A New Start for Meridell: Part Three

     Lori and I were on our way back to our neohomes after searching through the old abandoned castle in Meridell. I had decided to take home an old letter, ironically, addressed to Rosie, the same name as my mother, while Lori had pocketed some beautiful stones that had made their way into the castle over the years.

     “So what exactly are you going to do with that letter?” Lori finally asked me after we had been walking for a little while. I knew she had been curious about the reason why I was bringing it home but she had tried to hide her curiosity in hopes that I would bring it up first. I knew my friend well enough to know that she could never hold her questions in long and that I would not need to bring it up myself.

     In fact, I wasn’t exactly sure why I was bringing the letter home. While reading it back at the castle, I was simply amazed by the historical value of it and awed at the sentimental value of a father’s letter to his daughter. However, there was simply something about it that I couldn’t quite place that made it impossible to put back where I found it.

     “I’m not sure yet,” I replied. “I’m going to show it to my mom first and see if she knows anything about who lived there once.”

     “We should definitely get back there soon to do some more exploring. That place is full of amazing things!” Lori smiled at me as she pounced along down the road, eager to get back and place her new rocks next to the rest of her collection at home.

     “Yeah, definitely,” I agreed.

     I was sure that my mom would want me to return this letter to its rightful place, giving us another opportunity to spend our weekend adventure at that wonderful castle.

     We finally arrived back at our neohomes, passing mine first.

     “I’ll meet up with you later,” I called to Lori, as she had already started sprinting toward her home. “I want to run in and show this to my mom!”

     I saw Lori nod back at me in the distance so I ran inside, my excitement overflowing.

     “Mom! Mom! Where are you?” I called for her breathlessly.

     “What is it, Shieylah?” My mom walked in from the kitchen with a look of concern on her face.

     “You’ll never guess what I found at the castle we went to explore today! You know that old abandoned castle about a mile away? Lori and I went there and-” It was my mother’s face that had made me stop. The moment I had mentioned the castle her face turned to stone although I could tell she was trying to remain calm.

     “What is it, Mom, what’s wrong? Weren’t we allowed to go?” I asked her. Lori and I had stopped telling our mothers where we were headed on our weekend adventures because they knew that we were careful and wouldn’t get into trouble. I wondered if the castle was forbidden territory that we had not known about.

     “Oh, it’s nothing, dear. Go on, tell me what you found.” Just as soon as her face had changed before, she quickly composed herself and seemed eager to share my excitement.

     I reached inside my pocket to pull out the letter I had found.

     “Look! The funniest part about it is that it’s addressed to a Rosie, just like you!” I handed over the letter to my mom to let her read it. “Who do you think wrote it? Do you know who used to live there?”

     I had a ton of questions, but my mom was now engulfed in the letter I had handed her, sitting down on our couch while her eyes scanned the words on the page.

     I noticed how her expression started to change. It only took moments from her previous shared excitement to turn into sadness and concern. I wondered if she could see the same sentiment that I had gotten from reading the letter, but something in her face told me that it was more than just that. Something was terribly wrong.

     “What is it?” I asked quietly.

     My mother’s eyes started to fill with tears and she took in a quick gasp as she finished reading the letter. Her eyes flitted up to meet mine and I could see she was far away in thought. She lifted her hand to cover her mouth as she quickly read over the letter again, as if checking to make sure it was actually real.

     “Shieylah, sit down, there’s something... something I need to tell you,” my mother finally replied.

     I could tell that whatever it was she was about to say was not easy. The tears had started pouring down her cheeks and she would not look me in the eyes.

     “This isn’t very easy,” she sighed. “It’s been a long time and I probably should have told you about this much sooner than now.”

     My mother took a deep breath and started from the beginning, telling me about her life in the castle. She told me all about how her father, King Skarl, had ruled Meridell peacefully and quite successfully until the Neopian Pound purging incident. She told me how the entire town turned against her father after his decision was made and how she ran away to evade all the gossip and bullying she had endured. She explained how she had never returned to Meridell until our move back here about six months ago. She wasn’t sure if anyone would remember her, but the talk of new neohome customization had made her brave enough to try it out.

     “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you this before, sweetheart. I only wanted to protect you from what I had to go through all those years ago. This is why we’ve had to move so much, though. Once I heard a peep from a neopet that knew the truth about my history, I wanted to get you out of there. I hope you understand that I was only trying to help...” My mother had whispered that last part, waiting to see my reaction.

     It took me a few minutes for the reality of all of this news to sink in. So my mom was the daughter of a king... the king that had ruled Meridell!

     Then, all of a sudden, my mind wandered back to remember the words from the letter.

     “I would like you to know that I am leaving this entire estate to you and any forthcoming family you have.”

