The Kingdom of Imagination

 

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My Return

  

“Welcome back, Princess.”

I had never been to this place before, and yet this man with white hair and a strong-looking body was calling me Princess.

“Make yourself at home.  We will be back to take you to the evening celebration held in honor of your return.”

All I could do was turn inside the room and get ready.  There was no point to trying to escape.  No one was trying to harm me here.  The place was beautiful.  It was the kind of place I would want to run away to if I were running away.

There was a vanity with a small cushioned stool.  I sat down and maids who had been waiting in the recesses of the room came forward to prepare my hair and paint my face until I looked like a fairy.

“So I have been here before?  I don’t remember the place.”  I tried to ask the maids about my past here, but they just smiled and blushed, ducked their heads and continued to work on my hair.  I would find out later that they had never heard the English language before and had no idea what I was saying.  They spoke some kind of Wood Realm language.  They had a special sixth sense that could read my basic needs such as hunger or thirst, being too hot or too cold.  They made good maids in spite of the language barrier.  

At eight o’clock the man was back, along with three men who looked like guards with very beautiful faces and intricately engraved armor.  This place felt so peaceful I doubted they were any sort of military.  Perhaps it was a formality, but if these were war times, I would guess the man with the white hair who had come to get me was the general of the entire military force and that those three men were his three best.

The time was a little late for me to be starting a celebration feast.  I was used to going to bed at nine every night back in my pale green painted room in Chicago.  But this wasn’t Chicago.  I didn’t know exactly where this was.  I hoped I would not fall asleep during this celebration held in my honor.

We walked through a tunnel of trees that was strung with lights, a physical fairy world such as I used to dream of long ago when I was...maybe twelve or thirteen years old.  A faint memory stirred like the wisp of a breeze then dissipated just as quickly.  Maybe I had been here before, but….

“Here is your seat, my lady,” the white-haired man said.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, feeling quite embarrassed, “But, what should I call you?  I don’t remember your name.”

I thought the man would look offended or at least surprised, but if he was, he didn’t show it a bit.  It was almost as if he knew I didn’t remember this place.  But why had he not introduced everyone to me then?

“Call me Aldred, my lady.”  He bowed slightly.

“Thank you, Aldred.”  I looked into his eyes hoping he understood I was thanking him for his understanding as well.

I sat and the three guard-type men stood behind me, one directly behind my chair and the other two on either side, slightly in front of the middle one but still behind me.  My chair looked very much like a throne.  It was overlaid in silver with gold outlining the back and covering the arms.  The back was carved with some kind of pictures of wood nymphs or other fairy-like creatures among winding tree branches and intricate leaves.  The back and sides of the chair were covered in garlands of fresh flowers whose fragrance hung light and tantalizing all around me.  The scent seemed to have a calming affect on me, as if the fragrance itself was imbued with some kind of gentle drug.

Before me a long, white table was laden with golden dishes holding a vast array of roasted meats, duck, chicken, pork, beef and cuke.  How had I remembered that?  In Chicago, cuke was short for cucumber, but here, a cuke was a long-legged creature, kind of like a flamingo but with blue feathers and a short neck like a chicken.  When roasted it had the flavor of a succulent lobster, but the texture of pork.  It was my favorite meat.  I didn’t know how I knew this if I had never been here before.

Fruits and roasted vegetables weighed down the tables.  Towers of pastries, sweet and savory, stood like centuries old trees along the tables, watching over all the other food, waiting till the end of the meal to be cut into.  Sauces of every kind streamed down the steaming sides of the roasted meat in little rivulets of fragrant pureed herb and melting oil from the meat.

Aldred looked to me from the far right where he was stationed under a tree hung with colored lanterns.  Stars, moons and sunbursts were cut out of the sides, casting shapes of light over his timeless face.  I understood he was waiting for my signal to begin.  I gave him a slow, exaggerated nod.  Music sprang to life as Aldred lifted a hand.  Costumed dancers in gold and pink swirled out from the trees and danced up to the edge of the tables then back toward the woods.  They stayed just on the outskirts, twirling and cavorting.  Toward the opposite corner of the clearing, another pathway leading off through the trees was now filled with robed figures coming into the clearing by pairs.  Men, women, different ages, different appearances, but all with long hair--the men’s just a little past their shoulders, and the women’s, most of them reaching to their calves.  They filed to the tables and sat as waiters helped them arrange their richly embroidered clothing.  The sleeves of the ladies’ dresses were so long that the waiters were tying them in elegant knots behind the backs of their chairs so they wouldn’t trail in the food as they ate.

As the last person sat, the music crescendoed, then immediately minimized to the tiniest of sounds on the stringed instruments only.  The entire company pressed their hands together in front of them and turned their faces to the treetops with eyes closed.  A spiritual calm and sense of gratitude filled me.  They were praying, and I could feel their prayers.  Then the music grew loud again along with voices and laughter as everyone dug into the food.

