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“Come in.”
“Ma’am?”
“Now you can give your food order, Mother,” I said when I heard Gelula’s voice.
“Ma’am…I…we need to inform you of something.” It wasn’t Gelula’s voice; it was Wolfgang’s.
I tried to sit up quickly but couldn’t. “Little help,” I said to my mom, who laughed at me, helping me sit upright. “Oh…ugh.” I tried to stretch as I sat up and looked back at them. But it wasn’t just him in the room. But Thelma as well. “What is it? What is going on?”
They were stiff.
Thelma stepped forward. “Ma’am, we need to take you to safety.”
Right then and there, I had a flashback to nearly two years ago. Gale and I were in Sam’s Big Toe on Mayfield Avenue and Mount Pleasant, playing pool. It was the first time I’d ever heard the words “take you to safety”…when Gale had explained to me…what those four words meant.
I shook my head as my heart started to sink. “Why…why…would you need to do that?”
“Ma’am, please come with us,” Thelma said, and before I realized it, Wolfgang was already collecting not just my phone but my mother’s.
“I’m ordering one of you to tell me what is going on!” I screamed.
“Odette, calm down.” My mother grabbed my hand.
But I yanked it away, pushing myself out of bed. “Where is Gale? What is happening? Someone speak!”
“Ma’am, protocol. We cannot say anything until we get you somewhere secure,” Thelma said, already holding my hand. “Please come with us.”
Again I shook my head.
They didn’t answer; they just shuffled me out of the room, and I was too confused…too scared to ask anything.
“It’s okay,” my mother said to me as she grabbed my arm. “You’re okay.”
“No.” I shook my head. “You don’t get it. This only happens when something is wrong. Last time it was Arthur, now…”
“Don’t jump to conclusions. Just keep walking,” she told me, but it was hard not to when I saw everyone rushing, nearly running down the halls.
Running was forbidden in the palace.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
Not Gale.
It wouldn’t be Gale.
I told myself over and over again.
But when we walked toward the secure room, I saw TV and on the channel a flash of smoke.
“What is that?” I tried to stop, but still, Thelma all but pushed me into the room. It looked like a normal bedroom until you went toward the dresser. When she flipped the light switch, a section of the door split open to reveal another steel door. This one I had been told about the day after our wedding.
“Ma’am, your signature.” Thelma stepped aside.
Stepping forward, I swallowed before speaking. “Queen Odette Rochelle Winter Monterey, from sunrise till this day, make way.”
Gale had told me to pick something that rhymed so I would remember it. We all had to remember different voice signatures. When the voice matched, and the light flashed green, the door slid open, revealing the steps. Wolfgang was beside me, helping me make my way down the stairs.
“Odette!” Eliza called out to me the moment I reached the last step, rushing up to me and hugging me tightly, the dogs barking around her feet.
