"Here are the rest of the letters you asked for. I hope they are of assistance to you, whatever your mission in Paris may be. Come to my office this evening when you are free. I have something to show you."
I reread Thayer's note for the thousandth time and didn't get any more meaning than I had the first nine hundred ninety nine times. I had no idea why Thayer wanted to see me, but it couldn't be good. The last time I saw him he was still unhappy about my little Jedi mind trick in our dogfight yesterday. Of course, I had spent the better part of the day with Becki. Maybe he wanted to ask about her. But she was right here in the Palace, so why wouldn't he just go see her? And Becki was leaving again in the morning, and Thayer barely knew where we were going, not why or to do what.
He's probably actually found an Ysalamiri.Thayer called for me to come in at my knock on his office door. At the sight of me he broke out into a rather unexpected smile. The smile didn't quite manage to hide the fact that he looked a good deal more tired and haggard than when I'd last seen him earlier in the day. "Josh!" he called. "Glad you could come by. I know you've been busy getting ready for the mission."
"It was safer than being beaten by inflatable aliens in the Batcave. Besides, it's not every day I get a note from the King," I replied carefully, his smile not quite enough to put me at ease just yet.
Thayer smiled a wistful smile. "Not King yet, just Dictator." He sat down in his large desk chair and I flopped into one of the seats across the desk. "I understand you've met our Lady Lenka?" All I could do was sigh and shake my head. "And it didn't go well?"
"You could say that," I said. "That'd be something of an understatement, really."
"What happened?"
"Nothing that bears repeating. Let's just say I was inexcusably rude to her. Wasn't exactly my most gentlemanly moment." I knew the value the Mendellian nobility placed on old-fashioned courtly behavior just as clearly as I knew I'd fallen well short of that mark with Lady Lenka.
"Have you apologized to her?" he asked.
"No, it's probably best just left alone. Besides, if she's one of your mother's ladies, chances are good she won't even be here when we get back."
Thayer's response was a simple "Mmmm..." and a look I didn't - and wasn't sure I wanted to - understand.
"So Thayer, what did you want to see me about? You wrote the note before the incident with your Lady Leannan, so it couldn't have been about that."
"Right you are. We received a movie today you said some time ago you wanted to see. I thought you might enjoy a break before your mission tomorrow. The first showing begins in about ten minutes, if you can spare a couple of hours."
My love of movies was almost as well known around the palace as my recent interest in cooking. The palace had a very nice theater that had lately, and at my suggestion, been renovated with stadium seating and the latest sound system. I'd spent considerable time there in the year I'd lived in the palace. I could only think of one specific movie I'd mentioned wanting to see to Thayer. "Black Hawk Down?" I asked. Thayer nodded. "Hmmm. We're just about ready to go. My gear's all together and the planning's done." I glanced down at my watch. 2145. "Sure, why not?"
It was a short walk to the palace's small theater. From outside it didn't look like much more than another meeting room with double doors as an entrance. The remodeling I'd suggested made the interior feel very much like the theaters I'd grown accustomed to in both Tennessee and Texas over the last few years, and I found that familiarity comforting. In the darkness of the theater it was easy to let the last year's turbulence go and slip happily and without reservation into the movie.
The lack of neon lights and movie posters and the smell of popcorn ruined the effect somewhat. I hadn't pushed my luck far enough to try to get Thayer to recreate a theater lobby and concession stand, and sometimes I felt their lack. On a couple of occasions I'd gone into Mendel City to see movies. The crowd and the atmosphere they created helped the experience, but the city's movie theaters were all of an older style. Their rows were flat and narrow, and I found that having my knees cramped against the seat in front of me still ruined the movie as thoroughly as it had in my teens.
So the High Palace's small theater was the best compromise I could come up with. I was constantly trying to convince others to come to the theater. Vickie and Rich had come frequently since their relocation from North Carolina a few months ago. Sometimes Mike would come and occasionally one or more of Llessur's ladies-in-waiting would join him. These were usually not the times that Thayer came down, but he did sometimes make an appearance too. The Queen Mother herself could be found here every great once in a while, but only when there was an old, graceful movie showing. Probably the strangest companion I'd ever had here was Hyper, whom I'd once all but ordered to try watching a movie. Being a droid, he of course didn't find the experience that exciting.
