Prologue:

      An adult's blighted wasteland can be a beautiful paradise to a 
child.  A little girl with pointed ears was walking through a hilly 
landscape full of small frozen over streams, ponds, and lakes.  The 
little girl walked slowly across the ice.  She was innocent, but she 
wasn't stupid.  After watching Bran fall through a hole in the ice 
yesterday while fishing, she wasn't going to make the same 
mistake.  Especially not when she had to go back to her mortal 
"parents" in two days, and trying to explain how she had gotten 
frostbite while spending the night at her best friend's house 
wouldn't be easy.  She didn't know what time dilation was, but she 
did know that she could stay a long time in faerieland without her 
parents figuring it out.  They weren't totally stupid, though.

        She watched where she stepped and concentrated like her 
mommy, her faerie mommy, that is, had taught her.  The ice was 
her friend.  It didn't like her big brother, but he was a meanie, so 
she didn't blame it.  It whispered to her, telling her where to step.  
She could feel the water under it.  Finally, she felt land instead, and 
she knew she was safe.  She moved a little further away from the 
edge of the water, then sat down.  She got out the glow-stone her 
mommy had given her.  It was a little rod, about six inches long of 
some sort of crystal.  This time it glowed really faintly, which 
aggravated her.  The last time she had used it, it had glowed really 
brightly.  This just wouldn't do.

       She tried willing it brighter, but it ignored her.  Finally, she 
gave up and tied a string to it.  She tied the string to the long stick 
she was carrying.  Sitting down, she whispered to the ice and asked 
it politely to open up for her.

       Slowly, the ice over the water began to retreat, leaving a hole 
about two feet across.  She tossed the glow-stone into the water, 
and sat back to fish.

        "Mommy'll be happy when I catch that lightfish for her," she 
told herself.  Mommy liked lightfish, and the only way to catch 
them was to lure them with a bright light.  They'd try to eat it, and 
then you could pull them out of the water.  Some tiny part of her 
brain had the feeling she'd forgotten something, but she was too 
busy being happy to worry about it.

       Far off, a little boy ran across the ice.  Several times it cracked 
and broke, but it never caught him, because he knew it would do 
that.  Tufts of red hair stuck out from under the hood he'd pulled 
over his head, and he had to keep reaching up and pulling the hood 
back on.  He had to hurry.  He'd had one of his dreams, and when 
he'd realized his best friend had vanished and no one knew where 
she was, he knew he had to find her.  

        He'd tried to get their help, but no one would pay attention to 
him, and her Mom was busy talking to some Lord and wouldn't 
take visitors.  He leaped over one especially thin section of the ice, 
and saw something moving.  He sped out and started shouting, 
"Where are you?"

        The little girl heard something, and she pulled back her hood, 
exposing her short white hair to the air, and more importantly, her 
pointed ears.  Like all Sidhe, she had excellent hearing.  She smiled.  
Her best friend was coming.  She was starting to get bored waiting 
for the dumb lightfish to come take her bait.

       "I'm over here!"  she shouted.  Her pole tugged, so she started 
to pull on it.  I caught one!  She started to back up, since her fishing 
pole had no other way to reel something in.

        She couldn't back up.  It started pulling her forward.  Grimly, 
she dug her feet into the ice, which parted for her a little, and 
fought to keep her grip on the pole.  Mommy wouldn't like it if she 
lost the lightstone.  

       The boy ran faster.  "Don't try to catch anything!  It's gonna 
catch you!"

        The girl shivered a little, as the cold tried to seep through her 
hair.  She slid forward, her heels digging a shallow trench in the ice.  
"Bad fish!  Bad fish!  Lemme catch you for Mommy!"

        The boy recognized the scene from his dream.  The bad fish 
was coming.  He put everything he had into running forward.  
Leaping over the hole she had made, he crashed into her, sending 
them both sliding across the ice away from the hole.  

         A few seconds later, a black snakey head shot out of the hole 
and tried to bite the now empty space where the girl had been 
standing.  It looked around, the line dangling from its mouth.

       The girl said, "Ahhh!  A Nightcrawler!"  Bran told her all about 
how bad little sisters got eaten by Nightcrawlers.  She wondered 
what she had done bad this time.

       The boy pulled out his belt knife, though he knew it wouldn't 
do much good.  "Run!  I'll hold it off!"

        She dragged him with her.  "Don't be nuts!  You can't fight 
that!  I bet it would eat Bran too!"

       They fled across the ice.  Once they started moving, the 
Nightcrawler started following them, undulating across the ice at a 
high speed.  It was about four feet across and sixty feet long.  Little 
children were just about the right size for a nice meal for it.

       They were also slower than it.  Screaming in fear, they ran as 
fast as they could.  It was preparing to lunge for another strike 
when something drew its eye.  A light, even brighter than the stone 
it had devoured was shining on a nearby hill.  Slowly, the light 
moved down the hill.  It hungered for the light far more than for 
the taste of Sidhe flesh.  Light that could be devoured was much 
harder to find than Sidhe.  

        It turned and charged towards the light, which shone brightly 
in the twilight of the day's end.  The boy and the girl saw more 
clearly than the Nightcrawler.  They could see the woman holding 
the lantern that it was charging towards.  They saw her sword as 
well, for it blazed with flame as the Nightcrawler charged her.

        The Nightcrawler liked the flaming sword even more than the 
lantern.  Nightcrawlers are rare for several good reasons;  their 
high suicide rate is one of them.  It bit down on the sword and 
flames ripped through its flesh, charring it from the inside out.  It 
went limp and slumped to the ground.  The woman knelt and 
pulled out her sword.  A thread was wrapped around it, and a small 
crystal rod hung from the thread.  She took the rod, looked at it, 
and smiled.  It did not glow.

       The little girl and the little boy ran over to her.  "Are you 
okay?"  the girl asked.  "I've got a healing potion if you need it."  
The little girl had a knack for finding poisonous plants to eat, so 
she'd started arming herself for those disasters.

       The boy stared at her and his eyes widened.  She looked just 
like the woman he sometimes dreamed was really his mommy.  He 
didn't know why he had the dreams.  They weren't like his future 
dreams.  It was just a woman holding him.  Somehow, he knew that 
was really his mother, not the mortals he lived with or the elf 
woman who said she was his mommy.  Could this be my real mom, 
he wondered.  

       She said, "I'm fine, Splinter.  Are you okay?"

       "I bumped my elbow when Opal saved me."  She held it up.  
"Can you kiss it and make it better?"

       The woman untangled the cord and the glow-stone from her 
sword.  She then sheathed her sword and knelt down, then kissed 
Splinter's elbow.  Splinter felt like her arm was on fire for a 
moment, and then all the pain went away.  The woman took the 
glow-stone and put it in Splinter's hand.  The moment it left the 
woman's hand, it glowed brightly, unlike its previous dim glow.  
"There you go, Splinter.  Your mommy won't get mad at you for 
losing it."

       "Thanks!"  She paused.  "Do you live at the castle?"  She didn't 
recognize the woman.

       The boy looked at her and said, "You look like I know you."

       The woman turned to him and took his hand for a moment.  
She gazed into his eyes, "I'm not your mother, if that's what you're 
wondering."

        He stared at her.  "Do you read minds?"

       She smiled sadly.  "It would make my life easier if I did.  Every 
little child seems to think I'm their mother, Opal."  She sighed.  "I 
will never have any children of my own, so perhaps that's not so 
bad as it might be."

        "You should ask Mommy to help you with her magic!"  Splinter 
said.  "Mommy can do anything!"

        The woman stood back up and laughed faintly.  "She certainly 
seems to think so.  You love your mommy very much, don't you, 
Splinter?"

       Splinter nodded.  "I'm gonna be Queen one day!  Then I'll lock 
up the Seelie Queen like she locked up Mommy and blow her up 
like she did to Guy Fawkes!"

        "I don't think the Seelie Queen blew up Guy Fawkes,"  Opal 
said.  "I think her husband did that."

      "She doesn't have a husband cause she's so ugly no one wants 
to marry her,"  Splinter sagely pronounced.

      The woman sighed.  "Have you ever even met a Seelie fae?"

       "They eat human flesh!"

       "They take you away if you're bad!"

        "They all live under beds and grab your ankles at night,"  
Splinter sagely pronounced again.

         The woman sighed more loudly.  "In other words, you've 
never met one and your big brother has been telling you crazy 
stories."

        Splinter nodded.  "You've met him?"

        "He was an even bigger liar when he was your age."  The 
woman began herding them home.  The stars were beginning to 
come out.  "I bet he never told you about the time he tried wearing 
Opal's daddy's clothing, did he?"

        "Tell me!  Tell me!"

         Opal had heard this story, but he wanted to hear it again.  

        She told them the story, and finished just as the castle came 
into sight.  They ran in through the gates just before they closed, 
then realized their new friend had been locked out.  They told the 
guards, who opened the gates, but she was gone.  It would be a long 
time before they would see her again.

***************************

The Summer People:
Chapter 7:  Parents' Day

**************************

George said:

       You're probably wondering who I am.  I'm Harry's father.  
You've seen me before, but since Harry doesn't call me George, it 
would  have been hard for you to guess.  I teach physics in Tyler at 
the University.  It makes me proud that Harry wants to follow in 
my footsteps.  His brother and his sister hate science, and I don't 
know why.  I did my best to try and make them love it like I do 
and like Harry does, but somehow it didn't work.  

        The reason that Cathy and I went up to Thornton was that it 
was Parents' Weekend.  Cathy is my wife, Harry's mom, by the way.  
He got that red hair of his from her.  My hair is black with a few 
grey streaks which really annoy me.

       Thornton University has tons of events the second weekend in 
October, and even though they're mostly pretty cheesy, Cathy and I 
always come and see Harry.  We're very proud of him.  We're 
proud of all our three children.  Our eldest just got married a few 
weekends ago.  I was really glad that Harry came.  He and Lucy 
used to feud a lot when they were little.  He'd get beat up, and then 
he'd go run off to Tanya's house and ask Olivia to adopt him.  Or so 
she told me once, anyway.

        Olivia is Tanya's mom.  Olivia and I met in high school when 
her family moved to Humble, where I had lived just about all of my 
life.  I had the most massive crush on her for years, but nothing 
ever came of it.  I guess I still have some of that crush.  It really 
hurts me when she actually lets some of the pain she still feels 
from being abandoned by Charles show.  

        I don't see her as much as I'd like.  Part of this is because 
Cathy hates her and she doesn't like Cathy much either.  Why they 
hate each other so much, I don't know.  I think Olivia is too much of 
a free spirit for Cathy, who is even more straight-laced than myself, 
and I'm a lot more that way than most people.  

        When we got to campus, Cathy went to get Harold, while I 
went to go register so we could get tickets for some of the events.  
Why this little school thinks it's necessary to make people register, 
I don't know.  It's a good school and I'm glad we can afford to send 
Harold here, but it has delusions of grandeur.  Roy B. Pfennig, the 
president, was making some kind of opening speech as I signed up 
at the table on the Quad.  

        No one was paying attention to him, and that included me.  I 
saw Olivia signing up as well.  She didn't notice me, so I followed 
her.  She wasn't walking so much as she was drifting off towards 
where the freshmen women live.  I chased her down when she 
stopped under a tree and stared off at the Library for no apparent 
reason.

        "Hey, Olivia!  You're going the wrong way.  Tanya's still living 
in the same dorm as Harry, right?"  

        She didn't say anything, but just shook slightly, as if she was 
crying.  I walked over to her.  "Olivia?"

         She started and turned around.  "George?  What are you doing 
here?"  There were a few tears on her face.  

       I blinked.  "Um...didn't you come here for Parent's Weekend?"

        She stared at the ground for a moment, then looked up at me.  
"I guess it is Parent's Weekend."

