Kram stood staring at her for a moment then picked her up and hugged her. “You’re still Woof to me.”
“Okay,” Goldie agreed, with a sigh.
“She really does talk!” Yma exclaimed.
The little girl was so excited. She ran around the room and hugged everyone hello telling everyone her name, forwards and backwards.
Once all the introductions had been made, Tim noticed Myra had gone deathly pale and was staring at Yma, who was on the floor petting Goldie.
“It’s okay, Myra. Goldie won’t hurt her,” Tim assured her.
Myra glanced at him, then back at Yma, and nodded quickly, though she still looked like she had seen a ghost.
Adam saw the exchange and smiled at Tim and shrugged. Grandma An was the first to bring them back to the situation at hand. “What did you learn from Ronnoc? Who could have taken my daughter?”
“Well, according to Ronnoc, Aaron had a son.”
He let that sink in for a moment, watching Adam carefully. Adam looked very surprised. “I have a nephew?”
Tim nodded, and continued, “It seems during one of his trips to this world, Aaron met someone and decided to give up his cause in Snillotia. He had a child, but then something happened, and he started going back. Ronnoc said the child was with him sometimes when they saw him, and he appeared at an older age. And it wasn’t until then, that he even told them Anna and I existed and that we and our parents were in this world.”
No one said anything for a moment. “How could a child take Einna and Tre?” Grandpa Siul finally asked.
“According to Ronnoc, this child is basically a teenager- a few years older than Anna and I are, or so he thinks. We left him kind of confused on that note,” Tim said smiling a bit.
“Adam, when you last saw your brother, did he seem older to you?” Anna asked.
Adam closed his eyes and thought for a moment and then shook his head. “I can’t really remember. I didn’t see him for all that long before he took Myra. I was too shocked to see him at all to remember anything else!”
Anna turned to Myra. “When you were with him do you remember anything odd? Or maybe where he took you?”
Myra didn’t answer. Adam took her hand and squeezed gently, getting her attention. After a moment, she blinked and pulled her gaze from where Yma and Goldie were still sitting on the floor. “What? Sorry!”
Anna repeated her questions. Myra immediately nodded. “When I was with him, he dyed his hair. I remember thinking that was odd, since he wasn’t changing the color. As to where I was, I know it was a house, because I kept glimpsing a kitchen and part of a family room whenever the door opened and he came into the space he kept me in, but other than that I don’t know.”
“Did you ever see a boy?”
Myra shook her head. “No, but I heard him talking to someone else, sometimes.”
“Do you remember anything he said to that other person? Or what they said to him?”
“Not much. I remember one conversation that seemed to be about me, or so I thought, but I stopped listening once I realized it couldn’t have been.”
“What did you hear?”
“I heard someone ask him why. I assumed they were asking why he had me locked in the little room. Aaron’s answer didn’t make any sense, though. He said the whole situation could have been avoided had the woman responded to his letter. I knew I never received a letter from him, so I couldn’t be the woman. I stopped listening after that.”
Everyone stayed quiet thinking about what Myra had heard Aaron say. Tim broke the silence after a few moments. “Do you think the woman was my mother? Do you think Aaron wrote my mother a letter for some reason?”
“Why would he have written a letter to you mother? If he knew who your mother was, I don’t think he would have been a fan. She wrote books about a secret princess, right?” Adam questioned.
Tim nodded. “Aaron was a true Rebel, even though he wasn’t from your world originally. He hated the royals with a passion most of the others didn’t even have,” Adam paused and glanced at Grandma An and Grandpa Mit, “No offense to you guys or anything, but my brother wouldn’t have read any fairytale books because of it. Plus, those books started coming out when we were older. I remember the first one was released right before our father took us to Snillotia for the last time.”
Tim had stopped listening as soon as Adam had mentioned his mother’s fan. A memory gradually grew in his mind and suddenly he was seven years old.
Mommy! Can I have another cookie?”
Tim looks around the kitchen when Mommy doesn’t reappear. He slides off the chair he is sitting on while eating his after-school snack and wanders into the living room. Mommy is standing at the door with another woman who has a bunch of envelopes in her hand. The woman is talking to Mommy and waving a piece of paper around. “Ellen, I’m telling you, this one is a crazy one! I know you said you didn’t want to know about any crazy fans, but it seems the more books you write, the crazier they become!”
The woman, Paula, helps Mommy with her books. Tim doesn’t know what she does exactly, but from what she is saying, it sounds like she opens her fan mail. It is weird to think Mommy had fans. He had written a letter to his favorite superhero when he was a little kid. Mommy had called it fan mail and then had to explain what the word “fan” could mean, when he didn’t understand how his letter was connected to the