     “Wait a minute, Mom, did you read what Grandpa Skarl wrote?!” I was absolutely exploding with the fact that we, my mom and I, had every right to the castle that I had just visited earlier today!

     “We can LIVE at the castle! It’s ours! Did you read that part?” My eyes were wide with excitement by now as my future started to flash before my eyes.

     “Wait a minute,” my mom replied. “So you’re not angry with me for keeping this from you all this time?”

     “No of course not,” I answered her. “I understand why you did it, and besides, look at what has come out of it!”

     My mother looked back down at the letter and a huge grin couldn’t help but spread across her face.

     “You know, I never read this letter before today,” my mom explained to me. “I never returned to that castle after I left so no one was ever able to pass along my father’s letter to me. I’m so glad you brought this back, I needed to know that he still loved me after I ran away.”

     “Where is Grandpa Skarl now, Mom?” I asked her. I was so excited to finally find out who my Grandpa was that I wasn’t going to waste anytime not calling him that.

     “I really don’t know. I imagine he would have eventually moved out since Meridell no longer has a king.”

     “So what are we going to do?” I asked my mom, my eyes glistening as I already pictured us moving into the castle.

     “Well, we are going to have to figure out how much work needs to be done over there, but, I suppose, it is ours!”

     ***

     Rosie couldn’t believe how much their lives had just changed in the past ten minutes. Her daughter had brought home a piece of her history that she had thought was long gone. Not only did her dad never stop loving her but he had left her and her family the entire castle! Rosie was overwhelmed with mixed feelings. A part of her was very excited to finally have a stable home but, on the other hand, she was wary how the town would feel about King Skarl’s daughter moving into his old castle. Surely the fact that she and Shieylah were moving in would reawaken all the old feelings toward her family. Was she ready to take that chance?

     ***

     “Actually, I think this is something to think about, Shieylah,” my mom said to me after a few minutes had passed. “The castle does need a lot of work and I’m not sure that I’m up for it. Besides, don’t you enjoy living next to your best friend Lori?”

     It was as if she had had a complete makeover about the entire idea and my high hopes shattered into a million pieces.

     “I thought you just said it was our castle!” I pleaded with her. “You were just excited about it a minute ago; can’t we just go look and see if we could fix it up?” I was determined not to give up on this easily.

     “I’m not sure right now, Shieylah,” my mother answered gloomily. I could tell this was no longer up for discussion right now.

     “I’m going over to Lori’s,” I said to her as I started walking toward the door.

     I couldn’t believe why my mom could possibly want to back out of inheriting a castle! Surely it couldn’t have been that bad when she was younger. Besides, the town would have to understand that Rosie was not her father.

     After arriving at Lori’s and explaining everything to her, to two of us were determined to come up with a plan.

     “You just HAVE to live there, you have to! I mean, it’s a castle! And it’s huge!” Lori seemed to be the only one who met my level of excitement at this point.

     “I know! My mom just needs some time, I think. She’ll come around.”

     ***

     The next morning I awoke to the sound of my mother sobbing downstairs in the kitchen. I quickly got up and made my way toward her to see what was wrong.

     When I got to the kitchen, I didn’t even need to ask before I saw the source of her tears.

     There on the kitchen table was the latest issue of The Neopian Times. The heading on the front page read:

     “KING SKARL’S DAUGHTER RETURNS! MOTHER AND DAUGHTER TO INHERIT CASTLE!”

     My mom had been right. The town hadn’t forgotten what had happened all those years ago.

     I walked over to put my hand on my mom’s shoulder.

     “It’s ok, Mom. So we won’t move into the castle. We’ll just stay here...” I tried not to let my deep disappointment show in my voice. I knew my mom was probably just as upset as I was.

     “It’s not... just t-th-that, Shieylah,” she heaved in between sobs, “We’re g-g-oing to have to... move out of... out of Meridell!”

     The last part had brought on a whole new set of tears and the reality of her words struck me hard.

     Move out of Meridell entirely? But what about our neohome? What about Lori?

     I ran back upstairs, grabbed Rufus from my bed and went to my window. I couldn’t believe it... could it actually be happening again? Would we actually move again? I had begun to think that this time was different. That this time we had settled here and wouldn’t need to move again. A single tear slid down my cheek.

     No. Not this time. Something had to be done. I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Lori, the closest friend I had ever made.

     I walked back downstairs, determined to help my mom and me through this together.

     “Mom, I-” I cut myself off once I saw my mom’s tears had stopped and she was reading a different article in The Neopian Times, her mouth wide open with surprise.

     “It’s... happening again. I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe they would actually do it again.” My mom seemed to be talking to herself although she was aware I had returned to the kitchen.

     “What is it, Mom?” I asked gently.

     “It’s the guards. The guards at the Neopian Pound; they are demanding another purge of neopets... next week.”

To be continued...