The three of us heave Robin back to the bed. She keeps on sleeping, of course. Then Bri, Jonah, and I walk back down the stairs. Walking down is easier than walking up, but the view is scarier. Since the tower is all open space I can see how far the drop is to the bottom.
“Where were your parents?” I ask Bri as we make our way down.
“At a yard sale.”
“Why would a royal family want to shop at a yard sale?” I ask, frowning. “Don’t people sell used stuff?”
“Yes,” Bri says. “My parents love used stuff. They’re bargain hunters and they’re shopaholics.”
“Really?” I ask. That isn’t exactly how I pictured a king and queen.
Bri nods. “My mom and dad are obsessed. Look down. Do you see all the stuff? Pots. Pans. Plates. Glasses. Sheets. Lamps. That’s what all the piles down there are.”
I’m too afraid to look down again, but I remember the piles from when we arrived.
“That’s where I found the pots,” Jonah says a few steps behind me.
“My parents use all the towers for storage,” Bri says. “They’re especially keen on kitchen stuff. Bowls, plates, and glasses. They’re also obsessed with farmers’ markets. They buy a ton of food. We have three pantries in the palace kitchen.”
“Good,” Jonah says. “Because I’m starving. Can I get a snack, too?”
“Absolutely,” Bri says.
“Do you like cheese and crackers?” Jonah asks. “I bet you like Brie cheese. If there was a food called Jonah, I would eat it all the time.”
If there was a food called Abby, I would want it to be something sweet. But not too sweet. It would have to have a little bite. Salted caramels, maybe? But I don’t need a food named after me. I already have a castle!
“How come you didn’t go to the yard sale with your family?” I ask.
Bri reaches the bottom and turns around to face us. “I wanted to try and find the spindle,” Bri explains. “I knew there had to be at least one somewhere…. Anyway, I don’t want someone else’s old junk. What do I need that for? They’ll have everything I need in the future.”
“Your parents didn’t mind that you stayed home?” I ask Bri, remembering from the fairy tale that Sleeping Beauty’s parents were very protective.
Jonah and I finally reach the bottom. There really is a lot of stuff here.
Bri maneuvers her way through the piles. “I told them I wasn’t feeling well and promised I would stay in bed. And that wouldn’t have been a lie if my plan had worked out the way it was supposed to.”
When we push open the door to outside, a cool breeze washes over me. Ah. It’s nice out here. We step onto a path that cuts through a rose garden.
There are roses everywhere. Red roses, pink roses, white roses, apricot roses, purple roses, orange roses … there are even yellowy-green ones. The kingdom of Mustard would love those. The garden is divided into square patches, each about five feet by five feet, and each square has a different color rose.
I really wish I had shoes on. I do not want to step on a thorn.
“Too sweet, too sweet,” Jonah whines, blocking his nose. “It’s making me sick.”
“Jonah!” I shoot him a warning look. “You’re being rude!”
“I don’t even smell them,” Bri says.
I don’t know how she doesn’t smell them. The scent is pretty strong. “I’ve never seen so many roses.”
“We’ve had them forever,” Bri says. “The entire economy of the kingdom revolves around roses. We make rose teas, rose medicines, rose-petal jams …” Her voice trails off. “But if you’re scared of bees, be careful because we have quite a few buzzing around.”
“Who’s not scared of bees?” I wonder out loud.
Bri shrugs. “I’m not. They’re so small.”
She’s so brave. I wish someone had given me courage when I was born. Probably more useful then the giant brown bear my great-aunt sent me.
“Court is shaped like a diamond,” Bri explains. “There’s the west tower, north tower, east tower, and south tower. Around the towers is the rose garden and then a gate for security. In the center is Rose Abbey. Follow me.”
We walk around to the other side of the tower and that’s when I see the palace. It’s about four floors high and very square looking. It’s made of stone, and has large windows all over it. It looks like the outside of a ski chalet. Definitely less castle-y than the others I’ve seen.
