Chapter 1: Present Day, Nashville, Tennessee

I stood there before the large plate glass window that made up the rear wall of my house and looked out at the fountain and the lake beyond, already illumined for the evening. The fountain was a small-scale reproduction of its famous predecessor with Poseidon riding his horses in the ocean froth. The moon shining down on the blue translucent color of nature’s icing, drizzled on the trees by one of the infrequent freezing rains against the dark background created an ethereal vision, drawing up past memories from the deep recesses in my mind.

It was an unusual sight for the Nashville area, which was generally immune to extended cold streaks — but every once in a while, we too had a winter weather treat.

The view was, of course, the raison d’etre for the transparent wall of glass in the room and one of the major selling points for the homes in this rather exclusive and gated community.

The scene had been created in this Tennessee town as an obvious homage to the view one would see from the ‘Hall of Mirrors’ at the rearmost wall of the Palace of Versailles. Of course the name of the development, ‘Versailles Villas’, was a dead giveaway even to the least versed potential buyer, along with the photographs of Louis’ famous palace in the sale’s office of the original room for the truly obtuse.

As I looked back at the Potemkin village — the imitation Versailles — once again I was thrown into my own personal hell — infinitely sad memories of earlier times.