Natasha's Diary

by Heather Greenis

  “You have an amazing rapport with your clients. I always knew it would pay off for you,” she replied proudly. She stretched up and kissed his cheek. “If he signs the transfer forms, can I hire someone to fix the steps?”

  Will glared at her. It was no secret, of all the jobs on the ‘honey do’ list, that was the one he put off, using any excuse to avoid it. In Keeghan’s mind, her husband was the master of procrastination.

  “I’m golfing with your dad and brothers on Saturday, but I’ll work on them again on Sunday, I promise,” he replied begrudgingly.

  Sunday. Mother’s Day. An hour or two at best. Frustrated, Keeghan crawled out of bed and went to shower. Will began to shave. As promised, he helped her at the boutique before heading to his own office.

  * * *

  Sunday, Keeghan rose early and donned her grubby gardening clothes to weed the flower bed. Will walked out of the house in old track pants and a T-shirt.

  “If you need me, you know where I am,” he reminded her.

  He was hoping for an excuse to avoid the job, but she wasn’t budging. He had assured her the steps would be fixed within a month of moving in. However, the job was a lot bigger than he expected, and worse, it cut into his golf time.

  “Nice try,” she remarked, her focus remaining on her flowers. “Down you go.”

  “Aren’t you planning to help me? You used to come down to help or supervise when we first moved in.”

  She stopped and looked up at him. “I recall a time I came down to help. You got frisky and we had sex at the bottom of the steps instead of fixing them. We were lucky we didn’t get pregnant that day.”

  “I remember it well,” he boasted. “The sun was shining, and we had two glorious hours before the water reached us. We have a few hours today. Are you coming down to help?”

  Not going to happen. I want to see some progress down there. She turned her attention to the dog. “Constable, it’s your job to keep Will focused.”

  “Great,” he groaned. “Now she thinks she’s my chaperone. Come with me, Constable. Keeghan doesn’t love us today.”

  * * *

  The jingling of Constable’s collar caught Keeghan’s attention. Keeghan looked up from her weeding. Constable charged toward her. She would swear the dog was smiling.

  “You’re supposed to be keeping Will company as he fixes the stairs,” she lectured the dog. “Will doesn’t need any help getting sidetracked when he is doing something he doesn’t enjoy.”

  “Keegh!”

  Excitement rang out within Will’s tone. Constable raced back to him. Looking toward the cliff, Will had an intriguing object in his hand. A newly discovered treasure. She dropped her work gloves beside the garden. With another glance his way, the item appeared to be a crown. Lightheaded, feeling faint, she dropped to her knees. Constable rushed back to her.

  “Keegh. You’re as white a sheet.” He rushed to her side.

  “I’m okay,” she uttered. “Just a little, uh….”

  “I know,” he admitted. He squatted and placed the crown on the grass in front of her.

  “This is really creepy, Will. It couldn’t be … could it?” she questioned in disbelief.

  “Where did you put the portrait?”

  Keeghan jumped up and dashed into the house, her light-headedness gone. When she walked out the patio door, Will had placed the crown on the patio table and was sitting, looking at it. She settled on the chair beside her husband. Together, they compared the diadem to the portrait.

  “If I were a gambling man, I’d bet money we are looking at the princess’ crown.”

  “Where did you find it?”

  “Constable found it. I was hammering a nail when our four-legged kid began sniffing. She wouldn’t stop, so I had to go to her. The crown was jammed behind a log and covered in seaweed and shit. I thought it was a broken toy until the sun shone on the metal and made it glisten. I wiped off as much of the crap as I could and thought ‘holy shit,’ I need to take to show this to Keegh.”

  “Yeah!”

  “I’m amazed. That’s an incredible replica. I think it is time I start taking your dream a little more seriously. Maybe we should start doing a bit of research about royal families.”

  Will walked into the house, returning with a large glass of water and his laptop. “Have a drink,” he ordered, “before you actually faint.”

