Chapter 17
Chateau de Pays m des Merveilles
'The time has come,'
the walrus said, 'to talk of many things: of shoes and ships - and sealing wax
- of cabbages and kings.' – Lewis Carroll
“The formalism of quantum theory did not come out of nowhere. It is the solution of a scientific problem and, as always in science, the problem was not primarily what mathematical formula best predicts the outcomes of experiments. It was what mathematical structures correspond best to reality. If we alter the ‘interpretation’ of the theory without regard to the second question, we can conjure up virtually any world we like. But it will not be the real world. The real world is the multiverse, and it does contain many universes.” – David Deutsch
“Welcome to Castle Wonderland,”
said Barry Allen with a bow and flourish, a wave of his hand at the ancient
chateau before them. It looked just as
it did in the pictures from the internet: Hundreds year old stone work, patched
here and there by concrete, windows that had to be three hundred years old, roses
at the gates, in full red bloom, grapes and kudzu climbing over the castle’s
sides. The only things that seemed out
of place were the automobiles parked out front, the radio tower and satellite
dish on the roof.
“How
old is this chateau?” Marie asked.
“Which
part? The newer sections are only five
hundred or so years old. The rest of the
place is about a thousand years old. It
was an old Cathar fortress, back in the day. Anyway, let me show you around a
little bit and introduce you about. Then
I’ll get your bags and show you to your room.”
“That
sounds great.”
“Super,”
he said, holding the gate open for her to enter to walled compound. She ducked under the grape vines which hung
from a trellis that ran about ten yards from the gate and emptied into a large
terrace overlooking the mountains and valleys.
She could hear the river below. A
light wind whistled through the trees of the wooded hills. Barry pulled open a heavy wooden door, and
made a gallant bow and welcoming gesture.
“Entre …”
Marie
curtsied and entered the chateau. She
hardly entered the foyer when she heard a voice off to her side.
“So,
this is the famed Marie Brabant I’ve heard so much about” said a female voice
with a BBC clipped English accent.
Marie,
turned to look in the direction of the voice and saw a dark-haired, slender
woman in her early fifties in a lab coat over a stylish dress suit. She looked vaguely familiar, but Marie could
not place her.
“Marie,
this is Jackie, er … Dr. Jacqueline Shellborne, our bio-physics experts” Allen
offered by way of introduction. “Jackie,
this is Marie.”
“I
don’t know that I’m famous,” Marie said humbly.
“Nonsense,”
came another voice, this one was male, and possessed a New York accent. The words came from the other side of the
foyer. “To us you are famous. We’ve been looking forward to meeting you
since we got your application. A real
live Merovingian descendant, it’s very exciting for us.”
His
hair was all gray, his face chubby and friendly, with a week’s worth of
stubble. He wore a green sweater over a
white button down shirt, and khaki slacks.
He walked forward with a hand extended.
Marie
quickly shook Dr. Shellborne’s hand and turned to greet the approaching man.
“Marie,
this is Stan, as we call him, sometimes Lord Stan, when he gets in one of his
moods, Dr. Stanley Wukowski, Co-Founder of Castle Wonderland and Professor of
Theoretical Physics at Princeton.”
Marie
bowed slightly, “It’s so nice to meet you both.”
Barry
turned to Stan, “Is she? Is that
confirmed?”
“Yep”
offered Jackie. “The doc called with the
results of DNA swab just an hour or so ago.
She’s a direct descendant of Clovis I, which is exciting. She’s also descended directly from Charlemagne,
Raymond VII, and there by the Plantagenets; fascinating genetics.”
Marie
was dumbfounded. “I’m sorry; I guess I
don’t understand why any of that matters.”
“It
matters,” said Stan reassuringly.
“I
thought I was just coming to help keep house and such?”
“You’ll
have a few chores, and plenty of time to yourself, but we’re going to need your
help with some of our experiments,” Wukowski continued.
Marie
shook her head, “I said in my application that I don’t have any experience with
physics at all. I got a D in Newtonian
Mechanics and failed Electricity and Magnetism at college. I don’t see how I can help you. I think you must have me mistaken for someone
else.”
“Trust
me,” Jackie said. “You’ll be able to
help us. But, that’s nothing for you to
worry about now. Get yourself settled. You have no responsibilities all week. Relax, enjoy the village. I’ll get Lew to show you around.”
“I’ll
do it,” offered Barry. “They won’t need
me down in the lab until tomorrow, right, Stan?”
Allen
looked at the older gentlemen and winked.
Marie noticed the wink. She could tell Barry didn’t think she
would. It made her feel good. She was feeling out of her depth talking to
the two scientists, and had a certain ominous unease at their words. Barry made her feel safe and protected.
“Come
on, I’ll get your bags and take you to your room. We’ll do the tour later,” the Flash’s namesake
smiled. He turned and addressed his
colleagues, “Did Doc mention that we ran into Wally?”
“He
did not,” said Jackie, “Problems?”
“Nah,
we lost him, but he was keeping tabs on Marie.”
“Fuck!”
exclaimed Stan. “How do those tiny
bastards do it?”
“We’ll
talk about it later, Barry,” Jackie cautioned seeing the concern return to
Marie’s face, “you’ll give us the full report after you get our guest settled
in.”
copyright 2017 Diana Hignutt
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