Debbie Banna - Shattered Dreams, New Beginnings

“Wolf!” Tony shouted from the place where he stood in the brush. Wolf’s head spun in the direction of the familiar voice.

“Tony? Oh Tony! Where’s Virginia?” he questioned desperately. He jumped to his feet and began sniffing, trying to catch a whiff of her scent.

Tony cautiously left the safety of the bushes and looked at his son-in-law as if he’d lost his mind. “What do you mean ‘Where’s Virginia’?” he asked. “You know as well as I do where she is. She’s gone. What’s wrong with you?” he spat.

Wolf froze letting Tony’s words sink in. “You mean she’s not here? You don’t need me to save you?”

“What in the world are you talking about? Where have you been, anyway?” Tony fired questions as fast as his mind could form them. He approached Wolf and grabbed him by the shoulder.

Wolf’s his head dropped and his shoulders slumped as he realized he’d been fooled once again by the old gypsy. “Sorry, Tony. I…I thought…never mind. It was just a foolish dream. I just came from the gypsy camp. They were all dead but the crystal ball was still there. It told me that I would find you and Virginia here and that you needed my help. I thought I smelled her when I got here but I guess it was all a trick. It must have been some kind of sick revenge by the old gypsy,” he finished.

Compassion welled up in Tony for this sad creature before him. Putting aside his usual wise guy demeanor, he wrapped his arms around Wolf and hugged him tightly. Wolf weakly put his arms around his father-in-law and, within seconds, they were both in tears. Wolf sobbed great, body shaking sobs while Tony held on to him, tears streaming down his own cheeks. When the tide of emotion had quieted down a bit, Tony moved away, a bit embarrassed, and wiped his eyes. Wolf sat down on the ground and stared straight ahead, trying to gain a semblance of control. “Tony?” he asked. “What are we going to do? Just how are we going to get over this?”

“I don’t know Wolf. I really don’t know,” Tony replied. “I was beginning to think I was being led here for something. There was this music. I was lost in the swamp and it led me here. This was the same spot that Virginia and I stopped to eat and rest before we fell asleep and almost died. Before I heard you howling, I thought that maybe I might just…”

“Just what, Tony?” Wolf asked, beginning to guess what Tony might have been going to do. “Well, I thought that maybe I might just stay here this time. Find a little something to drink, take a nice nap, and just…stay,” he replied thoughtfully.

“Stay? You’d do that?” Wolf questioned. “But what are you going to do now that you found me here?”

“I don’t know Wolf. I mean, it’s not as if I’m needed anywhere else. No one would really miss me. I think I might still stay,” he replied, looking at Wolf with a weary expression. “What about you? What are you going to do?”

“Well, I don’t really have any plans. I don’t know, really. I could stay here with you,” he almost whispered.

“Yea. You could do that,” Tony replied dully. As he spoke, he wandered to the edge of the island and knelt by the swampy water that surrounded it. “I’m a bit thirsty right now, Wolf. I think I need a drink.” He cupped his hands and scooped up a puddle of water, bringing it to his lips. Sucking the dirty liquid from his hands, he plunged them back into the swamp and scooped up another mouthful.

Wolf watched, fascinated, then arose and walked over to join Tony. He knelt by the water and dunked his head close to the surface, lapping at the water with his tongue. Tony yawned a great, noisy yawn and moved away from the water. He sank to the mossy ground and began settling himself comfortably down to rest. Taking off his jacket, he rolled it into a ball under his head, and closing his eyes, he smiled. Wolf watched for a moment, then, as if in a dream arose to join Tony in his mossy bed. He yawned and closed his eyes. Within a moment, he was asleep.

“What do you think you’re doing now, you old fool?” The voice startled Tony from his comfortable repose. He jerked upright, now partly awake.

“Matilde?” he spoke in astonishment as his eyes took in the form of the fairy queen emerging from the trees nearby. Wolf rolled onto his side, his eyes trying hard to focus on the figure before him.

“Tony! Get up! Get on your feet now!” she spat at him. Anger flashed in her eyes as she realized what he had been trying to do. “You think by this age you’d have gained a little sense in that head of yours,” she scolded, going to him and helping him as he struggled to his feet.

