39

  Cody

  Christian arranged a meeting for us at La’chave, it was pretty deep in the city, at the corner of 1st and Mayborne. It was in the high dollar area, where the rich lived in their great condos right next to all the action and the hustle and bustle of the night life Ohmaha, Nebraska could offer those people who maybe could have made a life in a great metropolis like New York or L.A. but instead decided to stay in their roles as big fishes in a small pond. A million dollars can get you far in L.A., but it can get you to stratospheric levels in Nebraska.

  Brad, Susie, and I met at the restaurant, the hostess lit up, “Oh, You’re friends of Mr. REDACTED, he’s well known by the staff, and a great tipper, we have our finest outside table for you. Mr. REDACTED called ahead about his party’s arrival, we’ve been told to offer you a bottle of our finest wine,” the hostess raised her eyebrows. She wasn’t even carding us, just doing what her so-called, best customer asked her to do with no question. How much gold did Christian have? Well, he had enough to get this world to start treating him as well as he was treated Somewhere Else.

  We took our seat, enjoyed our glasses of wine, “So, Christian seems to be living the high life, I mean, it’s obviously an improvement over what he’s used too,” I said, trying to break the tension.

  Susie sat back in her chair, she took a gulp of wine, “He doesn’t give a damn about how good his life is here, he’s still living over there,” she said.

  “At least he’s here,” Brad said, “He may have done something messed up, but at least we got him to actually leave the lake behind,” he took a gulp of wine as well.

  “He didn’t leave the lake behind, he took a piece of the lake back with him,” Susie said, her eyes darting between the two of us, “You two can’t seriously be okay with what he’s done, can you?” she asked.

  “It’s complicated,” I said, “If what Christian says is true, if he didn’t do what he did, that girl would just be rotting away for another thousand years in that tower. We don’t know if Morgan killed her prince or not, but if she was still there, Morgan probably did,”

  “Don’t talk about Morgan,” Susie said, “Morgan doesn’t matter now, what’s done is done,” she took another gulp of wine.

  “You really can’t blame him,” Brad said, trying to interject and stop a raging argument between us, “I’m not saying it’s right, and I’m not saying it’s wrong, but I’m just saying he didn’t see any other option. We gave him an ultimatum-”

  “We didn’t say shit,” Susie looked at us, “I did it, just say it. I don’t care, I know you two would be fine just letting him run his life into fantasy land to the end of his days, but I’m the only one who actually wanted to help him. And now I’m the one who has to carry the guilt of knowing what I pushed him to do,” she said.

  “We all agreed,” I said, “To the intervention I mean, it may have been your idea, but we agreed to it. Susie, you don’t need to shoulder this, you don’t need to shoulder anything, it’s not that bad if you think about it,” I said, trying to excuse Christians actions.

  Just as we were debating, a sleek black Buick with an UBER sticker on it’s windshield pulled up next to the restaurant. The door opened and out walked Christian, he took a deep satisfied breath and had a smile on his face, one wider than I had ever seen him have on this side of the lake. He was wearing a tailored suit, nice tie in a neat knot, good shirt good pants. He reached his hand out and like the gentlemen he was and helped Briar out of the car. She was wearing a, quite fashionable, white sun dress that went just past her knees. She stepped out of the car onto white heels that were most likely designer. The smile on her face was just as wide as Christan's. Still holding her hand he pulled the girl to himself and gave her a kiss, a kiss of a man in love. He came to our table and took a seat.

  “I trust you’re being taken care of,” Christian said, “Only the best for my people,” his grin grew wider, he was still holding Briar’s hand.

  “So, hows life?” Susie asked, with accusation and sarcasm on her voice.

  “Life is amazing, thanks for asking,” Christian just let Susie’s accusing tone roll off his back, “We’ve got a nice condo, just over there,” he said pointing to one of the greater and tall residential buildings in the city. “Put a big down payment, can pay it off in less than a year, I’ve put my wealth to a good investor, he’ll work for me when I show him how much I’ll be pulling out every week with my gold sales,” he smiled, “Real estate is a great investment, right Brad?” he turned to Brad and raised his eyebrows, “Almost as good an investment as gold, and I still have plenty. On my last trip I made sure to collect another round of taxes from the land I used to rule, would you believe even after buying the condo I’ll still be a millionaire,” he laughed, “I have all the money I need, I have everything I need,” he turned to Briar, “I have everything I need, and the money is nothing compared to that,” he leaned in and kissed her, she blushed wrung her free hand on her sun dress.

  Susie turned to Briar, “So, Briar, are you okay? I know it must be such an adjustment, this new world. Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked.

  “Oh,” Briar blushed again, looking down, looking away with such learned submissiveness that women of noble birth in her world were taught to have, “Your world is amazing,” she looked up at us and smiled, “In my youth, my father’s court had in it’s employ a wizard, a wizard so wise who knew almost everything there was to know. When I was a child he would entertain me with stories, stories of a far off and distant land of fantasy,” she looked to Christian, her hero, her prince, with loving eyes, then back to us, “He told me stories of a far off kingdom, a place so far away that any mention of it was relegated to just legend, to just fairy tales,” she said, “He told me of towers and castles so high they touched the sky itself, he told me of chariots that pulled themselves without horses, he told me of great ships that could fly through the air as if by magic, and my prince,” she cuddled up to Christian and rested her head on his shoulder, “I can’t believe my prince brought me there, brought me to this fantasy world I was told so much about. I thought they were just stories, I could never imagine that they could be real, but here I am,” she turned to Christian and smiled. He leaned in to kiss her again, “It’s all real, my love,” Christian said as he kissed her, then turned to us.

