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THE BROKEN VEIL
© 10/14/2016
When Ondine arrived at her brother’s house, the police were already there. A distraught Martha opened the door and flung herself into Ondine’s arms.
“What happened? How could she disappear?” Ondine inquired.
Martha could not answer, and John, coming to the door, explained.
“We do not know. She went to sleep all right. We checked on her before we went to our room. She was sleeping; for once she appeared to be having pleasant dreams, her face was calm, even happy. We heard nothing during the night. All the windows were closed, all the doors, and yet, and yet, when we went to see her in the morning, she wasn’t there!” He ended, almost screaming.
“What do the police say?”
“Nothing. Well, as always they suspect us. I cannot understand it. Instead of searching for her, they were asking all these impertinent questions before you came.” Explained John.
“That’s the way it has become. Parents, who are the ones supposed to lay down their lives for their children, are the first suspects in these cases. It’s patently wrong, but it is the way our society has become.”
“They want to talk to you too.”
“I suppose so.” Commented Ondine.
Ondine went to the living room, where a policeman and a policewoman were checking up the room.
“I understand you wanted to ask me some questions?”
Some hours later, after the police had left, they sat at the kitchen’s table. They were silent, pondering on the girl’s disappearance.
“They didn’t find any sign of entrance” commented John. “If she has been kidnapped…”
A wail from Martha interrupted him. Ondine stood up and went to embrace her.
“If someone kidnapped her, she was spirited out of here by magic.”
Ondine opened wide her eyes, an idea, a farfetched and stupid idea had come to her.
“What?” Asked John.
“Nothing, just thinking about how she could have been taken out of the house. It’s impossible.” Said Ondine
“Right.”
“Could she have gone out by herself? The police considered that possibility.”
“She was too sick to walk away, Ondine, you saw yourself how I had to help her to the window.” Said Martha still holding to her sister-in-law.
“I know, I know, but sometimes people’s energies increase unexpectedly and allow them to do the impossible?”
Ondine asked them to let her see Elsie’s room. She searched trying to find something that had escaped police scrutiny. Finally, she went toward the bed. The sheets were pulled up, and the pillow still wore the marks of Elsie’s head. Searching under the pillow, Ondine found the paper where Elsie had written down her aunt’s dream. Ondine scanned it again, searching for a clue; it was at the end of the paper. With almost illegible strokes, Elsie had written something.
“He’s here,” it said.
-
Late at night she returned to her home. John, Martha and Adelaide had begged her to stay with them at their house, but she needed to be alone to think.
He’s here. Who could he be? Morpheus? Or the man who kidnapped her? Ondine thought and thought and thought, until she could not think anymore and fell asleep.
She dreamed. She dreamed about that other world Elsie had talked about. Something felt strange, and with a burst of understanding she realized she wan on an upside down tree and not only that, but swiftly moving above the ground. She held tight to the branch, afraid of falling.
“You won’t fall.” She heard.
“You are the tree?”
“Yes, and I won’t let you fall.” The voice answered.
“Why am I here?”
“Morpheus wants to talk to you; I’m taking you there now.”
“Why cannot he be wherever I do appear? If he is a god, he should be able to do that.”
They soon overflew the forest and came near the bank of the river where she saw a big tent. Many people were outside, looking at her. A centaur was there, and she could see a tiny figure waving to her, a tiny girl, Elsie!
The tree lowered its branch so Ondine could jump down. She ran toward the small gathering, doubting her eyes.
“Elsie, Elsie! Is it you?” She cried.
The girl ran into her arms, clinging to her with fierce strength.
“Aunty!” She cried.
“What is this, how can you be here?”
“I do not know, and these people won’t tell. Will you ask them, aunty, will you?”
“Sure I will.” She walked toward them. She was angry. How could they have brought Elsie to this world? And yet, she knew she was dreaming. Perhaps this dream, this Elsie here was only product of her worries about her niece.
Morpheus and Hermes stepped in front of her.
“Stop!” They both said, with a gesture.
She stopped as if rooted to the spot.
“We have to talk, Ondine.” Said Morpheus.
“What do you have to say?” She asked, letting her anger show. “How could you steal her from her world and bring her here? Do you know how her parents are suffering? And the stupid police blame them, they are suspects.” She was screaming now.
“Please calm down,” said Morpheus. “This is an unexpected result of our meeting.”
“I should say so!”
“Ondine, listen to me! Let me talk!”
“Go ahead.”
-
“You were very good at telling your dream to Elsie, so good that she saw all as if she were here. She wrote it down, as you accurately suggested and the dream grew even stronger. She fell asleep and immediately began dreaming. Her dream was about us, Ondine, I didn’t send the dream, and I do not know who did. But she dreamed of this. I felt something pulling at me, pulling away from here, and then I was in her bedroom. Can you understand that, Ondine? I was in you niece’s bedroom, in your own world.”
“How could you? You are a product of my imagination.” She answered derisively.
“I could have been born as a product of someone’s imagination, but I am real now.”
“It’s a dream I am dreaming, nothing more.” She insisted.
“You can think that, but it’s not going to help you, or your brother or your niece.” Replied Hermes.
“What then?”
“Listen to us, and then do whatever you want.”
“All right!”
“I tell you I was pulled out of my world and into yours. Your niece was lying in bed, her eyes still closed. But she opened them and saw me.” Said Morpheus.
“You are Morpheus?” She asked.
“I am.”
“Have you come to take me to your dream world?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Why did you come then?”
“You called me.”
“Can you take me with you?”
“And what about your parents, and your sister and your aunty?”
She was silent for a while, and then looked at me and said if I could not take her for a while and let you know she was here.
“I didn’t know what to do, Ondine. It seemed strange I could be having this conversation with a mortal, even a mortal with such a mind as your niece, and I didn’t even know if I could bring her here.”
“But you did!” Cried Ondine.
“No. She did it herself!” Interposed Hermes. “Morpheus could never have brought her here.”
“Were you there, then?”
“No.” Continued Morpheus. “He wasn’t there. Even when Elsie was finishing her last words, I felt I was being pulled back to this world. I was back here. I explained to them what had happened and Hermes suggested he would try to bring Elsie to Maya.”
“How could he, how could he dare!” Cried Ondine.
“The little girl wanted it so much that all the gods were feeling her pull. They were concerned and my father…”
“Your father?”
“Yes, my father, the lord of the gods, Zeus, he ordered me to go and bring her.”
“Then, I will have to tell that Zeus some truths he will not like to hear. How dare he?”
“Even if I had followed Zeus orders, it would not have meant anything. Elsie came to us by herself!” Said Hermes, almost screaming. He had to make Ondine understand!