He stood swaying a bit before shaking his head to try and clear away the fatigue that struggled to control him. “What in blazes are you doing here?” he asked. “And why would you care what I do?” he shouted, his own anger beginning to spark. Wolf, trying to stay interested in the commotion going on around him, watched with one eye as the other closed in defiance of his will.

“I care, you idiot, because I love you,” Matilde shouted back at Tony in a stern voice. “And I’m not going to let you take the coward’s way out. Tony, this isn’t how your life is supposed to end. You’re needed. You’re loved. There’s so much more awaiting you. It isn’t over unless you do something stupid to waste it. Oh, Tony,” she began to plead with him. “Come back with me and together, we’ll find a way to work things out. We can make it together,” she offered gently now.

“I don’t know. I mean, I thought I loved you, Matilde, but I don’t even know if I can trust you. I know that you’re hiding something from me. It’s something about Virginia. I don’t know what kind of plan you have here but I don’t want to be manipulated around like some kind of toy. For once, I want to do something on my own. I want to take this like a man.”

“Like a man? Like a coward is more like it,” she spat back. “What’s so manly about walking away from the tough times in your life and calling it quits? Do you think that you’re the only one who has ever lost someone you’ve loved? Do you think your pain and loneliness is unique? Let me tell you, Tony dear, if you live long enough, and God knows I have, you will experience more kinds of trouble than you ever knew existed. In the hundreds of years I’ve been alive, I’ve seen my husbands die, one after another. I’ve watched my daughter be forced to spend her years of existence as an enchanted cane. I’ve seen troubles of all types come upon the kingdoms and watched the struggles of those about whom I’ve cared. And do you know why I’m still here?” she shouted at the man blinking in astonishment before her. “I’m still here because I refuse to give in. I will outlive the troubles and overcome the pain. And each time I do I become stronger and I grow into something more than I was before. There’s something that I don’t think you understand, Tony and that is that life is not given to us just for us to enjoy. It’s about others…as a family… as a whole; we’re here to do this together. It’s together Tony, that we’ll make it, and it will be worthwhile.” She held out her hand to him, encouraging him to pull out of the bitter, miserable hole he had dug for himself and reach out to her love.

Tony stood before her, letting her lecture sink in. Part of him wanted to fight her, rejecting her offer and hurting her for what he had perceived as her betrayal. Part of him fought to grasp the lifeline that she held out in front of him. For a moment he wrestled with the pride that welled up within. Then, slowly, the desire to survive won out. Tony lifted his hand toward her and without hesitation, she took it and brought it to her cheek. At the touch of his skin against her face, her tears began to flow. Matilde had not been sure she could reach him and now her tears released the tension she had been struggling against for weeks.

Tony’s heart warmed at her show of emotion and he moved closer to her, wrapping her in his arms. He reached down and lifted her chin, longing to feel the softness of her lips upon his own starving mouth. He claimed them as his own and Matilde responded, as eager for the kiss as he. They savored the closeness of each other for a moment, then Tony broke away to gently kiss the top of her head. “Thank you,” he murmured against her hair. “Thank you for not giving up on me. You saved my life.”

“No Tony,” she answered her cheek resting against his soft flannel shirt. “You saved it. I only reminded you that it was worth saving. You had to make the choice.”

A sudden movement about their ankles disturbed them from their moment of tenderness. Looking down, Tony noticed a vine beginning to creep out of the ground beneath him. It was attempting to twine itself about his feet. He suddenly became intensely aware of their surroundings and what he had almost done. He let go of Matilde and whirled around to see what was happening to Wolf. On the ground before them where he had previously been resting now curled a large accumulation of vines and leaves.

“Wolf!” Tony shouted, dropping to his knees and beginning to tear at the plants. Matilde watched as Tony furtively uncovered the sleeping form of his son-in-law. “Wolf!” he shouted again. “Wake up!” He tugged him into a sitting position while Wolf struggled against him, trying to return to his slumber.

“Leave me alone, Tony!” Wolf shouted, pushing him back and lying back down. Seeing that Tony needed her, Matilde joined him on the ground and they both tugged at Wolf until they had him on his knees.

“Stand up Wolf,” Tony ordered as Wolf continued to fight the couple. They both stood and pulled him to his feet with them. “Let’s walk him ‘Tilde’,” Tony suggested.

