The Fantastic adventures of prince Jeremie

II THE INVITATION-2

“Hey! The creature has vanished away!” a child shouted in a sudden.

“Vanished where? Did she leave without permission?!”

All were surprised, where had the girl (or the boy) with bouquet gone?

“She was beside me and hey, she disappeared”, a young sorcerer assessed. He was obviously shocked.

Everyone burst out with laughter. Jeremy knew that it had to react quickly.”

“I don’t know this young girl! he said. He realized he had better hush. No one would understand him anyway.”

“You’re kidding me, Alex accused Jeremie! Where’s your girlfriend gone?”

“She must have gone back home”, Alex’s grandmother answered.

“That’s it, she went home!” Jeremie said and he decided to cut short the discussion.

He knew that this child was a messenger. He had followed him to here, but for what reasons? He could not make out the reasons. He could not tell the story to his friends. They would take him as the mad.

“Hey man, what are you going to do, now? Are you going to make me disappear like your girlfriend?” Etienne mocked him.

“You idiot!” Jeremie retorted.

A lot of children were no more interested in the incident and they resumed the dance. Others, such as Kevin, Alex and Chelsea, observed closely this mysterious bouquet which was full of lights, in the vase.

“It is astounding yet” Chelsea said to Alex’s mum. The party went on. Jeremie and Alex seemed in good terms again. The latter came to him with a friendly gesture.

He put his hand on Jeremie’s shoulder and said: “You know, until this evening I held you as an idiot but that is over now.”

Alex patted Jeremie’s hand but there was no reaction. He got upset and left. Jeremie’s dear cousin , Chelsea noticed how hurt her lover was. She clenched her teeth and threw him a fierce look. She was too proud to acknowledge he was somewhere what superior. One question was still lingering: what would happen next? Suddenly Kevin called : “Come and have a look here, Jeremie.”

Kevin had been scanning the bouquet for some time and he found it interesting. Jeremie, Alex and Etienne rushed.

“Have a close look at the petals of the tulips and the roses.”

“They are fading at a wild speed”, Etienne noticed. His voice expressed a muffled anguish.

“That’s another devilish trick”, Chelsea murmured.

“Shut up” Jeremie yelled.

The petals were writing in pain, then they changed colours. Even the petals of the roses turned black…

“They are dropping!”

Everyone opened their eyes wide, like saucers.

“Don’t touch them!” Jeremie warned.

Etienne took his hands away. Chelsea huddled up in Alex’s arms. The petals were taking geometric shapes as they were looking, flabbergasted. Kevin who shone in Maths, frowned.

“The numbers are in the reverse order.”

“What’s this?” Etienne asked.

“They are numbers that you read upside down from a mirror Kevin exclaimed. Quick, give me a pen.”

The others ushed. They were flabbergasted. Kevin came back with a paper and a pen and Chelsea brought a mirror for a doll.

“13, 67, 6 and…74.” Jeremie wrote.

The petals went on falling on the pedestal table.

“That’s not another magic trick” Kevin asserted.

“It’s a more serious matter.”

“An extraterrestrial message, may be?” Alex wondered.

“Why not?” Etienne replied. He was getting more and more excited.

“Look! Jeremie said, another numbers!”

Then a final exclamation fused out of their chests. It was stunning. The stems and the petals were transferring, they took the shape of a number, then disintegrated…

They had to be quick noting the numbers. Some numbers merged with others. They shouldn’t make any mistake. The message meant to be important.

Jeremie took off his glasses from Harry and Kevin, his mask from Dark Vador. Alex threw everything away in the room. All was fantastic, all was truly frenetic.

“28, 6, 4”, Alex said loud.

“No, no! Not 28, 22.”

“That’s it, 22 and here…13.”

“13 ok… and 14 and 16… No, 6 I said 6 not 16.”

“OK 6, no lezard, please!”

“Don’t omitt the 1, Kevin,…1 again”, Chelsea said.

“How many?”

“1 plus 1, 1 twice.”

“That makes 2.”

“No! 1 and 1. Each number matters”, Jeremie hammered.

“OK, noted down.”

“15? They are inverse… No, no, it’s 15”, Etienne hesitated.

“15”, Chelsea confirmed.

“Don’t talk at the same time, you all!”

They were getting nervous. The moments were so historical, so hysterical! A message from the outer space... A new group formed little by little around them. However Jeremie demanded that they be alone. Etienne saw to it by force, making very little children protest noisily.

“Please children don’t make too much noise”, the mothers warned them.

Kevin noted the final list:5,9,14,9,20,3,8,5,22,15,1,1,19,9, again,21,18,3,20,14,13,26,20,15 and 9!

“What a gibberish!” Jeremie complained!

