Tomorrow is another day

Off with the old, in with the new

"Do you want to go visit the castle?"

"Repeat that."

The days had passed and Anna and I were still in the middle of an unsuccessful job search. I didn't have official higher education and she didn't have... papers, which made any legal matter extremely difficult. In the end, after a few weeks of rejection after rejection, we decided to take a short vacation and forget about it for a few days. I continued to perfect Sven as Anna continued to soak up information about the present. From time to time, she came with me on my walks through the forest in search of feathers, but, the end of summer was already making itself felt and, little by little, we wanted less and less to go up to the cool of the mountain.

"They're doing guided tours through the castle for a couple of days. Do you want to go? Or do you prefer not to see it?"

"You're kidding, right? Let's go!"

"I thought you would be a little more reluctant to see what had happened to your house."

"I want to see what the scoundrel Hans did with it so I'll have one more reason to smash his face."

"Is that your motivation?"

"Why aren't you already dressed?"

I shook my head in a mixture of amusement and resignation and went to get dressed. So did she and, in less than an hour, we were waiting in line outside the castle.

"I had never lined up to get home..." Anna whispered in my ear, snapping my guts shut.

"Please, don't go all over the castle shouting from the rooftops what you did in every room."

"Do you think I'm an idiot? I'll tell you quietly."

Anna winked at me and I had to swallow hard. I stood up as far as I could, putting distance between her face and mine, and took a deep breath. Then, I heard her mocking giggle and felt her take my hand.

We walked for another half hour over that bridge until, finally, was our turn to enter.

Anna took a deep breath, and I felt her tiny hand trembling hide out in mine.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to let you go."

A smile on her part gave way to a determined step forward, and then another one, and another, until we were able to follow the normal pace of the guided group.

Indeed, Anna told me many more details about the castle than the guide himself, but, more than excited or nostalgic, she seemed indignant like when you see a movie about a book that you've read and it's not faithful to the original story. Without a doubt, the official version was far from hers. However, the moment she saw the coronation painting of ancient King Hans, a fire broke out inside her. That would have thawed her better than an act of true love. She squeezed my hand and, when I looked at her, she asked me for silence placing her finger on her tight lips. Then, when the group turned around the corner, she ran down another corridor, dragging me with her to a room that was probably out of the visiting plan.

"What're you doing?" I whispered visualizing us in prison.

"Don't worry, I know how to move around here. I haven't done anything else in eighteen years."

Without waiting for my response, he pulled a sconce from the wall and a passageway opened right in front of us.

"These things really exist?"

"Go in!"

I followed her into that narrow passage and she closed it again from the inside with another similar thing until we were plunged into absolute darkness.

"Hm... here would have been useful a light bulb of those that you use in the future..." I heard her say from some uncertain point in that tunnel.

"Wait..."

I turned on the cell flashlight and found her with her arms outstretched looking for me like a zombie.

"This way, Frankenstein..."

"What?"

"Nevermind. What are we doing here?"

"He has removed them."

"What them?"

"The pictures of my family. Everything here is from Hans' reign onwards. They've left no trace of my parents or my sister in the entire castle."

"Oh..."

"My room... They've talked about it as 'The guest room', and my sister's? Hans's children's room! He had the nerve to invade the place where my sister spent most of her life locked up!"

"Anna, I know it's painful, but... many years have passed. It's normal that they use the rooms for different things..."

"I know! It's just... in your world... we don't exist."

"That's not true. You appear on Twinkkipedia."

"But... you would never have noticed the deceased daughter of kings of two hundred years ago cause she appeared on Twinkkipedia."

"No, but I did do it to the woman who wrote the Bible in verse in the hope that justice would be served."

Anna hugged my body and I consented myself to hug her back with all the warmth I knew how to give.

"Let me stay like this for five minutes and we go, okay?"

"Even six."

And so, for the next twenty-seven minutes, we remained silent and in the dark, breathing in the essence of the other.