likely not go over very well either so, after eating Mom’s delicious herbed chicken, cheesy-garlic mashed potatoes and steamed greens but before she moved us onto dessert, I told them that Tor was from a parallel universe, the same parallel universe I had been hurled into in my sleep and resided in the last two months and we were at the whim of blue mist magic.
“Forrest!” Mom cried when Dad finished shouting.
“Dad, please sit down and calm down,” I urged.
“No!” Dad returned to me. “What hold does this man have over you?” he asked then didn’t allow me to answer and looked at Tor. “What are you doing to my daughter? Why haven’t we seen or heard from her in two months? Why does she believe this crazy story? Are you drugging her fruit juice?”
I didn’t drink fruit juice primarily because I preferred to chew my calories unless they were alcoholic (not that I chewed very much fruit, but you get what I’m saying) and my Dad knew that (not about the calories, just that I didn’t drink juice). He was being dramatic. He was also being loud.
“Pardon?” Tor asked, his tone quiet but also deadly. He didn’t like my father’s words or the way they were thrown at him, he was the future king after all, and a prince to boot and, well, Tor and I could see him struggling for control.
“Drugging her fruit juice?” Dad continued. “Addling her mind? A parallel universe! That’s insane! Are you in some kind of cult?”
“Dad!” I exclaimed. “Tor’s not in a cult!”
My father ignored me.
“What kind of name is Tor, anyway? Were you born with that name?” Dad asked Tor, forgetting, in his histrionics, that he had for a brief period of time called himself (and made others call him) Eaglethorn (Mom had taken the name Jasminevine, luckily they stopped doing this before I was born).
“No,” Tor replied calmly then announced in his deep, commanding voice, “I am Prince Noctorno Allegro Hawthorne of the House of Hawthorne, heir to the Kingdom of Hawkvale and ruler of Bellebryn. Those close to me, including Cora, call me Tor.”
Uh-oh.
What he said was true but it was not the right thing to say. I could see it because my Mom went pale but my Dad went beet red.
“Prince… Prince… what the hell!” he boomed. “It’s you that’s insane and you’re with my daughter!”
“Sir, I am far from insane,” Tor gritted between his teeth.
“Dad, he’s not insane,” I rushed to put in. “I know this sounds…” my mind searched for a word, my eyes found Tor’s and then it came to me, “fantastical.” I heard and saw Tor draw in an annoyed breath and my eyes shot to my father. “But it’s true.”
“Um, maybe… uh, Tor,” Mom cut in, “I don’t wish to be rude but considering things are, uh… intense and we haven’t seen Cora in awhile, perhaps you could go so we could have some time alone with our daughter?”
“I’ll not do that,” Tor replied immediately.
“And why the hell not?” my father returned just as immediately.
“Because, sir,” Tor stated slowly, visibly fighting for control, “as Cora explained to you, we are at the mercy of magic and I do not want to be far from her should it start to take her… or me.”
Dad glared at him then he turned his glare to my mother. “The mercy of magic. This is insane,” he breathed with disgust.
“I would thank you to stop saying that,” Tor said softly and Dad’s eyes cut back to him then he leaned into him, hand on the table and everything.
“And I would thank you to get up from my table and get the hell out of my house but especially, while you’re doing that, out of my daughter’s life!”
Tor’s face turned to stone, he rose out of his seat, tossing his napkin to the table and I knew it was time to intervene.
So I shot out of my chair and rushed around the table to put my hand on my father’s arm.
“Dad, listen to me,” I begged.
He didn’t even look at me, just glowered up at Tor. “I’m busy, sweetheart. I’m about to escort this man out.”
“Dad,” I squeezed his arm, “listen. Please, listen. It’s true. All of it. I woke up in a parallel universe. A fairytale land. A fantasyland. Where they ride horses and birds talk to you and the air shimmers like it has glitter in it. But there is a me there like there is a Tor here. All the same people are in both worlds, I reckon, and I was switched with the Cora of their world.”
Dad slowly swung his head to face me and the look in his eyes made my heart clench. He genuinely thought I’d gone around the bend and this thought pained him. So I got closer and pulled him around to face me, lifting my other hand to take his other arm.
“I know it sounds crazy, trust me, I know. But it isn’t. I woke up and all the furniture in my room was wonky, like out of an animated kid’s movie. And it wasn’t my room. And then my sister came dancing in and she was so beautiful, so graceful, it was unreal. Her name was Rosa and…”
I stopped because the minute I said the name “Rosa” Dad’s body got still under my hands, his eyes shot to my mother and the air in the room grew heavy.
“Rosa?” my mother whispered and I turned my head to look at her. “In this parallel universe, you had a sister named Rosa?”
“Uh… yes,” I replied, looking at my Mom who was even paler and when I did her eyes moved swiftly to my father and she put a hand out flat on the table.
“Mom?” I called and released my Dad in order to go to her because she looked like she was about ready either to burst into tears or pass out.
“Rosa,” my Mom whispered again when I got to her, crouched down, her eyes were tipped up to my Dad and I covered her hand on the table with mine and squeezed. When I did, her head slowly turned to me. “Rosa was alive in that world?”
Oh. My. God.
“By the gods,” Tor murmured, I looked to him to see he was gazing at my mother, his face contemplative but his body had lost its angry energy.
I looked back to my Mom and whispered, “Is there something I don’t know?”
Tears trembled in my Mom’s eyes before she replied, “We had a little girl.” Oh my God. “She died at birth.” Oh my God! “We named her Rosa.”
I closed my eyes then opened them.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
“I… I couldn’t. I couldn’t talk about it. It was bad, sweetie. The birth was bad. For me too. After that, I couldn’t have any more kids. Your Dad and me, we wanted a whole houseful and we lost that and we lost Rosa and I…”
“Stop,” I whispered when her tears spilled over. “Stop, Mama. I understand.”
“It wasn’t like I was trying to keep anything from you, it was just –”
I cut her off again. “Stop, Mom. I understand.”
She blinked and more tears fell then she turned to Tor. “Rosa is alive in your world?”
I tensed, for Rosa was alive but she was also the hostage of a cruel witch-god but Tor simply said, “Alive and beloved. The only beauty in the land more exquisite than hers is Cora’s. The only qualities in the land more dear are those of my Cora, the Cora of this world.”
I felt my body start at his words and I whispered, “That last part isn’t true,” and Tor’s gaze came to me.
“It is, my sweet.”
“It isn’t, most everyone hates me,” I reminded him.
“No, Cora, everyone hates the Cora of that world.”
I rose, telling him, “But they think she’s me.”
“Indeed, they do but it has been you gracing my castle for the past weeks and it was you, and your rabid, not befitting a princess behavior that you displayed in towns and villages for miles that people have been experiencing. Word travels. They used to call you Cora, the Exquisite due to your beauty. Now, you’re becoming