       I moved closer to her.  "What's wrong?  You sound really 
confused."

       She looked up, staring into my eyes.  She had different colored 
eyeshadow on her two eyes, which startled me.  Unless it was some 
kind of weird fashion statement, Olivia doesn't make mistakes like 
that.  I always thought she'd make a good model.  "I got a letter."

       "From?"

       She gulped.  "Charles."

       I nearly jumped out of my skin.  "He...he wrote you?"

       Charles is Olivia's husband.  He disappeared fifteen years ago.  
She went to bed with him, and in the morning, he was gone.  He 
didn't even take anything with him except for his rifle and some 
money they had stashed in the kitchen.  He left a note, but it was 
an incoherent ramble in three different languages, none of them 
English.  Something about their daughter having been kidnapped, 
which made no sense whatsoever, given that she wasn't missing.  

        She doesn't think he's dead.  Neither do I.  I know he's alive, 
though I have no idea why I'm so sure of this.  It just...I can't 
believe he'd abandon her, even with all the stupid stuff he did in 
college.  They had a really rocky relationship, but he finally 
straightened up, managed to get through graduate school with her, 
and they both got jobs at University of North Texas.  They lived 
there for ten years, and then he just vanished.  She's never really 
recovered.  After he vanished, she had to move.  Their house was 
too expensive for her to make the payments by herself.  I managed 
to help her get a job teaching at my school.  She's been in Tyler 
ever since.  

        "What did it say?"  I asked.  "Did he say where he is?  What 
happened?"

         She visibly shook, trying to speak.  Finally, she said, "It was 
an old French love poem, one of the ones he used to copy out for 
me when I was struggling through my French classes.  There were 
six more.  Some waitress in this little town..."  She began to cry 
again.  "He'd been coming through every six months or so for the 
last few years, and he'd scribble them on a napkin and ask her to 
mail them to me.  She finally did.  She said..."  

         I wanted to do something to comfort her, but I wasn't sure 
what.  She needed a hug, but Cathy would blow her top if she saw 
me doing that.  "I'm glad he's alive."

         "I just...I just want to know...why he left.  Why he didn't say 
anything...She described him...I think...I think he went mad.  But 
I...I just...I don't understand, George."  She lunged forward and 
hugged me tightly, burying her face in my chest.  "I don't 
understand why he hasn't come back.  I thought I'd gotten over it, 
but..."

        I knew she hadn't gotten over it.  She hasn't taken any legal 
measures to end their marriage.  There were a few torrid affairs, 
but none of them lasted, and I know she only started any of them 
because she was so desperately lonely, she couldn't stand it, and 
then she'd feel guilty for months afterwards.  

        I hugged her back.  If I got yelled at, so be it.  She needed 
comfort.  "Let's go find your daughter.  I'm sure she'll want to 
know."

        "Don't tell her!"  Olivia shouted.  She blushed a little.  "I...I 
wouldn't want to get her hopes up."

        "So what are you going to tell her about why you're crying?"  
Olivia has a tendency to make decisions without thinking about 
how she's actually going to carry them out.

        She pulled herself together.  The tears almost vanished.  
Within a few seconds, I could tell she had been crying, but she no 
longer looked so sad and confused.  "I'll tell her that I fell down and 
banged my knee."  She picked up some dirt and rubbed it at knee 
level on the long blue skirt she was wearing.  She paused.  "Oh bah, 
I forgot to let my students know I was cancelling today's classes.  
Too late, I guess."

         I laughed faintly and disengaged from her.  "Let's go find..."

       It was just in time.  I saw Harry and Cathy and Angela and 
Tanya and Thomas enter the Quad from the far side.  Cathy looked 
vaguely irritated, probably because she doesn't like Tanya or 
Thomas very much, although I think Thomas mainly suffers 
through his connection to Tanya.  She does like Angela though.

       We both like Angela a lot.  She's Harry's first real girlfriend.  
He dated a lot of girls in high school, but it never worked out.  I 
could tell it wouldn't when I met them.  It's a parent thing, I guess.  
Cathy had the same knack when it came to Lucy's dates.  The 
moment she met Robert, Lucy's new husband, she whispered to me 
that he was the one Lucy would marry.  I, on the other hand was 
clueless.  

        I waved to them.  "Over here!"

        Tanya and Harry took off running, while the others loped 
along behind.  Tanya ran over and hugged her mother tightly, and 
Harry nervously gave me a hug.  Neither of us are too good at 
physical affection.  "Hi, Dad."

        Tanya looked at her mother.  "Is something wrong?"

        Olivia said, "I tripped and banged my knee.  I'm fine."

        Harry said, "Don't get too close to the trees.  They're man-
eaters, I tell you."

        We all laughed.  Roots seem to seek out and attack Harry's 
feet.  Cathy and the others got over to us.  Cathy said, "Angela says 
her parents will be here soon.  They want for us all to go out to eat 
together for lunch."

        Thomas said, "My folks will be here tomorrow.  They're flying 
in from New York this evening."

        Olivia frowned slightly.  She doesn't like Thomas, though I 
don't know why. He's a nice, polite boy who reminds me a lot of 
Charles.  On second thought, that probably has something to do with 
it.  I know she still loves Charles, but I'm sure she hates him 
sometimes too.

       "So what is first up on the agenda?  Anything we can do before 
lunch?"  I was pretty hungry.  We'd had to leave Tyler ridiculously 
early in the morning to get here by 11 AM.

       "Well, we gave you the campus tour last time,"  Angela said, 
cocking her head and thinking.  

        "We could go show them the student art gallery over at the 
Picasso building.  That's all new since last time,"  Tanya suggested.

        Angel nodded.  "Good idea.  I'll wait here for Mom and Dad.  
Come back to the Quad when you get done."

        We headed off to go view student art.

****************************

Maria said:

       I pulled into the parking lot and shook Frank awake.  He 
always clonks out on long car trips.  Long being defined as more 
than twenty minutes.  How he can sleep in a car, I'll never know.  I 
was pretty excited about seeing Thornton again.  Frank and I both 
went to school here after he got out of the Army.  I got lucky and 
got a scholarship, or I would have been out of luck.  Being an 
international student helped.  It wasn't such a big deal back then, 
but I think it gave me an edge.  

        I haven't been back since I graduated.  Money is always tight 
for us, and we couldn't afford to take time off the last two Parents' 
Weekends that Angie was here, but this time, we had planned 
ahead, and had both the money and the time.  Things have gotten 
better since Joan finished her MBA and we don't have to help her 
through school anymore.  If only she and Peter had been able to 
make their marriage work.

        I sighed.  I have three daughters, and two of them are already 
divorced at ages 25 and 23 with a daughter to support.  Still, I 
almost ended up like them, so I can't talk.  Frank and I had a hard 
time making our marriage work at first for a variety of reasons, but 
we stuck with it and worked things out.  I wouldn't go back to 
France or Germany for the world now, though I still miss my family 
sometimes.

        Frank mumbled, "Are we there yet?"  and pushed his mousy 
brown hair out of his eyes.  Angie got his hair, my eyes, and his 
pale complexion.  She also got his ability to sleep anywhere at any 
time, including in the shower.  He learned that in the Army.  How 
she inherited a learned trait, I'll never know.  Maybe Lamark 
wasn't all wrong.

       I have a biology degree, so of course, I'm putting it to work as 
a travel agent.  I suppose the same applies for Frank's political 
science degree and his job as an insurance agent.  I'm surprised 
sometimes that we even managed to finish our degrees at the rate 
we had kids at first.  Still, I wish we'd ever gotten to do anything
with them.  I do substitute teach sometimes at the high school, and they
give me first shot at substituting for the science classes, so 
occassionally, for a few hours, I get to follow my dreams.

       I reached over and quietly rumpled his hair.  "No, we're still in 
the garage."

       He blinked.  "Really?"  He looked around and laughed.  "Some 
things don't change, I guess."  We got out of the car.

       The frat houses were the same as they had been twenty years 
ago--ugly, stolid, and full of frat boys and loud music.  I could see 
Ashton-Clark, which had been upperclassmen and married couples 
when we were here.  Frank and I had lived there.  "I wonder if 
they ever found where you carved your name into the floor under 
the carpet,"  I said.

        "I wonder if they ever got the stains off the wall from that 
casserole that Cassandra flung across the room because she didn't 
want to eat it,"  Frank said, laughing as we headed for the Quad to 
register.

       "I tried smuggling in acid from the labs, and that didn't work.  
They probably had to paint over it.  Or cut out that hunk of wall 
and replace it."  We passed between Ashton-Clark and a weird 
building that looked like a crash-landed UFO.  It was new. 

        As we passed through a faculty parking lot, Frank paused and 
stared at a battered old car that looked like it was made in the 
fifties.  "I don't BELIEVE it!"

       "Believe what?"

        "That's Professor Anderson's '55 Pontiac.  He's STILL driving 
that thing."

        I laughed.  "He's almost as stubborn about not throwing 
anything away as you are."  

        We passed between the Anderson science building and 
Parkinson.  The building is named after some rich person, not 
Professor Anderson, but he always claimed it was really named for 
him.  The Quad was bustling with people.  I spotted Angie, leaning 
up against a tree, looking all around.

         I waved and she spotted me.  She ran over and gave me a 
hug.  "You made it!"  She looked really excited.  

        Frank patted her on the head.  "I told you we'd make it this 
year."

       "You said that last year too."

        "Well, I didn't have any big deals that had to be closed this 
year."  He looked around.  "I see they've rebuilt a lot of stuff.  
Where's your boyfriend?  We are going to get to meet his folks, 
right?"

       She nodded happily.  Frank and I were looking forward to this.  
Harry had come to visit Angel twice over the summer, and we were 
pretty impressed.  He's just the sort of boy I hoped she would find 
one day.  I tried to play matchmaker for her in high school, but she 
was always too shy.  Then again, given some of the trashpits that 
her friend Alex dated, maybe she was better off waiting for college.  

       We went and registered and I told Angel all about the trip.  
Her father would have told her, but he slept through most of it.  
Right about as we finished, Angel said, "There they are!"  

       She pointed.  I recognized Harry, and Tanya, and Thomas.  
Harry's dad was easy to identify, since he was the only male I 
didn't know.  He's about a half-foot taller than Harry, and a lot 
thinner.  Harry's a little bit stocky, which I guess he gets from his 
mother, who is short and stocky.  I was able to identify her because 
she was the adult female who didn't look like Tanya.  Her bright 
red hair helped too.  Harry's hair isn't quite as bright as hers.  She 
didn't look too happy, though I had no idea why.  Her gloom 
seemed to leave her when she spotted us, though.  She smiled 
brightly and her whole manner seemed to change.  I wasn't sure 
why she did that, unless I was just looking especially awe-inspiring 
today.

        Frank and I walked over to them.  Frank shook hands with 
Harry's father, George, and I shook hands with his mom, Caroline.  
"Nice to meet you,"  I said.  "I've really been looking forward to 
this."

        "We've been looking forward to meeting you as well!  Your 
daughter is a very wonderful girl,"  Cathy said.  "We've only met 
her a few times.  I hope Harry wasn't too much trouble when he 
came to visit you this summer."

        "It was wonderful!"  Cathy and I took turns complimenting 
each other's kids while George and Frank looked amused and Harry 
and Angie blushed fit to die.  

        George said to Frank, "This is Tanya's mother, Olivia 
Cromwell."

        Olivia smiled.  "Nice to meet you.  Thank you for hosting my 
daughter the times she's come to visit you."

        "We were happy to have her.  She's a very nice girl."  There 
was so much praise of each other's children going on, I'm surprised 
our children didn't die of a sugar overdose.

