2. A Rose of Many Colors

It was a beautiful summer day. The sun was shinning in the sky with fluffy clouds of the deepest white scattered against the light blue background of the sunlit sky. Talissa was thinking about her lack of a satisfactory social life when she heard the sound of a lawn mower. Her disquieting dreams flooded up into her consciousness at the sound. Almost every night she had had the dream about a man mowing the lawn. She felt compelled to go to her bedroom window and look out. She looked down at the lawn. There was someone mowing the lawn just like she remembered from her dream. He glanced up at the window. She felt a chilling tingle explode through her entire body. She knew that face! She had dreamed about it many times. She stood there transfixed watching the man move the mower over the lawn. Sometimes he would be looking in her direction, and she could clearly see his face. It was exactly the face from her dream. She felt confused, unsettled. One part of her wanted to turn from the window, but she could not. Her heart began beating faster and faster as she gazed down at his face. It was a handsome face. She even felt that somehow it was a perfect face for her.

She felt like she was sinking deep within the hidden desires of her heart. She felt her passion pounding against the restrictions of life on her inner self. Her heart was beating faster and faster within her as she gazed at his face. Nobody else was there. She was alone. She felt free to look deep inside, inside that special place where she kept all her secrets and hidden desires. Somehow…somehow, even though he was a low class worker, she had to meet this man. She felt a sense of compulsion. She fought against the feeling, and turned her face away from the window. It was not right! She was a princess and her life could not include such dangerous feelings. With wavering resolve, she walked away from the window, out of her bedroom, and back into the realities of her life.

Late that same night, Talissa sat at her open bedroom window and gazed up at the stars. She wanted to go home. It was a moment where every thing just stopped. She looked deep inside herself and pushed aside all the rules and restrictions that always held her back. She was in her own world now, a world of unrestricted imagination. She felt free to gaze upon her own desires, unclouded by the fear of what others might think.

For now, there was nothing up there in stars. She knew that there might never be anything up there for her ever again. The future out there was insubstantial and vague. She no longer felt like waiting for maybes and what could be, but no longer was. The gardener was very much below her place in life, but she felt her unfulfilled desires tugging at her heart. Her former life was a fuzzy mist of lost possibilities, but the gardener was here, close to her. Something that she could reach out and pull into her world of right now. She did not even know his name. She imagined that he was more than he could possibly be. He was the answer to her loneliness and isolation. He listened to the hidden song in her heart, as he had done so often before in her dreams. Talissa could see an iridescent rose in her mind’s eye. It was pulsating shades of red, then orange to golden yellow. It was reflecting the turbulence in her heart, the instability in her life. Then light green shades flowed up from the stem and leaves into the petals which then vibrated into a deep sky blue that slowly became a bright shimmering indigo. She saw that the rose no longer had thorns and felt a sense of stability in her heart that expanded into a feeling of limitless possibilities flowing out from her heart into her body. The light of the moon reflected off a billowing cloud above and touched her lonely eyes with a sense of hopefulness. Maybe he was only a phantom in her mind of better things, but she felt that she had to discover the truth. She had to find out why he dwelled in her dreams.

A few weeks after he had started his new job, Adam saw two people walking on the mansion grounds whom he had never seen before. Until that time, the only other person that he had seen around the mansion was Monsieur Louverture’s wife. She was a rather tall woman with auburn curly hair, a complexion that was dark orange-brown and a long slender nose. There was a certain delicate proportion to her face that he had never seen before in another person and that he could only describe as exotic. He rarely saw Madame Louverture and had only spoken with her once briefly when she was introduced to him by her husband.

He had never wondered whether anyone else lived in the mansion. Then one day, while he was digging some weeds out of a flower bed, he saw the two people walking through the garden. They were speaking a language that he could not identify. As they passed by, they paid no attention to him. They were a young man and a young woman who appeared to be in their late teens. The male had slightly unusual skin with large irregular light-brown freckles on a peach colored background. He was wearing a light orange, short sleeved, cotton shirt and loose denim trousers. He was tall with a medium build and a face that was reminiscent of a lion, in part because of his full, shoulder length, light brown wavy hair that swayed slightly as he walked.

