DUALITY /#Wattys 2021

Chapter 51

They sat across from one another at the table while coffee perked in the kitchen. Alana folded her hands on the table and looked across at Ridley. "For obvious reasons, I've been concerned about you. I looked at you, Chi, and the Queen, and I followed your transits and progressions out for the next twenty years."

"There must have been something to see, if you did that."

"There is, but it isn't like you think. I discovered something fascinating."

Ridley leaned forward. "What?" The bubbling and steaming of the coffee machine rose into the silence, filling the air with a rich, delicious aroma, making the room seem closer. Warmer.

"The fact is, if I tease your transits and progressions apart into aspects that sound positive and ones that sound negative, they each tell a story. One that's coherent, and goes on into the future to its own ending."

"So there are two endings for us?"

"Yes." Alana nodded.

"Is at least one a happy ending?"

"One is horrible. And the other one ... even that one can get a little murky. It's possible for you to screw it up."

Ridley stared down at the table and swallowed. "Tell me."

"At this point in time, the King can choose to leave Midgarde and be with you. He can. And you have some very happy times over the next few years, if he does. Over the next few years." Her tone implied that maybe that wasn't the case afterward.

"If he doesn't?"

The coffee machine sighed a final gurgle, and Alana rose from the table. "Looks to me you're living part of that road right now." She pulled two mugs from a holder on the counter and brought the pot and the mugs back to the table. Ridley got up for cream and sugar as Alana poured.

Her mother sat and sipped. "Mmm. They have wonderful coffee here. So much better than what we had at home, when we could even get our hands on any."

"So he comes with us and we're happy, or he goes back home and we're all miserable? Because, if you knew what he told me about the Queen—"

"I can imagine." Alana's mouth hardened into a thin line. Ridley added cream and sugar to her mug and stirred.

"Ridley, remember how tough Reb was on you, when you were training for this mission?"

Ridley nodded.

"He was tough on you because there were things you needed to know how to do. And if you didn't know how to do those things, you might be dead right now."

"I know."

"Sometimes, Ridley, our souls are like that. Sometimes we pick people who rough us up, because we need to learn something from it."

"Like Chi really needs to pick a sweet woman who loves him and not one who treats him like his wife does!"

Alana sipped again. "Well, right, but sometimes it's even more basic than that."

Ridley tried her coffee. It was good. "Like what, Mom?"

"Ridley ..." Alana stirred her cup, even though she had added neither cream nor sugar. "You have to think about how Chi's lived his life. He's never made any decisions for himself. First the Confederation scouts carried him off to a sports career, and his father abused him when he was home to try to make him perform better."

Ridley's eyes widened. "You knew about that?"

"His next-door neighbors knew." Alana shook her head. "None of them ever went over to help him or his mom, either. All they did was gossip about it, years later once he'd won gold medals."

Ridley closed her eyes. "Good lord."

"Then he married the Queen, and everything about his life has been decided for him ever since. He never chose. The Queen or the Palace did."

Ridley thought back to what Chi had said, about getting home from public engagements and wanting to hide away with a book. "Okay, so that's in his chart," she said. "What else?"

"What else is that you need to be careful about deciding for Chi, what Chi needs. Chi needs to decide what Chi needs. You have to let him think for himself, or you're going to get a bad outcome. And what's difficult there is, he's used to letting other people think for him."

Ridley banged both palms on the table. "But Chi told me what he needs! And I want to give him that! I can't believe the Queen and how she's acted. I would never do that to Chi."

Alana set her mug down. "But if you love a man, Ridley, you have to respect him. And it's harder to respect someone who doesn't respect himself. Chi will never tell you the truth, because he's trying too hard not to hurt anyone."

Ridley digested that for a moment. "I guess I can see that that's been the case," she mused. "But, Mom, I don't see what this has to do with anything. All I want to know is, will he come with me or not?"

"I can't tell you that," said Alana. "Because it isn't the stars and planets who decide. We  do. The stars and the planets in the heavens are just reflections. Heavenly poets who record the footnotes of our lives."

Ridley sat back, angry. "So you can't tell me anything, then! So, what good is astrology?"

"Sometimes I can tell things," said Alana. "Like, when you went away to gymnastics school. I saw no indications that you would get injured. And I saw a lot of indications that you were going to achieve great renown. So, I let you go. But sometimes, it isn't that clear."

She took a sip of coffee. "What is clear, is if he says no to you now, you will see him again in one year. And the wrong thing to do is grab his arm and pull. It's going to lead you to a bad outcome every time, Ridley. Don't do it."

"But if I don't grab him, I'll lose him!" Ridley felt tears gather behind her lids and blinked them away. "I don't want Chi to think I don't love him. She's hurt him so much, Mom. He feels ugly. He feels like no one loves him."

"But there's more than one way to love a person," said Alana. "And you have to choose the way that does them the most good."

"But I am!" Ridley protested. Her shout brought a lusty cry from the bedroom. Ember, from the sound of the baby's voice. "I know what Chi told me, I am!"

The crying got louder and Alana put her coffee mug down and got up from the table, leaving Ridley fuming in her wake. Then Sannah's voice drifted out to the kitchen, crying as well.

Alana came back holding both Sannah and a screaming, red-faced Princess. "I think Ember's diaper is dirty. Ridley, I have to tell you this while I can. You can't force Chi to do anything. Whatever you do, do not grab his arm and pull!"

A knock sounded on the door, and Alana's eyes flickered to the sound with a look Ridley didn't understand. As if she were afraid who might be at the door. Ridley gave her mother a look and got up to answer it.

A Mannazian guard stood there. "The King requires the presence of the Princess in the situation room immediately," he said.

Alana walked into the living room. "Okay, but I'm bringing her diaper bag. She's going to need changing once she gets there."

Ridley sprinted into the bedroom, grabbed the bag herself, and planted herself between her mother and the guard. "I'm coming, too."

***