       Lunch was quite nice, although Olivia and Cathy didn't get 
along too well.  I still don't know why.  After lunch, we went to go 
see a demonstration tournament by the Fencing Club.

       I was really excited that we would finally get to see our 
daughter fencing.  I used to fence, but I haven't done it in a very 
long time.  My family practiced it.  We are descended from a king, 
after all.  

        There were only twenty or so parents there, so it was easy for 
us to fit in the huge gym court.  Our three families sat together.  
Frank said, "Are we allowed to cheer during something like this?"

        "No,"  Olivia said.  "If they get too distracted, it could cause
an injury."

        Cathy nodded.  "Quite."

        George blinked and looked surprised, though I couldn't tell 
why.  Tanya said, "We'll just shout real loud when Angie wins, 
okay, Mr. Bedos-Rezak?"

        "You really think she'll win?"

         "Well, Thomas or Cindi will probably beat her, but she's 
getting pretty good."

        I'll skip over the matches you wouldn't care about.  Angel's 
first match was with a boy named Bill.  It was over in two minutes.  
Point, point, point.  She was faster than I'd ever seen her move in 
her life, especially faster than she ever was when she got told to 
clean her room.  Frank and Tanya both shouted, "Go, Angie, go!"  
which got them a lot of stares.  I was a little embarrassed, but 
proud of her.  

        Harry won his first match with a bit of effort, then got into a 
long drawn out slogging match with his second opponent.  I could 
see Cathy and George were getting tense as it dragged on and on.  
Finally, Harry won, and they both gave a big sigh of relief that got 
almost as many stares as Tanya and Frank shouting.  Tanya 
shouting, "Go, Harry, go!"  got a few stares, especially since her 
mother joined her on that one.  So much for distractions.

        Unfortunately, Thomas demolished him in three minutes after 
that.  Tanya didn't cheer this time.  I guess she didn't want to make 
Harry feel bad by her cheering for her boyfriend.  Angel was now 
head to head with Cindi, who she had told me was the best in the 
club.  

         Harry came and sat down with us, since he had been 
eliminated.  "This is gonna be rough.  They're both really good."

         "You think she can win?"  I asked.

        Tanya said, "It's gonna be a good match."

         I had thought Angie was moving fast before.  That was slow 
motion compared to this.  They moved in a blur of clashing swords, 
weapons moving faster than I could keep track of.  They advanced 
back and forth along the mat that formed the field of combat.  I 
used to know all the technical terms for this, but I forgot them all.  

        This went on for quite a while.  Finally, their swords locked in 
a sort of trick called beating, where you try to use superior 
strength to knock your opponent's weapon aside to get an opening.  
We all tensed.  Angie won the contest and got the first point.  

        I stood up and shouted something in French.  I can't quite 
remember what.  EVERYONE stared at me, and I sat down 
embarrassed.  Olivia leaned over and whispered to me, "Be glad 
they at least probably couldn't understand you."  I blushed some 
more.

       Cindi unleashed a barrage of attacks, even faster than the first 
one.  I was in awe.  She's got the talent to be an olympic fencer, I 
thought.  She's GOOD.  Angie was good, but not quite that good.  She 
fended off Cindi for a while, but Cindi scored.  I said to Harry, 
"Wow.  I never realized she was this good."

       Harry said, "She's been training really hard this semester."  He 
stared at the ground, and I got the feeling he wasn't telling me 
something.  "I wish I was as good as she was."

       Frank said, "Just work on it.  Angie's got dedication.  When she 
does something, she does it right."

        Olivia nodded.  "You could be just as good if you put your 
mind to it.  Don't give up, Harry."

        Cathy frowned for no apparent reason and said, "There's more 
to life than sword fights."

        Cindi slowed down a bit, and Angie began pressing her back.  
She managed to batter Cindi's sword again and scored another 
point.  Cindi picked up the pace AGAIN.  She managed to pull off 
another trick, called binding, where you catch your opponent's 
blade with a sort of circular motion and move it out of your way.  It 
takes a lot of skill, especially if your opponent is pretty good.  
Another point for Cindi.

        They both fought more defensively now.  I leaned over to 
Harry and whispered, "Do you think it would help if we cheered?"

        He laughed.  "Cindi's gonna win like she did in their last match, 
but in a few months, it's gonna be different.  Cindi normally beats 
Thomas, but Angel's gonna wear her out so much, he's got a good 
chance to win and be the victor."

        "So what got you into this?"

        "Angel dragged me into it, screaming and kicking."  He 
laughed.  

        Tanya laughed as well.  "She originally entered it to chase 
boys."

        "Really?"  I said.  Given that most of the fencing club boys 
were pretty cute, I could appreciate that strategy.  "Good thinking."

       Tanya blinked.  Harry began laughing like a maniac.  Frank 
laughed a little as well.  I had no idea what was so funny.

       Cathy said, "I can't imagine going to this much effort just to 
chase boys."

       "I seem to remember someone joining the physics club in 
pursuit of someone who will remain nameless,"  Olivia said quietly.

       "I liked physics!"

        "You liked physicists, anyway,"  Olivia said a bit testilly.  

        I sighed.  Here we go again.  Why can't these two get along?

        Frank said, "Either of you want to buy some health insurance 
before you go at it with your children's swords?"

        They paused and both blushed.

        Meanwhile, Cindi finally managed to score a third point.  She 
sat down hard, looking rather tired.  She and Angie shook hands 
and talked a little, then Angie came over, taking off her mask.   
"Well, I'd have been too tired to take on Thomas after that, 
anyway."

       I hugged her.  "You were wonderful!  I never realized you 
were so good!"

       Frank nodded.  "You were great."

        She smiled brightly.  "Thanks.  I guess I did old Louis XI 
proud, eh, Mom?"

       I laughed.  "Remember, he's always watching you."

       Cathy said, "Louis XI?"

        Frank put his face in his hands and sighed overdramatically.  I 
launched into a long story my mother told me about our family's 
noble descent.  As always, it got some interesting reactions.

********************

Olivia said:

       The fencing match was the highlight of the day.  I went out to 
eat with Tanya for dinner.  Thomas wanted to come, but Tanya said 
she needed to talk to me in private, and I needed to talk to her in 
private as well.

       We went to a nice little place called the Macaroni Grill, which is 
basically the Italian cuisine equivalent of Denny's.  Cheap, but a 
slight cut above McDonalds or Taco Bell.  I got lasagna and Tanya 
ordered sphaghetti.  We spent some time chatting mindlessly about 
school related activities and my job before Tanya gave the deep 
sigh that meant it was time to get down to business.

        I said, "Let me go first.  This is about your father."

       Tanya blinked.  For once, I had really surprised her, I think.  
"..."

       "He's alive.  A waitress in Point Blank saw him, and sent me a 
bunch of poems he had scribbled on napkins.  He kept telling her to 
mail them to me, and she finally did."

        Tanya just stared at me as if I'd announced I was secretly 
Dion.  I smiled faintly, although I was nervous.  I shouldn't enjoy 
sending my daughter into shock, but I did.  "It had to be him.  No 
one else on earth would try to mail me poems by Racine."

       "Is he still there?  Is he coming back?"  Tanya began to babble.  

       "I don't know.  He apparently comes through that town every 
few months for the last few years, so I called the sheriff and asked 
him to keep an eye open."  I started to shake myself, just thinking 
about the rest of the letter.  "I think...He's going to need help when 
we find him.  He...he didn't sound too good, from the letter."

        Tanya's voice quivered, "Where the hell has he been?"  She 
sounded like she was trying to shout and cry at the same time.  
"Why'd he leave us?  Why?  I just can't understand why he never 
even explained why he left!"  She was starting to get mad.

        I reached out and nervously took her hand.  "I don't know.  
But maybe...maybe we'll find out now.  I think...something must 
have happened that night.  To send him over the edge.  I can't 
think of what.  He left a note, but it made no sense."

       Tanya blinked.  "There was a note?"  She thought for a 
moment.  "Okay, I remember you'd mentioned a note, but you 
couldn't read it or something."

       "You were so little, you've probably forgotten what I told you.  
It was in three different languages anyway.  I couldn't read all of it.  
It was something to the effect that you'd been kidnapped and he 
had to go find you."  I thought hard as I took another bite of dinner.  
I hadn't looked at the note in years, but I still had it in a folder at 
home.  

        Tanya's anger drained out of her in an instant.  "Kidnapped?"

        I sighed.  "Makes no sense, eh?  I mean, how he could think 
you had been kidnapped when you were not missing at all?"  I 
sighed and ate more of my lasagna.  "It was just so sudden, though.  
People don't normally just snap for no reason."

        Tanya was shaking, and trying to eat, and trying hard not to 
cry.  "That...that's true.  Not for no reason."  

        We both spent a few minutes eating quietly, trying to pull 
ourselves together.  "So what did you want to tell me?"

        "T...two things."  She closed her eyes and sat silently for a few 
seconds.  When she opened them, her voice was much calmer.  "You 
were right.  I was an utter and total idiot all those years.  I 
completely wasted my time dating human garbage.  All those years, 
I kept breaking Harry's heart over and over again, and he never 
gave up on me.  I made us both miserable.  It was all my fault, and 
every reason I had for doing it was wrong."  Her voice was starting 
to shake again.

        I reached over and squeezed her hand.  "Don't beat yourself 
up, dear.  I'm sorry I yelled at you like I did.  I just...I always 
hoped you'd do better than me, and I saw you making the same 
kind of mistakes I did.  And then you came to your senses too late 
and I just...I unloaded on you.  I'm sorry."  I had really blown up 
badly.  I had already apologized once, but for what I did...she 
deserved an extra apology.  "I guess telling him didn't go so badly, 
since you two seem to be carrying on the same as ever."

        Tanya smiled a little.  "The four of us worked things out.  
Compared to some of the fights Thomas and I have had, this was 
easy."

        I frowned slightly, though I shouldn't have.  Thomas just...he 
reminds me too much of Charles.  I'm afraid he's going to do to her 
what Charles did to me and Tanya.  I don't want her to go through 
that.  Especially since I know Harry would never do that to her in a 
million years.  I'm trying to make myself like Thomas for Tanya's 
sake, since I don't have a good reason to dislike him, but it's not 
working too well.  "Your father and I fought all the time in college 
too."  I forced myself to go on.  "I'm sure you can work things out."

       "I know you don't like Thomas, but I..."

       Another effort of will followed.  "I want you to be happy, 
Tanya.  I don't want you to end up alone like me.  If you think he'll 
stand by you, that's enough for me."  With effort, I kept myself 
from thinking about Charles.

        "He thinks you hate him."

        "I don't hate him.  He's just...he's too...I want you to have 
someone who will stand by you.  Someone who won't leave you.  I 
just don't want you to make the mistakes I did."   I sagged.  "Like I 
did with..."  I stopped.  A mother deserves some secrets.  "I'm glad 
you've got more love than you know what to do with it."

         Tanya laughed.  "This way you can keep Harry as your son, 
since I know you always wanted one."

         I laughed and perked up a bit.  I do treat Harry like he's my 
own son.  I always wanted another child, but we never managed to 
have one.  "So what was the other thing you wanted to tell me?"

        I could almost hear the scream as she emotionally plummeted.  
She stared at her food.  "You'll have to come back to the dorm with 
me for this.  I have to show you something."

        "Can I get a hint?"

         She gulped.  "I think it'll really suprise you."

        We ate quietly, turning to light and frothy topics again.  
Finally, I paid the bill and we went back to her dorm.  I spent the 
time speculating on what she could possibly be so worried about.  
Pregnancy was the only thing I could think of, but why would that 
require going back to her dorm room?

        Angela was there, trying to do homework on her bed when we 
arrived.  She looked up.  "Hi, Mom,"  she said, then laughed.  "Mom 
wants to know if you're related to Oliver Cromwell, by the way."