  He sat beside her. She swallowed a mouthful of water.

  “How well do you remember the details of the dream?”

  “I’m not going to answer that. I don’t want to jinx my memory.”

  “Okay, love, start at the beginning. The more detail you can remember, the better.”

  “Stewart and Natasha introduced themselves the day they met. Natasha came up with the surname Hathaway after studying William Shakespeare’s life. For the life of me I don’t remember hearing her proper surname,” she paused for a second. “Oh that makes me mad. Stewart’s name was fairly common. Give me a second … Donovan,” she announced proudly.

  “Right now, I think we should concentrate on your princess. We’ll have a better chance of finding a royal family on the net. Try to remember her last name, Keegh.”

  Staring into space, she thought about the dream, focusing on the night Stewart proposed.

  “I remember Natasha making the comment that Stewart didn’t know much about her family, but he would recognize her surname.” She paused, giving it a little more thought. This is frustrating. “I don’t think she verbalized it. I don’t remember Natasha or anyone else ever mentioning their name. Even the twins used a bogus name to attend school.”

  “A name would have made the search too easy.” He groaned. “Okay, we know the date of our picture. Do you remember any dates from the dream? It would help to know what century to search for.”

  “A date must have been mentioned when Joshua took over as king. Maybe in the eighteen hundreds?” She searched her memory for the date but couldn’t remember it. “Eighteen-something. I’m not being very much help,” she admitted, discouraged.

  “You’re remembering far more than I would. Let your mind travel back to the dream while I search for royal families with a king named what? It’s a good thing we aren’t counting on my memory.”

  “Harold,” she reminded him.

  He began typing. “Damn, look at this,” he grumbled. “There are way too many matches, mostly boats and restaurants. We need to narrow the search.”

  “Try Queen Anna,” Keeghan suggested.

  “The same problem,” he informed her a few seconds later.

  Keeghan stared into the blue sky. So deep in thought, she didn’t appreciate the beautiful, cloudless, sunny day.

  “What? I know that expression. What are you thinking?”

  “Universities must keep track of former students. Wouldn’t they?” she questioned.

  “They do now, but I don’t know how far back archives would go. Do you remember the name of the university they attended?”

  “I heard the name mentioned more than once. It’s on the tip my tongue. Give me a minute, it’ll come to me.”

  “Give me a hint and I’ll help. Canada, the States. Is it on this continent or someplace abroad?”

  She listened but never responded.

  “I know you, Keegh. It’ll come if you’re not concentrating on it. Where is this story taking place to have a royal family? An educated guess would make Europe a reasonable assumption.”

  To be honest, Keeghan hadn’t given the location much thought. She was more interested in the storyline. The people. Even when reading a novel, she disliked too much detail, having a tendency to skip over some of it.

  “They talked about water, but I never had the feeling they were near an ocean. They mentioned a river that ran from the castle to the Donovan family home, but I guess that could be anywhere. I have no idea.”

  “Fair enough. Let’s go back to the universities. The obvious ones are Oxford, Cambridge, and the University of Edinburgh.”r />
  “No,” she whispered trying to think of some details. “I’m pretty sure they weren’t in England or Scotland. They had to be far enough south that they didn’t really get winter, but close enough that Stewart’s sister went skiing. I’m thinking it had to take place in Western Europe.”

  “Why western? Why not Russia or even further east?”

  “I doubt it was Russia, and I don’t think there was an Asian influence. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am. It’s a gut feeling.”

  “You’re testing me, love. South, but not too far south. We have Spain and Portugal, and we have the boot known as Italy. Obviously the Scandinavian countries are too far north. What other countries are over there? Every country that is coming to mind is too far north, like Switzerland and Austria,” he mumbled.

