“I was twelve when he visited us. Mama immediately told everyone he was from Martigny, you know the tiny Principality in the French Alps, like Monocco but smaller. I tried to tell her the language of Martigny is a French dialect and whatever language he spoke it did not sound even remotely French, as a dialect would. But she insisted. Anyway I recognized him from a portrait Mama had sketched of him; he was the perfect image of her fictional prince.

“Mama claimed she had met him in New York City while visiting the U.N. and was mystified by his apparent resemblance to her fictional character and had surmised she must have seen his photo somewhere, sometime in her past and had shaped the likeness of the Orphan Prince after this unconscious memory. It seemed a perfectly reasonable explanation, a very rational explanation. His appearance was striking. The family accepted Mama’s story, but I knew it was a lie.”

Barb was silent, probably unable to digest the information, and Dani hurried on.

The prince didn’t speak English, for one thing, nor did he speak French or any other European language, so from the start Dani was suspicious but she like him immediately. He had a way about him that invited her trust without question, though she was careful not to let on to him. Dani taught him English and in return he taught her his language. She wanted to learn his language very much because it was so unearthly, both ancient and new, with a suggestion of every language in it, unlike any she had ever heard to that point or since. She acquired a fairly extensive vocabulary, though the pronunciations were difficult. It took some effort to sort out the syntax, to understand its rhythm.

“We got pretty close,” Dani said. “He spoke often of his home, how it was pristine and pollution free. He described the forests and the plant life -- like the njuidenay, a species of plant that blooms crystal flowers that chime in the wind. He spoke of mountain peaks, the only place where snow collects; and of white dolphins with purple, zebra-like stripes; and the great sentinel Canopy and the turbulent ocean. He described the black-domed cities that gathered frost nightly until the moonlight shone on them sparkling like diamonds. When he spoke about Haven I wanted to go there. Now you know I have never even picked up one of Mama’s books, so how would I know such things?”

Dani paused to take a breath. The silence in Texas made her nervous.

Finally Barb answered in a thoughtful voice. “So what you’re telling me is the Orphan Prince is the man your mother disappeared with the day your father was murdered?”

“Is it so farfetched? Is it outside the realm of possibility that Haven is a real place and the Orphan Prince a real person?”

“No, not so far-fetched.”

A current of alarm went through her.

“You’re not supposed to believe me.” Dani complained. “Talk me out of it.”

“You don’t want me to talk you out of it, Dani, you want me to believe and I do.”

“Why?”

“There’s more mystery to this Universe than anyone can imagine and so little of it that we understand, so why not your mother writing about a human society that is yet to come? Why not teleportation, which, by the way, was an element in the books, though the travel was limited to the planet and the time ranges involved much shorter? But more than that, Dani, I trust you.”

Encouraged, feeling that now she was committed she must finish, Dani went on.

“After they were gone, the authorities wanted to find him because he was implicated in my father’s murder, but for the family finding Mama was much more personal. They immediately went to the French consulate in New York City for information, hoping to track them down but no one there knew anything about him. Mama had claimed he was a diplomat for Martigny who sat with the French delegation at the U.N. No one in Martigny ever heard of him either. Uncle Bobby – the police officer – pulled some strings and with money the family pulled together had DNA testing done on some hair they found in his comb. Instead of results they were paid a visit from a Federal Agency who had a warrant to go into Mama’s house. They took away all his stuff. No one knew why.”

“Did you ever get the DNA results?” Barb prompted when Dani stopped talking abruptly.

“No.” Dani lied. In fact, two years later a lab technician had tracked Uncle Bobby down and told him that the DNA from the hair was unlike any DNA she had ever seen, human with a trace of “unknown other”-- a hybrid. Her curiosity had got the better of her. She had hoped Uncle Bobby could tell her something about the person behind the DNA. To protect her family and the woman from the lab, to protect Barb, Dani told nothing about that. In the fledgling days of The Patriot Act, some things were better left unsaid over an open cell phone. Even saying what she had thus far was dangerous and could jeopardize her dream of someday working in the Secret Service or for the CIA.

After the visit from the lab tech the grownups had discussed the situation and Dani had eavesdropped as they argued well into the night. No one would admit the obvious --- Mama’s boyfriend was not from Earth. Dani was the only one in the family willing to accept it, but she knew better than to speak of it.

A few days after her predawn confession to Barb, Dani was directed to go to Assistant Coach Bede’s office on her way to the locker room to suit up for practice. The thirty something coach was dressed for practice, her white zippered jacket sporting the Middelbury Sports department logo. Her whistle was hung around her neck. Her dark red hair was pulled back in the usual single ponytail. She sat ramrod straight in her office chair her elbows lightly braced on the armrests. She wasted no time with polite conversation.

“I’m sorry to tell you Dani that your performance on the court these days has remained well below your potential. Your focus is shot. You are consistently playing below your abilities.”