The female was beautiful. She had an elfin face with a straight slender nose that was delicately rounded at the end and curved slightly upwards. Her skin was a light orange-brown and her long straight hair was a mixture of wavy red, orange and golden strands. Her body was proportional and full. She was wearing a light green sun dress with floral print that had petals that matched the colors of her hair. Just above her wrists were matching bracelets of light silvery gold inlaid with red, violet, and blue colored jewels. For a moment, it seemed to Adam that she was glancing in his direction, but her face turned quickly away as the couple continued walking.

The sight of this woman caused Adam a rush of sensation that he had for the most part suppressed during his life. He was six feet tall and of slender build. He knew he was not ugly, but he was certainly did not think of himself a hunk either. He felt that he had never had enough money, muscles, musical talent, or GQ style with which to attract women, and any attempts at a love life had been enormous failures from the beginning of adolescence. Although he had always wanted romantic involvement, he had long ago resigned himself to the fact that he was never going to be even a dim shadow of Casanova.

For the next several days he did his best to free his mind from reoccurring thoughts of the woman in the garden. The memory of her face was beginning to fade when he saw her again. He was pruning some dead branches from an apple tree next to the mansion when he saw her looking out of a second story window. The window was open and he could see her face clearly. She was as radiantly beautiful as his first memory of her in the garden. He could not stop himself from staring at her. She seemed to be gazing off into the distance. After a few minutes, she turned from the window and was gone. He kept looking back at the window hoping that she would return, but she did not. When work was over, he drove home the long way, his mind filled with the memory of her face.

During the next few weeks, he saw the woman of his daydreams several times around the mansion grounds. Most of the time she was walking alone. Occasionally she was in the company of the lion-faced male, and twice he saw her sitting on the verandah with Monsieur and Madame Louverture. He neither tried to speak with her nor ask about her because he did not have the courage. But she inspired such emotion in him that he worked and studied harder than ever before. His fantasy life focused on her. He bought a set of weights and included them in his morning exercises. He was hoping beyond desire that there would be something that he could do to attract her.

As summer faded into early autumn, Talissa almost continually felt an inner compulsion to meet the gardener. She now knew that his name was Adam from hearing her father talk about how hard-working and meticulous of an employee he was. She thought about him every day. She would sometimes stare out the window and watch him working. She would walk through the grounds just hoping to catch a furtive glance of him. She had to do something. She felt it was ridiculous to let this obsession remain unresolved. Maybe she would not even like him if she actually met him and talked to him. That would solve the problem. She had to take action. She was wasting too much of her mental energy thinking about him, and the dreams about him were becoming more and more intricate and emotionally intense. She left the mansion and began looking for him. Maybe she could catch him in a place where they would not be seen by her family. It would not be proper for a princess such as herself to be seen engaging in mundane conversation with a common laborer.

Adam was working late in the orchard spreading small rocks around the base of a tree. The air was still warm in the fading daylight, and the full moon was rising over the approaching twilight. Adam was thinking about getting back home and taking a relaxing bath. Night was touching the sky above when he had finish spreading the last of the little stones. Then he heard a sound behind him and turned to see what it was.

She was standing there, not ten feet away from him, like a pastel image from a dream in the shadowy moonlight. They stood looking at each other without saying a word. He wanted to speak but no words would leave his lips. A fiery resolve seized his heart. He did not know if she spoke English, but he was sure that she spoke French.

“Ça va?” he said.

“Ça va bien,” she softly replied.

“Même dans le crépuscule, votre beauté est comme l’aurore du printemps.” (Even in the twilight, your beauty is like the spring dawn.) He had not planned to say this; it just came stumbling out.

“What?”

“I’ve seen you around the mansion grounds but I haven’t had a chance to speak with you.”

“My name is Talissa.”

“That’s not a French name.”

“Nonetheless, it’s my name. It’s a…Haitian name.”

“I’m Adam.”

“I know.”

“I am enchanted to make your acquaintance.”

“I am enchanted too.”

There was a brief silence as they stepped closer to each other. He was thinking about how musical her voice sounded.

“Uh…tell me something about yourself,” he clumsily said.

“It is not good to say too much on the first encounter,” she said and drew closer until her face was only inches away from his. The scent of her perfume was prefect. He could feel his heart beating in his chest. He felt the tension in his neck and shoulders. He knew he was supposed to say some thing back, but his mind was blank. All he could do was stand there for the moment, speechless, transfixed by her eyes. In the spreading twilight, her eyes seemed to be violet in color, like two exotic flowers. He thought of the first time he had seen her, and other times as well. She had always been too far away for him to notice her eyes, but he had notice her other beautiful features many times before. ‘This isn’t the first time,’ he thought, ‘it’s just the first time up close.’

