5

“No- No, this is all wrong,” Madrone wondered around the death ridden garden, stumbling here and there throughout the knee high yellow grass. Gnarled trees, exposed roots, vines and thrones snaked through and around the many bits and morsels of fallen stones and bricks, and broken reminisce of water fountains and once elegant statures were among other unimaginable things in the garden.

Together the two stopped before a set of giant double doors. Madrone lifted the rusty metal knocker and let it slam against the thick sodden redwood. The knocker had dented through the wood, it obviously had been left unattended for ages. Madrone pressed his ear up against the door and sighed.

After a few minutes, no one had came to answer their call.

“Well if anyone is in there,” Elsie sighed as well. “They’re not coming for us.”

“This can’t be right. Not Terremerviel, it must be the wrong realm; another world” he ceased his speaking once uncovering a random patch of vinery from the cobblestone wall. Underneath there lay a royal crest; a regal letter B surrounded by roses and thorns.

“This can’t be,” he complained once more.

Elsie stared at Cheshery in her hands, who appeared to stare right back at her.

“What does this mean,” Elsie approached him and the plaque. “What does this prove, if anything?”

“It proves, girl,” Madrone shouted, taking Elsie surprise and sending her stepping backwards. “- That this is Terremerviel. This is- er, was the king’s royal crest while I was still living here. But- but, this just can’t be the same world I once knew. Mine was a thriving metropolis, and this…isn’t.”

“Madrone there is still hope,” Elsie was hoping to calm the old man down. “I mean this is juts the castle gardens, outside might be better.”

“Elsie, if this is what the ruler’s grounds look like,” Madrone pointed out. “Then wouldn’t the world this ruler owns be even worse?”

“I would suppose,” Elsie admitted.

She let him alone to himself, wandering the fields and grounds, looking back over the memories he had here. She didn’t know what to do. She would have kept quiet, but after half an hour she had started getting tired of waiting.

“Madrone, dear,” Elsie said sheepishly. “What are we to do now?”

“I….I don’t…” he began to say, but finish in mid sentence. He started with a gleam in his eyes; an idea had crept into his mind. “I wonder.” He took off at a run across the brown and gray floor to a random patch of hedge wall. There he fumbled around within it; his hands within the bush’s old branches. “Could it still be here?”

“What are you doing now, Madrone,” Elsie heaved a sigh after she and Cheshery followed him with uncertainty. “What do you think you found here?”

“I’m certain that I know what’s back here,” Madrone said mockingly. “Just this!” A thud was heard from within the hedge. And on rusty and creaky hinges the man swung the hedge out as if it were a door. A corridor of shrubbery and plants was all Elsie could make out down past the hidden archway. Hundreds of exits and other paths lead away deep into the darkness, possibly a never-ending collections in the giant maze.

“Madrone,” Elsie gasped, not concealing the fear in her voice.

“It was a secret passageway leading between inside the castle and the woods,” he smiled, stepping into the ominous corridor of hedge. Cheshery sniffed the doorway, then continued to leap forward into it. “Thank the heavens I am one of few that know of its presence. Only the royal family knew it was here.”

Elsie slowly inched forward towards the looming path.

“Are you trying to tell me you were royalty, Madrone,” Elsie asked.

“Do I not strike you as the royal type,” Madrone acted hurt. But laughing he said, “No-no. I would have never been accepted as king. I was very close to someone who was in the family. But, never mind that now.” He moved deeper in the tunnel, among the shadows so as Elsie couldn’t make out his face. “Though if we take a certain path we will find our way out into the forest near my old home.”

“Your home?” Elsie unwillingly stepped completely under the archway and into the shadows. It was still very odd to think of the old man living here before Edinburgh. Though, Mr. Madrone had a whole other life before Elsie knew him.

Madrone closed the hedge’s ‘door’ after them, bathing them in thick darkness. The little light that managed to survive through overhead entwined branches was scarce and unhelpful.

“Quickly, Elsie,” as Elsie felt Madrone snatch her wrist he nearly sprinted through the dark maze. Cheshery had just enough time to leap into Elsie’s hands before they were off. “By the looks of this place, I wouldn’t be surprised to find a terrible beast here.”

Less than a second after he said this, Elsie could have swore she saw movement down a path to her left.