        I laughed.  "Only by marriage.  My maiden name was Clark.  I 
am related to the Clark of Lewis and Clark, though."

       Tanya looked over at Angela, then looked at me, clearly trying 
to decide whether to kick Angela out.  I sat down on Angela's bed.  

        Angela said, "Is something wrong?"  
        
        Tanya said, "Mom, I..."

        The phone rang.

         Angela picked it up.  "Hello?"

         Tanya sat down on her bed and waited.  A look of fear slowly 
crept onto Angela's face.  "We'll come right away,"  she said.  She 
turned to Tanya.  "Go get Thomas.  Harry's on his way."

        I blinked.  "What's wrong?"

         "Okay, Harry, I'll be right here,"  Angela said.  "I love you
too."  
She hung up the phone.  

        Tanya got up.  "What's up?"

        "Your father showed up at Harry's parents' hotel with a gun," 
Angela said to Tanya.

        I quietly fainted.

*********************

George said:

       I waited for everyone to get there, then told them all the story 
of what had happened.

       I had missed today's paper, so I decided to go down to the 
lobby and get one if I could.  Not that Motel 6 has a massive lobby 
or anything, but they did have newspapers.  I got my newspaper 
and stepped back outside, already in the throes of reading the front 
page.  Every time I do this, I run into something, but I always do it 
anyway.  

        This time it was a person.  I was rather embarrassed.  "Sorry 
about that,"  I said, raising my eyes.

        "Nice to see some things don't change,"  the man I had bumped 
into replied.  It was Charles.  He looked like he had just wandered 
out of his classroom or the faculty lounge moments before.  He had 
his usual navy blue suit on with the same awful blue fish tie that 
he wore all the time.  He even had the same battered briefcase I 
remembered him purchasing in college.  It had looked a wreck 
within a year, then never got any worse.  

     For a moment, I thought I had to be hallucinating.  You don't 
just spontaneously bump into people who have been missing and 
presumed nuts for fifteen years and have them look just the same 
as the day they left.  He was even wearing his high school ring, 
which for reasons I still don't know, he wore all the time, more 
even than his Ph.D ring.  He was also wearing his wedding ring and 
a rather ugly ring that looked like someone had taken a hunk of 
iron off a car and banged it into a ring.  When I looked at his hands, 
I saw the one change.  They looked weathered and rougher.  He had 
always had the kind of soft hands of someone who had never done 
any physical labor in his life.  That had changed.  Indeed, on a 
closer look, I could see he looked a little bigger, a little stronger, a 
little tougher.  Wherever he was, it hadn't been easy.  I thought 
about my own flab, and wished I was in that good of shape.

       "Charles?"  All I could do was think of a variety of entirely 
stupid cliched greetings.  

        He nodded and smiled, then stared at my face.  I felt like he 
was looking for something, and I'm not sure if he found it or not.  
He seemed satisfied, though, smiling even more broadly.  "Hello, 
George.  Did Cathy come with you?"

       "Yeah.  We...uh...did you come for Parents' Day too?"  My brain 
felt frozen.  Part of me wanted to start screaming at him, but I 
couldn't.  

        He laughed again, very softly.  "How ironic,"  he said.  "No, I 
wasn't even aware of that.  I just knew Olivia had come out here, so 
I came looking for her.  I missed her in Tyler."

        "She's here, but I'm not sure where she is staying.  We're all, 
um, going to lunch tomorrow."  I could feel a pressure in my mind, 
and I fought it.  Why am I feeling so weird? I wondered.  
Something snapped, and I said, "Where have you been?  Why did 
you just leave in the middle of the night?"

         He said incredibly quickly, "I left a note explaining 
everything."  He paused and stared at the ground.  "I think I left a 
note."

        That broke my mental dike completely.  "Goddamnit, Charles, 
you don't run off in the middle of the night and abandon your wife 
and five year old child and excuse it with a NOTE!  You didn't even 
write the bloody thing in English, and we never were REALLY sure 
what you even meant!  What the hell was that babbling about your 
child being kidnapped supposed to mean?"  He had pulled this sort 
of stupidity in college, but I had thought he'd gotten over it.  Maybe 
he'd just been saving up for a really stupid action.

        He sighed.  "It was stupid.  I was so completely freaked out, I 
couldn't think straight.  Maybe they did something to me to make 
sure I wouldn't be any kind of real threat.  Now that I'm back to 
myself again, I want to make things right.  That's why I'm here."  
He looked up at me. "I barely remember most of the last fifteen 
years.  When I found out what had happened...when I thought 
about what I'd done, I just...I guess I must have snapped."  He set 
down his briefcase.  "I just...What would you have done if you'd 
found out in the middle of the night that your daughter had been 
kidnapped?"

        He is nuts, I thought.  But he seems to have gotten somewhat 
better.  Just keep talking, and maybe we can get him to not run off 
so he can get help.  "I wouldn't have run off without telling anyone.  
I'd at least have bothered to wake up my wife and tell her myself."  
I paused.  "Oh, by the way, Lucy is married now."  It wasn't 
tremendously relevant, but Cathy and I have been busy bragging 
about this for the last month and it's becoming a habit.

       "Congratulations," he said.  For a moment, the wavering in his 
voice vanished, and he was the man I remembered.  "I'm sure 
they'll be very happy together.  Someone she met at college?"

        I nodded, then said, "Getting BACK to our subject, if your 
daughter was kidnapped, where did the girl that was there in your 
house, looking remarkably like your daughter, come from?"

       He looked around, then stepped closer and quietly said, "The 
faeries took her and replaced her with a changeling."

       It was very difficult for me to avoid laughing.  For Olivia's 
sake, and for his sake, I didn't.  "How did you find this out?"  I need 
to let Olivia know he's here somehow.  Maybe Cathy will come 
looking for me and I can send her to call Olivia.  I don't want to 
scare him off.

       "I heard noises in the house, so I got up and wandered around.  
The noises were coming from the kitchen.  There was a little two 
foot tall man raiding the refrigerator.  He had one of Tanya's 
barbies and he was finishing off a bottle of wine.  As I watched, he 
put it down and mumbled something and it filled back up.  He put 
it back in the refrigerator.  I just stood and stared.  I couldn't 
believe it."

        You and me both, I thought.  

       "Then he saw me and panicked.  He said something about how 
I should have slept through this, then ran.  I chased after him.  He 
would have gotten away, but he was drunk and couldn't get the 
front door open fast enough.  I grabbed ahold of him and he 
panicked.  He tried to cast some kind of spell on me, but I think he 
was too drunk to do that right, either. "  Charles sighed.  "You think 
I'm nuts, right?"

         I flapped my lips silently.  Finally, I said, "You haven't 
convinced me this is true yet.  Go on." 

         "I tried to find out what he was and why he had broken into 
our house and only taken some wine and a barbie doll and some 
fruit from the fridge.  That's when I found out all about the 
faeries."  His voice began to shake.  "How they'd taken my child 
when she was just an infant.  How the child they'd left behind 
would be a faerie Duchess one day, and how you could influence 
people through something they had an emotional bond to.  How my 
real child was being kept as a pet by this faerie, and how I'd never 
see her again."  His whole body was shaking, and his voice was full 
of rage.  

        "And you believed him?  Even if he was a faerie, you'd just 
caught him breaking into your house and he was drunk.  How could 
you know he wasn't just babbling?"  I told myself not to argue with 
him.  Who knows what he might do.  My training in scientific 
method and probably more importantly, the detective novels I like 
to read were asserting themselves.

       Charles frowned and stared at the wall as if all the answers 
were written on it.  "I told you I screwed up.  I didn't get my real 
proof until much later."  He paused and the anger in his voice 
faded.  "I guess it doesn't make a lot of sense.  I dropped him and 
ran off, and everything gets fuzzy after that.  I just...I felt like I had 
to go find my daughter.  Before it was too late.  I've seen things, 
George."

        Can't argue with that, I thought.  

        "I've seen them steal children.  I've seen them transform.  
They can hide as ordinary humans.  Anyone around you could be 
one of them, and you wouldn't know."

        Today's topic is clinical paranoia, I thought.  

        "You don't believe me,"  he said.

        "I need proof, Charles.  I'm a scientist.  We don't deal in 
personal testimony.  Lots of eyewitnesses have been proven 
wrong."  I sighed.  "Look, let's go up to my room and call Olivia, and 
you can tell her about this."  Here's where he tells me she might call 
Tanya, and then Tanya will unleash her fairy army on us, I thought.  

       "If we go up to your room, Cathy's going to bite my head off, 
and I can't...I'm not ready for that."  He sighed.  "You've got to 
believe me, George.  I need your help.  I can't fight them all by 
myself.  Not even with the guns I've got now."

       "Now?  What happened to your rifle?"

        "I had to sell that a long time ago for food, to keep myself 
alive.  If I had found the faeries before I got back together, they 
would have made mincemeat of me.  They may still do that 
anyway, but at least I have a chance now."  He picked his briefcase 
back up, then opened it and pulled out a folder.  "Read this.  I'll be 
back.  If I stay here too long, they might find me."  He turned.  
"There's a number where you can reach me.  Don't wait too long.  I 
have to strike soon while I still can."  He ran off.

       "Wait!  Don't go!"  I chased after him, but once he rounded the 
corner, he was gone.  I couldn't find him, or figure out where he 
went.

                               *******

        I looked around at everyone.  Cathy had Harry in a protective 
embrace which was rather clearly embarrassing him.  Olivia and 
Tanya were sitting on the other bed.  They both looked pale, and 
Tanya looked awful.  She had a guilty look, though how she could 
think any of this was her fault was beyond me.  Angel and her 
folks, Maria and Frank, were sitting on the bed next to them.  Her 
father was frowning, and Maria looked like she was about to panic.  

        Angel said quietly, "What was in the folder?"  For a moment, 
she looked remarkably like her father.  They both had the same 
body posture, and the same frown.  It wasn't quite an unhappy 
frown so much as a sort of concentrating, something isn't right kind 
of frown.

        I said, "I called the cops.  They should be here soon, and I 
suppose they'll need this as evidence, but until then..."  I passed it 
over to Angel.  She and her father hunched over it.  "The photos are 
the best part.  I have to say that your father seems to have picked 
up quite a knack for photo alteration somewhere."

        There were four photos.  They all showed various maternity 
wards with faeries either switching children, stealing children, or 
leaving children.  The two most interesting were the most recent 
and the oldest.  The most recent one looked like a printout of a 
recording from a hospital security camera.  The oldest one was the 
interesting one.  It was dated May 18, 1976, and the place given 
was Tyler General Hospital.  Given that was Harry's birthday and 
not Tanya's, which had been two weeks earlier in a different city, I 
wasn't too convinced.  

         It had some other interesting material.  A coroner's report 
from Brownsville on someone whose heart was on the wrong side.  
More photos of a faerie revel in the woods, of someone staggering 
around with a crossbow bolt in them, of what looked like a unicorn 
and a small girl with pointed ears.  Transcripts with several nurses 
who reported seeing faeries stealing children from maternity 
wards.  A rather nicely researched bibliography of faerie lore.  
Pages ripped out of some game that Harry probably plays.  The last 
part was a collection of rambling notes.  Lists of species of faeries.  
Weaknesses of faeries.  A brief history which seemed to claim that 
someone named 'Glorianna' ruled the faeries and that World War II 
had been a war between her and some enemy of hers that got out 
of hand.  Finally, there was a phone number.

        Olivia said, "Do you...do you think he might try to do 
something to...to Tanya?"

        Tanya shivered and began to cry.  Olivia hugged her tightly.  

        Cathy said, "I just...I can't believe he'd go nuts like this.  He 
was always...He..."  Her voice was shaking as well.  She and Charles 
had dated for a while in college, but it didn't work out.  They'd 
stayed good friends, even though I think she blamed Olivia for 
taking him away from her.  I knew this was hard on her.

