As promised, Claudia's return!
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We packed our suitcases the very next week, booked a flight through Paris, and set off on our adventure.
As we circled the landing field, my nose was pressed to the window, looking for changes to the small town I remembered. But unlike Champs Les Sims, Aurora Skies seemed to have remained almost exactly the same.
Pascal was happy to be traveling and to watch my excitement, until we stepped outside into the blustery weather I remembered from my childhood. It was nothing like the warm sunshine of our French village.
"How do people live here? Are you all penguins?" He tugged his jacket closer around him, flipping up the collar to cover his ears.
"I told you to wear a scarf."
"You should have told me to wear a down parka. And a wool blanket. And long underwear. And three pairs of socks. "
He kept up his commentary all the way to our hotel, where, while I checked us in and rented a car, he bought the thickest, warmest, scratchiest and loudest wool sweater the gift shop had to offer, along with a fleece lined hat. "There!" he said with a proud smile. "Now I look like a native!"
The clerk raised a skeptical eyebrow, but I just shook my head with an affectionate smile. "You look warm," I allowed. "Now come on. The car is outside, and I want to look around while we still have some daylight."
He was losing a bit of his cheer three hours later, as we pulled up in front of yet another little house, looking for my childhood home. "This must be it," I said as we walked toward the door. "It has to be. It's bigger, and it used to be red, and there used to be a barn, but… oh, I don't know. Maybe not."
Pascal, who had heard me say similar things as we drove up to at least five other houses, rolled his eyes and ushered me toward the front door. "Come on."
When no one answered the bell, I pressed up against the window to peer inside. "This IS it! There's the little kitchen! And I recognize the couch in the back."
"It's not like it used to be. The furniture is rearranged, and the walls look different, but--"
"Can I help you?"
I jumped at the question, spinning around as my cheeks turned pink. "Sorry! Sorry, I-- Reynar?"
"Claudia?"
"You're back! Where have you been? You just disappeared!"
My old friend invited us inside amid a flurry of happy introductions and warm hugs. We were both looking each other up and down to take in all of the differences as he congratulated me on my marriage.
"All grown up and married," he said. "I always knew you'd turn out well -- wherever you went."
There was so much to catch up on, but even with all of the changes to the cabin, it instantly felt like home. After a tour, and after showing Pascal all of the old family photos, Reynar wanted to sample my 'fancy French cooking,' so we sat down to a bottle of wine and a quick meal and talked into the wee hours of the morning about shared memories of school and friends and family.
Aunt Ilsa had died several years ago, while she was still working at the hospital as the chief of staff.
As for my grandfather, Reynar told me he left long ago, and that he had told Aunt Ilsa he wanted to live his last few years with my father and mother and I.
"But he never came," I said, shaking my head in confusion. "I never saw him again."
"That's all I know," Reynar said sadly. "I wish I could tell you more. I always liked your grandfather."
"I hope he didn't end up alone," I said with a sigh as I stood up to gather the dishes. "No one should end up alone. But you never did answer me about the barn. What happened to it?"
Reynar rolled his eyes as I raised the question. "I keep telling you," he said. "There was never a barn."
"But there was!" I was getting increasingly frustrated that he couldn't remember it. "It was a huge red barn, with blue windows, and my grandfather lived up above it. We had horses and everything!"
"I don't know what you're thinking of," Reynar laughed, completely confounded. "But there was no barn! Come on. Let me show you the upstairs. My mother saved your things up in the attic, in case you ever came back."
Even as we left after seeing the attic, and making promises to come back for another visit, I was still not convinced. Poor Pascal was shivering beside me in the brisk dawn air as I frowned at an empty field.
"It was right here," I was saying. "A huge red barn! How does he not remember it? How does he not remember the HORSES? There was a picture of one right on his wall!"
Pascal started to reply, taking my hands as he turned back from his longing gaze at the warm car. "Maybe it wasn't as big as you remember. You were a little girl, and--" He paused, frowned, and then started walking off to the side, his head tilted as he stared intently toward the field.
"What are you doing?"
"I saw something," he said. "Out of the corner of my eye, as I was turning around. It was there, and then gone."
"What was it?"
"I don't know. It seemed like--" He turned toward the car again, and then glanced back out of the corner of his eye. "No, it's not there now. But that would make sense, wouldn't it?"
"What are you talking about?"
"A charm," he said. "Like in the last book. The one I gave you, remember? Nella couldn't see the palace until she wasn't looking at it."
I stared at him for a moment, in disbelief. It was too insane to contemplate. But there was my husband, craning his neck around and darting his eyes from side to side to try to see something without looking.
"Everyone around the palace had forgotten it was ever there," he was saying, "And Nella only saw it out of the corner of her eye, by accident."
"Pascal, that's crazy."
"'To my granddaughter, Lady Claudia,'" he said, quoting the dedication at the front of my grandafther's last novel. "'Nothing is lost if you find it.' That's what Lady Ybeline said to Nella, remember? At the end of the book. When she found the palace!"
"Pascal, really…"
"Why not? Just try it!" He quoted the rest of the dedication, and then looked at me expectantly. "'How do you greet your elders? Like a den'Rhelys heir.'"
I furrowed my brow at him, still not believing he was serious. But he nodded with such excited enthusiasm that I had to humor him. So I turned to the spot where he said he'd seen something, bent my knees, pressed my hands together and bowed my head as I remembered being taught as a child.
"It is my very great honor to greet you," I said quietly. And then added after a slight pause, added: "Grandfather."
At first there was nothing. But as I added the last word, I heard a soft, musical whisper on the wind. And then the air in front of Pascal and I began to shimmer, and wave, like the world was a reflection on a pond.
A doorway of pure light opened out of nowhere, and from it stepped a man I had never thought to see again. I lifted my hand to wave, my eyes wide with amazement.
"Hello, Claudia," said my grandfather. "Welcome home."