Rows and rows of roads of paths lead off their own, deep into the questionable hedge maze. They took the left fork, then the center, then another left. Right. Left. Left. Center. U-turn. Madrone never second-guessed himself; he was certain and quite determined in his decisions.

Then a sudden stop.

They must have traveled a mile or two from the castle’s courtyard. She was certain she wouldn’t be able to find again.

“Madrone,” Elsie gasped. She clutched her side, panting. “How- How? What did you just do? Or, how did you just do that? Forgive my rudeness, but Mr. Madrone you are…an elderly man.”

“Oh, Elsie age is just a number here,” Madrone said simply. “Not a physical state.”

“Then why am I feeling pains in my sides,” Elsie asked.

“I’m not quite sure,” he admitted. “Maybe it is because you do not have the Terremerviel blood in you.”

He moved towards of random spot off the track, inspecting the hedge wall. “Now, where is it- come on, now… it must be here somewhere,” he would mumble under his breathe every now and then. He made his way down the line of shrubbery until- “Oh, yes here we are. Elsie come here, now.”

She hesitantly stepped toward him, as he frantically waved her over. “Hurry, now. You don’t want to be forgotten here, dear.” She drew even with him as he gestured her towards the hedge. “Go on.”

They stood there silent, motionless for many moments.

“Madrone, is something supposed to happen, I‘m not quite sure what I must do” Elsie confessed.

Madrone heaved yet another sigh, then stepped forward among the branches and leaves. Completely submerging himself into the plant. His entire body went through the hedge, yet not into. She could no longer she him even between the twigs and foliage, he had disappeared all together.

Elsie stood there in bewilderment. She had no motive as to what she should have done. Though Cheshery showed no fear; he leapt forward from Elsie’s hands head on into the hedge. She wasn’t as determined to enter the plant.

Placing a hand parallel to the hedge, she hesitated, then plunged it deep into the plant. Nothing. She felt nothing, as apposed to feeling the innards of the giant beast. A hand grasped hers; Elsie shrieked.

“Madrone- I…”

To Elsie’s left, Madrone’s head appeared. It said to her, “Go on, Elsie. It doesn’t hurt. It’s some sort of magic.”

She hesitated yet again. Yet, decided if it were possible for a person to leave their world and see another, then why should walking through a hedge. And so she proceeded into the plant, going invisible as she passed through it and onto the other side, an new and interesting place.

Together, Elsie, Madrone, and Cheshery stood little among a thick wooden area. A dirt path ran in either direction off into the dim gray horizon. This was a spiting image of the courtyard miles back. Death and decay lay everywhere they both looked. A thin fog was breaking out over the grounds as it appeared to be a little after sunrise (which was difficult to predict, since the sun was currently being strangled behind a full layer of dark rain clouds).

Across the path a quaint tiny cottage stood nestled between upturned tree roots and other debris. Shingles had fallen from the rickety roof. It appeared to be half the size of normal house found in Edinburgh.

“It’s still here,” was all Madrone could manage to say. He tripped and stumbled his way up the weed infested, cobblestone path, and eventually rapped roughly upon the door.

Elsie and Cheshery made their way slowly up the path to the front door, beside Madrone. A mailbox stuck out of the ground to her right, letters could be made out, yet what was written on it was completely illegible.

Madrone knocked at the door once more. And Elsie was surprised to have it answered. Yet, it opened just enough to give the person within room to peer outward from. A dark emptiness was all she could make out behind the door.

“Hello. Yes, what do you want,” came from within. Elsie heard a squeaky, little voice, which in turn suggested a small child or very frightened elderly person. “You have no business here at all, now leave.” The occupant made to close the door, but Madrone situated his foot before the door giving it no leeway.

“Panya is that you,” Madrone gasped. He leaned forward, face to face to the person inside. “Panya it is, isn’t?”

Silence came from within. The person inside was motionless, except his soft breathing.

“Excuse me? Who are you,” the squeaky voice asked. The opened the slightest bit. “How did you know my name?”

“It is me, Panya,” Madrone held his arms out presenting himself.

The door opened completely.

“M-master Madrone?”

“So all this time, you were alive? Though, not here…you were in another realm? What is this, Master?”