Thayer had made it sound as though this print of Black Hawk Down had just arrived and the showing had been set up mainly for my benefit. That, coupled with the fact that this was likely to be seen as a particularly American movie, made me think I would likely be watching this one alone. That was okay with me. In my youth I'd developed a willingness, if not a desire, to do most things alone. I frequently went to movies by myself during high school, and I didn't find it odd to eat alone in restaurants. Besides, with the mission tomorrow and the incident with Lady Lenka still stirring up storm clouds in the back of my mind, I could probably use some down time alone.
So it was to my great surprise that I found the very same Lady seated in the theater when I entered. She was alone in the empty room, and had her feet propped up on the back of the seat in front of her as she slouched down in her own. My instant reaction was to leave and avoid making either of us uncomfortable. Too late - she spotted me and shifted at the speed of light to a more dignified position in her seat.
"Lady Lenka," I said with a slight nod of greeting as I approached her. "I'm surprised to see you here."
Her earlier very relaxed posture and the glacial look she gave me now told me she was equally surprised to see me. "Lieutenant. I am here at Lord Atner's suggestion," she said with a formality that suggested this would not be an easy conversation.
Thayer? I wondered. "Why did he suggest you see this particular movie?" I asked.
A moment of obvious panic passed through her eyes as she apparently searched for a suitable reply. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat as she seemed to settle for telling the truth. "He said it might help me to understand you."
I would have been less surprised if she told me she turned into a blue-haired bantha on the weekend. "Me?"
"I spoke to him after I left your Batcave this afternoon," she continued. "He assured me that you are not normally quite so ill-mannered."
That comment struck me like a blow to the gut and threatened to put me on the defensive again - except that I knew her observation was right. "Lady Lenka, I...I'd like to apologize for the way I treated you today. There was no cause for it."
Her expression softened slightly and I was again struck by how beautiful she was. She was apparently as off-duty as a lady-in-waiting could be. She wore comfortable-looking blue jeans and a sweater. Her hair was pulled back into a pony tail that made her face all the more visible. She wore very little makeup, if any, and lacked nothing for it. Her skin was a lightly tanned shade and appeared very soft and smooth. And her eyes. I looked away quickly, not wanting to get lost there again.
"Apology accepted," she replied, still a bit stiffly and with an expression still well short of a smile. But it was progress, and I was glad for it. "I don't mean to pry, but I still do not understand. If you are a Mendellian citizen, why do you still wear an American flag?" she asked, pointing again to the patch on the left shoulder of my black flighsuit.
"Habit, partly. Also, we're allowed to wear a patch of our own choosing there, and several people have chosen to wear their national flag."
"But if you live here now..." she pressed.
"I got used to wearing that flag there when I was younger and now it would seem strange not to. I may have left America, and America may have left me, but it hasn't left my heart."
"That seems oddly poetic, coming from you," she commented.
I suppressed a quick flash of irritation at her remark. "There's a lot you don't know about me."
"That much is clear. If it is so important to you, why are you here?"
Such a simple question, and yet I couldn't help worrying that the answer would make her think less of me than she already did. I found myself strangely reluctant to do that, despite telling myself I cared nothing at all what she thought of me. "That's a very long story best left for another time."
She nodded acceptance, if not understanding, of what I said. "Then can you at least tell me why you feel such fierce loyalty to a place that you say has abandoned you?"
Just then my comlink buzzed with an incoming text message. I pulled it off my belt and glanced at the small screen on its face.
| Hope you both enjoy the movie. - Thayer |
I groaned aloud. So that's what this was all about. This was Thayer's revenge for yesterday. Well, I supposed there were worse things he could do to me than force me to spend two and a half hours with a beautiful girl. Even if it was one who didn't particularly like me.
Remembering her question, I turned back to Lenka. "Thayer's probably right. This movie will probably explain that better than I can."
Just then the lights in the theater dimmed and the projector came on. I sat down in the seat next to Lenka without thinking. I almost moved one seat over, but decided that I'd committed to this one and didn't want to be seen as backing down in any way.
What's to be afraid of? I asked myself. The last thing I noticed before becoming engrossed in the movie was that besides looking good, Lady Lenka smelled rather good too.
Two and a half hours later the lights came back up as the first strains of "The Minstrel Boy" started to play over the end credits. We'd passed the movie in complete silence. Each time I looked at Lenka throughout the film she was staring stonily straight ahead. On a few occasions I sensed that she wanted to say something or ask a question, but she'd kept quiet the whole time.
"So, what did you think?" I asked as we rose to leave.
She regarded me with another of her incomprehensible looks. "I believe I do understand more now. Thank you, Lieutenant."
"Josh," I said before I thought.
She nodded a silent agreement. "Well, good night," she said. Then she turned and left the theater where I still stood trying to decipher the evening.