by SL Perrine
“You’re going to walk around town by yourself?” He looked around at the quiet cul-de-sac.
“I was just going to your house, to speak with your uncles.” I say as I close and lock the door behind me.
“Okay, I’ll walk you.” He motions with his hand a “lady’s first” gesture.
“Fine.” I said, not because I was ok with it, but mostly because I did not want to have an argument. I still get tired thinking about the last one.
I head down the walk ahead of him and keep going, not waiting for him to catch up.
“Why are you not talking to me?” He asks sounding hurt.
“I don’t know.”
“That sounds like a diplomatic answer.”
“Diplomatic?”
“Never mind, I’ve been watching too much TV.”
“You have not been in school all week?” I asked and stated.
“I did not think I needed to be. With everyone’s minds altered, there are no pretenses to keep up.” He scratched his head.
“Did it never occur to you I may have wanted to see you?” I have no idea why I asked. Maybe that was why I wasn’t talking to him. “Besides, Chase and Nolan have been keeping up pretenses.”
“They’ve been looking after you. I just thought I’d give you some space.” He shrugged.
“Oh.”
We arrive at his house and I see the yard is back to its unruly state.
“What happened?”
He just shrugged and walked past me up the stairs and opened the door for me to follow.
As I walked inside I was hit with the smells of spaghetti sauce and garlic. My stomach started to rumble and I realized I have not had a home cooked meal in over a year. Dad tries once in a while, but we usually just end up having take-out anyway.
“Hungry?”
“Actually yes.” I try to hide my excitement for real food.
“Come.” He grabs my hand and leads me to the kitchen. The usual spark returns, and for a minute all feels right with the two of us. Then I am drawn into the bright lights of the kitchen where Gareth is busy at the stove.
“Well hello dear, what a surprise.” Gareth says as we enter what appears to be a warzone.
The range and counters nearby are covered in splattered sauce. Leftover remnants of tomato are scattered on the island with what looks like a lot of spilled bread crumbs. There are three large pots on the range busily boiling and frying. Sauce starts popping up from the middle of the pan and lands on Gareth’s arm.
“You have to turn the flame down and put a lid on it. It’s just going to keep popping out at you.” I tell Gareth as I drop my bag in a chair and rush over to the range. I grab a wooden spoon from the cradle and begin to stir the sauce.
“It doesn’t boil while you’re stirring.” I turn the knob which lowers the flame under the pot, all the while stirring the sauce so it stops popping out. I could feel Ty’s eyes watching my every move, and became un-nerved.
“Thank you.” Gareth says as he grabs a wet rag and starts wiping at the sauce droplets on his arm and then sets off after the counter top. “Do you cook, Renee?” Gareth asks.
“No, I just remember helping my mother. Sunday night was always pasta night.” I said staring into the pot of sauce.
“There it should be good to cover now.” I replace the spoon and add the lid to the pot.
“Ah.” He said understanding that was the end of the conversation.
“Well, it’s Friday, not Sunday, but you’re welcome to join us for pasta tonight.”
“Thank you. I was actually wondering if I could speak with you and your brother.”
“Why, of course you can. Ty, could you go fetch Hogarth from the study?” He asks Ty, “He enjoys the warmth, not a fan of your autumn air.” He regards me. I couldn’t help but laugh at that, as I remembered the first visit to the house. The study was overly warm, I almost couldn’t breathe.
“Is Pylira very warm?” I ask, honestly curious about it. I have heard of the place, but never really told what it was like there.
“Oh yes, it’s as warm as your southern states here. The water nearby gives us a cool breeze once in a while, but usually very warm.” Gareth seems oddly excited about his home, and yet sadness hits his eyes as he talks about it. His thoughts are soon interrupted by Hogarth and Ty who enter the kitchen just then.
“Hi Renee, you wanted to speak with us?”
Hogarth, I know, is always about getting straight to the point.
“Well, yes I have some questions. I was hoping you could help with.”
“What kind of questions.” He asks.
“I was kind of hoping to speak to you alone.” I look in Ty’s direction, knowing he was not going to be happy about my not wanting to share with him. For whatever our connection is, he knows, but I need to find out for myself.
Maybe deep down, he realizes this, because he excuses himself from the room without complaint.
“Ok, now what is this about?” They both look at me questioning.
“Ty told me he’s the prince. So, now I understand what you were telling me the first time we spoke.” They exchange glances and then look back to me. “The fact that your prince was … what did you say?... quite taken with me.”