“This is not our first encounter,” he said softly. “I’ve seen you many times. This is just the first time that we’ve spoken to each other.”

“My name is Talissa,” she repeated as she felt herself shaking inside. “I am Prospère’s daughter. You are the gardener. I really must be going now, but perhaps we will have the occasion to speak with each other later.” As she said this, she moved her face closer to his until their noses almost touched. She really did not want to leave. She wanted to get closer and closer to him. She wanted to touch him, to feel that he was real. She felt so confused. She did not know what to say, and she did not want to say something foolish. Yet she felt the need to talk with him, but what was there to say to him really? She knew that it was not possible that they would have anything in common. And yet, she felt a unique sense of connection with him, like an energy was flowing from her heart to his and back again, over and over like surging ocean waves. The thought came to her that she had to keep in control of herself, or she would drown in wild and foolish emotions, and that would be so improper for a princess. She took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind and think of what she should do next, but all she could do was stand there gazing into his eyes.

“Look,” she finally said, “I’ve seen you working around here before, and I just thought that it would be polite to say ‘hi’ to you.”

Another uncomfortable silence danced between them for a moment, then she added, “I mean, you seem like an interesting person. What do you like to do?”

Talissa felt so awkward after she said this. ‘How could a commoner be interesting to a princess? And why would a princess be interested in him?’ Yet she knew, down deep, that she was interested in him, very interested. She had spent so much of her waking hours thinking about him, and she dreamed about him every night. She felt compelled to just stand there hoping for an answer that would please her.

“Well… I like to read, read about history and languages. I’m kind of good with languages…” Adam felt that this was not a fascinating answer that would impress the beautiful woman standing right next to his face. It occurred to him that they had both invaded each others personal space, and neither one of them was backing up. He felt like moving his lips forward to touch her lips with his, but that, he knew, would be stupid.

“Yes,” she replied. “I noticed that you speak French, which is unusual for an American. That’s impressive for a common worker.” A smile enlivened her face for a moment as she said this, then she felt more awkward than before. She had called him a common worker to his face. She was afraid that this would upset him. She did not want him to be upset…no…she wanted him to kiss her. She felt ashamed at this realization. This was not how a princess was supposed to feel. Yet all she could do was stand there, entranced by his presence, waiting for him to reply.

“Yea, I have to work a lot. I’m saving up for college. I’m not totally sure what I want to be though, but your dad giving me this job really helps out. It pays more than the two jobs put together that I was doing before.”

Talissa felt relieved that he had not taken offense, and she wanted to keep him talking. She took a step back to lessen the electricity between them and said, “What were your two jobs?”

“I worked for a landscaper and I washed dishes at a Chinese restaurant.” He was silent a moment as he search for something more to say. “The noise there gave me a chance to practice my languages. Sometimes, I would recite some poetry to myself just to get through the boredom.”

“Poetry?” said Talissa hopefully, “Do you like poetry?”

“Well…uh…yes,” he replied cautiously. “I’ve memorized a few French poems and…sometimes…I…uh…even write some.”

“Really.” Talissa was delighted. Maybe he had an artistic side that would somehow make him more acceptable.

“Yea, they’re kinda personal though. I never show them to other people.”

“Would you show them to me?”

“Maybe…I don’t carry them around on me though.”

“Did you memorize any of them too?”

“Well, yea, some of them.” He had in fact memorized one that he had written about her after the first time he had seen her in the garden, but he was not going to tell her that.”

“Say one.” She wanted to see if he had any talent.

The poem that he had written about her flooded his mind. He stared at her, unsure about whether he could even recite it for her.

“Go on,” she prodded, “Please.” She delivered the last word with a beaming smile that melted his heart and his fear.

“Do you understand English?” He asked.

“Yes,” she replied smiling, and he began.

“Fairies in the garden fly,
One came near to make me sigh.
The other ones I could not see,
But this one was real to me.

An elfin face and golden hair,
All very delicate and fair.
From such a distance I could tell,
More beautiful than Tinkerbell.