  “Turkey and Greece are too far south,” Keeghan added. “I think you’re right, Will. We have to look at countries with the same latitude as the middle or the southern end of Italy.” Keeghan remembered going on business trips with her father, but couldn’t get her bearings from the dream memories. While her father was in meetings, she, her mom, and her youngest brother would take whirlwind tours. “Duh! William. The computer’s in front of you. We could do a search and look at a European map instead of trusting our memories from high school geography.”

  “Okay, that hurt. Big brain fart. And you want me playing with nails and a hammer today? There’s a reason I only work five days a week. My brain is fried by Friday night,” he admitted. He scanned the links for a decent map.

  “Picton,” Keeghan announced out of the blue. “Picton University,” she repeated, clarifying. “Stewart, Natasha, and her twin brothers all went to Picton University, and Hope just started there. That has to help us a little bit.”

  “I’m proud of you, Keegh. Our geography lesson can wait for another day. Here it is. Picton University.”

  Keeghan looked over his shoulder. A picture of the university filled the screen. “Canada’s Confederation,” she announced.

  “What about it?”

  The topic had migrated from the date the dream took place a while ago. Will always teased that a conversation with her could be compared to following a bouncing ball. Her mind would switch topics, and she would blurt out information. He had no idea what she was talking about.

  “Sorry. In my dream, Natasha read her father’s newspaper. There was an article about the Dominion of Canada. Natasha read an article about Canada and the fact confederation was being discussed, or had been discussed. We have a date. Eighteen sixty-seven. I’m not saying my story began then, but I know for a fact it wasn’t earlier than that.”

  “Perfect. Let’s look at this university site and see where it takes us. With your new date, maybe we can pinpoint something. We have a starting point.”

  They spent a few minutes looking at the pictures of the school and the grounds and then went to the tab for the ‘Alumni.’ Records began in the early 1900’s.

  “Shit. I guess the eighteen hundreds haven’t hit the priority list,” Will grumbled. “They’re not making this a walk in the park, are they?”

  “Maybe you should volunteer your services to help update their records,” Keeghan joked. No surprise, he ignored her. Will detested archives and history. “Try this link,” she suggested as she pointed at the link for ‘famous alumni.’

  “Why? Are you curious? And you think I get sidetracked and distracted.”

  She shook her head. His mind wasn’t going in the same direction. Will was focusing on Stewart and Natasha, but Keeghan’s knowledge of the dream was stronger. Joshua and Marcus were members of the royal family.

  “No. Natasha’s brother, Joshua, eventually became king. He may have attended under a fictional name, but the school records and archives would have to be accurate. If there is anything factual about my dream, I’m hoping this will lead to their surname.”

  “Smart thinking, Einstein. Too obvious.”

  Scrolling the page, he abruptly pulled his hand away. They stared at the information in the middle of the screen.

  King Joshua Strathroy.

  “Oh my God. What are the chances there were two King Joshua’s that attended Picton?”

  “Slim to nothing,” Will admitted. “This family actually existed.”

  “My dream is based on a reality. This has never happened before. I’m shocked, amazed, and to be perfectly honest, a little spooked.”

  “I never thought you paid attention to the documentaries I watch on the television, but obviously I was wrong,” Will admitted. “You pay more attention to the details than I do. I don’t remember watching anything about a King Strathroy and his family. Were you and Constable watching something when I wasn’t home?”

  She would select the biography channel when it featured some famous person she knew of, but normally, her interest didn’t go back that far in history unless it was a name she studied in school. She had no idea where the information was coming from. “No-o-o,” she moaned, staring at the screen.

  “Clear your head, Keegh. Let it come to you. In a few minutes you’ll be saying, and I quote, ‘Oh crap. I saw, I read, I’ve combined.’ I guarantee you, love. It will be anything and everything combined. It always is. You watched a documentary on television or heard a story on the radio, and you have built a dream around it. You’ve done it before. You’re always combining different events and pulling them into a dream.”

  “I know you’re right,” she admitted. “But normally I can tell you exactly where the information came from, and how I combined it. Nothing, absolutely nothing is clicking in my memory.”