“There’s my family,” Bri says, pointing to a black carriage outside the castle door. “I guess I’ll tell them I’m feeling better.”
A tall man in a long, red velvet robe steps out of the carriage. He’s wearing a gold crown and holding a large silver wok in his arms.
“Look what we got!” he announces to the three royal servants awaiting his arrival.
“Good find, King Morris!” the servants say in unison.
“That’s my dad,” Bri says.
A woman steps out of the carriage next. She’s also wearing a red velvet robe and a gold crown. She’s holding a glass bowl.
“Good find, Queen Vickie!” chirp the servants.
“My mom,” Bri says.
And finally a little boy wearing red pants and a black shirt jumps out of the carriage. He has a small gold crown on his head. He’s holding a wooden spoon.
“Good find, Prince Felix!” the royal servants exclaim.
“Wait a sec,” I say, stopping in my tracks. “Felix is a prince?”
Bri nods. “Of course he’s a prince. He’s my brother.” She slaps her palm against her forehead. “He’s a prince!”
“He’s a prince!” I repeat.
“I don’t get it,” Jonah says. “We know he’s a prince. So what?”
I turn to my brother. “All we need to do is get him to wake up Robin, and at least one of our problems is solved.”
Brianna!” the king calls. “You’re up! Come see what we got!”
“Don’t say anything to them about what happened, got it?” Brianna whispers to Jonah and me as we follow her to meet her parents.
“How come?” Jonah asks.
“Because they’ll freak out. They’re still really upset about the curse. That’s why they’re so obsessed with buying kitchen stuff. They’re mad at themselves for not having enough plates and not inviting all the fairies. So just don’t say anything. Promise?”
“Promise,” we say as we approach the front door of the palace, where the king and queen are standing.
The queen and king give Bri a big hug. Up close I can see that Bri has her mom’s blond hair and upturned nose, but she has her dad’s dark-blue eyes and pink cheeks.
“We missed you at the yard sale!” the king says in a booming voice. “Are you feeling better?”
Bri nods. “Much. I invited some friends over to keep me company.” She gestures to Jonah and me. “They’re commoners.”
Gee, thanks.
“Would they like to come inside for some tea?” the queen asks, motioning toward the door.
“Do you have any soda?” Jonah asks.
I elbow him in the side. “No soda. I mean, no pop!”
“Fine,” he grumbles. “Milk?”
“Of course,” the queen says, and enters the palace.
Inside, it’s cool and still smells like roses. My nose is not getting used to the rose scent and I hope it never does.
The floors are covered in different rugs. Every inch of wall space is covered in paintings, large and small. Every surface is covered in vases filled with bouquets of different colored roses and bowls filled with rose potpourri. There are also large candles everywhere.
“Wow,” Jonah says. “You guys have a lot of stuff.”
“Yes we do!” the queen cheers. “Do you like the new rug we got last week?” She points to a white rug under a coffee table. “Isn’t is grand?”
I’m not sure if grand is the word I’d use. More like shaggy. But I nod anyway.
I’m not sure how, but the room looks fu
nky. It has style.
Seeing all this stuff reminds me that we have three tasks — not two — to get done. Yes, we have to wake up Robin and put Bri to sleep, but we also have to find the enchanted object that will take us home. Sometimes it’s a mirror, but sometimes it’s a chimney or a cauldron. This palace is crammed with stuff. The object could be anything.
Since it’s probably already about two o’clock, and if we want to be home by nine thirty, before our parents start to wonder about us, we have only seven and a half hours to find it. Although usually the portal pops up when we’re ready to go …
My heart rate speeds up. So much to do. So little time. Usually we’re in these fairy tales for a few days, at least, and we have only two tasks. This time we have only a few hours and we have three tasks. We need to get this show on the road. We need to get Bri’s brother to Robin in the tower.
Hmm. Where is Felix?
The king and queen lead us into the royal dining room. Royal servants come in carrying trays of pastries, a large pot of tea, and milk. The pastries are really pretty. One is a tower of fluff and almonds and raspberry drizzle. It will be hard not to get distracted.