In the midst of the celebration, a figure walked in from yet a third opening in the trees that was almost directly across from me.  He was a figure all of gold--his hair, his skin, his clothes--as gold as the arms of my throne.  He looked about my age.  I had never seen anyone so beautiful.  He sat down at the opposite end of the long table.  The towers of pastries now hid him from view.  For a moment I considered ordering one of the nearby waiters to remove them.  No one remarked on his presence.  It wouldn’t be until later that evening until I learned who he was.

After dinner Aldred showed up at my side again.  The three guards retreated to the background as Aldred offered me his arm.  The celebration was to continue in a little meadow beside the forest.  I could already hear couples dancing and laughing.  Drinks in tiny little wine glasses were being served.  “Elixir,” said Aldred.  “Would you care for some after dinner brew, my lady?  It will help with your digestion and it tastes mighty fine.”

I nodded then stood on the sidelines waiting for him.  I had no recollection of how I had arrived here and wondered vaguely how I would go about getting back to my green room in Chicago once I had decided to return.  A rustle beside me caused me to turn.  It was the beautiful gold man proffering a glass of elixir in place of Aldred.

“Thank you,” I said.  I did not mention Aldred because I did not want to send the gold man away.  It was quite nice feeling him this close to me.  Although he had smiled at the people around the table when we ate, he did not offer me the same just now.  His face looked a little tired and hurt showed in his eyes, as if I was the one who had done him wrong.

“I don’t believe we have met yet,” I said, offering my hand for him to shake.  “I’m Alyss.”

He looked at my hand as if he thought me rude.  “Do you not know me, Alyss?  It has been ten years since you have left me here to rule alone, but I didn’t think you would forget your own husband….”

 
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My Husband

“I beg your pardon?”  My husband?  How many lonely nights had I spent in Chicago with nothing but my work to keep me company, only to find out I had had a husband all along.  Perhaps I should ask him why he left me alone for so long since he knew of me but I did not know of him.  It did not seem fair I should get all the blame.

The beautiful color of his gold skin made me decide against presenting this question.  It was not an argument I needed but answers.  Perhaps he, as my husband, would have pity on me and tell me what this place was and how I came to be here.  Before I could ask him anything else, he turned and walked away.  Normally, a person’s rudeness did not bother me, but there was an extra feeling when he was near, something like peace, safety, like a child wrapped up in her father’s arms--and when he left, I sorely felt its absence.  It was like the air had become sweeter when he was near, and now that he was gone, I realized how dank regular air smelled in comparison.

Thankfully, Aldred stepped up in my gold husband’s wake.  He saw I had a glass of elixir so he kept the one he had brought and took a sip from it.  He let out a deep sigh after he swallowed.  “Nothing better than the Kingdom’s crystal berry elixir.  Do you remember the time you joined in stomping the berries, my lady?”

I looked at him with a blank expression and a lifted eyebrow.  Did he really think I remembered after I had had to ask him his name?  As Princess and war general or advisor or whatever he was, I was sure we had been quite close.  If I did not remember his name, I was not likely to remember anything else here.  For God’s sake, I didn’t even remember my own husband.

Aldred bowed his head to me in apology for trying to tease my memories.  He turned back to the dancers while I took my first sip of elixir.  The liquid was crystal clear, very sweet and colder than ice as it ran down my throat.  I gave a gasp then shuddered, not expecting such a strange and wonderful sensation from the drink.

“It’s quite something, is it not?” said Aldred, still facing the dancers.

“It’s very good,” I said, tempted to drink down the whole thing.  It had some kind of power over me.  But best not to overdo it.

I looked after the gold man.  “What is his name?” I asked quietly.

“Aries,” said Aldred, still looking straight ahead.

“Aries,” I repeated in a whisper.  

“Come, let us dance.  We must not have the Princess only on the sidelines.  The people will think you are not grateful for your party they have given you.”

Some waiters stepped up from where they had been waiting, unseen, behind us and took our glasses.  Aldred whisked me out into the dancing lights and dancing couples in the meadow.  I didn’t know how to dance, but somehow my feet found a pattern in the grass and they couldn’t stop twirling and skimming as if I danced on air.  We danced far past my bed time with an energy I didn’t know I possessed.  When the evening was over Aldred took me personally back to my chambers where my maids would help me dress for sleep.

“Have a good sleep, Princess,” he said, bowing low at the door.  He left with his eyes still bright from our dance together.

I lay for a long time yet, looking at the silken stars embroidered into the sheer white canopy draped above my bed.  Then I slipped into a long and delicious sleep as I had not had in ages.

*    *    *

Morning brought with it the sound of birds whose calls I did not recognize.  I opened the door-like window to my balcony and walked out with the tail of my silky robe trailing behind me.  There in the yard and in the trees directly across from me were hundreds of birds.  Some had tail feathers three times as long as they were.  There were tiny ones with all the colors of the rainbow.  There were medium-sized ones with neon green eyes that I suspected glowed at night.  And there were large ones that sat in the tree branches, their tails curving down graciously like a scarf around the neck of the tree.  Down on the ground, on legs like stilts, were the cukes.  Bright blue with pink necks and heads and a blue beak.  I liked their sound the best: a high sing-song whistle that reminded me of wind in the pines back home in the backyard of a house where I had once lived....  A flash of a thought entered my head, but then disappeared just as quickly.  There was something I was trying to remember about the cukes...where their song had come from.  But the memory was gone.

