Castle Of The Lazy Clock

Vajdahunyad Castle, Budapest, Hungary..maybe?
7:07 PM

It took us almost half an hour to get back to the castle from the cabin with Maria, but when we reached one of the corridors with an old column clock, a strange thing happened: the time had barely passed in that half hour. It should have been at least seven thirty in the evening, but no matter how many clocks we looked at, they all said seven o'clock and seven minutes. This was completely impossible, as the walk to the hut was long enough to be tiring. This was not the only strange event we encountered, almost as strange as the strange passage of time was the behavior of the clocks that marked its passage, all were analog, just like the atmosphere of a Victorian Gothic era, but despite the fact that the second hand moved at its normal speed, the minute hand seemed to move very little if at all, regardless of how many times the second hand passed it, indicating that perhaps time had not stopped, perhaps it was just that the concept of one minute being the same as 60 seconds was not the same here. Continuing with the theme of technological regression, there was another quite curious one, and that was that in keeping with this world, the idea of a digital watch did not exist, simply none of the family guests had one, people just had pocket watches and nothing more.

When we arrived in the lobby, everyone started applauding and celebrating. My sister, the birthday girl, had arrived so the party could officially begin. In the background, my mother raised her voice to thank everyone for organizing the party and called Maria to the main staircase so that everyone could see her and celebrate with her. It was difficult for my sister to act with the sincerity of heart she had the first time, but it was understandable; she was aware that this dream or strange world was not real, unlike my mother who seemed to act like everyone else and did not seem to notice that things were out of place. But it didn't stop there, because even though we tried to stay in the background and go unnoticed, people started interacting with us. My mother's other sister, Aunt Nelsi, approached us to talk, and strangely enough, everyone started talking to me as normally as possible about modern topics, congratulating me on my return from the Continental War and my marriage, and even mentioning the news that one of my cousins had recently won the lottery. Each of the people we spoke to seemed to be the current version of themselves, as some things had changed since the last time, such as more confident people and more people with gray hair. But the conversations with the family also revealed something else that I think is worth noting: no one found my appearance strange in any way; they all recognized me as Cesar, Adelis' son, even though I was now a white fox girl. At no point did anyone ask about my tail, my ears, or even Tamamo's origins. It was too bizarre to see them act so familiar with me, even though I hadn't told anyone about my return from the dead or my sex change, things that were surely more obvious. Still, most of the questions were about what happened in the war, like the battle in Italy or the defense of Germany.

After navigating the lobby at a tortoise's pace amidst so many conversations and greetings, we managed to maneuver through the traffic until we reached our assigned table near Maria's, where we finally got to eat my mother's legendary peach tres leches cake. My sister mentioned that she had also been talking and had come to the same conclusions as I had, with comments about her significant improvement in health, while Tamamo mentioned that people recognized her as my wife, even though she did not know anyone, but she had a lot of fun talking to everyone and being recognized as just another person. It seems that my mother was not with us at that moment, as she was apparently tending to Uncle Jose, who had just been cut when a window broke as he fled in fear from Maria, so we weren't able to talk to her to find out if she knows we are in a dream or something like that. According to what the Goddess has seen with all the other guests, it's like they all think they're in the middle of one of their dreams, like they're all trapped in the same dream, and that's why they don't take it as seriously as they should, except maybe for my poor uncle Jose.

After the party food was served and consumed, it was time for music and dancing. People began to disperse again to continue chatting and catching up with each other, catching up on their lives and the changes that were happening. Maria decided to stay and talk to more people, while Tamamo would stay nearby in case anything happened. Meanwhile, I had to leave the castle because there was probably an important meeting waiting for me. According to the original story, I was supposed to meet my father at Heroes' Square in Hősök Tere Park at 8 o'clock to sneak away for a moment to watch an innocent final soccer match. But now the situation would be different; maybe this would be an opportunity to talk to him face to face about what had happened to him, so I was a bit excited to see him again. Although the time at the party had passed quite a while, there were still 15 strange minutes until 8 o'clock, or whatever the equivalent was in this world. So I stayed near the gardens, killing time while eating and drinking a little more - it was a party, after all, and the food wouldn't finish itself. But while I was waiting in the gardens, my grandmother unexpectedly appeared and spoke to me.

"Good to see you back with us, Cesar"
"I thought I would never see you again"
"Is everything okay in Japan?" She asked with a smile.

I looked at her for a moment and doubted how to answer, not knowing exactly what she was referring to.

"Yes, everything is fine."
"Right now Maria and I are going to school normally," I answered her in a simple way, knowing that it would get me nowhere.