She walked along within my view,
But there was nothing I could do.
Shimmering magic in the air,
Sweet melodies caress my ear.
A flowery jewel within my heart,
Nature’s perfect work of art.

I think about her everyday,
Wishing that there was a way,
A way to talk to her and say,
The song my heart would love to play.”

Talissa did not know why at the moment for her mind was dazed, but she truly liked the poem. She felt like the poem was for her and only for her. A brilliant feeling had radiated forth from Adam’s face the entire time he was saying it, and she felt it, physically felt it, touch her entire body like sunshine on a perfect spring day. She stood there silent, trying to think of something more to say. “Who’s Tinkerbell?”

“A pixie, a magical creature from a book.”

“Do you like magical creatures?” Talissa felt her jaw tighten, that was a stupid question to ask.

“Right now, you’re a magical creature, so I’d have to say yes.” Adam could not believe that he had just said that, but he felt like it was a fairly good response.

“Thank you.” Talissa smiled. She liked that, but she was also beginning to feel a little uncomfortable and confused. She felt like they should go somewhere, sit down, and have a long conversation, but she also knew that that was not something to consider for the moment. She needed time to think about what had just happened and felt the need to escape until she had things under control.

“Maybe we can talk again later, but I really really have to be going now.”

“Okay.” Adam did not want the conversation to end but he could not think of anything to do to keep it going. His mind felt fuzzy, and he realized how tired he was from working all day.

Then Talissa half smiled and said, “A bientôt.” She turned and started walking back towards the mansion as the twilight darkened around them.

“A bientôt,” he weakly replied as his knees almost gave out from under him. He actually staggered a moment as he watched her walking away. There was a misty radiance of golden light that he saw in his mind around her receding form. It sparkled in his head with surging feelings of longing, desire, and confusion.

While driving home that evening, Adam had an unsettled feeling where he wanted to control the whole world, or at least what seemed to him to be the whole world, but he knew that he could not. He had always avoided situations where he felt no control, but he did not want to avoid this. He wanted to be with her, then and always. He wanted to hear her voice, smell her fragrance. He wanted to touch her, hold her. She had been so close to him only minutes before, and now he had to be cool. to wait, to see what happened next. He wavered between thinking nothing more would ever happen, and thinking that just maybe something could happen. He could only hope that something more would happen and that it would be what he desired. Yet he felt that he was only dreaming. She was the daughter of a rich businessman. He was only a gardener whose entire fortune was in the hands of her father. Hardly a situation from which dreams are realized.

He had always prided himself on the fact that when there was someone on television speaking a foreign language, he could usually understand a large part of it without reading the subtitles. The language of love was an entirely different matter. Even with subtitles, he would have been confused. And it was so important to him to understand. He had never had a love affair in his life. If he would have ever managed to kiss a woman, he was sure it would have been as awkward as a baby giraffe doing ballet. He had no idea what his next move should be.

Fred was reading a book on the front room sofa when Adam arrived home. The light in the room was dim. Fred liked to read in dim light for some reason. He said it helped him concentrate. Adam coming through the door broke his concentration.

“What up?” said Fred, then seeing the look on Adam’s face, he continued. “You all right? … You look a little out of it.”

“Something happened at work and I don’t know what to make of it.”

“Trouble with your boss?”

“No, it’s not anything like that. I love my job. It’s a great job and my boss is way cool. I mean sometimes Monsieur Louverture gives me as much as two or three days off with pay. He tells me not to come back until such and such a day and I figure that, if Monsieur Louverture wants to pay me to take a lot of days off, then who am I to disagree. My new income level has allowed me to buy a better car and a new personal computer, as well as save substantial amounts for college. It’s something totally different.”

“Well, what is it then?”

“A girl.” Adam looked intently at Fred. He had not mentioned Talissa to anyone, only because he did not think there was any reason. It was not as if he had ever actually expected to meet her, let alone talk to her in such a personal manner, nor recite his poem to her. That alone made him feel somehow naked and exposed.

“A girl?” Fred raised his eyebrows, “What do you mean by ‘a girl’?”

“I mean that I talked to a girl who’s really hot. She’s… she’s the most beautiful woman that I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Does she work at the mansion? Talking to a female at work has never affected you like this before…Oh! I get it, she’s really hot and you acted like an idiot.”