Isadora Bellebranche had come with her children, Aubepine, 10 years old and Parfait 11 years old. Her Majesty Aubepine was disguised into a marquess and his Excellency Parfait into a marquis of course. At such parties, there was no second hand clothes from Emmaüs or from the Catholic relief. Here only embroidered five materials , lames, fitting with the best velvet, powdered twigs, scarves made of silky muslin, a few family jewels from grandmothers, fine leather gloves and luxury leather, patent mocasins and fur shoes…This family had such a refined teste and such modesty, such simplicity above all. Aubepine didn’t want to go to this party at first. She said it was intended for the poor people”. Poor people? That’s easy said. But her mother obliged her and her brother. The latter was reluckant to come, too.

Chelsea and Jeremie didn’t like Aubepine or Parfait, they were too snobbish. But let us pay tribute to Mrs Bellebranche, and especially her charming daughter because thanks to her Jeremie’s life would change for ever.

“Everything’s fine, children?”

“Yes, Mrs Bellebranche”, Jeremie answered.

“What are you at now?”

“We’re trying to untangle a brain teaser” Etienne retorted nervously.

“My daughter, my sweet treasure, is going to help you. She can solve the hardest problem.”

“That’s too much!” Jeremie fumed inside.

The little girl came closer. She looked down at Etienne, the “wildboy”, the backward “outdated croc- magnon” and slipped herself between Kevin and Alexandre.

Kevin explained: “Well, there’s message hidden behind all these numbers. As I see it, they are zodiac signs or they situate stars. We would need a sky map to decipher them.

Jeremie yelled:

“She’s got nothing to do with it!”

He knew the angel sent him a codified message. Only he should decipher it. Now it was long and arduous. Etienne was the first to give up, then Alex and Chlesea followed. They resumed the party. Jeremie noticed that the sum was 301.

“That’s an impair number, Aubepine said, where do these numbers come from?”

Jeremie answered: “it was top secret.”

“Oh, well…” The little girl felt upset and struch the boy with her look.

“Don’t think you’re indispensable”, Kevin added.

“I’ll stay as long as I want to.”

Kevin started to seethe with anger. He kicked Parfait out when the latter protected his sister. He warned him he would make a bullet for guns out of her if she came back.

The small boy ran to his mother.

“Go and run, you coward”, Kevin whistled in his teeth.

The children made progress in deciphering the message.

They had the numbers divided by 2, by 3. They multiplied to infinity… The code must have come from another galaxy. Kevin dipped into astronomy books, made researches on google:heliocentric, position, declension, ecliptics… He went through everything. He felt like pulling off his hair! Nothing came out, none succeeded.

Jeremie said: “These numbers show a longitude and a latitude here on earth.”

Well how about using an earthly globe. They brought one and resumed their calculations. 22.40 pm, Halloween night would end within an hour. They should operate quickly.

Aubepine demanded a pen and a copybook. She looked down at the boys, turned to Jeremie.

“Go and fetch me a notebook. I need to write.”

“No! How dare you give me orders?”

“Gallantry, Sir, mere gallantry from a boy towards a girl.”

“Ok. I’m going.”

Kevin laughed up his sleeve; Jeremie gave Auberpine what she asked for. She thanked him with hypocrisy. They resumed the work on longitudes and latitudes. The little girl kept on writing on her side.23h30. The party was about to end.

Kevin asked her what she was doing. He got no answer. They were to their limits. She finally stopped writing and eyed them up and down.

“Both of you are silly boys; you are the two boobies of the Comtesse deSegur…”

Her brother laughed. She nailed in and proudly announced:

“Think these numbers represent one letter from the alphabet.You’ll get T, C, H, N,I,E,M,U,I,A,E,Z,O,C,T,I,S,O,I,R,U,T,A and N. Now, you find a message out of these 24 letters. I’m not interested in childish games.”

She left the copybook and the pen on the pedestal table and joined her friends. Something like a cloud hang above the two boys heads… Jeremie was the first to move.

“Well done! She’s right.”

Kevin was full of mistrust.

“It’s just one lead, one like many others.”

“No! There’s a message. Let’s find it!”

They buckled down to the work.

“It’s written ‘join’”, Jeremie said.

“Yes, and ‘you’, ‘tonight’…”

“I’ll note the numbers and you‘ll do with the letters.”

“Ok Kevin.”

“It’s written ‘come with self’.”

“That means nothing, Jeremie and mind the mistakes!”

“Or ‘come with me tonight’.”

“I don’t like crosswords”, Jeremie moaned.

They heard neither the music nor the surrounding noise, they were too busy stringing numbers and letters.

Suddenly, Jeremie cried out victoriously.