“Ahhh.” They say in unison.
“He also told me about the women of the buio clan. I think I need to ask if your anger with my family will keep you from answering my questions honestly.” I notice I’ve started twisting my hands nervously.
“No, we have no anger for your family.” Hogarth regards me and offers now for me to sit, and they join me. “Maybe 100 years ago we may have, but we now know of the prophecy, which means our family will be reunited again.”
“So, go ahead with your questions.” Gareth adds with a quick glance to the range.
“So, Ty was engaged or betrothed before the curse.”
“Yes.” They both answer.
“What was her name?”
“Why do you ask?” Hogarth asks me, as Gareth gets up to tend to his pans.
“I have to know. No, I need to know. Who was she?” The pull in my stomach, which hadn’t been there since Ty showed up at my front door, was starting to pull. So he hadn’t gone far. He wanted to know what I would ask them about. He must have heard my question and decided to let me get my answers.
Gareth turned from the stove, but stayed next to it. “Brother, I think she deserves to know. It will come to her anyway, and if we are to have a chance at reuniting our family, the sooner she knows the better.” He turned back to his pans and was clear he was done with our conversation.
It was in Hogarth’s hands now.
“She was the daughter of the very clan that cursed Ourobus, Tyson’s father. He was the one who led our family astray. You see, they were betrothed at birth, and when she was 16 years of age, she came to live with our clan. This was the practice of the royal families to keep alliances.”
“So my family broke the alliance by cursing your family?”
“Yes, but it’s more than that. However, because she was already living amongst us as one of us, she too was cursed, but…” He stopped short and looked back at the kitchen door.
“He told me she had been killed with the rest.”
“Tyson has had to live a hundred years without her. He’s spent every waking moment looking for her, waiting for the time she would be reborn for him.”
“That’s what confuses me. How would he know if she were reborn or not? Or any of them for that matter?”
“Your very soul will tell you.” He stood, walked to the refrigerator for two bottles of water and came back to sit. After a long drink he continued.
“So even though their parents set them up to be married, they were soul mates?”
“Yes. Is that so hard to believe?”
I laughed to myself once and answered. “Yes.”
“Why is that so unconceivable?”
“Because, soul mates aren’t picked… they find their way to
one another.”
“Well, it has been this way for our people for over centuries.” He said handing me the second bottle of water.
I drank the water and thought on it for a minute. Then my other question came back to me. “You said she was cursed, but… But what?”
“She had a choice.”
“What? What choice?”
“She could die with the rest, be reborn when the curse would be lifted and they could live their happily ever after.”
“Or?”
“Or, she could go back to her family. Live amongst them, and still see him, but never be with him. She would grow old and live her life, and he would continue to live long after she was gone.”
“So she chose to be with him later, than not at all?”
“Yes, I believe that was the idea. Do you have an idea of what choice you would make?”
From my dream, or whatever it was I concluded that maybe there was a reason she chose to die with the rest.
“If I had to make that decision, yes. I would choose a life with him, whenever it would be, rather than none at all.”
“Well, then. It seems it holds true still after a hundred years.” His comment surprised me. I had been questioning this myself, but needed more convincing, so I decided to come back to that later.
Hogarth got up to leave just then as Gareth was busy putting pasta on plates.
I did not know if all my questions were even answered, but it seemed I got all the answers I would for one day.
As Hogarth reached the doorway of the kitchen to leave he turned and added, “By the way… her name…”
“Yes?” He had my attention now. I just needed to know if…
“Princess Renella.”
I swallowed hard and a rock fell to my stomach. So my dreams were memories coming back from another life time.
Hogarth left the room, and I politely excused myself from Gareth, stating I wasn’t feeling well.
As I closed the front door I felt that invisible rubber band loosen its grip, and prepared for Ty to make an appearance.
“Renee…” I heard him from a distance. Then once again the floor falls out from underneath me.
-17-
The sky was black and the stars twinkled in the distance above. This night was for us, just the two of us. By the morning there would only be one left behind.
We danced for what seemed like hours and held each other tight. He would not say good-bye to me, since one day I would be back, and we would get married and change the life of all who loved us, his family and mine. The only one who ever stood in our way of our happily ever after was his father. He wanted to be everyone’s king, but he has finally lost, and we are the ones suffering for it.
“It’s so unfair.” I rest my head on his shoulder as he twirls me around and around.
“I know my love, but we will be together again. It will be soon for you.”
“Yes, for me.” I lift my head to look at him, “but for you it will be forever.” I stare into his eyes.
