by J. Naomi Ay
“Oh!” Charlotte cried. “We're related then. I am Katie de Kudisha's mother. Tell me, Moira, do you play cards? I am desperate for someone to play cards with.”
“I do actually,” I said. “And I have no one to play with either. Poor Drefus here can't remember her sums and is no good at all to play.”
“Wonderful!” Charlotte applauded though the soprano was still in the midst of her recitative. “How about tomorrow? I live at the Palace in that big building…oh dear, what's it called? It has a lovely glass statute in the lobby.”
“I live in the same building,” I instructed. “It’s called the High Lord's building. Sehron has put all of us grande dames out to pasture there.”
“Oh, it's a charming building,” Charlotte said. “I am on the third floor with a wonderful view of the ocean.”
“I am the third floor too, perhaps we are neighbors?”
“How delightful,” Charlotte exclaimed. “I don't think I'll ever get used to having two moons here. Manny would be so tickled by it. Manny was a lawyer, you know. What did your husband do?”
“My husband, Yokaa was a king.”
“Oh yes, of course,” Charlotte laughed. “How silly of me! Sometimes I wonder where my brain has gone. Manny used to say I should have Katie's husband look at it. He used to be a brain doctor.”
“Yes, I knew that.”
“Manny was so proud of him, a brain doctor and then he had this enormous company and then what do you know, he turns out to be this Emperor fellow too.”
“Yokaa was proud of him too,” I declared. “Yokaa was very proud of him.”
“Well,” Charlotte said. “We have missed nearly the whole first act with our chatting. Look, they are taking an intermission already.”
“Do you care to hear the second act?”
“Not really. How about you?”
“Not at all,” I replied. “Shall we go back to the Palace and play cards?”
“That would be lovely, Moira,” Charlotte said.
I waved for an attendant who rang for our limousine and together we left the Opera House and drove home.
“I only play for money,” Charlotte said. “Five dollars to buy in.”
“Let’s make it ten,” I suggested.
“And twenty to raise,” Charlotte countered.
“Perfect,” I replied. “Just perfect.”
Chapter 30
Shelly
I was overwhelmed. The plane was soaring above the most beautiful city I had ever seen, and beyond it was a sparkling blue ocean lined with white sugar sand beaches.
“That's the SdK complex.” Thad leaned over my shoulder and pointed out the window. “Doesn't it look like Kalika-hahr?”
“It does,” I agreed. “Except for that giant clock tower.”
“You think we could go in and look at our office, Shelly?” Janet called from the seat in front.
Janet and Jerry had met us at the orbiting Imperial spacebase so that we could all fly down this last leg together. They both look terrific, tan and slim. Jerry had become a vegan, and since moving to Derius, Janet had given up red meat too. The two of them looked very happy. In fact, they both seemed to glow.
“I don't want to waste any time here looking at my office,” I replied as the Palace came into view. “I want to spend every waking and sleeping moment at that place.”
“Oh my God!” Gina gasped. “Isn't that fabulous?”
We all craned our necks as we passed over the buildings encompassing the Palace of Mishnah. I was so excited I could hardly sit still. Tim was looking out the windows with a frown on his face. His eyes were very alert though so I could tell he was working really hard not to enjoy himself. The plane touched down into the central courtyard within the Palace walls although the courtyard itself was probably a mile long and half a mile wide.
“Sit down,” Tim snapped at me as I bolted from my seat even though we were still moving. Janet and Gina were also up grabbing their bags. I couldn’t help it if the men weren’t as excited about this as we were. I pushed past Tim and grabbed my own bag. The plane's door slid open, and the stairway extended and so help me, it was a race between us three girls to get out the door first.
“Calm down, ladies!” Jerry called, but we ignored him and bolted down the stairs.
“Oh my God!” Gina exclaimed again spinning around on the landing.
It was warm, and a delicious breeze was blowing in off the ocean. The courtyard was filled with flowers of every sort but what was truly outstanding was a huge garden of white roses near the very center. Rose bushes, easily twenty feet high but immaculately groomed, surrounded what appears to be a solid gold fountain in the shape of an icicle mountain spewing rainbow colored water.
