my honor, peace had been restored once again to the land.
A soft bed had now been laid before this valiant knight; with curtains drawn and beseeched to take leave…
“But Mama, I don’t wanna take a nap!” I said with tears swellin’ up in my eyes and usin’ my puppy dog face.
“It is time for you to get some sleep Toby. Now climb into bed, close your eyes and rest for a little while.” Mama said.
…I would not bring fight against the Queen this day; my energy havin’ already been spent. A knight must regain his strength after all if he is to continue to protect the realm.
The Queen kissed my forehead, and tucked me in solidly beneath the satin garb.
Cause of her great tenderness, I harnessed my angst and lay there upon the bed that had been prepared for me, and rested my eyes...
And so the dreams took me ...dreams of runnin’ horses and fire dragons; dreams of magic castles and valiant knights, and dreams of the night my sister was born…
‘I had wanted a sister so bad that I couldn’t stand it! I can’t tell you that I even knew what a sister was! But I knew that I wanted one. I had gone so far as to offer all of the pennies in my piggy bank to the doctor, if he would help me get one!
The night she was born, my dad was so nervous. He paced the floor so much that I thought he might wear out a trail, right there in the livin’ room floor!
“You can sit down and rest for a while.” I said to my dad. “I’ll pace the floor for you.”
So he sat down on the couch and rested, while I got up and paced the floor for him!
Mom and Dad named my sister, Anna. And she was a very tiny baby. Mama said that I could hold her on my lap, but that I needed to be real careful not to drop her! I was always careful about that.
I never dropped her, not even one time!’
I awakened slowly from my dreams within the hour: yawnin’ stretchin’ and wallerin’ beneath the covers of my bed. The house was alive with music, while sunlight from outside fell upon the widows of my room and reflected multicolored lights upon my walls!
Mama danced through the kitchen and hallway to music from her stereo while my sister played in the toy room and hollered for me to wake up!
“Get up! Get up! Get up!” Anna said. She didn’t know how to say too many words yet. So she’d get overly excited whenever she said some that we could understand! “Get up brother! Get up!”
“Yay!” she exclaimed as I got up out of bed. And then she squealed and clapped her hands!
“Mama, can me and Anna go outside and play?” I said in a yawnin’ voice, stretchin’ my arms over my head while walkin’ thru my room to the kitchen to stand in the doorway.
My mama smiled.
Anna couldn’t go outside by herself, but I knew that if I asked if she could go outside with me then there was a better chance of Mama sayin’ I could!
We did get to go outside again. Mama came with us. She came outside, laid a blanket down on the grass and we had a picnic lunch right out there in the sun!
We played the rest of that afternoon. I played at bein’ the fastest gun in the west, while my sister pushed her baby doll around in her stroller. Anna didn’t understand the whole cowboy and Indian game, but if she wanted to play with me I would let her.
Anna laughed at me as I ran around in the grass pretendin’ to shoot the sky.
And she laughed again as the dandelions puffed up into the air and tickled her nose!
***
July 1833
A rogue band of U.S. Calvary seized control of the Federal Hill Plantation. It had been torn asunder; thoroughly searched and turned upside down! Its contents lay in shambles: rubbish strewn across its floors, its curtains ripped down from their high places! Its people were horded into its main room where they sat together upon the hardwood floors, children sitting in grownups laps, coloreds and white people alike.
Nathanael’s soldiers held back the fires by his command though torches were prepared and his men stood at the ready.
The General positioned himself in the parlor now, shouting at his prisoners; and interrogating them for information!
“Where is the ‘Sang Pierre’? Where is the Blood Stone!” he demanded as he reached down and grabbed a small child by the hair of her head, and held her up in the air as she squealed and kicked!
“Someone, tell me where it is!” He exclaimed and then threw the girl against the wall and watched her as she collapsed to the floor.
Nathanael’s rage consumed him as his mind slipped willingly into madness; his insanity changed him as his anger and resentment surged!
“I will have that stone!” He screamed as he toppled over tables, bookshelves and vanity’s filled with bourbon, shattering glass upon the parlor’s floor at his captive’s feet!
“It’s not here sir!” One of his officers interrupted “We’ve searched the entire place sir, men women and children. It’s not here sir! It’s been moved.”
Nathanael dropped his head. For so long he had searched for it; for so long it had eluded him.
He looked down upon the faces of the women, children and slaves that sat before him. He looked into their faces as they huddled together for comfort, cowering and crying in fear.
“Bring me the witch!” he demanded.
Moments later a sullen tattered clothed woman stood before him.
She was dirty and barefoot, clad with shackles on her feet.
“You told me it was here Witch!” He barked at the woman and slapped her face!
She turned her gaze back to him slowly and smiled at him with contempt.
“You said Rowan!” Nathanael sneered.
“La pierre de sang ne sera jamais la vôtre!” Cria la femme comme elle cracha sur lui!
“The Stone of Blood will never be yours!” She shouted and then spat on him!
Nathanael’s eyes shown red with fury and his voice grew deeper with wrath! “Don’t leave any of them alive!” he commanded of his men. “Kill them! Kill them all!”
A great wailing of sorrow began as his soldiers moved forward to seal the captive’s fate!
“Wait!” Nathanael suddenly ordered, holding up his hand for them to stop. An intrinsic silence fell over those confined, as they hoped for reprieve, a silence that was replaced immediately by dread as their captor spoke again; this time at a volume they could all but hear.
“Clean this place up!” he said to his officers; turning, walking and wiping his face and brow of the spittle with his handkerchief and then removing his wide brimmed hat. “We have no need to start a war here yet, so let’s not arouse more attention than we already have.”
“You have the cadaver still? The one in the wagon from Lexington?” He stated to his men rather than questioned. His chief officer acknowledged.
“Jetez-le dans le puits et les faire boire.” Il a dit dans la langue de sorte que seuls ses hommes pouvaient le comprendre. “Le choléra se propage et ne sera plus sage.”
“Throw it in the water well and make them drink from it.” he said in tongue so that only his men could understand him. “The cholera will spread and no one will be the wiser.”
“Nous allons tous les tuer! Il vous suffit de regarder, comme si elle faisait partie de l'épidémie.” At-il poursuivi, comme il se tourna et sourit malicieusement les gens s’entassent sur les planchers.
“We’ll kill them all! It’ll just look like it were part of the epidemic.” He continued as he smiled wickedly at the people huddled together upon the floors.
“And oh yes.” Nathanael said as he struck a match and lit the end of a finely rolled cigar he had taken from the Rowan House. He checked the time on his Pocket Watch and then breathed in a long deep toke of tobacco and looked upon the woman who was even now, smiling callously at him, clad in chains.
Through lingering wisps and circling rings of smo
ke he watched her eyes as he slowly exhaled.
“Burn the witch!”
Five
Innocent Blood
The fruits of wisdom and knowledge do not often grow upon the same tree. Knowledge can be obtained through pages of a book or by the impromptu instruction of a teacher. While wisdom however, cannot be found on a book shelf in a library or from guidance for that matter but that of the One master; for many have obtained knowledge of this world, while few have ever had the wisdom to use it.
What wisdom had been gained upon that Sunday afternoon when I was five years old, I may never know. Our family had just returned from a local church picnic. A carnival picnic of sorts whereby cotton candy and spinnin’ wheels had filled our eyes with fantasy! Amidst all of the excitement, it had been a single solitary red balloon that had held my imagination. Filled with helium, the balloon floated free upon the air but for a small string attached to its base; the other end of the string bein’ held by my hand.