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  “Show them my gift to you Briar,” he said, smiling.

  Briar took her hand away from Christians and brought it up to the center of the table to show us. Her ring finger had a gold band with a diamond in it. I’m not even going to try and describe how epic this diamond was. It was huge, it was ridiculous, it was a diamond fit for a princess, that much is true.

  “Sir Christian told me,” Briar said, her voice had this somewhat haunting quality to it. She was so soft-spoken, and her words came out so simply, like she was just a girl obeying the rules, obeying her law, “He told me that in this wonderful world, a man symbolizes his love with the gift of a diamond band to secure the woman he loves,” she rose her hand in front of her face and admired how the light caught the stone embedded in her ring, “I can see why women of this world love this tradition, I’ve had rings before in my life but none have been as flawless and beautiful as this one,” she said, smiling a true and sincere smile.

  We would come to learn that Briar was, I don’t know the word to describe it, she was a simple girl, that’s the nicest way I could put it. Here she was, a girl no older then fifteen if the story we read in class was accurate. All the girls in those stories were depecited as being at the most youngest, tenderest and impressionable ages. Briar was about fifteen, the little mermaid was in her thirteenth year, snow white was only twelve, and Goldilocks was most likely around the age of ten. Even in Briar’s youth, here she was, swooped away by her Prince Charming. Taken to a world she barely knew, could barely comprehend. And damn it all, she was loving every minute of it.

  “You’re world is magical, you’re all so lucky to live here,” she smiled, turning to us, putting her hand back in Christian’s, back where she thought it belonged.

  “Briar, are you sure you’re okay,” Susie said, “You’ve suffered so much loss, I fear your mind may be in something we call shock,” she said, “Shock, this state you may be in, can mess with your mind, make you think you’re okay when you’re not,” Susie gulped, not knowing what she could say to this girl, or any way she could talk to her.

  “I know,” Briar looked down, she sqeezed Christian’s hand, “Yes, my life was quite turned upside down by that evil witch, but it’s okay,” she raised her head and looked at us, smiling that hallow smile, “My price has come for me,” she turned to Christian, “My prince came for me and rescued me,” her smile grew wider.

  “Of course I did, my love,” Christian leaned in and gave Briar a deep kiss, putting his hand on her hip, totally obsessed with her.

  “Watch the PDA,” Susie said, shaking her head, “Briar, are you sure that this is what you want, are you sure you want to be here?” she asked.

  “Of course it’s what I want, growing up I always knew that I would be in danger one day. My mother and father tried to hide it from me, but I knew that there would be evil in my life. To think they burned every spinning wheel in the kingdom to try to protect me from it, seeing my parents burn them only made me want to try my hand at one of them more, that old crone, with the wheel, it’s my own fault what happened,” she said, her eyes lowering, “The only person I can thank for rescuing me from my own ignorance is my prince,” she turned to Christian again and her smile lit back up, “I waited so long, from what I’ve been told I was asleep for over a hundred years, and would have slept for a hundred more, maybe even longer, if my prince didn’t come for me,” she said.

  “You may have been able to sleep, but I couldn’t knowing that you were captured,” Christian said, raising Briar’s hand to his lips and kissing her wrist.

  “I’m so thankful, I’m so happy, I lost so much because of that witches curse, but my prince can give me a life in this new world, in his world, he’s quite wealthy here it seems. You should see our lodgings, I can overlook the city as you call it with a view even greater than I had in the tallest tower of the castle I was born in,” her smile came back. She really was beautiful, I could understand Christian’s lust for her.

  “I got us a penthouse, top floor, only the best for my princess. I’ve been selling and reinvesting the gold I have left, we’ll be set for life, our life, our life together,” Christian said squeezing Briar’s hand before he brought it up for another kiss.

  “So, you’re getting married,” Susie said, “How are you going to pull that off, she doesn’t have any proof of her living here, there's no record of her. Christian, I’m sorry, but you’re still living a fantasy, this isn’t going to just all work out just because you’re in love, you’ve opened a Pandora’s box of troubles if you think you can give her a life,” Susie said.

  “Susie,” Christian sighed, shook his head, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a ID, he put it on the table and slid it to us, close enough for us to read.

  It was a state ID, he said he would eventually teach her how to drive and get her a license, but a simple ID was good enough for now.

  We read it over, sure enough, Briar Rose, born , September 1st, 1998, a date that made her eighteen years old as far as any legal concerns in this world mattered. Her address, Christians new home in the city.

  “How did you get this?” Susie asked, picking up the license and looking it over to ensure it’s authenticity.

  “I have more gold than any man in this state, I was able to find people. I’ve hooked my computer up to the dark web. Never underestimate the powers of the filthy rich,” He grinned a prideful grin, “I’m working on getting her a social, apparently it’s from some girl who died a few years ago. I have enough money to get what I need, to get Briar to slide into society unnoticed. She’ll have an identity, papers, everything she needs, and then we’ll be married,” Christian turned to Briar and gave her another loving kiss before turning back to us. “This can work, I will make it work,” he said.

  I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe all of this. I wanted to believe that all of Christian’s machinations would somehow lead to a happy ending. For him, for Briar, for all of us. They didn’t. Cheating on that English test seemed so long ago. So many adventures, so many challenges. What did it all mean? Why did god see to put us through all of this? It was too late to stop what was already happening, it was my only hope that some way, somehow, things could have worked out and we could at least be left with a sliver of our innocence. And by we I mean all of us, including Christian.