“No, I didn’t! I did all right. I even recited my love poem for her!” Adam tensed. He wished he hadn’t said that.

“Huh? Poem? What are you talking about? What poem?”

“The poem I wrote about her after I first saw her.”

“I never knew you to write a poem. And what do you mean by ‘first saw her’?”

“She’s Monsieur Louverture’s daughter. I’ve seen her a few times around the mansion, but I never expected to talk to her. I mean she gorgeous, and her dad’s rich. And why would she want to talk to a loser like me? But she did. I was getting ready to leave work, and I looked up, and there she was, and somehow we started talking. I even felt like kissing her. I mean, I wouldn’t try that but I felt like it. God, I’m confused. I have no idea what to do.”

“Well, what do you want to do? Get all hot and heavy with her?”

“Don’t put it like that! I just want to get to know her better.”

“Hold on, little buddy. Start at the beginning. I want to know what we’re dealing with here, and if all this emotion that you’re displaying has any basis in actual fact. Ok, so she’s hot. There’s plenty of hot women around. It’s hardly a reason to get so worked up when one talks to you.”

“That’s easy for you and Erik to say, but I usually freeze up. I sort of did this time too, but it was different. I can’t explain it. There was a feeling there like she liked me.”

“Okay. But start at the beginning. What happened first? Did she come up to you and start talking first, or did you walk up to her and start talking first?”

“She came up to where I was working and just stood there. She didn’t say anything so I finally said ‘hi’ to her in French.”

“That’s smooth, talking French, I mean. Did she understand you?”

“Sure. They’re from Haiti, but they don’t look like it. Mr. Louverture is sort of dark but his wife and the girl don’t look like it at all.”

“What’s the girl’s name?”

“Talissa.”

“So what did you say to her?”

“Not that much really. She told me her name and that she was Prospère’s daughter, and when I told her my name, she said she already knew it. I didn’t even know for sure that she was Mr. Louverture’s daughter exactly. I’ve seen her on the mansion grounds a few times, sometimes with another male, but I didn’t think it was my place to ask about them.”

“Go back. You said she already knew your name. Interesting.”

“What? Why’s that?”

“If she already knew your name, it means that you’ve come up in some conversation and she was interested enough to remember it.”

“So?”

“So she was interested enough to remember it. It might mean a lot of things, but it could mean that she’s noticed you. And since she came to where you were to talk, putting two and two together tends to indicate that she has some kind of interest in you. Women, especially hot ones, do not put any effort out there to talk with a guy unless they have a reason.”

“You think so? I mean, she’s a rich kid. What would she see in me?”

“Who knows, but actions speak louder than words, and she had to put some effort into it to end up where you were by herself and talk to you.”

“Maybe she was just being polite to the hired help.”

“Yea, right,” Fred smiled. “You are so clueless sometimes.”

Adam could not disagree with Fred’s observation. He paused a moment to let what Fred had just said sink in. Could it be possible that Talissa was interested in him? To his way of thinking, women were never interested in him.

“And what’s this about a love poem?”

Adam’s face flushed red with embarrassment. He did not feel like telling Fred about the extent of his infatuation with Talissa but he had already blurted out too much.

“OK, I sort have a crush on her from seeing her around and I wrote a poem about it.”

“And you said the poem to her?”

“Yes.”

“And did you tell her that you wrote it for her?” Fred asked with a hint of concern in his face.

“No.”

“Good,” Fred smiled.

“Why’s that.”

“Most girls would think that it’s kind of weird to write a love poem for someone you haven’t even met yet. It would be a big turn off, kind of like you were a stalker or something.”

“Oh.”

“So how did you end up reciting the poem to her? This had better be good.”

Adam then gave Fred a more detailed account of what happened between them in the orchard.

“Well, it doesn’t sound like you totally goofed it up at least. What do you want to do about it now?”

“I’d like to find a way to talk to her more, but I can’t really think of anything.”

“Me neither, for the time being at least, but keep me posted.”

Adam though about what Fred had just told him. Was it possible that Talissa was interested in him? He could not come up with a reason why she should be, but Fred had laid down some evidence that he himself would never have noticed nor taken into account. Still he felt hopeless. What could he do? Ask her on a date? That would be foolish. This was the best job that he had ever had, and he did not want to risk losing it. Even if he could get Talissa to go out with him, what if something went wrong? And he doubted that Monsieur Louverture would approve of his daughter dating someone who lived in a middle class apartment. They lived in a mansion, so he knew that he had nothing to offer. Adam felt that it was indeed hopeless. He wished he could come up with a plan that would make things happen, but he knew that anything he could think of would be nothing more than muddled fantasy. Adam did not feel happy about the situation, but fortunately for him, Talissa would soon have her next move all planned out.