He cups my cheek with his hand, “Forever never ends, this will end. I will find you.”
“I will love you forever,” I rest my head on his shoulder once more, “so you’d better find me.”
“Oh, don’t you worry. I will.”
“How will I know it’s you? The curse…”
“The beast you’ll see won’t be enough to hide the beast within me. The beast within me will ache for you every single day, for as long as it takes. That beast is the one you will see.”
He looks at me with his big blue eyes.
“I’ll always know those eyes… beautiful blue skies.” Then, one last time his lips find mine.
“Where do you go when that happens?” Ty is rubbing my cheek when I wake. When I open my eyes I see his are closed. He’s speaking to me as I lay there in my dream, coaxing me back to him. I reach up to hold his hand and he looks at me.
“Beautiful blue skies.” I repeat the words from my dream.
“Renella?” He says as he jumps to his feet.
“I… I think so.” I answer still questioning. “I don’t know. Tell me, anything.”
“The last night we were together…” He starts.
“We danced under the stars…” I added and turned my head away from him and closed my eyes. I wished the dreams would show me more. I open my eyes and I’m back in my dream, but it’s not my dream. I’m in Ty’s room. It’s not from a dream I recognize this room, but from a memory. The carpet and furniture were oriental, with reds, golds, green and orange, which gave the entire room a red glow. The bed was a four poster, queen size, which took up most of the room. The walls were bare, with the exception of the large portrait of Ty and Renella.
I got up off the bed and walked to the wall were it hung.
“That was our engagement photo. The one we picked to use to announce when our wedding would be.” He said quietly as he stood still in the same spot. He looked like he was afraid of what I would do if he moved.
I looked around not saying anything. I just wanted something to spark a memory.
After a while of not speaking and just walking from one item to another, Ty asked his question again.
“Where do you go when that happens?”
“When what happens?” I stop then and sit on the edge of the bed.
“When your eyes roll back in your head and you pass out, and scare the life out of me.” The look on his face is pure fear. I can’t help myself I get up and walk to him, but before I can touch him he puts a hand up.
“Please don’t.” He takes a step back.
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“Just answer my question. Please Renee!”
“Okay.” I say turning so he can’t see the tears that are swelling up in my eyes.
“I have dreams.”
“About what?”
“Her… me, maybe. I don’t know.” My head starts to swirl with images I’ve never seen before, but that are very familiar.
He shakes his head. “Please help me understand, what are the dreams about?” I can hear the hurt in his voice. I want to go to him, to hold him.
I start to pace the room, still not letting him see me. “In all of them I’m me, but people call me Renella. That’s a name I gave myself when I was ten years old. I pretended to be a princess… stuck in a tower, …waiting for my prince.” I wiped the tears from cheeks, even as they start to fall faster. “But he never came…”
“I’m right here.” He said with his arms open to me.
I turned to him and before I knew it I was in his arms. I rested my head on his shoulder and he ran his hand up and down my back. We stood there and I cried into his shoulder as I spoke.
“I dreamt about your mother I think, but she called me Renella too. People keep telling me I have to choose. I didn’t know that they were memories when they started. I thought they were dreams mixed with your stories of your lost love.” I lift my head to look at him.
“I’ve known since last year, as soon as I saw you.” He wiped away my tear with his thumb. “I didn’t know how to approach you.” He toyed with my hair. “There’s so much more you don’t know.” He added.
“Ty, tell me.” I pleaded with him. I was tired of getting bits and pieces.
“I will, I’ll tell you everything, but I don’t think you’re ready to hear all of it right now. Look at you Renee, you’re a mess.”
“Ty…”
“You need rest. You should sleep now, and we’ll talk more in the morning. Let me take you home.” He let go of me and grabbed my hand.
“Can I stay here? Maybe it will help me remember.” I asked.
“Are you sure? What about your father?” He looked tired too. I lifted my hand to the back of his neck.
“Yes, I’m sure. Nobody is at my house, they went fishing. I don’t want to be alone.”
“Okay.” He grabbed my free hand and walked me to his bed. “You sleep here, and I’ll be right there.” He said pointing across the
room.
Ty made up the sofa for himself, again something else that just kind of showed up.
I lay on Ty’s bed and starred at the picture of him and his Renella. Is that really me? The same shape, same face, same fire red hair and green eyes. Then I notice the necklace around her neck, a simple silver locket. I lay there and look at her for what seemed like days, but only minutes passed as I drift off to sleep.
-18-
