Carmen

Luke

It was a week of restless sleep, Carmen was only home to sleep and never told me where she ran off to.

Even when I tried to follow her path into the town I always lost sight of her. It was almost as if she was vanishing into the stale air getting dispersed into the world.

I have heard no word of Xavier's state. I don't know if he's again, if he's healed, or if he is already on the search for our hideout.

On the second day of our arrival I wrote to him handing the letter to a guard named John, a boy I had grown up with in my father's manor. A sort of brother perhaps.

He said he would safely deliver the message protecting the contents with his life.

"Prince Xavier,
I wish health upon you my friend. I forgive you for all that you have taken from me because I realize your life is worth more to the kingdom than my brothers was. You will make a strong ruler that I will loyally follow. She is well, Carmen, and your Mother who shares your stories with us before we rest for the night. As for our location, it is private. Past the river and far into the forest is all that I can tell you. Only miles away from town. I hope this message greets you in good health. Find us."

Since the night Carmen cried in my arms she has seemed perfectly content. Like she wouldn't be bothered if she had to spend the rest of her life in this forsaken town so far away from society.

Xavier was my only hope. If he got here in time he might be able to convince Carmen to leave with what little respect she has left for him.

She thought he was dead. But I was far too afraid to bring news of his life. She might try to take mine as well with those delicate, soft hands of hers.

"Where's Carmen gone off to." I asked Evangeline for the 5th time this week. I knew she knew something but she wouldn't tell me.

Would Evangeline let Carmen do something that could hurt her? Did she care enough?

"Back into town." The old woman smiled at me a mischievous glint in her eye. "Let me tell you a story boy. Come sit down." She added slowly moving her weight off her cane to sit down in her ripped up brown sofa. I wasn't sure how she could live like this after being royalty almost all her life.

"There was a girl." She started staring off at the wall to remember. "She spend her days picking flowers in her garden behind her Manor. She loved the taste of fresh strawberries and oranges and was loved dearly by her Mother and Father for her youthfulness and cluelessness. In the night though, she was far less innocent." Evangeline scooted back in her seat as she waited to speak again.

"Every night when her parents were asleep she would unlatch her window on the top floor, and escape down a huge oak tree that sat directly next to her house towering over anything nearby. She would then run, as fast as she could running to train, running to meet the boy who had stole her heart on a warm September night."

I was bored with her story but tried my best to seem interested so that I didn't hurt the lonely woman.

"He taught her how to fight, how to wield a sword and he taught her how to hide. She was a lady and he was a poor beggar boy but, she loved him all the same." She continued,"One day, her father stayed up late that night as he hosted a gentleman gathering that Carmen was left in the dark about. She climb down the same old tree assuming she was alone. But her father had saw her."

Evangeline started humming a soft tune not continuing the story."and then?" I asked intrigued,"that's a story for another time boy." She continued her humming leaving me gawking at her.

Why tell a story if you won't end it?

Was the girl in the story Evangeline?