Royalty

It was always Jay here, Jay there. Oh isn‘t Jay just wonderful? Or… Nat, you should be more like Jay, isn’t she just perfect? Yes, Jay was perfect… for them. However, I knew more. I knew where she went at night. I am the one that knew what she was doing at night. However, does that interest anyone? No of course not, they would not even listen to me when I tried to tell them, for how could their little perfect Jay do something bad? How could their Jay do something that was not right?

Well, it didn't seem hard for her. Every night she waited until she thought everybody in the house was asleep, then she would creep out of her bed, put on some ugly boy clothes - that she kept hidden under her bed - and then she would open the window and jump outside.

I can still remember the night I followed her clear as day. It was the 10th of June 1814 and the church bells stroke midnight exactly. I had waited for her to climb out of her windows for two hours in the chilly darkness and finally she came, dressed in her boy ropes and with her long blond hair hidden under a big beggar’s hat. The moon was shining bright, sending her light it seemed, so she would be able to easily find her way. But she could have also found her way in total darkness. Soon after she jumped out of her window and landed gracefully on the garden, she quickly looked around to see if anybody saw her and then started running over the grounds towards the main gate.

As soon as she reached it, she slid through the tightly next to each other standing bars and was on her way again. Rapidly, I came out of my hiding place and followed her out into the streets. She was a fast runner, but in running I had always been faster. Still, I had to be careful to not betray that I was there, which repetitively slowed me down. Nevertheless, I promptly caught up with her again. She was running toward the docks, the place where usually everyone kept away from at night, for the drunken sailors and the thieves took everybody as their victim as soon as they saw someone.

It was a horrible place and deadly especially for 14 year old girls. So what was she doing there? Which business could she have that was important enough for her to go into this death trap? I had asked myself. Well, I was about to find out.

Soon after she entered the fateful streets that lead past the docks, she slowed down until she walked. She walked just like she did when she went through the thousand of hallways in your house, as if she belonged here, as if this was her territory. Every now and then she looked around. She was waiting for something to happen and something did happen. Before long, a boy showed up in front of Jay, he had moved soundlessly and I nearly jumped as I suddenly saw him. Yet when Jay saw this person in front of her, she didn't jump or seem surprised by his sudden appearance; she relaxed and started to smile, a smile that I had never seen on her before, a real smile. The person in front of her was a boy, around 15 or 16, he was pale like most people in Boston but it showed even more through his black hair and night black robes. He also smiled, showing Jay his surprisingly pretty white teeth.

“Benjamin, it’s good to see you again, you were gone for so very long. The boys started questioning about your sudden disappearance,” Jay told this boy as if she had known him in years, which she probably had.

“Yes? Oh well, they probably were scared that their King could dump them and their Queen,” both of them started laughing uncontrollably after the boy - Benjamin it seemed - commented to Jay’s remark.

Now I was terribly confused, what were they talking about? Moreover, who were this King and Queen? They couldn’t have meant the King of England could they? For why would he dump his wife and us? But most importantly, who was that boy? All those questions went through my mind as I watched my sister and this Benjamin talk from behind a stack of sailormen sacks.

Nothing more had happened that night, so I followed Jay as she walked back home and slip into her room. While following her example and slipping into my own room, I promised myself to ask her what all of what happened was about and meant. And the very next day, I did so. However, she didn't answer me. She only gave me one of her fake smiles again and said, “I’ll tell you another time,” and even though I thought she lied at that time like so many other times before, she kept her promise. Shortly before she was to be hanged, she told me of her life, everything that had happened too her throughout it, leading me into the greatest story I ever could have imagined… Imagine… That is how she had started her story…

“Imagine you were…”