        Frank looked up and said, "I don't think your friend made 
these."

       "Where else could they have come from?"  I said.  "I'm not 
exactly a psychologist, but people do sometimes manufacture 
evidence to support their delusions."  I think they do, anyway.

      "Where's a deluded paranoid going to find the money to buy 
the kind of equipment to make a fake this good?  I've seen faked 
photos, and I know some of the signs.  I've had to deal with a few 
fraud cases, and most people can't fake photos worth a damn.  
These are well done fakes.  You'd think they were real if they 
weren't full of people with pointed ears, unicorns, and baby 
stealing."

      Angela was staring at the photo of the hospital with Harry's 
birthday scribbled on the back.  "Dad's right.  Who supposedly took 
this photo, anyway?  And why didn't they report it to the child's 
parents?  It's not like they couldn't have just gone over and looked 
at the crib and checked the name.  And the photo would provide 
some kind of proof that something happened."  She frowned more 
deeply.  "But it would convince a crazy person.  A few weeks ago, 
he was a crazed bum.  Now he's pulled halfway together, he's well 
dressed, and he's armed.  Someone armed him.  Didn't you say that 
waitress wrote you that some guy found him and took him off, Mrs. 
Cromwell?"

        We all turned and stared at Olivia, who said, "Yes.  I..."  Her 
face darkened.  "If someone is trying to manipulate my husband 
into killing my daughter or some other awful deed, I swear I'll rip 
out the bastard's heart if I find him."

       "I'll help you,"  Cathy said.  "I won't stand for someone using 
Charles as their gunman."  She sighed.  "Not that my help is likely to 
be of much use."  She squeezed Harry, who gave out a very tiny 
yelp.

       "Not so tight, Mom, I want to live,"  he muttered.  

       Thomas had remained silent through all of this.  He was sitting 
up on the short, but long dresser drawers that had the TV on it.  He 
finally spoke.  "I'm sure the cops can stop him.  If they ever get 
here."

       Maria said, "Maybe he killed the cops."

       Angela said, "Mom, if you start freaking out, I'll kill you 
myself."

        "I'm not freaking out.  How long ago did you call them?"

        I thought about it, then blanched slightly.  "At least a half an 
hour ago.  Maybe longer."

      Maria picked up the phone, called the cops and bitched them 
out.  I've never heard anyone be so rude to a cop, even over the 
phone, in my life.  She hung up with a triumphant smile.  "I showed 
them.  They claimed they didn't know what I was talking about, 
but an officer should be here soon.  And if he doesn't show up soon, 
I'll chew them out again for you."

     "Uh, thanks."

       Angela looked horribly embarrased.  Frank was grinning.  "You 
should see her go after door-to-door salesmen."

       We discussed a variety of options.  Frank and Angela soon had 
the rest of us convinced that someone had to be putting Charles up 
to this, at least in part.  The cops didn't show up again.  This time, 
we decided to go down to the cop station.

       They claimed we had never called.  Maria went berserk on 
them again.  It was incredibly late by the time we all went back to 
our hotel rooms.  We invited Olivia and Tanya to stay with us, and 
they accepted.  I didn't want them to be off by themselves.  Harry 
got stuck sleeping in one of the chairs, which didn't exactly thrill 
him.

       When exhaustion finally dragged me off to slumberland, I was 
grateful.  

*********************

Maria said:  

       I don't sleep a lot, unlike my husband.  When the sun began to 
peek in through the windows, I woke up.  We'd kept Angie with us, 
because we didn't want to send her back to her dorm room alone 
with a nutcase on the loose.  Frank was kind enough to sleep in a 
chair so Angie and I could share the bed.  She was still clonked out.  

       She sleeps like a rock, like her father.  I sat up and watched 
her sleep.  It's been years since the last time we'd slept in the same 
bed, even on vacations.  Not since she was a little girl.  I could see 
some of the little girl in her still.  Her left arm was curled around 
the space that normally would have held the teddy bear we gave 
her when she was five.  She still had 'Mr. Bear', who probably 
would have a good future in the blackmail market if he ever 
learned how to talk.  He was back at the dorm, however, and she 
was sleeping in her clothing.  

        I sat and watched her.  My little girl.  I'm so proud of you.  I 
reached down and brushed her hair away from her eyes.  She had a 
peaceful smile on her face.  I wondered what she was dreaming 
about.  She murmured, "I love you, Harry."  

        I hope they get married, eventually.  He's a good boy and I 
think they make a good couple.  Assuming we all live through this.  
Really, we didn't need to worry.  The man doesn't even know who 
any member of the Bedos-Rezak family is, most likely.  But I was 
afraid anyway.  We might have all been making eternal vengeance 
noises last night, but Angel and Thomas are probably the only two 
people in all three families who are any threat to anyone over the 
age of ten or so.  Frank's a decent shot, but his guns are all back in 
Plano.  

       I looked over at Frank.  He was sleeping pretty peacefully as 
well.  I envy them both their ability to sleep anywhere.  Insomnia 
has always been my constant companion.  I heard a scratching at 
the window.  Fearing the worst, I spun about and saw what looked 
like two shadowy figures at the window, through the drapes.  
However, they both looked to be about six inches tall, as if someone 
was kneeling and holding barbie dolls up to the window.  I could 
just barely hear voices, but so muffled, I couldn't even be sure they 
were voices.

        The wise thing would have been to wake Angel and Frank up.  
Unfortunately, I'm often not very wise.  I dropped to the floor and 
crawled across the room, then slowly raised my head to try to 
listen in.

       "What do you mean, I have to stand watch right here?  I'm 
gonna be in plain sight!"

        "Use some glamour, you idiot.  We're up on the fifth floor, 
anyway.  Humans never look up."

         The voices were very faint, and they were speaking in 
French.  The reminder that our room was on the fifth floor made 
me wonder how the two people had gotten up to the window, and 
why their shadows looked so tiny.  

       "Why are we watching over this mortal anyway?"

       "Cause Flamehair will come burn down your house if you slack 
off!"

        I must be dreaming, I thought.  Maybe I ate something weird 
last night.  Slowly, my hand crept up to pull the curtain aside 
slightly so I could try to look.  Leaning against the wall by the side 
of the window, I peeked out.  It was still fairly dark outside, but I 
could see two five inch tall men, dressed in leather hunting garb, 
and carrying seven inch long spears, sitting on the windowsill and 
talking.  They both had delicate butterfly wings.  It was pleasing to 
realize that my imagination had not decayed with age.  I hadn't a 
dream this bizarre in a long time.  

       "So why does he care about these mortals anyway?"

        I wonder what French faeries are doing in America, anyway.  
Probably expresses some deep inner desire of mine I've repressed, 
no doubt.  

       "I think the young one is a lover of his."

       I laughed at the thought of Angie dating a faerie.  She's got 
more sense than to do anything that silly.  They heard me, and 
started.  I went ahead and pulled the drape aside a bit and cracked 
open the window.  "Good morning,"  I said in French.

       One of them was about to run, but the other one sighed and 
stopped him.  "I don't suppose we can convince you you're not 
really seeing this?"

       I laughed.  "As if this could possibly be real.  I know I'm 
dreaming, silly man."  I was pretty sure of that, anyway.  Although 
my dreams usually aren't this lucid.

       He gave a sigh of relief.  "That's right.  We merely express your 
desire for protection from the nutcase loose in the city.  All part of 
your repressed oedipal impulses or something."

       The other pixie stared at him.  "What in the world are you 
talking about?"

        "Shh.  I'm trying to channel Freud."

       I laughed.  "So who is this Flamehair?  A mental image of my 
father?"  This was reaching for new heights of ludicrousness.  Frank 
will get a good laugh out of this.

        The second pixie, who seemed to have been the relief man for 
the first said, "He's not old enough to be your father.  He's a sidhe, 
the grandson of Duke Silverhand."

       The first one said, "Lucius, be quiet and let me do the talking."  
He thought for a moment.  "He's actually a mental projection of 
your daughter's boyfriend.  Note that he has red hair, thus the 
name 'Flamehair' for the faerie you are imagining sent us to protect 
your daughter.  It's quite logical for you to dream about your 
daughter's boyfriend wanting to protect her and sending magical 
help to do so."

        "But his mortal form doesn't have red hair, it has..."  Lucius 
began.

        The first faerie grappled him and put a hand over his mouth.   
"Please ignore Lucius.  He represents that cousin you never liked 
very much."

        He did remind me of my cousin Pierre, who was a complete 
idiot.  "And who do you represent?"

        "Your last therapist."

        Actually, he was a lot more perceptive than my last therapist.  
My only therapist.  Frank and I had seen a marriage counsellor 
many years ago, and realizing we were smarter than him had been 
a bonding experience.  That's another story, however.  "I hope 
you're going to charge less than he did."

        "You can pay me in dream money."  

        The conversation only got weirder from there.  Eventually, I 
bid them farewell and went back to bed for a while.  Frank and 
Angie were congratulating each other on getting up before I did 
when I awoke.  We went and got some breakfast, and I told them 
all about my dream.  It really lightened up our mood, which is 
probably what I do best in the world, anyway.  

*****************

Olivia said:

        I had horrible nightmares.  Faeries stole my daughter.  They 
turned my husband into a two thousand foot tall rampaging 
monster.  Her boyfriend turned out to be a Russian spy and sold us 
into slavery.  Cathy poisoned me.  The bed turned out to be sentient 
and forced us to let it sleep on us.  I finally woke up when I 
dreamed that someone named 'Teleute' kidnapped me and threw 
me out of a space station.  I woke up just as I was exploding in 
deep vacuum.  I tried to think of where I'd heard of Teleute.  She 
was a goddess of death or something, I think.  

       Everyone else's peace looked troubled as well.  Cathy and 
George were gripping each other in their sleep tightly.  Tanya was 
cuddled up to me like a small child, her face contorted with fear.  
Harry was twitching about in the chair, muttering the word "no" 
over and over.

        I could hear Tanya was mumbling something and I tried to 
listen to it.  "Mother, you have to give Irene back to Dad so he won't 
kill me.  I don't care if you need her.  He needs her more than you 
do."  Her voice grew a little more high pitched.  "No, Irene, you have 
to go...he's your father."  Pause.  "What do you mean you don't 
care?"

       She was starting to shake and I put an arm around her and 
whispered into her ear, hoping she'd hear me in her dream.  "I care.  
Don't be afraid, my daughter.  It's all going to be okay."  I hoped it 
was going to be okay.  Who's this Irene, I wondered.  

        Tanya suddenly started awake and began to cry.  She kept 
saying, "Don't hate me,"  over and over again.  I hugged her.  

      "I love you, my daughter.  There's nothing that could make me 
hate you."  I hope we find Charles soon, I thought.  She doesn't 
deserve this kind of hell.  If he thinks she's just some duplicate, he 
might do something to her.  I started fretting.

       Harry woke up now.  He's a light sleeper, unlike his parents, 
who could both sleep through World War III, I think.  George once 
slept through the last three hours of a fraternity party on a couch 
in the middle of it.  He looked blearily at us.  None of the three of 
us are morning people.  Mumbling incoherently, he got up out of 
the chair and staggered over to kneel down in the space between 
the beds.  "You okay, Tanya?"

      "It's all my fault.  I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.  I..."  She wasn't 
making any sense.  Harry took her hand and squeezed it.

      "You're babbling, Tanya.  Wake up.  You're just having a 
nightmare or something."  

       I nodded.  "This is not your fault.  You didn't make your father 
go mad."

        Tanya stared at me, and tried to say something, but no words 
would come out.  She fully snapped awake now.  "Mom, I..."

