Dream Tunnel
Page 13
Then the realization that he was married began to sink in. That alone was huge—married to a beautiful, strong woman he had fallen in love with over a matter of days. Perhaps it was the adventures they had experienced together—harrowing adventures—that caused their love to grow so fast. He remembered the bridge, the burning rope, and the rat spiders in the cave. They lived through it all—together. And now he felt such a closeness to her, a feeling he had never had for anyone else. He was married to her…and now she was going to be a queen. He had no idea what his role would be in this new world, other than husband of the queen, but he was excited to find out.
The orchestra played its last chord, and it continued to reverberate throughout the tall, narrow sanctuary for a full eight seconds. Incredible, he thought.
The priest stepped up to the altar and said a prayer. After that, there was more music.
Crane enjoyed it all. It seemed more like a dream. But then, he’d had that feeling of being in a dream so often lately.
It was about seven o’clock when the priest got to a part that reminded Crane of the wedding ceremony: “…so by the power vested in me…”
At 7:06, the priest turned to the congregation and proclaimed, “And now I present to you…Queen Conroe of Ampla.”
The orchestra and choir began performing another piece from Haydn’s The Creation: “The Heavens Are Telling the Glory of God.” The congregation stood.
The former queen—now the Queen Mother—and Wally walked up the stairs to join the new queen. Conroe motioned for Crane to come up and stand beside her. He was overwhelmed by the reality of the moment. Or maybe it was the music. Whatever it was brought tears to his eyes.
Queen Conroe was all smiles, waving to her subjects. Crane began to smile too, in spite of the fact that tears were running down his cheeks. He felt like such a wimp for crying, but Conroe didn’t seem to mind. She turned to him and mouthed, “I love you.”
When the music concluded, the congregation cheered, “Long live the queen! Long live the queen!”
60
At the Coronation Ball, the royal table had been set for four people: Queen Conroe, the Queen Mother, Wally, and Crane. At the last minute, Conroe had asked the staff for two additional place settings in order to include Geneva and Will, much to the dismay of the Queen Mother.
Everyone at the table ate and politely chitchatted until Wally asked the Queen Mother to dance. As he escorted his wife to the dance floor, he looked back and winked at his daughter, Queen Conroe.
She smiled and gave her father an appreciative nod. He was providing an opportunity for Conroe and Crane to visit with their friends.
“You two make a lovely couple,” said Conroe to Geneva and Will.
“Thanks…again,” Geneva replied.
“Did I already say that?” Conroe asked innocently. “Well, it’s true.”
“Conroe,” Geneva admonished.
“Perhaps we should get in the habit of addressing her as Your Majesty,” Will said to Geneva. “She is the queen now, you know.”
“That’s not necessary,” Conroe replied. “Well, at least not when we’re in private. In public—well, that’s different.”
“There you have it,” Will said.
“So, no more girls’ nights?” Geneva asked.
“I would appreciate a few boy-girl nights with my wife first, if you don’t mind,” Crane joked.
“Oh, that’s right,” Geneva said. “You two haven’t even consummated the marriage.”
“That will be remedied very shortly,” Conroe asserted.
“Good,” Crane responded, smiling.
“Crane, I’ve got to ask you about this,” Geneva said. “Where did you go right before the ceremony? We saw you get up and leave. You barely made it back in time.”
“Oh, you won’t believe this!” Conroe exclaimed. “I nearly died when he told me about it.”
“What happened?” Geneva asked.
Crane explained, “When I sat down, I realized I had forgotten to put on the necklace Conroe gave me—you know, her grandfather’s gold cross. And I felt like it meant a lot to her for me to be wearing it, so I went back to get it. But when I came out of Conroe’s room, Frederick was waiting for me in the hallway.”
“No!” Geneva said.
“What did he want?” Will asked.
“I’ll bet he wanted his time travel computer,” Geneva surmised.
“That’s right,” Crane said.
“Did you tell him that I have it?” Geneva asked.
“No, because I didn’t want him to go to your house and get it. So I stalled. But I couldn’t stall for too long since I needed to get back to the church.”
“Don’t forget to tell them about the guards, honey,” Conroe urged.
“Oh, yeah,” Crane said. “He brought four of his guards from the OutCastle.”
“I guess he wasn’t man enough to handle you by himself,” Geneva cracked.
“That’s exactly the approach I took with him. I offered to fight him if he’d make the guards put their swords away.”
“So you fought with him?” Will asked.
“Sort of,” Crane replied.
“He outsmarted him,” Conroe said with pride.
Geneva giggled. “What did you do?”
“I pretended that Conroe had taught me Gomwei,” Crane said.
“Which was a lie,” Conroe added, “but I will teach it to you when we have the time, sweetie.”
“I’m looking forward to that,” Crane responded.
“Well, if you didn’t know Gomwei, what was the trick?” Will asked.
“I closed my eyes like Conroe does and dared him to hit me. He thought I was going to try to defeat him the same way Conroe had. I’m sure that shook his confidence. But what he didn’t realize was that my eyes were not completely closed. I could still see his lower body when he walked up to me. He was about to take a swing at me when I kicked him as hard as I could right where it hurts, so to speak.”
Geneva’s jaw dropped, and then she began to laugh.
They laughed so loudly that the Queen Mother gave Conroe a stern look, so Conroe asked them to hold it down.
Then she offered a toast to her husband and their two friends. “To great friends and a wonderful husband, without whom I would probably not even be here, and I certainly wouldn’t be Queen of the Kingdom of Ampla. I love you, and will be forever indebted to you.”
Geneva held up her glass. “Long live the queen.”
Will and Crane joined in as she said it again.
“Long live the queen.”
61
Crane walked out of the bathroom and was pleased to see that his wife was still in bed. This time she had not been transported away by Frederick. There would be no more of that—ever again.
“That was quite a party,” he said.
“Did you enjoy it as much as I did?”
“Sure,” he replied. “Well, probably not quite as much as you did, since I didn’t get a crown.”
“Good point,” she said. “What do you think about Geneva and Will? They’re a perfect couple, don’t you agree?”
“I don’t know about perfect, but they do seem to really like each other. Hopefully it will work out.”
“It will—if I have anything to do with it.”
“Now, Conroe.”
“It’s Your Majesty.”
“Oh, sorry. I forgot.”
“You realize that it’s after eleven,” she said. “You know what that means.”
“No. What?”
“Lights Out. Old Cracker could walk in the door at any minute. Hurry! Come get in bed with me so we can start dreaming together.” She gave him a sexy wink.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” He ran to the bed and jumped in.
THE END
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Arby Robbins
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