Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban - Two Moon Princess

“When the waves finally threw us against the cliffs, we were too shaken to think. Acting on instinct, we started up the cliffs. It was a difficult climb as there was no path, and the rocks were slippery with the mist from the ocean. The steps you probably followed down to the cove were added later.

“By the time we reached the ledge, we were exhausted. Crawling under one of the boulders that formed a little cave, we fell asleep. The following morning, the soldiers of your kingdom found us. You can imagine our confusion when we saw them pointing their spears at us and shouting orders we couldn’t understand.”

“I know, Tío. I was shocked, too, when I couldn’t understand what your friends were saying. Does anybody in this world speak like me?”

“Yes, Andrea.” Tio’s voice was stern. “Some people in my world speak a different version of your language. It is called Spanish. But yours seems to have evolved in a unique way with the influence of the Xarens’ tongue. But that is another story. Would you mind if I finish mine first?”

“Of course, Tío. Tell me what happened. Did my father keep you prisoner?”

“Your father, Andrea, was not the king. He was just a boy himself, a couple of years older than we were. Your grandfather was king. He was a brave man, although his customs were a little barbaric for my taste. To him, we were no more than demons from the underworld. He would have burned us alive if your father hadn’t taken us back to the cave and let us go.”

“But Tío, how did Father know when the door would open?”

“Because the knowledge of the Xarens, the native inhabitants of your world, had been transmitted for generations down through the members of your family. The Xarens knew about the doors between our two worlds and how the full moon opens them.”

“Just what Don Alfonso told me,” I mumbled. “He’s not crazy after all.”

“Let’s go back,” Tío said, his eyes on a circular object tied around his wrist. “Kelsey and her friends will probably be in bed by now.”

“What is that, Tío? A portable sundial? But it’s night, how can you read it?”

“It’s a watch, Andrea. A time reader, you could say. Let’s leave it at that for now.”

I knew my uncle well enough to know it would be useless to insist. So I swallowed my questions and followed him onto the beach. As we left the arch, I noticed that the tide had turned, and the water was starting to reach the rocks.

For a while, nobody spoke. Against the sound of the waves on the sand and the shrieking call of the seagulls, my uncle’s words played in my mind. Suddenly I realized something in his story was wrong.

“But Tío, if you both returned to California, why is Mother still in my world?”

My uncle did not hesitate. “That happened later. Many years later. Your mother was already in college studying to be a physician. She would have been a good one, I’m sure. She was so strong-willed, I don’t think any patient of hers could have refused to get better. But your father had other plans. He came over one night, alone. By then your grandfather had died in one of his glorious battles, and your father was king. So Don Andrés came and took your mother to be his queen.”

“Really, Tío? But Mother couldn’t have been so easy to convince.”

“Well, it is true it was not so simple. But your mother was not the problem. She was willing to go as soon as she saw him. I think she had fallen in love with him when she first met him. The real problem was how to explain to our family why she would never return. And how to keep her disappearance from the papers.”

“The Papers?” He had said the word in a curious way, as if it carried a capital P.

“Yes, the papers and the TV and . . .” He laughed. “Don’t worry, you’ll understand soon enough.”

Suddenly Tío stopped. Following his stare, I saw a dark figure standing still over the dunes. “Kelsey!” my uncle whispered, visibly upset. Then, after ordering me to wait, he walked in long strides toward the girl.

The girl addressed him first in an angry voice. Bewildered, I watched them argue. I had assumed until then that the young people were Tio’s pupils, but the girl was not showing any respect for Tío Ramiro. In fact, if the tone of their voices was any indication of their respective ranks, she seemed to be the one in charge.

After a couple of minutes of furious shouting, the girl turned her back on my uncle and stalked away. After a slight hesitation,Tío shrugged his shoulders and came back to where I was waiting. “Come, Andrea. Let’s go,” he said sharply, already walking away. “And whatever you do, don’t say anything about your world.”

I nodded. What difference could it make what I said to them? Had Tío forgotten I could not understand their language anyway?

I ran after him. “Tío, who is the girl? Why is she upset?”

Tío turned and stared deep into my eyes. “She’s Kelsey. My daughter.”

I gasped. “Your daughter! You have a daughter and never told me?”

“Why should I have told you about Kelsey?” Tio’s voice was annoyingly calm. “You were not supposed to meet her. Ever. Your world and mine can never mix. I’m sorry Andrea, but you have to go back.”

“Go back? I don’t want to go back!”

“Let’s go to the house. Tomorrow we will discuss the matter further. But don’t get your hopes up, Princess. Whether you want it or not, you will return to your world.”

I will not , I said to myself. But I knew better than to start an argument with Tío when he was angry. Pretending to agree, I rushed after him.

In front of us, over the dunes, the pale moon of the new world was watching. As I stared in wonder at its mysterious silvery light, my uncle’s words came back to me: The door only opens when the full moon rises over the eastern horizon . I smiled. Tío had no choice. I was staying. At least for a while.

The shrieking call of a seagull woke me up. Across the room, framed in the window, I could see a long stretch of sand rolling gently to the shore and the blue mantle of the ocean lost in the mist. Where was I? The seagull cried again, and as its second call died in the distance, memories of the previous evening flashed through my mind.

Wide awake now, I pushed away the blanket and jumped from the narrow bed Tío Ramiro had referred to as “sofa.” My hand on the doorknob, I hesitated. More than anything, I wanted to go downstairs to meet my cousin and her friends—Tío had whisked me upstairs as soon as we entered the house, and I hadn’t seen them yet—but I had promised my uncle I would stay in the room until he came for me. Not daring to disobey his orders on this, my very first day in his world, I dropped my hand and moved back.

The room Tío had called “his study” was small, the size of a cell in my parents’ castle, but so amazingly crowded, I barely had space to move about. I was certain I had never seen so many things together in my entire life. Some I recognized—a table and chairs, books, and paintings. Others challenged my imagination, like the square shiny box staring at me with my own bewildered face reflecting from its black surface. Close to it, by the candle that burned without fire, a tray with food had mysteriously appeared. A rumbling noise in my stomach made me realize I was starving. That was not surprising, for I had not eaten anything since the soup Ama Bernarda had given me the previous day in my own world, after my fight with Rosa.

I had already finished the fruit and bread and was drinking the surprisingly sweet orange liquid when, with a knock at the door,Tío Ramiro came in. “Good morning.”

I ran to him. “Where is everybody,Tío? I can’t wait to meet them.”