They each grasped an arm under the shoulder and half dragged, half carried the reluctant Wolf from the island and toward the path in the woods. As he was moved away from the intoxicating affects of Mushroom Island, Wolf began to shake the influence of the swamp water. His head began to clear and his eyes, which had been weighted with sleep, were now under control again. His friends could see the change taking place in him and loosened their hold as he began to walk more steadily on his own. Wolf stopped to rub his forehead and looked up, trying to focus on the two who stood before him.

“Tony, what did you do?” Wolf asked. “I was having such a wonderful dream. I saw Virginia and she was calling to me. I had almost taken her hand. Why did you wake me up?”

“Wolf, Matilde has come to take us home. What we were going to do was wrong. We need to go on living, son,” he said with tenderness in his voice. “We can do it,” he said when Wolf began to shake his head. “Come on with me. We’ll do it together.” Tony held his hand out to Wolf as Matilde had so recently done with him. But Wolf turned his back on his father-in-law.

“No, Tony. I don’t want to go back. I’m through. This is it. No more trouble for me.”

Tony looked to Matilde for support. She put her arm around him and, looking at the pitiful figure before her, spoke. “Wolf. You have to go back. Virginia needs you.”

At that Wolf whirled around, anger flashing across his face. “Virginia needs me? Oh, no. I’ve had enough of being tricked into believing she’s alive. Why are you trying to hurt me? You wouldn’t help me when I needed you. Now you have to stick the knife in and turn it. No thanks. I’ll just stay right here. Leave me alone, both of you.” He turned from them and began to walk back to the island he had vacated only moments before.

“Wolf!” Matilde shouted at him. “There’s something I need to tell you.” Wolf stopped and turned to face her, a cynical expression crossing his features. Matilde looked at Tony. “You also need to hear this, Tony.” Tony took his arm from around the woman and backed up, suspicion creeping onto his face. They both watched her as she lowered her head and, in a weak voice, she began.

“Tony, you were right when you said I had been keeping something from you. That day when Snow White invited me to her counsel, she revealed to me information I was instructed to share with no one. It wasn’t that I wanted to keep anything from you but I was told that it was vital to the future of the nine kingdoms to remain silent. You don’t know what it cost me to watch the two of you suffer and not be able to help. But now, it is time to tell you what Snow White said to me. Wolf,” she said turning to the man, “there is a way for you to save Virginia. Snow White instructed me that I was to bring you back to the castle. Once there, she would reveal to you how this thing would be done. She said that between the two of us, we had the power to help you change the past.”

“Change the past?” Wolf questioned with suspicion. “I thought that last time Tony, Virginia and I went into the past we were told that we could change nothing.”

“ I don’t have the answer to that question. All I can tell you is that Snow White said there was a way. But first, she said, there were things you must do that were vital to the future of the kingdoms. These things have now been completed and she has contacted me to tell me the time is right to bring you home.”

Tony stood unmoving before her, his mouth now hanging open and Wolf began to move around in an increasingly agitated manner as she spoke. “Do you mean to tell me that we could have saved Virginia weeks ago?” he questioned the fairy.

“Well, yes and no. There was something that happened while you were away that has averted a great disaster in the future for our land. I don’t know what it might have been but if you had not achieved this goal, your life, the life of Virginia and that of all of the other citizens of the kingdoms would have been placed in great danger. There’s no telling how preventing this tragedy has affected both of your destinies. All I can say is that now is the time to return with me to rescue your wife from her present.”

The implications of what Matilde were saying were beginning to sink deeply into the heart of the now manic man before her. “We can save her? You’re sure this isn’t a trick? You wouldn’t do this to me again would you?” he prattled as he paced and wrung his hands in a flurry of movement.

“Wolf, I think she’s telling us the truth,” Tony spoke, reaching out to his son-in-law and trying to settle him down.

“Well, huff puff, what are we waiting for?” he asked, hope beginning to rise within him again. “Let’s be off! I have a beautiful princess to rescue!” he said, striking what he thought to be a heroic pose, then loping off in the direction of the path in a frenzy of movement.

“Wait Wolf,” Matilde shouted. “We can go quicker my way.” She pulled a brown velvet pouch from a pocket in her cloak and reached in, bringing forth a hand full of shimmering dust. “Traveling dust,” she informed them, then beckoned the men to draw close. Once they were gathered together, she tossed the dust into the air over their heads and, within a moment, they faded and disappeared from sight.