“Cool!” Janet breathed.
Jerry cleared his throat. “Ron always had a thing for white roses.”
“They are the simple of everlasting love,” Gina cried dreamily. “A love stronger than death.”
“Always all over Katie's cabin,” Jerry continued. “The only person in space who had fresh flowers in her cabin every day.”
“Come on,” Thad pushed us all down the stairs. “You can walk the gardens later.”
We followed Thad across the landing area and onto a walkway. There were lots of people in the courtyard. Some appeared to be on a guided tour with cameras and expressions as awestruck as our own. Others looked like they worked here and practically ran along the pathways heading from one building to the next. Several women were, in fact, running straight toward us.
“Jesus H. Christ!” Jerry yelled. “Caroline Adamson, is that you?”
“Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!” Caroline screamed and threw herself on Jerry. She was crying, he was crying, and then they were laughing and carrying on like you wouldn't believe.
“I can't believe you are here!” he gasped when they finally settle down and just stared at each other. “You look fantastic.” He waved his hands at Caroline's gown which, Thad whispered to us, was a traditional Mishnese tunic dress which all the women here were required to wear when in residence.
“Do we get to wear them too?” Gina asked hopefully.
“You mean, do we have to wear them too?” Janet snapped, wrinkling her nose.
“Guys,” Jerry interrupted. “Let me introduce you to a very old friend, Caroline Adamson, who was my absolute best nurse aboard the Discovery. Katie, Caroline and I made quite a threesome.”
“Actually, I’m Lady Taner now,” Caroline smiled broadly and showed off a beautiful diamond ring. “I am married to Lord Taner, the Lord Chamberlain. I dearly hope, you'll be able to meet him sometime during your visit here with us.”
“Oh Caroline, congratulations!” Janet beamed and moved to hug her too. “I'm Janet. I used to be Ron's nurse back at RSI and then SdK. I was Janet Kersey then.”
They giggled like school girls and hugged like old friends though they had never met.
“Come on,” Thad groaned. “Let’s move along. Taner around, Caroline?”
“In his office, Thad,” she replied. “He and Lord Berkan are expecting you in a bit, I think.”
“Great. I’ll just head up there after we get everyone settled in.”
“Of course,” Caroline said pulling away from Janet. “Let me introduce Kira and Noka who are here to assist you during your stay.”
Two slightly blue women in the same Mishnese gowns came forward. I notice that all of them had a matching diamond pin on their bodices.
“Andorians,” Tim mumbled under his breath.
“What is the meaning of those brooches,” I asked as we followed them along the pathways to one of the buildings. “Why do you all have the same one?”
“We are all members of Her Imperial Highnesses staff,” Caroline replied. “The brooch is made up of our lady's initials, in the Mishnese alphabet of course, KdK. If you see any men wearing royal blue sashes, that's her personal regiment.”
“That her would be, Katie?” Janet asked.
“Yes
,” the one called Kira replied with a sneer. “And you'll get thrown out of here real quick if you call her Katie so don't even try it.”
“Ok,” Janet whispered.
“Don't worry, we'll go over all the protocols with you,” Caroline said. “Luci, Lady Berkan is head of Her Imperial Highnesses staff and will come visit you this afternoon. She'll make sure you don't breach anything and end up with your head on the ground next to you.”
“What?” Gina gasped.
“Kidding.” Thad rolled his eyes. “She's kidding, Gina. Calm down.”
“This building we are about to enter is where you'll be staying. We have some beautiful rooms for you on the second floor. Most of the higher ranking staff members live in this building. Taner and I have a suite on the third floor as do Luci and Berkan. Noka and Kira live on the first floor. Katie's mom and her brother and his family live in the next building on the third floor. Also, HIM's grandmother the dowager Queen and his uncle Loman who is a duke, all have apartments over there. Visiting royalty from the outer planets stay in that building and council members, ministers, and the governors of our planets stay in the adjacent building over there when they come for meetings.”