"How strange, I thought you were much older to be working and not in school"
"That you didn't go to war?"
"But my mind isn't what it used to be, so maybe I was just dreaming"

"Yes, it could be that"

"So what?"
"Won't you tell me about the beauty up there?"

" Grandma, what do you mean?"

"Your wife, of course"
"Aren't you going to introduce her to me?"
"I've only seen her up there, but the very shy one and won't come down."

Every time my grandmother spoke, I was the one who had the most questions, because until then everyone had spoken normally, but my grandmother seemed to speak in a way that was confused, but dangerously close to the truth. But my grandmother was the typical Latin American grandmother, she was not someone who spoke with mysticisms, she spent all her life planting coffee or cooking for my grandfather, she was a lady who liked rumors and loved sweets. lift her flip-flop and show my mother that she still had a long way to go on the road to throwing Chancla, because not long ago I saw her hit my mother once when she forgot to take her to the medical center for being in a work meeting. But tonight I couldn't tell if she really knew what was happening or if what she was talking about was a coincidence that even she didn't understand.

"I'm sorry, but right now I think she went to the dresser"
"But I'm sure you can talk to her later."
"She would like that too"

"Or dear, but you know I'm not good with important people."
"I prefer to be here and hear the details without disturbing anyone."

"If you don't go, she'll come and talk to you eventually anyway."

"Too bad the other girl is not here with us to join us in our conversation."

"What do you mean?"

"The transparent girl, of course"
"Your other wife."
"She couldn't join us, remember?"
"I am sad to see that she did not attend this party"

The latter made me even more confused because in all the time we had been here, no one had said a word about her. Everyone took Tamamo for granted, but no one mentioned Momo. Even I had forgotten about her until my grandmother mentioned her. But I think my grandmother was right, because except for my father, everyone was in the castle at that time. I think if she had been trapped here, she would have appeared by now.

"Yeah well, she has her things to do," I said trying to make an excuse for the revelation my grandmother had given me.

"And how is the love between you?"
"Will I be able to see my grandchildren soon?"
"Only your sister and your cousin Brayan are left to have children."
"You don't want to be the last in the family, do you?" She said with a mocking smile.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't think I'll ever have children".
"If you know anything about biology, you will know that this is impossible for two girls."

"And what about Luna?"
"Isn't she your daughter?"

"Where the hell did you get that name?" I was so surprised that I even started to talk informally with my grandmother.

"Well, my mind is not what it used to be, maybe I just made it up and she never existed?"
"But even if it is real or not"
"Why are you so against having a child?"

"Grandma, you may not know"
"But believe me, just by looking at me, you can see that I would be a bad father"

"Why?"
"Just because you are afraid of the dark?"
"Your mother suffers from vertigo and that did not stop her when she had that job in that skyscraper"
"Or is it that you are afraid of losing another person like Nanami?"
"Are you afraid of being alone again?"

"Of course, yes"
"Do you think that if I have a child, I will be magically happy?"
"That all my problems will be solved?"
"'Raising a life is not something you can give up.
"It's something you have to carry forever"

"Of course I know what it means to create a family"
"Well, does this family rest on my shoulders or not?"
"No one would be here if it weren't for me and your grandfather"
"But what you say are just excuses"
"Tell me, what are you really afraid of as a father?"

"Just look at me!"
"I look like a ghost, I don't get old, I'm less than a meter and a half tall"
"Once a week something tries to kill me, people looking for the slightest chance to finish me off."
"Do you think this is a good time to think about having kids?"
"My whole life is ridiculous, and I am afraid that someone innocent will end up suffering because of me."

"I think you would make a good father," my grandmother said, looking at my face.
"The fact that you want to take care of those two twins even though they don't exist yet proves it.
"I'm sure the girl up there in the night sky would be proud to raise her daughters with a strong man who would protect them from any harm."
"I will tell you a secret."
"Before you were born, your father was the most cowardly man who ever lived."
"And one night, someone tried to rob the house where your mother and I were."
"When your father found out, he took a baseball bat and ran nonstop until he saved us."
"In those five minutes, I saw a man who was not afraid of anything to save his family."
"That's when I saw that really good parents are the ones who are with their family when they are really needed."
"You already have the courage and what it takes to be a good father, the only thing you need is to remember this advice and you will go further".

"Do you really think I'm going to be a good father?"

"My mind is not what it used to be, only you can really decide that now."

A huge campaign began to ring everywhere, first one bell, then another. They rang several times to indicate the beginning of a new hour, the eight bells clearly indicating what time of night it was. And when I remembered that I had to meet my father, I said goodbye to my grandmother to go to the forest where he was waiting for me.