I turned back into the room and a maid was there with a tray that she set up on a small table beside a very comfortable looking, high-backed chair covered in gold embroidered white cloth.  She lifted the lid from the dish and I smelled a delicious cuke breakfast biscuit.

“Your favorite, my lady,” she bowed.

“You speak English,” I said, surprised.

“Yes, my lady.  I am your personal servant.”  Her voice had a slight accent to it, similar to the Indian accent.

Aldred must have tipped her off that I was not remembering much about this place.

“Thank you.  What shall I call you?”  I wasn’t sure that I should be calling her anything since she was just a servant, but no one was helping me out here, so I decided to do things my way.

“Meera.”  She bowed again.

“Thank you, Meera.  They don’t kill the cukes down in the garden, do they?”  I gestured toward the window.

“No, my lady,” she laughed.  “Not your personal cukes.  These are farm raised on the castle grounds, specifically for meals here in the palace.”

“That’s a relief.”  I smiled.

“Do you need anything else, my lady?” she asked, still in a half bow.

“No, Meera, thank you.”  I had never had a servant before, but I was not finding it hard to get used to.  I could live a life like this quite easily.

“Ring the bell when you are ready to get dressed.”  She pointed to a gold rope beside my headboard.  Then she left.

I enjoyed my breakfast slowly while reading from a book that had come on the breakfast tray.  I didn't know if Meera had slipped it in or Aldred.  It was a book of plants, animals, brief histories and geographical information about a place called the Kingdom of Imagination.  Wherever it was, it was all very interesting.

After breakfast, I decided to get dressed on my own and do a little exploring.  I opened one door after another, taking care not to let anyone see me so the excitement of the unknown would not be erased.  I did not want a guide.  I relished the feeling of being lost in such a beautiful place.  Eventually, I found myself in a room at the corner of the palace, filled with many paned windows, some of them opening up onto a stone patio.  I wandered out.  A young girl sat beside a fountain and played with a pup that was running around and around her feet.  She had a sky blue dress on with a piece of it from the back draped up over her head, like a veil except it was not covering her face.

She looked up and saw me.

“Alyss!” she yelled, motioning excitedly for me to come over.  I noticed she called me Alyss and not Princess.

I walked over to her and sat down.  She promptly hugged me.

“I have missed you so much,” she said.  “But...I thought you said you were never coming back?”

“I don’t remember what I said, actually.  I don’t even remember this place; although it seems everyone here remembers me,” I answered.

“Well, I’m Crete, your best friend.”

I looked at her, curious why she had so quickly given me this information when everyone else was confused as to why she didn’t remember them.  She seemed to know something.

“Nice to meet you, Crete.  I guess I should be saying ‘nice to see you again,’ but, honestly, I don’t remember you.”

“That’s all right.”  She smiled and put one arm around my neck to hug me close for a moment.  “I’m really glad you’re back.  Have you seen Aries yet?  If you have, you can tell he never got over you.”

“Yes, I think I picked that up.”  I thought back to the gold man walking away from me in the meadow of dancers with anger and hurt in his eyes.

“That’s why I never gave him your message after you left.”

“What message?”  I looked at her curiously.  I wondered what kind of message this unknown me would have had for beautiful Aries.  Don’t forget me?  I’ll love you forever?

“To marry me when he was ready,” said Crete.

I looked at her, my eyes wide with shock.  “And why would I have you tell him that!”

“Because you told me you were never coming back.  You told me he would have to go on without you but that you didn’t want him to be alone, that he could not rule alone.  So, when he had recovered from you leaving, I was to tell him marrying me was your wish.”  Crete answered me simply with no hidden agenda of her own.  I could see it in her eyes.  She was the only one so far who seemed to know my secrets while I lived in this land.  She could easily be making all this up.  But somehow I knew to trust that she was telling me the truth.

“And why did I leave?  Did I not love him?  Was our marriage not a happy one?”  I noticed my words had taken on a formality to match this place.  I seemed to fit in here inherently.  I loved the place already.  What would make me want to go?

“No, my lady.  You and Aries were very happy together.”

I noticed she called me my lady when I was angry.

“So what was my reason for leaving?”

“I don’t know,” she said quietly.  “You never told me.  But even as your best friend, it was not my place to question.  I trusted you knew best.”

I was growing irate.  “And why did I know best?  Why do I seem to be the most important person in a land I don’t even remember?”  My voice was growing shrill and close to tears.  I was remembering the struggles to create a living for myself in my green painted room, being alone, working late hours, giving up a social life to make money writing articles, blog posts and web content.  Here, this lush land existed without my knowledge, and I, the dominant ruler of it.  Had I known, I would have traded my green painted room any day for this!

“Do you really remember nothing, my lady?” Crete asked quietly.  “It’s because you are the one who created this place.  With your imagination.  Without that, we would never have come to be.”

 

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