        I put a finger to her lips.  "This is not your fault.  Don't blame 
yourself."

        She looked so guilty, I wanted to cry for her.  Tanya tries to 
carry burdens for people too much sometimes.  I couldn't think of 
what else to say to reassure her.  "Sleep, dear.  You'll need your 
strength.  We've got a busy day planned.  We'll hardly have time to 
pencil in any assassination attempts."

         Humor was not the right tactic.  She started to cry.  "I wish 
Thomas was here.  I wish Dad didn't want to kill me.  I wish I'd 
never messed up your life.  I wish Harry...You'll say the eulogy at 
my funeral, won't you, Harry?"

        "Tanya, stop being an idiot,"  he said.  For a moment, his face 
hardened and he frightened me a little, then his face softened 
again.  "You're going to be okay.  No one is going to die.  I'll protect 
you."  He laughed a little.  "For what that's worth."

        "It's worth a lot to me," she said quietly, then yawned.  Her 
eyes began to close.  "Promise me you won't get yourself killed."

       "I promise," he said.  Tanya swiftly slipped off to sleep.  Harry 
held her hand until we were both pretty sure she was clonked out.  
He got up and came around the bed to my side.  "Are you okay, 
Mom?"  He looked nervously over at the other bed.

        I laughed faintly.  Cathy will blow her top if she hears that.  
"I'm fine.  I'm scared, but...I just can't imagine Charles really 
hurting someone.  Maybe he's changed, but...he was always a 
peaceful man.  Stupid sometimes, but not violent.  Not a killer."

        I noticed a ring he was wearing.  He had been wearing it all 
day, but I hadn't thought about it before.  It was gold with weird 
symbols and an aquamarine set in it.  Angie had a similar ring, 
though hers had a ruby in it, I now remembered.  "Did you and 
Angie buy each other rings?"

       He blinked, then looked at his hand and said, "They were given 
to us by friends."

       They looked pretty expensive for that.  "I wish I had friends 
with that kind of money."

        He blushed a bit and looked vaguely guilty.  "I'd like to buy 
her a nice ring, but it costs a lot of money."

        "So, how soon do you think you two will get married?"  I 
didn't want to ask.  I like Angie, but part of me still hoped he and 
Tanya would get together one day.  He'd be so good for her.

       "Not until we both finish school.  Or at least get our bachelors.  
She's going to need a graduate degree, and I may get one too."

       I nodded.  "I...I'm glad you and Tanya worked things out.  I..."  
I wanted to say something, but I didn't know what.  

       He looked over at her and smiled.  "So am I.  It would be nice if 
we...If we'd both been more honest earlier, but then I wouldn't 
have Angel, and I love her very much."  He sighed.  "It's hard to 
explain to someone who hasn't been through this."

       I refrained from mentioning that I had been through it, and it 
had come out more messily than with them.  I had been very 
stupid at Tanya's age.  I wasn't surprised Harry didn't really know 
about it.  None of us discussed the past too much anymore if we 
could help it.  "I understand, Harry.  As long as you two are both 
happy, it's all okay with me."

        He nodded, then stood up.  "I'm going to get some sleep."

        I nodded.  He went back to the chair, and I tried to sleep.  I 
dreamed that I was married to a Faerie lord and we arranged for 
Tanya to marry Harry.  Cathy howled and gnashed her teeth, so we 
exiled her to Siberia.  I shouldn't have enjoyed this dream, 
speaking in a moral sense, but I did anyway.

*****************

George said: 

      Thomas' folks took us all out to lunch.  His parents are rich, and 
they just exude money, from their expensive clothing to the fact 
that they had flown all the way from New York to come to this.  
Still, I always enjoyed the few times we've met.  Andrew and Alice 
are both very friendly people and you can't help liking them.  

      Alice surprised Cathy by hugging her when we met them at the 
restaurant.  Cathy surprised me by hugging her back.  Cathy doesn't 
usually go in for that sort of thing.  "It's so good to see you, Alice.  
We've been so worried about this whole mess.  I hope you're not 
going to be in danger from associating with us."

       Andrew laughed heartily.  "Not half as much danger as Alice's 
driving, no doubt."

       "Or your cooking."  They both laughed.  

      We all ate lunch as if Charles wasn't stalking around town 
potentially endangering all of us.  I'm pretty sure we bored our 
kids with our talk of university life and Andrew's business, and 
Alice's consulting firm, and everything.  Andrew and Frank hit it 
off pretty well, getting into a long discussion of insurance which 
went way over the head of the rest of us.  Olivia didn't talk much.  I 
wasn't surprised.  In fact, it was pretty incredible that she could 
function at all.  Being down in Austin where he wouldn't know to 
look for us probably helped.  We were at the Olive Garden, which 
stands to the Macaroni Grill as Steak and Ale stands to Denny's.  

         Harry turned to me and said, "Oh, dad, did you bring that 
shield for me?"

        "It's in the car.  What do you need it for, anyway?"

        "I just want to hang it up on the wall," he said.  He sounded 
faintly evasive.  Harry's not a good liar, unlike his sister.  I frowned 
slightly.  

        Cathy said, "I polished it for you.  It was getting dingy."  It 
rather looks like the Prudential Insurance logo, I suddenly realized, 
thinking about the shield.

        Andrew said, "How was that camping trip you four went on 
last weekend?  Thomas mentioned it to us the last time he 
bothered to call us."

       "Hey, I call you guys all the time!"  Thomas said.  "We had a lot 
of fun."

       Cathy said, "Ahh, Harry talked you guys into it?"  She smiled.  
She and Harry love to go camping.  I hate it.  I have to have air 
conditioning or I start to die.  

       "It was Tanya and Thomas' idea, actually."  Angela said.  "We 
had a lot of fun and Harry and I got a lot of sword practice in."

       "A whole lot.  More than I could stand,"  Harry said, laughing.  
"While Thomas and Tanya sat around on their butts and watched."

       "I was not just sitting around on my butt!"  Thomas said.  "That 
was Tanya's job."

        "Hey!"

        "I wish we'd gotten to see all of you in the fencing club match.  
I don't suppose I could get you to show off for us later?"  Alice 
asked.  

       "Angie is REALLY good,"  Maria said proudly.  "I was really 
impressed.  I was never that good myself."

       "Like mother, like daughter?"  Andrew asked.  "Did you teach 
her?"

        Maria smiled broadly.  "We used to go fight pirates together as 
our quality time."

       Everyone laughed.  Maria launched into one of her insane 
stories, that became steadily more implausible as it went along.  
Angela pitched in, egging her mother on with her own unbelievable 
details.  It was the first time I'd really seen them as mother and 
daughter and believed it.

*********************

Maria said:

       Lunch was marvellous.  I've never been fond of rich people, 
but Andrew and Alice were the exception to that rule.  They were 
so friendly and I soon felt like I had so much in common with them 
that I could hardly believe it.  Andrew had been to France and 
even visited my home town of Chalons.  I have to say that his 
French is very good.  We yammered on about various places we've 
both seen while we were at some boring set of speeches which I 
think the University intended to use to convince us to give them 
money.  Frank and Angel both fell asleep, and I just sort of 
pretended I'd forgotten how to speak English and ignored it.  

        Later that afternoon, they had a talent show.  I was looking 
forward to it.  Thomas was in it, and his excitement about it 
infected me.  I'm easily excited, anyway.  Many of the skits were 
hard to understand.  They seemed to require knowing various in 
jokes about the university, though I did catch some German money 
jokes about the president, and probably laughed more than anyone 
else in the audience.  

        Angie and Harry and Tanya seemed to think the show was the 
greatest thing since sliced bread, though.  Thomas' skit was pretty 
funny for everyone, though.  His skit was put on by the drama club, 
and was a parody of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.  In their 
parody, the club was trying to do the play, but hacked off the REAL 
Oberon and Titania, who came after them and turned them into 
various silly things.  The costumes were very well done.  You'd 
almost think that Oberon and Titania were real faeries.  They 
reminded me of the two faeries I had dreamed about.  I leaned 
over and whispered some details of my dream to Angie, who 
blinked, then laughed loudly.

        Right as Titania was turning Thomas' character into a 'Get Out 
of Jail Free' card, Cathy turned to George and said, "How long has 
Harry been in the bathroom, anyway?"

       I hadn't even realized he'd left.  Tanya thought a moment, and 
said, "About four skits ago."

       "You'd better go make sure he's okay,"  she said.

       George muttered to himself, got up and left.

       The skit finished with Titania and Oberon bowing to the 
audience and reciting Puck's final speech, then dancing off, arm in 
arm.  Tanya was laughing hysterically when George returned, 
frowning.  "He's gone."

        "Gone?"

        "I didn't see hide nor hair of him."

        Cathy began to freak out, getting a lot of stares.  "No...my son.  
He's got my son.  He's got my SON!"

        George frowned.  "Frank, please go call the cops for us.  
Andrew, come help me go look again.  Everyone else, look around 
the theatre.  Alice...go backstage and find Thomas."  He paused.  
"Um, if you can find your way back there.  Tanya, Angela, can you 
help her find him?"

        "What about me?"

        "Go with Olivia and look around the theatre."  He paused.  
"Take Tanya with you.  Angela, go with Alice and find Thomas."

        We all fanned out.  Tanya was growing increasingly frantic, 
while Olivia looked worried, but not abjectly panicked.  "Is there 
only one men's room here?"  I asked Tanya.

       "The other one is in the backstage area.  He wouldn't wander 
off without telling us."

       We didn't find anything.  Tanya looked ready to explode.  The 
police showed up, and they didn't find anything either.  We got the 
police protection we should have gotten earlier, though.  Damn 
small town police never take anything seriously until it's too late.  

        Dinner was a dismal, panicked affair.  Cathy and Tanya 
seemed to be having a contest to see who could be more freaked 
out, while Angie and Thomas were simply angry.  Frank was his 
usual stolid self, and I was, for once, one of the calmer ones.  George 
was really angry.  I'd only met the man the day before, but he had 
seemed like a very calm, friendly person.  Now, only the lack of a 
target was enabling him to keep control.  Alice and Andrew were 
both fairly calm, but clearly worried.

        We scattered to our respective hotel rooms.  Olivia and Tanya 
stayed with George and Cathy again.  When we got back to our 
room, I said to Angie, "Don't worry.  They'll find Harry.  He's going 
to be okay."

       She shivered.  "I wish I could believe that.  I'm just so worried.  
I don't know what I'll do if something happens to him."

       Frank sat down on the bed and stared at the wall, like he does 
when he's reading a mystery.  "He had to have been watching us 
somehow.  I doubt he has any high-tech surveillance equipment, 
and he isn't likely to be a master of disguise.  However, he may 
have help...like whoever made those photos."

       "Or magic,"  Angie muttered, staring at her hand for no 
apparent reason.

       "Magic isn't real,"  I said.  "Although this seems like it."

       She laughed faintly.  It wasn't a pleasant laugh.  She muttered 
something about splinters.  

       "Did you prick your finger on something?"

        She sighed.  "No, I'm fine.  It would help if we had some clue 
what this guy looked like.  Or woman.  Or whatever.  If he has 
help."

       We discussed what little we knew and eventually concluded 
we were clueless.  Frank crashed early, but Angie couldn't sleep, for 
once.  We sat in the chairs by the window.  "Do you like Harry, 
mom?"  she asked me quietly.

       "I like Harry very much.  You know that."  I paused and tried 
to think of something reassuring I hadn't already said.  "They'll find 
him.  If the guy had wanted him dead, we'd have found a body."

        She muttered something about a castle, then sighed.  "All this, 
just after we finally settled some problems."

       "Problems?"  I tried to probe gently.  "Had you had some kind 
of fight?"

