The Antelope's Journey

29. I saw the imposter!

“Oh, I’m telling you.” The fierce woman screamed atop her voice. She spoke with so much force and objection. “There’s an imposter in the palace! I have seen her. I have seen her many times with my two eyes.”

This woman was once a servant working in the palace, and she had been fired along with many other servants when Mrs. Peterson took over the palace. At first, she felt spiteful for being fired. She wanted to find out why and what she had done to be treated that way. She thought that she was treated unfairly. So, she went on to spy on the palace. She kept a close eye on the palace. Later, she realized that all of the palace servants were kicked out of the palace.

Word was passed around that the king and queen wanted to be alone for a while. Everyone was banned from entering the palace from there on, even the Kingdom ministers were not allowed back into the palace. The people in the Kingdom only thought that this was for a short while, they never expected it to go on for a decade. A lot of what the woman knew now was her conclusion of her findings. Her conclusion was made from intuition in the end. She had concluded that there was no way the King and Queen would shut down the palace and chase all else out. She had speculated and has thus concluded that their King Queen were held hostage in that palace.

Over the years she never gave up on spying on the palace. She kept a very close eye, though the palace secret was heavily protected. She went and rallied people into her suspicions. She created a secret movement and now, she thought she was ready to confront the palace.

“The imposter has taken our king and queen hostage. Trapped in the palace dungeon for a decade now. Are they still at this point?”

She took a pause to have her companion speak on. The language would penetrate deeper if more voices spoke. “I can attest to what she has just said. I have seen the imposter too… with my own two eye, I say. Draped in our queen’s silk and lace, adorned in the fanciest of jewelleries and parading the palace like it was hers…”

Meanwhile, Mrs. Peterson was a bit shaken. The rebels claimed to have seen her face many times. That then meant that they could identify her any time in the crowd. It did prick her to think that they may have seen her, because she always thought that she was careful. “Well, I guess you can never be careful enough,” Mrs. Peterson sighed to herself—

“Excuse me!” a man standing right next to her cried. He had his hand up wanting to be seen. The people standing in front of him split apart to make him visible enough. Mrs. Peterson was exposed as well. For that moment she stood still and stuck. What would happen next? She wanted very badly to move away but her anxiety strictly warned her against such suspicious idea. She stood stuck and chin down trying to hide her face.

“You!”

Mrs. Peterson could not bring herself to lift up her chin and maintain eye-contact.

“No,” the man said, “it’s me asking a question.”

It was a relief.

“Oh, then speak. What do you want to ask?”

“You said a lot of things. You made a lot of accusations to some hypothetical palace imposter. But your words are not backed. I heard you worked in the palace…”

“I did.”

Mrs. Peterson was only relived that she was not caught. At some point she lifted her head and caught the rebel woman’s eyes. This was terrifying. They stayed like that, in each other’s eyes. There was an adrenaline rushing through Mrs. Peterson as the woman gave an intense stare. It seemed like a stare of recognition. If it happened that the woman points her out, she would be over with. The mob would then seek its own justice against Mrs. Peterson. Although, Mrs. Peterson was strong and capable, it was, however, unrealistic that she would beat them all.

The rebel woman’s eyes went back to the speaking man. He continued, “And you were fired. Because you were fired, you have decided to seek vengeance on the palace. Because you were fired, today here you stand spreading propaganda. Is that not so?”

“I was not the only one fired.”

“Indeed, a lot more were fired but you are the brazen one to seek revenge…”

“You want something to back my words, sir? You want proof? Your proof is over those walls!” she pointed. “The imposter won’t let us in? We force our way in! The imposter has locked all doors? We tear the walls down. My friends, my neighbours, I know we all have questions… We all wonder what is going on in that palace. Why have we not seen our king and queen in so many years? Could have something happened to them? We waited for them to come out but the years wasted away and their faces continue to erase from our memories. Brothers! Sisters! We want the truth!”

WE WANT THE TRUTH!!!!

This was devastating news for Mrs. Peterson. The rebel movement had grown this much over the years. Now the villagers were buying in on the movement. It was sure to happen that they would certainly tear down the walls at some point soon. The news was weighing in on Mrs. Peterson. She was all up in her head.

“Hey, were have you been?” Francina asked as they finally bumped in Mrs. Peterson who was drifting away from the cheering crowd. Kali standing next to Francina could not stop panting. The bag that they were dragging was very heavy. Kali was not a very good heavy weight lifter. This was a relief for him to finally get a short rest again. He had let go off the bag as Francina spoke with her mother.

“We’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Francina continued, “We found him a bag, it should be safe to bring him into the village now.”

“Oh, great job.” Mrs. Peterson said, “I’ll carry him over my shoulder—”

“No, I’ll carry him for you,” interrupted a familiar voice. Mrs. Peterson turned and she saw her worst nightmare. The rebel woman was standing right there…