“I found it! Look 3,5,19,15,9,18,1,22,1,14,20,21,9,14,9,20,3,8,5,26,20,15,9,13! All the 24 letters are there.” He got his breath:

“This is the message: ‘at your home tonight, before midnight’.”

Alexandre and Etienne were approaching to get the news.

“Have you found it?”

Jeremie was about to answer when he stopped. Wasn’t it a secret? Kevin was already destroying the papers. Better not tell anybody.

“How did you know the message is for you?”

“I know, that’s all!”

“So what?” Alex got impatient.

“I’ve got to go back home right now”, Jeremie decided.

“What about Chelsea?” Etienne inquired.

“How are you going? Will you walk?” Kevin worried.

Chelsea was come to inquire about the latest news and they told her the situation. Suddenly a v*****t lightning lit the house. A tremendous thunder roared after. A storm broke out and all the lights went out. The house was thrust in an oppressive darkness. Everyone was amazed.

Etienne: “Super!” .He never missed a time to show off.

Mrs Bellebranche and the other mothers were sipping a vervein and lemon tea. They found the storm very unwelcome.

“How strange! A storm in October. How strange!”

Aubepine patted her lips with a paper hanky, then dipped them in the tea again.

“It made such as a noise! I’m still shaken.”

Parfait pretended to snivel so as to get cuddle.

Mrs Bellebranche added: “Let the natural elements burst out ok, but not too long!”

The lightnings did not listen to Mrs Bellebranche. One lit after another. A dreadful noise followed. The walls shook and the floor vibrated with each thunderclap. The children loved the nightmarish atmosphere. They were overexcited .They ran everywhere, they chattered unceasingly. Only Parfait and Aubepine didn’t move. They kept complaining.

Mrs Bellebranche repeated again and again. “This is dreadful. This storm has no respect for our children, mine especially.”

Gusts of wind blew. Lights went on and out. Then, an apocalyptic crash fell on the house. It blazed Aubepine and her mother’s anger. This time, fear took root in the children. Valerie decided to put an end to the party. The cellphones were out of service, as well as the Ipads.They were cut off the outside world. They were isolated. Valerie went and fetched candles. It was raining even stronger, even more frightening.

One child put in: “That is real Halloween!”

Jeremie discreetly edged his way to the entrance door in the dark. Chelsea held him back.

“You‘re not going dressed up as Harry, are you? Have you got the keys? No one is there now!”

Alex and Etienne were watching the rain overrun the street. Suddenly, they startled. There came a diligence! Yes a diligence which was drawn by four horses, was awaiting alongside the pavement. A top hatted coachman dressed with a black coat and cape was driving it. But Jeremie was not surprised.

“I’m going” he said. He ran as fast as his legs could. Chelsea hesitated then gave up. Now, where did this diligence come from?

That’s a hoax, a damned successful trick. But who made it?

Alex and Etienne rushed in a flash too. The diligence started in a sudden and they hardly climbed in from the near running board. The rain and the wind soon took Etienne’s wig. Alexandre was disguised into Harry Potter so he could stand the cold wrapped. He quickly felt the cold and tried to board the vehicle.

“You’re going to fall!” Alex cried out.

The four-horse-drawn diligence was running steadily. Then a terrible lightning nearly tone their hearts out. Etienne leant aside, trying to seize the small window’s edge, but a jolt nearly let him go. He knew he had come very close to death. However, he decided to try again. He put his foot on the running bard facing the door, his other foot rested on the near platform. He clang to the edge of the window with his right hand while Alex was holding him with his left hand. He performed splits, he made his belly and his chest stick against the door, despite the gusts of wind, the rain and the thunder. The door had no glass. Finally, he gathered his strength, let loose of Alex leant on his legs and a sudden move of his back, he fell over and in the vehicle with his head first place. He landed on his back, on Jeremie’s feet. The latter was calmly sitting on the wooden seat covered with red velvet. Jeremie stood up infuriated. Then he was catapulted over Etienne with a tremendous kick on his buttocks: Alex had just got on, head first. The three boys found themselves crammed on one another. The two boys shouted victoriously whereas Jeremie cried out of anger.

“You are crazy, He shouted and got up. You’re endangered of sure!”

“We were dying of cold outside!”

Etienne smiled and sat on the pretty velvet seat.

“So mister the court, he sneered, you are travelling on a diligence, aren’t you? Where have you got it from? You won’t fail anything my dear you…”

“Why did you come after me?”

“Hey, we helped you deciplier the message, we should have our share of the cake”, Alex protested.

“You stupid ones! This’s not a game! You shouldn’t have come!”

“What about you? Do you think you’re Cindrella with your coach?” Etienne retorted.

“You’re hiding us something. We want to know it.” Alexandre answered angrily.