  Will put his arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry about it. We have a surname for our royal family. I think we have our first break in the puzzle, and the year has potential.” He kissed her cheek. “Let’s go back and do a search on King and Queen Strathroy and see what we can find. It will be interesting to know what their first names were and whether they had twin sons and a daughter. Do you want to do this?” he asked, pointing at the computer. “It was your dream.”

  “No,” she responded in a nervous tone.

  “Keeghan, it’s okay,” he remarked, reassuring her. He gripped her hand. “These people lived over one hundred years ago. Let’s just have fun with it. I’m sure in the end you’ll remember what you were watching. A little history lesson won’t do either of us any harm.”

  Keeghan’s mind raced over the events in her own life leading up to this dream. If it was her active imagination, how was it possible the picture and crown arrived in front of their property? She reached for Will’s glass and took another mouthful of water. “Then how do you explain the portrait and the crown?” she asked, skeptical of the notion it was her imagination.

  “A documentary could have been filmed at a museum, and now the curator is in trouble for losing those items.”

  “Nope. Not impressed. They arrived in the water from the ocean, Will,” she reminded him.

  “Who knows, maybe a tsunami? A huge wave came in, damaged a museum, and some of the things were swept away, never to be seen again until they arrived here. There are a million logical answers. We may never know for sure. Precious historical items could have floated away. It doesn’t matter how they found their way here, but they did. If we hadn’t been walking Constable, we wouldn’t have found the portrait. As to the crown, well, that’s just plain weird. It could be an amazing replica for some type of project.”

  “My brain knows you are right,” she admitted. “It’s my overactive imagination playing with me. Let’s finish our history lesson. We still have to search the family of ‘King Harold Strathroy.’”

  William typed the name and clicked in his favourite search engine. After playing with a few different links they found something.

  ‘King Harold Strathroy of Kassima’

  “That’s it,” Keeghan announced with excitement. “Kassima. My dream is taking place in Kassima. Go into that site, Will.”

  Clicking on the link, the
website filled the computer screen. Will scanned the article.

  “Bingo,” Will whispered proudly. He pointed at the line. “King Harold. That’s our guy.”

  He continued reading out loud. “King Harold and his wife Queen Anna had three children, twin sons Marcus and Joshua, and a daughter, Natasha….”

  Will slumped in his chair. Keeghan stared at the screen, shocked, amazed, and a little impressed. “How much of my dream is based on reality as opposed to my imagination?”

  Will shrugged his shoulders.

  “Keep scrolling, Will. I’m hoping for a picture or two of the family.”

  Sitting upright, he continued scrolling down the article. Unfortunately, the personal information was limited. Trying a different link, the king’s accomplishments were detailed, but very little regarding his family.

  “Natasha, Joshua, and Marcus were kept from the public eye in their youth. I’m really not surprised by the lack of information, but I’d love to know how the portrait and crown came to be on the beach.”

  Normally after waking from a dream, Will and Keeghan discussed the details during breakfast. They always decided her dreams contained more fiction than fact, making the story far more interesting. From the knowledge she had gained so far, this dream was factual without any influence from her imagination. William sat back on his chair and petted Constable’s head.

  “Don’t stop, Will,” she pleaded. “There must be more links with information about the family. There has to be details about the twins and Natasha. ‘Joshua became king.’ ‘Natasha died at a relatively young age.’ Something.”

  “Are you going to be disappointed if we find something that states Princess Natasha married Prince somebody and lived to the ripe old age of whatever?”

  “I promise,” she assured him. “I’m not pleased to think I killed a main character off so early in life. I’ll be thrilled to discover Natasha was happily married, had a house full of children and a good relationship with her parents. I have to admit, I’m intrigued now that the names are in black and white in front of me. Where did the documentary end and my imagination begin? Because right now, I haven’t got a clue, and I need to fill in the blanks.”