“What about…um...them?” Gina asked as we enter the foyer of our building.
Magnificent would be an understatement. The same pink marble with gold veins that was in the Takira-hahr mansion made up the floors and much of the walls. The staircases were also in marble, and there were fabulous oriental style carpets everywhere. The furniture was something that would make Louis XVI drool. Gilt, gold, highly polished woods, crystal and more marble were everywhere the eye could see. Fresh flowers were in gold and crystal vases on nearly every table, and there wasn’t a speck of dust or dirt to mar anything.
“Them?” Caroline asked. “You mean HIM and Her? That's how we refer to them. They live in that building down there.” She pointed to the other end of the Palace on the ocean side. “Prince Shika has a suite in that building next door to them as well as Prince Sorkan, HIM's father.”
“We will get to see them, won't we?” Jerry asked hesitantly.
“You'll get to see her,” Caroline replied. “I know she's very excited about you all visiting. As far as HIM goes, who knows?”
“We lived here a long time already and never saw him once,” Noka said. “Not even walking from this room to that.”
“I saw him once when I got a seat in the gallery during Parliament,” Kira put in. “I had to wait seven hours for it, and then my boss yelled at me for being late to work.” She glared at Caroline.
“My husband spends twenty hours a day with him, and I am his wife's best friend and I've seen HIM maybe twice in the last year for about a minute each time,” Caroline declared while frowning at Kira. “Access to HIM is really strictly controlled. It's not like the old days at all, Jerry.”
“This place isn't exactly the Discovery either,” Jerry replied, his head tipped back to stare at the ornate frescoed ceiling.
“Does Ka…Her ever get to see him?” I asked.
“Now, yes.” Caroline led us up the staircase. “When she first got here she didn't, but that's another story. Okay, Admiral and Dr. Mattson, this is your suite, right here. Lord and Lady Kalika-hahr, you're right next door and Dr. and Mrs. Waldman, you are right next door to them.”
“What?” Gina shrieked.
“You don’t want to be next to the Waldmans?” Caroline asked.
“Actually, we changed our name to Moonbeam,” Janet said.
“No!” Gina cried.
“Yes, we did,” Janet insisted.
“That’s not what I meant!” Gina looked from Caroline to Thad. “What did you call us?”
Thad looked at the ceiling too as if he had also just noticed the frescoes.
“Lord and Lady Kalika-hahr?” Caroline repeated.
I started to laugh. Tim rolled his eyes.
“Oh yeah, Gina, I forgot to tell you that little bit,” Thad said and put his arm across his wife’s shoulders. “I got upped,” he whispered loudly in her ear.
“Upped!”
“Yeah, but don’t make such a big deal about it otherwise we might get downed.” He winked at us and pulled Gina into their suite.
“Downed?” she repeated as the door shut behind them.
“I’ll see y’all this evening for dinner.” Caroline waved and headed back down the stairs.
Tim and I went into our suite. “I could get used to this really quick,” I sighed gazing out at the ocean. “I guess this is the definition of living like royalty.”
“It's not too bad,” the old guy grumbled while bouncing his butt a few times on the canopied king size bed. He laid down and put his feet up on the silk duvet, fortunately without his shoes. “Nice,” he sighed and immediately fell asleep.
“Nice,” I agreed and lay down next to him to doze off too.
The next thing I knew, Thad was ringing us for dinner. Tim and I quickly got up and dressed. We made our way back down the marble staircases to the building’s foyer. There we met Caroline and the Andorian girls who were standing with another woman with bright orange curly hair. She was introduced to us as Lady Berkan. Over cocktails, we were instructed in the appropriate way to speak to and address Her and HIM, should we be so fortunate to dwell for a moment in his presence.
“You don't have to make obeisance,” Lady Berkan informed us. “Except for the Lord and Lady of course. Just don't be surprised if everyone else does.”
“Do they bow to Ka…Her too?” Janet asked.