Rain was pouring down. Impressive flashes of lighting were litting the sky. Valerie was just coming up from the cellar where she had put the circuit breaker on. She was closing the door and putting of her torch when several children rushed to her.

“Valerie, Valerie they‘ve gone! They’ve gone!”

The children were speaking with anxiety in their voices. This surprised Valerie. A pretty little ghost stammered:

“Jeremie, Alexandre and Etienne have gone on a diligence!”

Another little girl dressed as a sorcerer continued:

“They’ve gone on a cab with a coachman and four horses.”

The young woman decided not to take seriously.

“On a cab, only that… Well, they are self-indulgent!”

“Yes, yes, we saw them go!” Two small boy insisted

Chelsea confirmed.

“That’s true, I even wanted to hold my cousin back with his cape!”

Valerie calmed down her little world.

“Listen, dear children. You told me three of you are missing, Jeremie, Etienne and my son. Right. But have you ever imagined that they could be somewhere in the house?”

“Oh no, Chelsea protested, they’re gone on a cab, I’ve seen them.”

“No, they’ve gone on a diligence!”

“I have seen them too”, a little Frankenstein swore.

The concert of protest fused again. Chelsea became angry when she saw Etienne’s mother mocking the children’s imagination.

“But why do people never believe us!?”

Valerie spoke louder:

“Listen, please. Your story about the diligence does not make a lot of sense.”

She was joining her guests when Parfait, Aubepine’s brother, came and looked at her with his big eyes.

“They are in your son’s bedroom, Madam.”

“In my son’s bedroom? How do you know that?”

“They’ve told me.”

“Well! There we are. Everything seems fine, my little Parfait.”

She called the other children and told them the news.

“But that’s impossible!” Chelsea reacted violently.

“I was not dreaming!” Parfait protested and went snivelling behind his mother’s skirts.

Alex’s mother became seriously irritated before this story.

“I’m going up and check.”

“I’ll come with you”, said Chelsea.

“We are here, Mum! “

Valerie recognized her son’s voice while she was going up. She entered into the room and saw the three of them playing Monopoly. Valerie didn’t know whether she should laugh or get angry. She didn’t know how to react. On the other hand, Chelsea uttered a dreadful cry.

“What are you doing here?!” She questioned.

Alex startled:

“What’s the matter with you? Why are you crying out like that? Are you getting mad?”

“We’re playing Monopoly, said Etienne. We are doing no harm!”

They watched the little girl with astonishment while they were sitting cross-legged on the carpet. Alex seemed to have gone to prison without passing the number one case and this made his pals laugh…

“Still, I am not getting mad! I saw you leaving with the diligence five minutes ago!”

Alex waved his hand as if he was scolding her.

“Chelsea, mind if you hadn’t emptied my father’s whisky!”

“Don’t make fun of me! Where did this diligence come from?”

Valerie smiled and turned her back.

“Ok, guys ! Go downstairs now. Your parents are here!”

Alex’s mother left. At this very moment, the big clock in the lounge struck twelve, midnight.

“I can’t make things out, the little girl lamented, it’s midnight and you are here…”

Jeremie and Etienne made light of the good trick they had played on her. She couldn’t believe them! How did they manage?

“Then, this diligence, it was a fable, wasn’t it?”

The three boys laughed.

Jeremie stood up slowly. He was behaving moderately. All the same, Chelsea saw something had changed in him. She had never realized how cute, how handsome he was. Jeremie came close, he looked radiant: he had a thousands of stars shining in his eyes. It was strange. Chelsea was afraid of him.

She warned him not to approach her.

“Don’t come close to me! You’re not Jeremie. Don’t approach me! Move back!”

A strong anguish compressed her chest. She heard the hubbubs of the adults from the ground floor. They were having fun. She wanted to join them. She realized that would mean cowardice. She faced up the three boys.

“Who are you?!” she whispered.

The little boy smiled like an angel.

“But I am Jeremie, your cousin. The one your father adopted. Your father is my uncle. Those two, there, you do know them!”

“Oh my god! This is a nightmare! Who really are you? Where are you from?”

Aubepine entered the room at this very moment.

“Chelsea? Are you all right!”

She became short of breathe and exclaimed:

“How come! They are here, all three! I’ve been told they’ve gone on a diligence!”

She burst out laughing. She felt like paralysed. Aubepine was about to go down but Chelsea begged her to stay with her.

“But what’s going on there?”

The three boys looked at one another, then startled intently at the two girls with a nasty look.

“We’ve finished our commission. You won’t remember anything. You’ll go down and back home with yours parents.”

They disappeared in a second. Chelsea and Aubepine startled, as if they were emerging out of a long and wonderful dream. They laughed and reached the ground floor, as if nothing had happened.