The White Knight

Epilogue--Michael Happy at Last

      Typing furiously at the keyboard, the female struggled to finish the story.  She paused to run her fingers through her hair, forgetting at the moment that she was bald, the chemotherapy having already robbed her of her hair.
         “How is it going, Michelle?” the woman sitting near her asked.  She was reading though a manuscript she had already printed out.
         “I think I almost done with it, maybe ten more pages.”
         Since she was fifteen, Michelle had a desire to write.  Most of the poems and short stories she wrote all had something to do with fantasy.  After she had written her first stories, she had noticed that they all related to a mysterious land called Utofamia.  How she ever thought up this world and the different characters such as Bellerophon, Rem and Melisande, she had no idea.  It was as if somebody was whispering them to her and she wrote the words down on paper.
         Michelle paused in her typing.  “Mom, do you know what the weird thing is?”
         “I always thought that Michael and Maria would have been a good couple.  However, the story always leaned towards her and Geoffrey.  If it was me, I would have fallen in love with Michael.”
         Her mother was silent for a second and then spoke, “That is how good stories are.  They are like life.  It is unpredictable that you do not know what is going to happen before you turn the corner.”
         “I am finished,” Michelle said an hour later.  She knew The White Knight would be her last story.  She had already made arrangements for the publishing company to send future royalty payments to the Cancer Research Institute.  With the cancer running through her, she knew she did not have much time.  She was getting weaker each day.
         She glanced over to her mother.  They were so close; how would she handle it when the day came? 
         Lying in bed, Michelle thought about the invisible friend she had when she was about two years old.  She was a twin sister who she played with constantly.  They were very close for a short time, and then she disappeared.  “I guess that is what happens to invisible friends when you get older,” Michelle thought to herself as she drifted off into sleep.  “The funny thing is her name was Maria also.”

         Michelle’s mother looked down at the sleeping form in the bed.  It was time to bring her back.  She picked up Michelle in her arms and carried her out the front door.  However, once she stepped outside, they were no longer in a city with bustling traffic and people.  They were standing in a forest.  A short distance away was a cottage by the path.
         She walked to the front of the cottage and laid her daughter on the ground.  Then she stepped back into the forest and waited.

         Michael rode down the path back to his cottage.  He was deep in thought. 
         “I regret I never told Maria my true feelings for her.  From the first day we met, I was in love with her.  When I thought that I killed her in that battle, I thought that I would not live with myself.  Yet, I had healed her with the Conchiva and she lived.  I enjoyed talking to her and listening to her when she read from The History of Utofamia.  Sure I know how to read but I enjoyed sitting next to her with my arm around the shoulder.”
         He continued riding.  The former knights had gathered at the Plains of Musglove and did a reenactment of the different battles, showing the citizens of the new world a history of the Red Knight invasion.  Spread over many days, people told stories of Bellerophon from his creation to his fall.  Battles were fought, first between the Black and White Knights and, finally, with the allied forces fighting against the enemy.  Except, when the battles were over, people were friends again and nobody got hurt.  This was all Maria’s idea, from a memory of a Renaissance Faire she had gone to in her old world.  This way, she ensured everybody, nobody would forget what had transpired before.  It was an excellent idea.
         “Why did I never tell her that I loved her?” Michael though sadly.  “It was because I was too stubborn.  First of all, she belonged to a group of knights who, at one time, I considered to be the enemy.  She also was a knight; a female should not be fighting.  She should be in a cottage cooking meals and raising a family.”  Michael shook his head.  “Utofamia would not be the way it is, if it was not for Maria.
         “I think it was just me.  I never looked for a relationship because it would not be fair to the female.  What if something had happened to me during the battles and she was left without a husband.  I should be happy for Maria and Geoffrey and I am.  It is just that I am sad at times.”
         He turned around a curve in the path and saw his cottage just twenty feet away.  He pulled on the reins of his horse and forced him to come to a stop.  In his front lawn a person was lying face down.  He quickly jumped from his horse and ran to the figure.  He gasped when he turned the person over.
         “Maria?” he asked in shock.  While she looked like Maria, she looked different.  She was very thin and pale. “What had happened to her hair?” he though to himself as he gently touched her bald head.
         The female weakly opened her eyes and saw the handsome man staring down at her.
         She spoke, with difficulty, “Is this Heaven?”
         “Maria, what happened?  Who did this to you?”
         The female tried to speak again, but Michael quieted her.  “No do not tire yourself out.  I will make you some tea.  You will be better in a short time.”
         He cradled the female in his arms and carried her into the cottage.
         After setting her on his bed, he set a kettle on the stove and started heating up water.  He went out to the garden and picked some Conchiva cloves.  Ever since the new world was formed, Michael had no use for Conchiva to heal people.  However, he liked the flavor of it and had grown it for his teas.  It looked like it would come in handy one more time.
         “Is this new world facing a new threat?” he thought to himself.  “It is not Melisande because she had redeemed herself.”

         Maria and her husband Geoffrey rode down the path.  Her friend, Melisande, rode along with them.
         “In the next Utofamia Festival,” Melisande said, “I want to play you and Idres wants to play Geoffrey.”
         “That will be fun,” Maria said.  “I can play you and Geoffrey can be Idres.”
         “Hey,” said Geoffrey, “I want to be a Death Bearer.  Michael can be Idres.”
         They were discussing about the success of the first Utofamia Festival.  People from all over the new world came to attend.  Some came to participate in the battles, while others came to sell a large variety of food and crafts.  The festival was created to share stories with the future generations.
         “Why is Michael’s horse standing over there?” Maria asked.
         She got off Chilowna and walked to the horse.  She led him to the stall and the side of Michael’s cottage.  “Michael?” she called as she walked into the cottage.  Geoffrey and Melisande followed her in.
         He was at the table, brewing a cup of tea.  He spun around when she called.
         “Maria!  I thought…If you are standing here, who is that lying in my bed?”
         Maria walked over to the female on the bed.
         The female opened her eyes and said, “I thought you were just in my dreams.”
         Maria answered, “You will know soon.  Michael, is the tea ready?”
         He approached the bed with a steaming cup.  “Help me sit her up.”  Melisande walked over and help get the female into a sitting position. 
         “Drink this,” Michael said.  “It will make you better.”
         “This tastes good,” the female said.  A few seconds after drinking the tea, color came back to her face.  It seemed that she was not as thin as before.  Even her hair was starting to grow back.  She lay down and went to sleep.
         “I thought she was you,” Michael said.
         Melisande said, “I would almost say that she looks like you, Maria.  She looks like she could be your sister.”
         Geoffrey was silent, he already knew.
         “She is my sister,” Maria said.  “Her name is Michelle.  We are twins.  I found out about her before the final battle.  She was living in the world I came from with my mother.”
         “What happened to her?  What made her so sick?”
         “She had Leukemia.  She was close to death when she came to this world.”  The voice came from the doorway.
         Maria instantly recognized the woman standing there.  She ran and embraced her, sobbing.  “Mother, we finally meet.”
         “My brave daughter, it has been too long.”
         Michelle opened her eyes, completely healed and sat up.  She looked at the twin standing next to her mother.  She completely understood.
         “You are Maria?”
         She nodded.
         “So all the stories I wrote about Utofamia are true?”
         Once again, Maria nodded smiling.
         She looked over to the handsome man she saw taking care of her.  “Are you Michael?”
         The man nodded.
         “Now I know why Maria fell in love with Geoffrey.  She walked over to Michael.  They embraced and kissed.
         Michael was happy at last.