At the door to the mansion, George felt uncomfortable.  He thought about the man he’d learned was his father, or so had been led to believe. George told Adele, “I don’t think I should go inside.”

“Then sit on the porch with me. I feel strange, like something is about to happen.  I can’t explain it, but I am afraid for you to leave my sight right now.”

George and Adele sat together on a marble bench facing where they could see in through a window and peek glances at a few people gathered in the ballroom. George asked, “Have you ever heard the term Thinkster?”

“I once encountered Louis quite by accident at the camp of a gypsy.” Adele laughed. “I’d heard of a fortune teller there being quite good. Louis was at the table with her when I entered the wagon. She called him a Thinkster. I thought it amusing that a man who professes to despise intellectuals being called a Thinkster. Course Louis is an intellectual and is not near the hack my husband says he is, but still it sounded odd and stuck in my mind. Why do you ask about the term?”

When George started to tell her that he’d learned that he might be something called a Thinkster, he stuttered.  He choked. He could not get the words out. Still he kept trying. It made him angry that something prevented him from telling her. As he kept trying to tell her, it became difficult for him to breathe. Not being able to breathe he fell from the marble bench onto the brick porch. His eyes closed and unconscious and conscious to another world he stood at the gates of Sitnalta. This time it was not Louis Napoleon at the gates with him, but Gurdy.

Gurdy screamed at him. “Why should I now dream about you and these gates? I hate these gates.  Why do I keep dreaming about these gates?”

Suddenly George was able to say what he had been unable to say to Adele. Oddly, it was not just Gurdy at the gates of Sitnalta who heard him, but Adele also heard him as she knelt over close to his face trying to get him to open his eyes. He said the words in both worlds. “I fear I am a Thinkster cursed to be ruled by the master of Sitnalta.” And with those words he vanished from Gurdy and woke in the arms of Adele.

Looking to see that no one was around Adele kissed George on the lips. Then quite shocked she heard the voice of her husband’s best friend calling to her from the now open window of the Ballroom, “I don’t think the young man needs resuscitation.”

Turning pale Adele looked up and stared at Sainte-Beuve.

George quickly stood up and walked to the window. “It is not what it looked like. I had a spell of sorts and she was trying to help me.”

“I saw through the window you were having a problem. I opened the window to ask Adele if there was anything I might do to help. But don’t take me for a fool. Still, I will not make an issue of what I saw for I know Adele is justified.”

Then George saw clearly how Sainte-Beuve looked at Adele. George walked back over to help Adele stand from where she was still crouched, seemingly unable to move because of shock and fear of what Sainte-Beuve might say to people. As George gave her a hand he gave her encouragement. He whispered to her, “The man will not hurt you. He is in love with you.” George walked her to the window where Sainte-Beuve still stood. George stated, “I am not your rival. Just as you will not make an issue, neither will I.”

Adele stated, “Sainte-Beuve is my husband’s best friend.”

George said, “Sainte-Beuve, I wish you and Adele well. I think it time for me to return to my impoverished world.”

Sainte-Beuve smiled. “Impoverished world or Sitnalta?”

“They are both the nightmare worlds where I belong.”

As George walked out of sight Adele said, “I wonder if a certain gypsy might be able to set him free from those nightmares.”

“So you visited the gypsy, Magadelion, who I told you about. What did she tell you?”

“That I would soon take a young lover who would teach me how to truly love. She said he would prepare me before I discovered the true love of my life was a man who loves my husband more than I.”

“What else did she say?”

Adele laughed.  “That I should send my young lover to her when I was through with him.”

“Magadelion really said that. I will have to tease her with that the next time I visit her.”