“Am I benched?”

“Benched?” She suddenly leaned forward her gray eyes dark and penetrating. “Dani, you used to be a leader out there. Your mood is demoralizing the whole team. That is bad enough, but you are slipping in academics and you know the school’s policy in that regard. You are not benched, you are out, off the team, at least until you get your personal life in order and show us that you can play ball without letting it affect your studies and the game.”

Bede was not unsympathetic. She softened her tone a little. “I admit I’m surprised you would let your breakup throw you off your game so thoroughly. I never took you for the sort to fall apart emotionally; you always seemed like a rock to me.”

“Does everyone know my business?” Dani cried out with frustration.

Bede smiled. “Middlebury is a small campus. You can’t burp without President Liebowitz feeling the vibration in her office.”

Under other circumstances Dani would have laughed at the joke, but so much more was at stake. Dani was fighting for her sanity and the dreams would not let up. She was angry that Maris’s crummy letter was having such a profound impact on her sleep, her social life and her studies. And she had gone and told Barb a secret she had guarded for seven years.

Coach Bede tempered her voice a little. “Look, it’s not the end of your collegiate basketball career. I am confident by next season you will be on your feet again and there is the Spring Softball season. I am sure by then you’ll have put all this behind and you’ll be ready to play ball and can keep up with the academic end of things.”

She pushed her chair back and stood up, signaling that the interview was over. “After you clean out your locker Dean Richards is expecting you.”

Her meeting with the dean did not go any better.

Dean Richards sat back in his black leather office chair. He was in his shirtsleeves, wearing a white blue pinstripe shirt with the sleeves rolled back a couple of times and a blue tie clipped to his shirt with a tiny Middlebury Panther tie tack. The hair on his arms was the same sandy color as his thinning hair.

After several minutes of describing to Dani his concern for her slipping grades, repeating the review of her various instructors, he leaned forward clasping his hands on his desk.

“We can give you a week or two to get your grades under control – it goes without saying your professors and instructors are willing to accept makeup work as long as you keep up with current assignments. We all agree that if you apply yourself you can get back on track before midterms and save this semester. However, if you continue this downward spiral, your overall performance will suffer and that will reflect badly on your total academic outcome.

“That being said let me remind you that the college has resources for students struggling with personal problems. There is no shame in asking for help. I recommend that you take advantage of these resources.”

Dani told herself her trouble was not the kind a therapist could help her solve.

Though frightened by her audacity in making her confession to Barb it had proved cathartic. Barb had absorbed her incredible story and at least accepted Dani’s strong belief in it.

“Your mother clearly appears to have had a direct line to Haven when she lived here,” Barb had said. “So maybe that works in reverse. Maybe instead of messages from your subconscious, the dreams are your mom’s attempt to send you a message. So pick up and take the call.”

Dani had rejected Barb’s advice, no matter how sage or logical. The dream continued as before and she continued to fight it.

In spite of a quick determined start at getting her academic legs under her again, she knew by the end of the following week that she was done. Her heart was not in her studies. Her focus was shot. She even lacked interest in her language studies. She went to the Dean’s office and admitted defeat. Dean Richards, eager to protect her academic reputation, suggested she withdraw and offered to put it in her record that a family emergency was the reason for her departure.

The irony of that suggestion did not escape Dani’s notice as she signed all the required documents, and them paid a visit to the financial aid office and signed her exit papers. She was assured that the timing of the withdrawal included a partial refund on her tuition. That would keep Aunt Angie mollified at least. She had already expressed her virulent unhappiness that Dani had waited until the last minute to apprise her of the trouble she faced, trouble Angie considered preventable. She was not aware of Dani’s dreams; she only knew about her breakup and was understandably critical of Dani’s inability to cope.

The next day Dani packed up, turned the keys to the efficiency over to the building manager with a sizeable check to cover the cost of any damages and loaded everything in her GEO Storm. With her dearest friends seeing her off – Maris was not among them, she drove out of Middlebury, picked up Historic Route 7A and drove south.

In Rutland she turned left onto Route 4 and traveled East, inspired all at once to take a small detour, just a wee detour to Logan Airport in Boston. She traveled I-91south through Brattleboro into Massachusetts. She was halfway between Springfield and Worchester on I-90 headed for Boston, when she pulled into a rest area and called Angie to inform her she was going to visit Martigny.

“Where are you?” The edge in her aunt’s voice was the culmination of fear, anger and impatience. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but quitting college and running off to Europe is not part of the plan. I expect you to come home with an explanation for this debacle.”

Failure is not an option, Auntie’s tone declared.

“You’re upset, I know, but I have to go to Martigny. Now. I have to see it now.”

Now or never, she added to herself, thinking that this would be her last chance and she had no idea why she thought that. She had her whole life ahead of her and plenty of time to visit Martigny.