We all sit down at the table.
I make sure to put my napkin on my lap and motion for Jonah to do the same.
My brother downs a cup of milk and then grabs a chocolate scone.
I take a pastry. Then another. Traveling to fairy tales makes me hungry.
“Are you two going to take a nap?” the queen asks me, sipping elegantly from her teacup.
“A nap? No, we’re too old to nap,” I say, but then I realize that she’s looking at our outfits.
We’re wearing our pajamas.
Why am I always wearing pajamas whenever I meet royalty? It’s so embarrassing.
Having a pair of shoes on wouldn’t be so terrible, either.
A large crash comes from another room.
“Felix!” the queen hollers. “What are you doing?”
“It wasn’t me!” a squeaky voice yells back.
The king and queen both laugh.
Bri rolls her eyes. “It was so him.”
Felix dashes through the room and smacks right into the table. “Not me again!” he cries. Up close he looks exactly like the king, but little. Same dark-blue eyes and spiky hair.
“Stay where we can see you,” the king orders.
“Look at me!” Felix calls, and launches himself into a cartwheel and then into a side table. A vase of roses plummets to the floor.
He straightens up, yells “Girls are gross!” and pinches his sister’s arm.
“Ouch! Mom! Did you see that?” Bri calls out.
“See what?” the queen asks. “Isn’t your brother adorable?”
Um … he does not seem so adorable. He seems more like a little monster. I almost expect to see skid marks on the floor.
He runs around the room a few more times before crawling into an empty chair.
We all munch silently. Mmm. Raspberry-almond-fluff pastries are gooooood. Next time I have a sleepover I’m making these instead of s’mores.
After a few minutes, the queen folds her napkin and places it on the table. “Bri, keep an eye on your brother.”
Then the royal couple wave to us and head off to another room.
Felix pops out of his chair and marches over to Jonah. “Who are you?” he demands.
“I’m Jonah,” my brother says, giving the little boy a smile.
Felix narrows his eyes. “I don’t like to share. Are you going to take my toys?”
Jonah’s smile falters. “No.”
“Play with me!” Felix pokes Jonah in the side with his wooden spoon. “You have to play with me!”
Jonah scoots his chair sideways. “Stop it.”
Bri crosses her arms. “Felix, we need your help with something in the west tower.”
Felix grabs an unlit candle off the table and lies facedown on the ground. “No.”
“Come on, Felix,” Bri says with a sigh. “Please.”
“No.” He turns his head toward us and sticks out his tongue.
Now what? I can’t believe I thought Jonah was annoying. Felix is a hundred times more annoying and I’ve known him for only five minutes.
“Pretty please with a cherry on top?” I ask, my voice sweeter than raspberry drizzle.
Felix flips onto his back and balances the candle on his little feet. “What will you give me?”
“Excuse me?” What nerve this little boy has! Then I add, “You may want to be careful with that candle.” I can’t help it. Once a big sister, always a big sister.
Felix ignores me and tries balancing the candle with only one foot. “You want me to come with you. Sounds like you need me. So what do I get?”
Bri stands up and grabs the candle off his foot. “What do you want?”
He points to Jonah. “I want him to give me a horseyback ride to the tower.”
“You mean piggyback?” I ask. “When you carry someone on your back?”
Felix stomps his feet. “Horseyback! Horseyback!”
“Same thing,” Bri says with a nod.
“Fine,” Jonah says with a shrug. He stands up. “Horseyback does make more sense if you think about it.”
Felix jumps up and onto Jonah’s back in about three seconds flat. Then he hits my brother on the head with his spoon. “Go, horsey, go!”
Jonah frowns but obeys.
Giddyup.
Felix insists that if we want him to go upstairs, Jonah will have to horseyback him all the way there.
There are about eighty stairs.
By the time we’re halfway up, my brother’s face is the color of a tomato. No — of a red rose.
“So now you know what it’s like to have a little brother,” I tell Jonah with a laugh.
