Things I Almost Remember: A Selection Story

Meeting

"YOUR MAJESTIES!"

Ahren, Camille, and their daughter Elodie all looked up from their dinner plates as their butler, Monsieur Bernard, ran into the room panting.

"Monsieur Bernard, whatever is the matter?" Camille asked, standing up and walking over to place a hand on the man as he heaved breaths in and out.

"A...group...three men....and a girl...they say....she....Kerttu...," he panted out until a wheeze came out.

"Monsieur Bernard, did you run all the way here from the front door downstairs?" Elodie asked, a look of concern crossing her face.

"He did, your highness," one of the guards said as he jogged into the room behind Monsieur Bernard.

"You said...you said Kerttu, as in our niece?" Camille asked, guiding Monsieur Bernard to a chair.

"Earlier this afternoon in some crates on an Italian-sponsored flight, an older man, two young men, and a young lady were found as stowaways. None of them but the girl knew a word of French, and they all spoke English with an Illéan accent. Anyway, the girl said she is your niece and Prince Kerttu Koskinen of Illéa. They all were dressed in faded and dirty clothing and looked like they came from the streets, but they said the girl had some sort of expensive-looking locket. Just because she spoke French and was somehow able to get out of Illéa, the police sent the message to us to ask what you would like us to do with them."

Camille turned back to look at her husband, and he looked as though he had just seen a ghost.

"It is another imposter, surely," he said quietly.

"Papa, this one feels different," Elodie said looking back and forth between her father and mother. "All of them who came before were from France or had traveled here before it got so hard. No girl who has come or called got here by stowing away in a crate."

"Elodie is right," I think we should at least go see this girl and the group she is with.

"They are all in custody but can be brought to the palace immediately," the guard said.

"Very well, please bring them in as soon as possible, and we will meet them in the entrance hall," Camille said.

"What were the names of the men she was with?" Ahren asked just as the guard was about to leave.

"Well sir, the two younger ones I believe they said were brothers, last name Abernathy, and I the older man was a general of some sort, Fletcher, Lugger..."

"Was it, Leger, perhaps?" Ahren said quietly.

"Oui, I believe that was it," the guard said.

"Very well, you are dismissed," Ahren said.

"General Leger!" Camille breathed. "It can't be! He was killed that night."

"Papa thinks Kerttu is dead too, can't General Leger be alive too?" Elodie said.

"I never said she was dead!" Ahren snapped.

"Well, you have kind of given up any hope of finding her," Elodie said, looking straight at her father.

"Before we make any assumptions," Camille said, jumping in before her husband and daughter really got at it. "We will go see this group and speak to them. Then, we can start thinking seriously about how to proceed."

"This girl has a locket, they said?" Ahren whispered as he played with his wristwatch, something he did when was nervous.

"Yes," Camille said. "They also said it was heart-shaped."

The entire family then fell silent. Camille cracked her knuckles, Elodie paced around the room, and Ahren kept sipping and refilling his coffee.

Could it be her? Could some of their family and friends also have survived that night? Ahren wanted to convince himself that it was just another imposter, but he had to admit that there was something about this girl that seemed different.

About an hour later, the same guard from earlier came into the room.

"They have arrived, your Majesties," he said. 

"Very well," Camille said. "Please take us to them."

Ahren adjusted his blazer and collared shirt, Camille smoothed out her lavender day dress, and Elodie twisted her gold bangles around her arm.

"Are we appropriately dressed to meet them?" Elodie asked.

"I don't think that really matters right now ma chère," Camille said, putting her arm around her daughter. Elodie was a spitting image of her mother, except for her eyes. They had the same golden blonde hair, pale skin, and upturned noses, but where Camille had light blue eyes,  Elodie had the same chocolate brown eyes as her father. 

The family followed the guard down the large staircase that led into the entrance hall. When they got to the bottom of the stairs they came face-to-face with nine people. Four of them, the stowaways, had their hands in chains, and each of them was being watched by a personal guard. An older man, presumedly the one in charge stood at the front.

"Your Majesties," the man said with a bow. "These four were caught at the airport illegally trying to enter the country. We felt that their um, assertions, had enough importance that we should inform you, and since you wanted to see them, we brought them here. It is up to you what we shall do next with them.

Elodie looked at the four strangers. They were, as had been described, an older man, two young men, and a girl. The older man had dark graying hair and green eyes and was, Elodie thought, very handsome despite his older age. The two younger men both had floppy dark brown hair and brown eyes and wore old tattered clothing. One of them was eyeing her with an expression that looked nearly like a smirk, and the other was looking protectively to the girl on the end who stood slightly further back than the rest of the group. Elodie ignored the smirking boy and walked over to look at the girl. She was very pale and thin and had long tangled and messy chestnut brown hair, and she was wearing worn-in boots and dirty torn clothing. She was quite a contrast to Elodie with her shiny style golden blonde hair and fitted lilac day dress. However, Elodie, despite these things, was only truly drawn to her eyes. They were the exact same unique navy blue color as Kerttu's. They held a pain, sorrow, and hardness she had never seen in Kerttu's eyes, but they were the same eyes.

The girl averted her eyes and looked down at the scuffed boots she was wearing.

Elodie nervously stepped forward toward the girl and took a breath in.

"Ker-Kerttu? Is it truly you?" she asked, and the girl jerked her head up.

She stared at Elodie with an expression that looked haunted and pained. Then, she reached into the pocket of her coat and pulled out a crumpled photo. She held it out to Elodie. Elodie took it and smoothed it out in her hand. She looked at it and gasped. It pictured her cousin Kerttu at about the age she had last seen her being pushed on a swing by her father as her mother and brother looked on.

Elodie put her hand to her chest and turned to her parents.

"Mama, Papa, look," she said holding out the photograph to her parents. They both rushed over to join her and looked at it.

Camille gasped just as her daughter had, but Ahren just stood there frozen. He looked at the photograph for an entire minute, tears began to fill his eyes as he looked at the photo of his beloved twin sister and her family. 

He then slowly turned to the thin pale girl who stood before him, terrified and being held in handcuffs by her guard. Ahren walked slowly to her and then finally let the tears go. The girl looked straight at him, holding back her own tears, and held out a golden chain to him. He took it and saw a very familiar heart-shaped locket that he had given his beloved niece so many years ago.

"Mon cœur est à Paris," he whispered, reading the inscription on the locket.

He looked up at the girl into her sorrowful navy blue eyes, eyes that had once been filled with so much joy and love.

"Kerttu," he cried as he stepped forward and pulled his niece into his embrace.