        She turned and stared at me, like she was trying to find 
something written on my face.  "I...We..."  She took a deep breath. 
"He and Tanya were in love with each other for a long time."

        "They dated?"

        "No.  If they'd ever actually gone out...I don't think I'd be his 
girlfriend now.  They still...It's so hard to explain this."

        "They don't know how to let go,"  I said quietly.

        She nodded.  "I think we've worked it all out, but..."

       "All four of you in one bed?"  I teased.

        She blushed horribly.  "MOM!"

       I laughed.  "Well, Thomas is handsome, and I can tell you two 
get along well, so..."

        She blushed some more.  Frank does this when I tease him 
too.  "Have the two of you..."

         She gulped and nodded.  "Yes.  Me and Harry, that is."

         "Was he good?"

         This time, I got hit.  It was worth it to see the look on her 
face.  

******************************

Olivia said:

        We tried to talk about various things, but none of us was 
sufficiently sane to discuss anything.  Having an officer out in the 
hallway was comforting, though.  Tanya eventually calmed down 
from her near-hysteria, as did Cathy, though I think exhaustion did 
the work there.  George and Tanya finally passed out from 
exhaustion.  I couldn't sleep.  I laid in the bed and stared at the 
ceiling.  Tanya was curled up next to me, her face a total mess.  She 
didn't look any happier asleep than awake.

        I thought Cathy had fallen asleep, but she surprised me by 
suddenly saying, "You're awake, aren't you, Olivia?"

       "I can't sleep."

        "He...Charles wouldn't hurt Harry, would he?  Would he?"  She 
was starting to sound hysterical again.  "He...I've never seen him 
hurt anyone.  Not even that time those two guys tried to beat him 
up at that one party at the Tri-K house.  You remember that, don't 
you?"

        I laughed faintly.  "How could I forget?  I won four games of 
pool, fell into a pool, threw up on George and two sorority girls and 
got banned for life from their parties, all in one night.  Then you got 
thrown out for attacking their president for throwing me out."  For 
a moment, all our animosities of the last few decades were gone, 
and I remembered the girl I had known in college, the wild and 
crazy girl who had torn up the party circuit with me.  

       Cathy and I had been best friends once, but I'd blown it.  We'd 
ended up fighting over men because I was an idiot.  And once we'd 
started, we couldn't stop.  We both had too much pride.  Charles 
and George had kept up their own friendship as best they could, 
but the two of us ended up as enemies.  I sighed.  "He won't hurt 
Harry.  He's probably planning to trade him for Tanya."  Or some 
other crazy plan.  Charles was always good at elaborate schemes 
that came crashing down.  

        "I couldn't do that.  Not with your daughter!"  Cathy sobbed.  
"I just...I can't believe he would do this.  This can't be his fault.  It 
can't!"

       I sighed.  "I wish you were right."  I took a deep breath.  "He's 
going to be okay, Cathy.  I'll hunt Charles to the end of the earth if I 
have to, to get your son back."

        She tried to stop crying, but couldn't.  I reached over and 
patted her shoulder.  "It's gonna be okay."

       Suddenly, she clonked out.  It was rather unnatural.  One 
moment, sobbing fit to die, the next moment, she was asleep, 
though she still looked miserable.  Then the doorknob to the room 
began to turn.  I tried to wake everyone up.  It was like trying to 
raise the dead.  

       I was rather creeped out.  I sat up.  A figure was silhouetted in 
the doorway.  "Charles."

       It was him.  "Olivia.  I...I'm sorry I was gone so long."

       A preternatural calm was on me.  "I'm not the one who ran out 
in the middle of the night."

       He stared at the floor.  "That damn faerie did something to me."  
He looked up at me and said faintly, "I messed up.  I should have at 
least told you what was going on.  We should have gone to find our 
daughter together."

       I pointed to Tanya.  "I know you probably can't recognize her 
after all these years, but that's her.  Our daughter."

       She was sleeping peacefully, breathing with a calm rythym.  I 
tried to shake her awake.  "Tanya, your father is here."  For some 
reason, she wouldn't wake up.

       I frowned.  Charles said, "None of them will wake up.  I've 
ensorcelled them."

       For a moment, I wondered how much the therapy was going to 
cost, then said, "Charles, there is no such thing as magic."

       He held out his hand and a small blue flame began to glow 
over it.  "Really?"  He stepped inside and shut the door with his 
foot.

       I stared.  It had to be some kind of trick, but how was he doing 
it?  

       "I've seen terrible things.  I wandered alone for so long, 
looking for our daughter.  Nothing comes without cost, I guess.  I 
have power, and I'm going to use it to find our child.  I want you to 
come with me."  He walked over and sat down in the chair near the 
bed.  

        I glanced at everyone.  It struck me that they were all 
breathing in unison, which was rather disturbing.  A twinge of fear 
ran through me.  What if he was right?  No, it wasn't possible.  "Our 
daughter isn't missing!  She's not a faerie!  What makes you think 
she is?"

       He took off the iron ring he had been wearing and handed to 
me.  "Put this on her finger."

       I stared at it.  Was this just some delusion, or could it really be 
dangerous to our daughter?  

       Charles laughed faintly, "It's just a ring right?  I'm just 
deluded, right?  Then what are you afraid of?"

       I put it on Tanya's finger.  She shimmered and changed.  Her 
hair became blue, her ears became pointed, her face became more 
angular.  I stared in shock, then fainted.

******************************

George said:

      Cathy and I woke up around 8 am or so, feeling quite rested.  I 
stretched, then looked over to see if Tanya and Olivia were awake 
yet.  They were gone.  At first, I assumed they were in the 
bathroom, but then Cathy spotted the note on their bed.

       It said, 'Gone to catch two more faeries.  See you when we 
recover your real child and my real child.  Have a nice day.'  It was 
signed with Charles' full name, which he rarely uses.  

     For a moment, Cathy and I stared at each other in shock, then 
Cathy said, "I...I was talking to her last night, and then I just 
suddenly fell asleep."  She began to cry again.  "He must have come 
after I passed out...oh, God, I hope she's going to be okay."

      I hadn't thought I'd ever hear her say that.  They had been on 
such bad terms for so long.  Leaninng on my wife, I said, "Don't 
worry.  The police will find them."  I was lying.  The cops in this 
town didn't seem good enough to find a missing donut at Dunkin' 
Donuts.  

       We called the cops.  They grilled us, grilled the staff, probably 
grilled a few burgers while they were at it.  We called Frank and 
Maria, who came over to our hotel with Angela and tried to help 
me calm down Cathy.  We called Thomas' parents, but we couldn't 
get ahold of them.  They hadn't checked out of their hotel, but we 
couldn't find any of them, either.  

       "Maybe they just went out for breakfast,"  Frank said.

      Hours passed.  Still no word.  Angela and her mother were 
pacing about, wearing a hole in the floor.  Frank was sitting by the 
window, deep in thought, or possibly napping.  With him, you could 
never be sure.  Cathy was on full fret mode, slowly driving my 
nerves to the snapping point.  The phone rang.  Maria picked it up.  

************************

Olivia said:

       I woke up, lying by some pond, about a hundred and fifty feet 
across, in the middle of the woods.  Tanya and Harry were tied up, 
bound and gagged nearby.  Tanya looked perfectly normal again, 
and I wondered if I had hallucinated what I had seen before.  
Charles wasn't there, but another man was.  He looked like a good 
old boy, complete with shotgun, hat, and boots.  He was talking to a 
boy who was about Harry's age, with long red hair tied back in a 
pony-tail.  He looked a lot like Harry would if he worked out, close 
enough to be a relative.  

       They didn't seem to have noticed I had recovered.  "What did 
he grab the mortal woman for?  And why hasn't he gotten the girl 
yet?"

      "Patience.  It takes time and caution to guide the mad.  I told 
you he would do what you wanted, but I didn't say it would 
happen overnight."

      So they're the ones who have my husband on this crazed 
crusade, I thought.  I wonder who this...Angie.  That's who they 
must also be after.  But why?  Who would want to kidnap my 
daughter and Harry and his girlfriend?  What would be the point?  
Unless they're nuts too.

        The boy paced back and forth.  "We could have grabbed them 
ourselves with less trouble."

        "And made it blatantly obvious.  You don't want the Queen of 
the Seelie sending her personal assassins after you, do you?  This 
way, he gets blamed, and he dies instead of you.  Trust me.  This 
will work, as long as you don't get impatient and blow it, though 
that's more your girlfriend's department than mine."

        The boy frowned.  "I am sick and tired of how..."

        "Spare me.  I've heard variations on that line about a thousand 
times.  Anyway, go home and wait.  I'll get back to you."

        The boy frowned, then stepped out onto the pond, which 
began to freeze under his feet.  He walked out towards the middle 
of it, slowly fading away, leaving chunks of ice behind.  I made a 
few noises, which must have attracted the man's attention.  I didn't 
mean to do that, but it was far too surreal for me to remain silent.

        He looked over at me and frowned.  I sat up nervously.  He 
didn't seem to be armed, but even in a simple brawl, I knew I 
couldn't beat him.  "Who are you?"

       "You can call me Cal," he said.  

       "Why have you kidnapped my daughter?  What do you want 
from us?"

       He shrugged.  "I want nothing from you.  I have much bigger 
fish to fry.  By helping him, I help myself.  He will be very 
powerful one day, and he will owe me.  The only reason you're in 
this is because your husband dragged you into it.  I'd have happily 
left you out of this entirely."

        I wasn't sure whether or not to believe him.  Still, what point 
would there be in him lying to me?  "So why does the boy want my 
daughter and my ...and Harry and Angela?"

        The man smiled.  "You're smarter than your daughter.  The 
boy is the lover of Splinter, who is one of the daughters of the 
Queen of the Unseelie Court.  Your daughter is a member of the 
Seelie Court and they've been drawn into its intrigues.  I could 
explain it all, but this could take a long time."  

      "It's not like I'm going anywhere."

       He smiled.  "I'm also not an insane supervillian who explains 
all his plans so they can be used against him.  I'll just say that this 
plan appeals to my aesthetic sense.  It's more entertaining to get 
people to do your dirty work for you, as well as making it easier to 
keep your own hands clean."  

       "So you faked all that evidence that Charles had?"

       "It wasn't all fake.  The best lie is the truth sometimes.  Your 
daughter is a faerie.  Your husband did encounter a faerie raiding 
your refrigerator.  Glorianna never did have much taste in 
guardians."  He cocked his head and listened to something I couldn't 
hear.  "The boy might even be a faerie.  Even I don't know if the 
actual switch went through, so I faked the photo, but it could be 
true.  It would confirm a few theories of mine."

         Apparently he had forgotten his own statement about not 
giving away his plans.  I played along.  "Like what?"  

       "The law of correspondence states that the Macrocosm affects 
the Microcosm and vice versa.  A change in one can change the 
other.  Events parallel each other.  What happens in Arcadia often 
repeats events here, or vice versa.  That is why the Fae can find 
children to switch their own children with who look just like their 
own children, though being raised in different environments means 
that they rarely look like twins when they are older."

        I thought about the boy, and suddenly, I understood.  "You 
mean that..."

      He paused.  "I guess I don't know when to shut up."  He bowed 
ever so slightly.  "I must commend anyone who successfully tricks 
me.  It has been a long time since anyone got more out of me than I 
intended to give.  I must be getting senile in my old age."

       I heard crashing noises in the woods.  He stood up and 
frowned.  Damnation, he thought.  They tracked him.  I'm going to get a
tongue lashing from that boy.  Perhaps I should have let the boy take 
them...I should never let my sense of aesthetics take over.  I AM 
getting senile.  She must be laughing at me somewhere.  Oh well, 
the best laid plans of mice and men...If only I could...but I cannot.  
Not yet.  Not here.  He vanished.