Talissa knew down deep that she did like him, liked him a lot, liked him too much. But that was what she was feeling, and at the moment, she did not care whether it was right, she only cared about how she felt. Over two years of virtual isolation, and now, Adam had become a sparkling light in the dreary landscape of her current reality. He did have artistic ability. She liked the poem, and he had somehow become that man in her dreams when he recited it to her. It was almost as if the poem had been for her, but that was not possible because they had only just met.

She felt that she had to get him alone where her family would not know about it, get him alone to talk to him more. But how? Maybe she could tell her mother that she was going to the mall, and somehow arrange with Adam to meet her there. That would work. It was not as if anyone would recognize her. She was a nobody here. No one even knew of her existence other that a few of her father’s business associates. And Adam, Adam now knew of her existence. And she could feel deep inside in that special place where she kept all of her secrets that what she wanted right now was Adam. She knew that he was only a dream, and yet he had become a reality. The confusion surged inside of her like a raging wave. Still, she knew what she desired. She knew what she wanted for herself in this special place and this special time, and it was Adam. Adam had come out of her dreams into her reality, and he was right there just waiting for her to act on her desire. It was such a powerful thing! She could feel and see her desire so clearly. The excitement and longing she felt was extremely strong. She had to give herself the permission to take on this exciting new direction in her life. Her old life was meaningless now in face of these new emotions that were swelling through her again and again. She resolved to act on her desires and make something happen. She knew that she could no longer allow herself to be the restricted princess who was waiting for unfulfilled promises to occur. She knew it was now time to be a real woman in this brave new world, ready and eager to take on a dangerous new direction in her life.

Two days after their short conservation in the orchard, Adam was working in the storage shed putting some things away before he went home. It was late in the afternoon. He heard the shed door creak on its hinges, turned to look, and there she was.

“Someone who works as hard as you do should take some time to relax,” Talissa said. He was momentarily speechless as they stood there looking into each other’s eyes in the dim light of the shed’s dusty window. Her dress was cut short and tight against her body. He thought to himself that Michelangelo could not have sculpted such perfect proportions. He looked back up into her deep violet eyes and felt entranced.

“Uh…I do relax after work. But I’m not very sure that most people like to relax the way I do.”

“What do you do to relax?”

“I’ve already told you that I read. On Wednesdays and Saturdays I sometimes go to the library to play chess. I watch TV, draw pictures, or write poetry. And I spend a lot of time learning foreign languages.”

Talissa knew about the poetry. She now wondered if he was any good at art too, but she was not going to mention it now because she had a purpose here that she wanted to accomplish.

“Do you ever go out to eat with your friends or go to a party to socialize?”

“Yeah. Sometimes.”

“Do you know where the Asian Grill is, just down the street from Briar Springs Mall?”

“Yes.”

“Would you meet me there this Saturday at 5:30?”

“Sure!”

“Good. I’ll see you then. Remember that you have given me your word. I must go now.” And she was out the door before he could say another word.

Talissa walked slow back to the mansion, musing about what she would do when she met with Adam. She had to find out more about him. Didn’t he just say that he drew pictures too? The poem was an indication of artistic talent, and in her world, social status was always given to the most artistic. It had been that way for a very long time, for many generations. Who was she kidding? Even if he turned out to be the most gifted artist ever, he would never be acceptable; he was not from a noble family. He did not have the proper lineage to be considered acceptable. But then, did it even matter considering the present situation? Those evil people who had seized power wanted her entire family line eliminated, so that they would be secure from substantial challenge to their newly wrought position. And if things did not work out as her father was planning, and if she was forced by circumstances to spend the rest of her life hiding in exile, then at least Adam might be a warming light in a dim and otherwise dreary existence. She had to find out. She wanted to know who he truly was. And she needed to know why he continually invaded her dreams. Was he some kind of mage, somehow magical, or were there other reasons? The only way to discover the truth was to talk to him and find out the reality of this man from her dreams.