They had moved themselves into the lounge, Madrone took an armchair by an unlit grate filled almost entirely of ash. The little man who met them at the door, kneeled upon the floor at Madrone’s side. He couldn’t help but continuously poke Madrone slightly in non-belief. Elsie followed them, feeling forgotten at the doorstep, she chose to sit on in ottoman in the corner. Cheshery lay comfortable on her lap. The home was beautifully decorated with plenty of lavish items. Madrone obviously had money even before arriving in Edinburgh.

She watched patiently as the two men delivered their tales and caught up.

“Everyone said you had died- we had a funeral. Why would they do that?”

Panya Kwiggerwic, Elsie discovered, was Mr. Madrone personal and only servant back when he had lived in Terremerviel. And the house they all sat within was Madrone’s old home. Even though the exterior of the house was very petite, coming inside it appeared impossibly larger. Elsie noticed this, yet didn’t see the reason to ask.

“Life’s been difficult here, Master.” Panya admitted. “Having no one to order me around, tell me what to do, or how to do it. I’ve had to cope all alone.”

Madrone had said he called Panya the ‘doorman’ seeing as his duties mostly included fetching when the door rang and attended to Madrone’s many guests.

“After you had died- well, left everything changed. Horrible things began happening, yet no one knew why. I’ve done all I can to stay free from slavery- and the experiments. And yet, the king stands by, letting anything and everything be done nowadays.”

Panya was exceptionally small man of at most five feet. Actually not even a man, Elsie concluded that he was not much younger than herself; maybe seventeen or eighteen at least. His face was very boyish and simple, on his nose lay cracked and bent spectacles, magnifying his eyes many times there natural sizes. His clothes were all slightly too small for his figure. He wore button down gray shirt, a tiny, deep red vest, pants that met the middle of the shins, exposing striped socks and homemade shoes.

“Panya, boy, haven’t you brought any new clothes since I left,” Madrone asked.

He slowly shook his head, eyes trained on the floor.

“I have barely touched your home since you have,” Panya admitted. “It is all as it were, remember?” He gestured around the room, and Madrone rose from his chair and scanned the brick-a-brack around the room. He gently brushed the trinkets on the mantle, picking up certain ones here and there. He selected a painting of a young woman, a tear was all the response Madrone could handle.

He moved to a bare wall, caressed the wallpaper and breathed deeply. He pressed his hands firmly against the wall, and a snap was heard.

The wall opened up and exposed another room. Panya leapt to his feet and accompanied Madrone with the hidden door. He produced a feather duster from a back pocket and began cleansing the cobwebs from the walls within. Together they made their way into the hidden room.

Elsie followed again, but stood at the doorway. She smiled at Madrone’s facial expression. He was completely speechless looking around inside. The new room appeared to be a workroom, slightly less decorated than the room before. Work benches laden with all types of fabric and tools. Sketches of both men’s and women’s hats. And a thick layer of dust lay over everything. Panya had not lied about leaving everything alone. This must have been where Mr. Madrone had dreamed up many hats in hopes to someday open a shop.

“So in that other world you’ve finally opened a hat shop? Oh, Madrone that has been your dream since- well, I don’t know, but a very long time.” Panya smiled up into his face, however he appeared busy looking around for something specific.

“Where is it?” Was all Madrone said and Panya jumped and ran to a trunk on the floor. He balanced it up on two sawhorses, and persisted to sweep the dust off.

“I bet you’ve missed this for many years, Master.”

Madrone unlatched the locks of the trunk and the lid swung open. Elsie craned her neck to see what was inside the box, but Madrone stood directly before it, blocking the trunks innards from view. Cheshery leapt inside the trunk and inspected what was inside. He stood there breathless staring down into the chest, then leaning forward he dove his hands inside.

Retreating from the trunk, Madrone turned to face Elsie and Panya, beaming. For what was on his head meant the world to him. A top hat. A regular looking, ordinary, old top hat made of sleek black leather stood a top of Madrone’s scalp.

The three stared up in awe at them.

With his newly reunited hat, Mr. Madrone somehow looked complete, as if this whole time Elsie had seen and understood he was somehow unfinished. The hat had Madrone written all over it. It was himself. They were two that just belonged together.

Madrone whispered as a tear ran down his cheek, “I’m home.”