In the meantime, John was enjoying himself. That was evident, and it filled my heart with hope. As the days passed, he had stopped asking questions about the obvious differences between our worlds. Out of fear of spoiling his good mood, I had postponed the explanation.
Yet any progress I could have made during the day to gain John’s attention, I lost as soon as Rosa came into the Great Hall every mealtime. Although the signs were there, I stubbornly refused to acknowledge any attraction between them and never mentioned Rosa to John, nor told him of her engagement.
And then one morning, as I waited for John outside the stables, I saw framed against the first rays of the rising sun the unexpected silhouette of a maiden. My surprise soon turned to concern when I realized that the lady was Rosa.
Even if I hadn’t known that my sister hates riding, her silk embroidered gown, her white slippers, and her sophisticated hairdo would have given her away: she was not really there for a ride. In a flash of anger, I remembered her flirtatious behavior at the table and the effect her batting eyelashes and pretend blushes had on John. Until then, I had tolerated her silly advances, thinking of them as coming naturally from a hopeless flirt. But deliberately seeking him out was beyond my sisterly understanding.
Ignoring my killer stares, Rosa smiled. “Good morning, Andrea,” she said lightly.
“Good morning? Not for me, dear sister. Not until you go back inside.”
“Really? And why should I do that?”
“Because the sun is already rising, and if you don’t leave immediately, it may harm your fair skin. And we wouldn’t like that to happen, would we?”
“You are totally right, sister. How nice of you to warn me.”
But Rosa did not leave. Instead she turned back to her dueña, who had stopped two steps behind her, and ordered her to go fetch a parasol.
As soon as her dueña disappeared into the keep, I grabbed Rosa by the arms and pulled her to me. “Come on, Rosa, we both know why you are here, and enough is enough. You are going back to the castle this very moment, and if you don’t stop playing your stupid games with Don Juan, I—”
“Playing with Don Juan? Why would I do that? Why waste my time on such an impossible endeavor? Isn’t it only too plain that the poor boy is madly in love with you?”
Just as Rosa spoke, the sun, a burning ball of fire, rose from behind the castle walls, blinding me and blurring in my mind the thin line between right and wrong. Before I realized what I was doing, I heard myself screaming, “Maybe you’re right, Rosa. Maybe Don Juan is not in love with me. But at least he doesn’t lie about it! He doesn’t whisper sweet nothings somebody else has taught him, pretending he just made them up for me. At least the day he might tell me he loves me, I would know he loves me and not my crown. But of course, that is why you cling to Don Juan, isn’t it? To feel alive once more before you become the property of a king, a king who only sees in you an easy way to conquer his enemy’s kingdom!”
Rosa stumbled back. “You! You! How dare you?” Hiding her eyes behind a lacy handkerchief she had conveniently produced from her sleeve, she started sobbing.
I was about to congratulate her on her acting skills when a shadow fell upon us.
“Andrea!” John’s voice, harsh with anger, lashed at me. “What have you done to the princess?”
I gasped. The princess? What a nerve! As if she were the only princess in the universe. As if I were not a princess as well!
“I haven’t done anything at all to your princess!”
But John was not listening. Already by Rosa’s side, he was talking to her in eager whispers. At his words, Rosa stopped crying and, eyes coyly averted, smiled at him. As if bewitched, John offered her his arm and, without a glance in my direction, led her away.
Through the closed windows of the castle, I could hear the muffled voices of the servants greeting each other and the new day. In the courtyard, the sun’s rays had already dispersed the shadows and warmed the stones. But my heart was cold. How could I have ever imagined John would fall in love with me? How could I have forgotten that as a princess, I was a total failure? Now it was too late. John had become another of Rosa’s puppets, at least until he understood that Rosa was already engaged. Then he would refuse to stay, and Father would have him killed.
From that day on, John did not hang out with me anymore. Tired of seeing him with Rosa, I would leave the castle at dawn and ride on Flecha to Mount Pindo. High above the river, by the rocky outcrop where I had failed to inform John that he could never return to his world, I would sit for hours, waiting for the sun to complete its journey.
It was there where, many days later, John found me. With a cheerful “Hello, Andrea!” repeated several times as it bounced against the boulders, he shook me out of my brooding.
“Hi, John,” I said, my voice laughing because at the sound of his, I believed myself back in Davis: he and I alone by the pond and the bicycles zooming behind us, along the straight paths of the campus.
But as soon as I turned, the spell was broken. Instead of sneakers, John was wearing leather boots folded over his calves, his pants tight against his legs before they disappeared under a short embroidered tunic. Blue and white. The colors of Father’s kingdom.
John bent forward, “So, what have you been up to? I haven’t seen much of you lately.” Awkwardly folding his long legs, he sat by my side.
“Really? I haven’t noticed.”
“Well, anyway. Now that I’ve found you, I would like to ask you a couple of questions—about Rosa.”
At the mention of my sister’s name, my anger returned, and with it an uncontrollable desire to hurt him. “Come on, John. Forget about Rosa. There are more important things to talk about. Like, where are we? Look, John. Look at the moon, the golden moon rising as always one hour before sunset. Look at the trees, almost but not quite the same as the ones you grew up with, and at the sky where no plane ever crosses. I’m sorry John, but the game is over. We’re not in California.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“Yes, I know. I’ve known for a while. I’m not that thick. I can’t explain where I am, and at this point I don’t care, but I do know this is not California. Or Earth for that matter.”
He knew. He knew and did not care. Did he also know about Father’s decision to kill him if he tried to go back to California?
Over the ragged cry of a crow, I heard John’s voice. “Andrea, your sister is striking.”
“Strikingly stupid.”
“What did you say?”
“I said that Rosa is engaged, so forget whatever it is you’re thinking.”
“But she loves me.”
“What?”
“I understand it may be difficult for you to believe, but Rosa loves me.”
“Excuse me, John, but how are you so sure? As far as I know, my sister doesn’t speak English, and you don’t speak Spanish.”
“Your sister is teaching me. Te quiero, mi amor.”
I looked away, my face burning. “What did you say?”
“It means ‘I love you, my love.’”
“Thanks for the translation.”
“I’m serious, Andrea. Your sister is the most incredible girl I’ve ever met.”
“She’s incredible all right.”
“I mean it, Andrea. I’ve already decided to stay another week. Then I’ll ask her to return with me to California.”