       Charles came crashing out of the trees.  Three people were in 
hot pursuit of him.  One was a red haired elfin faery, male with a 
flame sword.  The second was a tall blond man, who was dressed to 
rather resemble Green Arrow.  The third was a blond woman 
dressed as Black Canary.  I couldn't believe it.  This was just too 
much.  When they got closer, I realized that "Green Arrow" and 
"Black Canary" both looked rather wavy, like a VCR picture on the 
fritz.  The man fired three arrows and pinned Charles to a tree.  The 
faery and the woman closed in on him.  I got up and began to run 
over.  "Don't kill him!"

       All three of them looked extremely angry.  I could see now 
that they were all charred a bit.  The woman had nasty leg burns, 
and the faerie was limping a bit with his right leg.  Could Charles 
have really done that to them somehow?  He was starting to glow.  
He had done it.  I didn't understand what was going on.  The faery 
was shouting something about Tanya and calling up flames around 
his hands.

        I jumped in front of Charles.  It was a stupid thing, but I 
couldn't let him die.  He was just another victim here.  "Don't kill 
my husband!"

        They froze.  'Green Arrow' had raised his bow.  The woman's 
mouth was glowing like my husband.  The faery looked angrier 
than I'd ever seen anyone look before.  All was silent as they 
glared at me.  I said, "Tanya and Harry are okay, I think.   The 
people who put him up to this got away, though.  They're the ones 
you should be mad at."  Charles, how do you always manage to 
cause so much trouble?

        The faery let his fires go out and ran over to where Tanya and 
Harry were still tied up.  He untied Tanya.  "Tanya.  Are you okay?"

      Tanya said quietly, "I'm fine, Flamehair."   She and Flamehair 
started untying Harry.

       The man put down his arrows and sighed.  "So tell us about 
these other people."

       I told him everything I knew.

****************************

Maria said:

       I picked up the phone.  It was Alice.  "Hi.  Charles surrendered 
himself.  We'll be by in a little while with the details."

       "Are Harry and Tanya okay?"  Everyone tensed up, waiting for 
the news.

       "They're fine.  Just kind of shook up." 

       The rest of the conversation went quickly.  We all waited for 
them to arrive.  Luckily, we didn't have too long a wait.  Thomas 
and Tanya were holding hands as they came in.  Tanya looked quite 
shaken, while Thomas was softly talking into her ear and limping a 
bit.  Angie almost threw herself across the room when Harry 
walked in, hugging him tightly.  A few seconds later, Harry's mom 
joined them.  She was crying for joy.  Andrew and Alice came in, 
sporting new bandages.  

        We barraged them with questions, and slowly the whole story 
came out.  More or less, Charles had tried to grab Thomas, botched 
it, and been chased into the woods.  They'd finally chased him 
down, caught him, and found Olivia, Tanya, and Harry.  The police 
had him now, but they were hoping to get him some psychiatric 
help.  He'd banged his head, and now he claimed he didn't 
remember anything.  Once we'd all gotten everything straightened 
out, we scattered to the winds to spend a little quiet time with our 
children before we all had to leave.  

       Frank said to Angie, "Is this place always this exciting?"

       She laughed.  "Only this semester."

       "I hope they can help Charles,"  I said.  "Olivia seems like a nice 
woman, and I hope she can have her husband back one day."

       Angie nodded.  "I don't know Mrs. Cromwell very well, but 
Harry and Tanya just love her to death.  Harry even calls her Mom.  
I hope one day they'll be able to help Mr. Cromwell put himself 
back together so Tanya can have a family again."

        Frank said, "Well, Andrew recommended a good place in New 
York, the Spencer Institute.  I've heard of it.  It's very nice and has 
a good reputation.  I'm sure they can help him in no time.  Of 
course, I'm no psychologist."  He got up.  "We've got to go now, 
Angie."

       She hugged both of us.  "I'll be home for Thanksgiving, I think.  
See you then!"

        We said our goodbyes and headed out to the car.  I saw 
something flying away from our vehicle.  For a moment, I thought 
it was the two pixies I'd dreamed about.  I dismissed the thought.  
Pixies are just faerie stories.  I laughed so hard I fell down.  Frank 
found that a lot more amusing than when I tried to explain why I 
found that funny.   The car ran better than usual on the way home, 
so maybe it WAS pixies.  

*********************


Olivia said:

       Eventually, Tanya and I ended up back at her room.  For a 
while, we simply sat on her bed and stared at each other.  I had a 
million questions I wanted to ask her, but didn't know where to 
start.  

       Finally, she leaned over and hugged me tightly.  "I'm so glad 
you're okay, Mom."

       "I'm glad you're okay too,"  I said, hugging her back.  "So how 
long have you been hiding this all from me?"

        She looked intensely guilty.  "Too long.  Years.  Since I was 13.  
I didn't know about it before then."

         It made sense.  Something had changed around that age. I'd 
thought it was just her going through puberty, but looking back, I 
could see it was more than that.  She'd drawn back from Harry a 
little at that point.  Not by much, but I'd noticed it.  "So is this why 
you and Harry didn't ever...get together?"

        She nodded quietly.  "Pretty ridiculous, eh?  I tried so hard to 
keep him safe by keeping him from getting too close to me, and he 
got sucked in, anyway.  Those two nutcases, Splinter and Opal are 
after him."  She sighed.  "And after Angie.  How Splinter could have 
mistaken her for me..."

      "Is she a faerie too?"

       Tanya shook her head.  "Just me and Thomas.  Harry and Angie 
are learning magic, though.  They're good at it."

        "I hope it can help your father the way it messed him up."  
That institute he was going to was controlled by the faeries.  If 
anyone could put him back together...I wasn't sure entirely if I 
really wanted to put Charles into Faerie hands, but I knew they 
weren't all bad.  In fact, I hadn't met any bad faeries, except maybe 
that Cal person.  I stared at Tanya, my daughter.  Except...my real 
daughter was in faerieland.  I'd raised a changeling.  I could hardly 
believe it.  "Tanya...where's my other daughter?  The one I...gave 
birth to?"

       Tanya stared at the floor and said quietly, "She goes by Irene.  
She's living in Silverwind Castle and dating an ogre.  Well, she was 
last week, anyway.  It may have changed.  She gets along better 
with Duchess Silverwind than I do."  She looked up at me and 
stared into my eyes.  "But I think of you as my real mom.  I may 
have come out of someone else's womb, but you...you're the one 
who took care of me.  I love you, Mom."  Her eyes glistened with 
tears that were starting to come.

      All my fears and worries melted away.  Maybe it was faerie 
glamour, or maybe just my maternal instincts.  "I love you too, my 
daughter.  I would never have guessed there had been a switch."

        We held each other silently for a while, and finally, I said, 
"Can I meet Irene one day?"

        Tanya smiled.  "She never believes any of the crazy stories I 
tell her about you, so don't be surprised if she asks you if various 
things really happened."

        "Which crazy stories?"

        "Well, there was the time that you answered the door nude 
because you had forgotten you sleep that way and someone came 
by in the middle of the night.  Or the time..."

        Pretty soon, I could tell that this was going to be a uphill 
battle to ever get Irene to take me seriously.
       
**********************

George said:

       Cathy sat on Harry's bed with him while I sat on his 
roommate's bed.  Donny was out in the 'living room', studying.  His 
parents had already come and gone.  Cathy said to Harry, "Are you 
sure you're okay?"

       Harry looked embarrassed.  "I'm fine, Mom.  They didn't hurt 
me."

       She sighed.  "I'm sorry, Harry.  I just don't want to see 
anything happen to you."

        Harry leaned over and hugged Cathy.  "If anything happened 
to you, I'd probably go nuts too.  You too, Dad."

       I looked at my watch.  "I guess we have to go now.  If you 
need anything, just give us a call, Harry.  Will we see you for 
Thanksgiving?"

        Harry thought for a moment.  "I think so.  See ya then, Dad."

       Cathy slowly got up and we left.  "Goodbye, Harry."

       "Bye Dad.  Bye Mom.  Love you."

        "We love you too,"  Cathy said.  When we got out into the 
hallway, Olivia, Thomas, Tanya, and Angel were on their way to 
Harry's room.  They waved hello and Cathy stopped in front of 
Olivia.

       "Will you be coming back to Tyler today?"

       "I have some business to take care of, so I won't be back until 
Tuesday,"  Olivia said.

        "Call me,"  Cathy said.  "We need to talk."

        Olivia nodded and smiled.  "It's been a long time."

        "Too long."

        Cathy turned to me, "Let's go, dear."

        We went.  As we walked towards where the car was parked, 
Cathy said, "I've been such a fool, haven't I?"

        "Every husband knows better than to answer yes to that 
question,"  I said.

       She laughed.  "I've trained you well.  But seriously, now that 
I'm really looking at it, I can't believe we spent all this time 
feuding.  Acting like two petulant children fighting over..."  She 
trailed off and turned to me.  "George, I..."

        I smiled at her.  "I love you, Cathy.  Now and forever."  We 
kissed.  Sometimes a kiss can help make it all better.

***************

Epilogue:

      Opal stood before Teleute, the Queen of the Unseelie Fae, in a 
private audience.  He was, to say the least, scared nearly out of his 
mind.  Any sensible person is at least a little scared in the presence 
of a true monarch, for their wrath is often most easily roused when 
they are present.  Defying a royal order to stay away from someone 
and getting caught is not wise.  Of course, there might have been 
some other reason he had been summoned to her presence five 
minutes after his return, but he found this unlikely.  Teleute was 
not given to summoning people at two in the morning unless it was 
very important or she was very angry.  

      Teleute was beautiful, for all Sidhe are beautiful, but her 
beauty could sometimes inspire terror.  She was like an ice 
sculpture come to life with icy blue eyes, pale skin, and long white 
hair.  While her mortal form had been executed centuries ago, Opal 
had seen pictures of it.  She had been a beautiful mortal as well, 
though unlike most faeries, she had been far more flighty and 
thoughtless as a mortal than she was as a faerie.  There was a 
simple reason for this.  The most common way in which faeries 
achieve fixity of purpose is revenge, and her desire for revenge on 
Glorianna was well known.  

      "Opal, you plan to marry Splinter one day, do you not?"

       Opal blinked.  Of all the reasons she might have called him, 
discussing him marrying her youngest daughter was not one he had 
anticipated.  "Yes, my queen."

       She smiled faintly, which made him nervous.  She didn't seem 
angry at all.  When Teleute was angry, but didn't show it, bad 
things happened to those responsible.  "Splinter has told me of the 
vision she had in the mists.  You will not let that happen."  Her 
voice had risen just a little, and threatened to become louder yet.

      "I have no intention of letting her be forced to swear fealty to 
the Seelie."  Opal watched the Queen nervously.  Her rages were 
legendary, and he had no desire to become part of a legend.

       "It would be the wreck of decades of planning.  She is destined 
for greater things than to be Glorianna's lackey.  Should you let this 
come to pass, I will ensure that you have many centuries in which 
to regret your failure."  Her voice was creeping louder, though her 
face remained a mask of calm.  "If you have any love for her as she 
is, you won't let them do that to her."

       "Who...who is this Titania?  The one who Splinter saw in the 
vision?"

       "Glorianna named her daughter Titania,"  Teleute said.  Her 
voice faded a little, and she smiled a bit.  "Named after Glorianna's 
own mother."

       "So the Seelie Queen has found her missing daughter?"

       "That's what she'll want people to believe."

      "I don't understand,"  Opal said.

     "I have a special mission for you for this Halloween."

      Opal knew what was coming next.  Not because he had had a 
vision but because he knew too much about how Teleute thought.  
"You're going to send the Wild Hunt after her daughter, and I get to 
be the sacrificial victim?"

       "In a sense.  Now, here is what I want you to do..."