I am Gideon: Chapter #24

And Here I Am…

Sitting in my room at Canyon Keep with Lionel asleep in the chair beside my desk.  He’s tiny, but he’s all dog.  I got him as a birthing day surprise from my big brother and his friends.  My first pet.   Well, my second.  I have a beautiful mare named Tolbeth, but she is not allowed in the house.

It is a school holiday, so I came home from the Great House. I worked spring colts with my grandfather all morning and then helped my aunt in the garden this afternoon.  The horses are fed, I’ve had supper with my extended family and bathed with them in the hot pools under this amazing old house – ten thousand years old it is.  I am steeped in tradition and in love.  Ardenai adopted me and made me a prince of the Great House of Equus, and in that I gained a family, friends, an education, and a magnificent heritage that I cannot yet fathom.  There is such joy and such hope in me that I cannot describe it.

I thought about the people who actually helped me.  Some of them I have sought out to thank, some I have not.  The first, of course, was Father Darwin, who fed me and gave me clothes, but he wanted something I had no choice but to give, and I did not seek him out.  Nor did I seek out my mother.

Finally, between school terms and keepling chores, I went on what was for me, a pilgrimage to Declivis.  I was determined to pay my respects and said as much to my cousin Criollo and my friend Plevin, who insisted on coming with me to keep me company.  I was glad of their curiosity, because it gave me support.   First, we went to the Museum of Transportation – paid to get in this time, and I discovered that the moving blanket was still in the bus – no joke.  So was the cup I’d put there for “just in case.” We couldn’t figure out how to put the blanket back without having somebody thinking we were taking it instead, so I left it as a shrine.  To what, I’m not sure.   I tossed the cup into the trash on the way out and we exited, laughing and feeling like delinquents.

That afternoon we went to the hospital where I’d spent so much time, and inquired after the legendary Jasper Ing. The people were actually intimidated by my presence.  None of them recognized me, and I wasn’t keen to let everybody know I’d once been a client of their establishment.  They gestured downstairs, and there he was – a bit older, a bit heavier, but his eyes lit up the second he saw me.  “Gideon!” he exclaimed.  “I have read much of your exploits!”  and he folded me in his arms like a long-lost friend.  I was so grateful for that.

He showed us back upstairs and into the kitchen and we sat and had sweet cakes and tea and talked.  I told him I had, indeed, used his last name, and it was still on my flying papers.  He seemed genuinely glad to see me.  In retrospect, I realize just how kind he had been to me.  I told him if he ever needed anything I was now in a position to be of some help, and he gave me another long, heartfelt hug as we left.

The next day, after a lazy start, we went to the inn where I had worked, and there was Azar, stacking glasses and talking over his shoulder to somebody at the bar.  He turned full around and there was a long silence while he studied me.  “Gideon?” he said at last.  “Or is it Prince Gideon now?”

I shook my head.  “Just Gideon.”

There followed a silence so awkward and so heavy I could feel its weight on my shoulders.  “I wanted to thank you,” I said.  “You were kind to me.”

“You were a good worker.  I hated to lose you,” he replied, and turned to finish stacking the glasses before he turned around again.

The silence lengthened.  “I am grateful to you for the opportunities you gave me,” I said.  “I wanted you to know that I have not forgotten you or the kindnesses you showed me.”

“What brings you to Declivis?” he asked, and it hit me.  He thought I’d come to gloat, come to say, look at who you fired for being unclean.  Look at me now.

“You,” I said.  “I came to see you, Azar, to say thank you. That is the only reason I’m here, to thank the people who helped me when I desperately needed help.”

Again, he studied me.  “It was my pleasure,” he said, and he smiled.  “Come and sit down.”

We talked for hours about what we’d been up to, he and I on our separate paths, and we laughed about some of the characters that had come through his doors, and where they were now.  I invited him, as I had invited Jasper, to come and experience Equi hospitality, and he said he just might do that someday.

As I was leaving, I said I had one more stop, and that was to see Mrs. Membuss.  I wanted my friends to meet that legendary woman who had been so helpful to me.

Azar’s dark brows came together and I could see that he was puzzling through something.  At last, he shook his head and asked, “Who?”