“Upset does not come even close to what I’m feeling right now.” Angie’s voice sounded ragged and was laced with fear.” I want you home now. I cannot believe you would keep me in the dark about a problem so serious you had to withdraw from college. Taking a vacation to Martigny would be unwise. All I have to do is make one phone call and stop payment on your credit card. Do not force me to be the bad guy.”

“I know I’ve let you down. I’m sorry. I can’t explain why I have to do this. Please, Aunt Angie, it’s important to me.”

“What do you expect to find there?”

The warning in her aunt’s voice declared her worry that Dani was going off the deep end and traipsing off to Europe in some pointless search for Mama. She did not dare tell Angie that she was not chasing a dream, but hoping to outrun a nightmare.

“Castles, mountains, blue skies. I want to hear that French dialect I’ve waited to hear since the sixth grade.” Her study of Martigny had been assigned to her in the sixth grade for extra credit and to teach Dani some context for the French she already spoke like a native.

“I talked to Maris and she told me the details of your break up, finally. I noticed that things had cooled considerably between you two that last weekend in August, so I’m not surprised, but I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me, that I had to hear it from Maris. She sounded quite upset and worried that you had withdrawn from school.”

The gall of Maris to imply she cared. The bitch had practically ordered Dani to leave Middlebury. Dani ignored the reference to her ex.

“Haven’t you ever just wanted to leave everything behind and get away for a while?”

“Now is not the time, Danielle. You have a load of explaining to do and I will not wait while you run off on some sightseeing trip in Europe.”

“I’ll be back in a week or two. We can talk then and I’ll try to explain what happened.” Dani made the promise with no intention of keeping it. She knew Angie would not welcome the news that Dani was being tormented by dreams of Mama. Of all the family she was the one who believed the same as Dani, but she could never admit it. She was too pragmatic and she bitterly resented Mama for deserting Dani and the rest of the family.

She argued with Aunt Angie for another half hour and finally convinced her to allow Dani to make the trip after she agreed to call everyday to keep her aunt informed of where she was or expected to be at all times.

For two days Dani bummed rides from Paris to the French Alps. She slept in hostels and met other college-age wanderers, joined them in outdoor cafés where they sipped wine ate bread and cheese and swapped stories in whatever language was native to each new acquaintance.

For a week Dani wandered Martigny, visited with the locals and tried out the lovely dialect. As promised, she texted Angie every day.

Hello, I’m doing well. Martigny is lovely and the language sweet. Luv, Dani.

The only black mark on the trip was the repeating dream.

She completed her visit at Martigny’s capitol, Angenide (Angel’s Nest), found a suite overlooking the Royal Palace, Flèches Blanches des montagnes. (White Spires of the mountains) situated amid spiky evergreens and the backdrop of snowcapped peaks and a clear blue sky. She took dinner at a nearby café and spoke briefly with the maître. In the morning she paid a driver to take her back to Paris, an exorbitant splurge.

It occurred to her as the taxi plummeted headlong down the mountain that she could as easily order the driver to turn east where the highway forked about halfway down and take a side trip into Switzerland and after that travel north into Germany, then Poland, Denmark and Norway … she had all of Europe to be explored. The many languages she could learn and perfect made a tantalizing temptation. At this point language studies was truly the one thing in her life that gave her unequivocal joy, the one true vocation she was born to fulfill.. Yes, she needed to take a right hand turn into a future where learning and exploring language would save her from a lifetime of living down her mother’s mistakes.

We all wonder if you are really gay, Dani. Maris had said. No you’re not a lesbian, you just want your mother back.

Dani almost howled aloud. She was on the verge of telling the driver to travel east but could not do it. She had obligations. Worst of all she had promised Aunt Angie to be home in two weeks and her two weeks were nearly up.

She stayed one night in Paris to test the club life, where she allowed a sweet Parisian named Nancy to picked her up just to prove Maris wrong . The girl’s skill in bed was unparalleled but all the same, Dani woke in the morning feeling tarnished and bereft. To compensate, she spent a half hour after breakfast working the girl into a state on the glass and wrought iron table beside open floor to ceiling windows with billowing sheer curtains.

Oh mon! Dani! Vous ne pouvez pas partir. Nous nous sommes réunis; séjour avec moi à Paris.

Stay. What a delicious impossible invitation, but boy, she was tempted to accept.

Later, following a lingering goodbye embrace and kiss, Dani departed for Charles de Gaul airport. On the transatlantic flight back to the states, Dani had the Mommy dream. She woke up shaking and soaked with sweat somewhere over the Atlantic with the rising sun forcing the jet to chase its own shadow across the clouds. On the verge of an emotional breakdown, Dani finally took Barb’s advice and let the dream in.

Next Chapter: CHAPTER FOUR