“Yes, but differently. With Her, we bow from the waist or curtsey. With HIM, we must all be on our knees.”
“My knees couldn't take that,” I said.
“Yes, it's difficult when you get older and fatter like me,” Lady Berkan chuckled. “Fortunately, I never see HIM. As far as greeting Madame goes, I know you are all good friends, but you must not take the liberty of touching Her although knowing Her, she'll probably rush up and hug you anyway.”
“We can't hug her?” I asked.
“No, no, no,” Lady Berkan cried. “If she holds out her hand, which will be gloved, you may kiss it, but that is it. There is supposed to be absolutely no physical contact allowed with the Empress, but like I said, she's not very good about that.”
“I used to hug her all the time,” I protested.
“This is the Capital City of the Empire of Rehnor, Dr. Mattson,” Lady Berkan sniffed. “Here you must follow our rules.”
Dinner took place in a banquet room in an adjacent building. Although the meal was excellent, the room was lovely, and the service was fit for an Emperor, it was just our little group with Noka and Kira. Caroline and Lady Berkan went off to attend to Her who sent her apologies but could not meet with us this evening as some Governors or Ambassadors or otherwise more important people were in town and she had to meet with them instead.
“She promises she’ll come see y’all as soon as possible,” Caroline cried hurrying out the door. “I'll make sure that we keep you busy seeing the sights in the meantime.”
“Let's go take a walk on the beach,” Gina suggested after we were stuffed to the gills with dessert.
“Great idea,” Janet agreed.
“Oh, no, no,” Noka said as we all stood around trying to figure out which hallway would take us outside. “No one can go on this beach.”
“Why the hell not?” Tim growled.
“The beach is closed, Dad,” Thad replied, leading us back to our building. “We can wander around the gardens here instead. Tomorrow we can go walk in Old Mishnah. It's quaint now if a little bit touristy. We can take the full guided tour, and you can hear all about how Ron raised himself on the streets until he was twelve.”
“You can even visit the shrine to his old mutt dog,” Kira remarked.
“But we can't go out on the beach now?” Gina whined.
“The beach belongs to HIM,” Kira smirked. “Nobody goes out there but Them.”
“But why?�
� Gina protested.
“The beach is secured,” Thad said. “It is the only place outside of the Big House building and Karupatani where Ron can go without a security contingent. He can't even come over into this building. It's just a beach, Gina. I’ll buy you one at home. If you can’t wait, we can take a speeder and go to a public beach tomorrow. I think there’s a half way decent nude one just north of here.”
“Do you always have to be such a smart ass, Thad?” Gina asked.
“That’s Lord Thad to you, Lady Thad,” he replied and reached for her. She squealed and raced into their apartment.
As I climbed up and into our huge bed that night, I wondered what it must feel like to be surrounded by security at all times. I thought about Ron with his bare feet up on his desk, smoking a cigarette with only me and Janet to bother him. I recalled all the times when he stood listening to a patient, nodding his head and assuring everyone of them that he could fix whatever was wrong. I remembered him too as Senya, the first time I saw him huddled in the corner of the hospital room, the rose bud he made for me out of his shoe lace, his delighted expression when I bought him some new shirts and a sandwich for lunch.
“What are you thinking about,” Tim mumbled instead of snoring.
“Senya,” I said.
“HIM?” Tim harrumphed.
“No, not HIM,” I replied. “Just Senya.”
We took the Old Mishnah walking tour and visited the streets that Ron grew up on. We left a dog biscuit at the statue of Brownie the Mutt. We visited the new site of the Old Mishnah Sainted Ladies Orphan Home.
Located on one of the poshest streets in Old Mishnah, a former tenement building had been converted to a beautiful adoption facility. Next door, the adjacent building served as a temporary residence for children and families being treated at the nearby SdK hospital. Both establishments were owned and operated as charities by a formerly Sainted Lady named Meri. I don’t know why she was considered formerly except that she had discarded her wimple. She still seemed pretty sainted to me.