He grunts in reply.
“Faster, horsey, faster!” Felix commands.
I have met a lot of princes through the magic mirror, but he is the most demanding BY FAR.
Once we’re finally at the top, Felix hops off and Jonah slumps against the wall.
“This better work,” Jonah mumbles.
Felix launches himself into another cartwheel. “There’s a girl sleeping on the bed!” he cries.
“Yes. We need you to help our friend Robin wake up,” I say.
His face scrunches up in horror. “Nooooooo!” he shrieks. “No way! I’m not helping a girl!”
“You said you would help us,” Bri says. “That was the deal. Jonah gave you a horseyback and now you have to help us.”
Jonah, meanwhile, has spread out on the stone floor. He is panting.
“No,” Felix says. “I said I would come with you if he gave me a horseyback. I did not say I would help a girl.”
“Jonah will horseyback you around the room again if you help,” I pipe up.
Jonah groans. “I will?”
“No,” Felix says. “I want his box.”
“His what?” I ask.
“His box! The box that fell out of his pajamas when he was horseybacking me up the stairs. I want it.”
“No way,” Jonah snaps. “He can’t have my game.”
“Yes way,” Felix says. “Or forget about me helping you!”
“But we need it to tell the time,” Jonah says. “Right, Abby?”
“Not technically,” I say. “Since we know that time here is the same as time at home. And I spotted a clock on top of a pile of plates downstairs.”
Jonah gives me the stink eye.
“Give it to me,” Felix orders.
Jonah reluctantly hands over the game, grumbling to himself.
Felix runs up to Robin and stops short in front of her ear.
“WAKE UP!” he screeches. “WAKE UP!”
She doesn’t move.
“Can I pinch her?” he asks.
“Um … gently,” I say.
He pinches her, not so gently, on the arm.
She still doesn’t budge.
“She’s not
waking up,” he tells us. “Should I poke her with my spoon?”
In the story, it’s the prince’s kiss that finally wakes up Sleeping Beauty. “Can you try, um, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek?” I suggest.
I brace myself for a shriek. I expect him to fall back on the floor and throw a tantrum. I expect him to ask for a million dollars.
Instead, he leans over and kisses Robin’s cheek with an ear-shattering smack.
Bri shrugs. “He likes giving kisses.”
We wait for Robin to open her eyes.
She doesn’t.
“Robin?” I ask. “Are you awake?”
No answer.
Argh! “It didn’t work,” I say. “Why didn’t it work? A prince tried to wake her up! He even kissed her! That’s what happened in the original story! A prince kisses Sleeping Beauty and she wakes up!” I turn to Bri. “What did the twelfth fairy say, exactly?”
“That I would be woken up in a hundred years by a prince,” she says.
“Then maybe a prince can wake her up only after a hundred years,” Jonah says, still on the floor. “Not today.”
That is a big problem. Huge. Ginormous! We can’t wait for a hundred years to pass! How are we ever going to wake her up?
“There’s only one thing that’s going to fix our problems,” I say.
“What’s that?” Bri asks.
I sigh. “Magic. We should talk to a fairy.”
“I don’t know any fairies,” Bri says. “Except Lottie. But she disappeared.”
“Sometimes knocking on stuff works,” Jonah says. He knocks on the wall. “Hello? Lottie? Are you there? Are any other fairies there?”
No one answers.
“We can’t knock on everything in the royal court, ” I say. “The king and queen have a lot of stuff.”
“Can’t we ask the king and queen to call a fairy?” Jonah asks. “They invited twelve over when you were born,” he reminds Bri. “They probably know where to find one.”
Bri shakes her head. “No way. My parents will never let me invite a fairy over. They’ve hated fairies ever since that day.”
“I hate fairies, too!” Felix yells for no reason. Then he starts running in a circle around the attic. Again and again.
“Should I stop him?” I ask Bri.
Bri shakes her head. “He’ll tire himself out eventually. Just leave him.”
Whatever After #4: Dream On Page 4