The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry

I’m Bill, you know the one that thinks it’s all about the food? Maybe that is true, but it isn’t my fault, after all, men since before cavemen have been the hunter gatherers. That was our main job. Find food. So, you see, because I’m a guy, I was naturally born with it. Besides, my mother told me to eat so I could get big and tall. I did, and now I’m big and tall enough to take on any ol’ woolly mammoth that comes along. Not by myself, of course, but with my other hunter gatherer buddies. Just kidding about the woolly mammoth. I know they are extinct. But an elephant…how about an elephant?

Gee, now I’m hungry. I think I’ll go make a sandwich.

The other day my wife showed me her journal pages. I said, “You are making this up, aren’t you?”

She said, “No.”

“What do you mean–no? Do you really believe there is a portal in the ivy hedge where fairies come into this world?” I looked at her like I thought she might be going bonkers. After all, fairies, who in their right mind, believes in fairies? I knew she liked fairies because we have porcelain figurines all around the house of pretty girls with wings. Decorations she calls them. Just decorations.  I wondered if that is what she was talking about, those little statues.

Now she was looking at me like I was the one that was cracked. “Bill,” she said, “You’ve been to their world. You’ve met Arial and her mother. You saw me transformed from a cat.”

“No I didn’t. How can you say those things? I haven’t been to any faerie world and you certainly haven’t been any gol darn cat! If something like that had happened, I would remember it. A cat, boy have you got some imagination.”

She almost shouted, “Don’t you remember the Spring festival? And how about the gnomes living under our sink?”

“Under our sink?”

“Yes, I’ll show you.” With that she flung open the cabinet doors and said, “There is their pumpkin house. Odette will you come out?”

I guess the imaginary thing she called Odette said no, because I didn’t see any gnomes or pumpkin house either. All I saw was the trash can, cleanser, a box of scrubbing pads, and some air freshener. To be fair the box of scrubbing pads was kind of pumpkin orange.

“What?” my wife asked, leaning her head toward the open doors. I didn’t know what she was doing, but it looked like she was talking to somebody. This could be worse than I imagined. Right now I started making plans for taking care of stuff while she was locked away in some looney bin. I don’t know much about nut houses, having never been to one before. Should I pack some clothes or do they provide those at the home? How about a bathrobe, and slippers? I don’t even know who to call. Do I dial 911 and say my wife is out of her ever lovin’ mind? ”

“Of course, that explains it. Thank you Odette.”

She turned to me, slipped her hand around my arm and twined our fingers. She smiled at me lovingly and moved to lead me out of the kitchen.  ”Let’s sit in the other room.” She wasn’t mad anymore, but this was too good to be true , this sweet act she was playing at. It was almost as scary. I was suspiciously sure she was nuts, but I was willing to hear her out. I’m nothing if not reasonable. “Bill, honey, the reason you can’t remember seeing the fairies and couldn’t see the gnomes is because you haven’t developed your fairy vision. ”

“Huh?”

“Oh, don’t feel bad, there are only a few of us who have it, and none are men.”

Thank goodness this mental illness only strikes women. Just because she now has bats-in-her-bellfry doesn’t mean I’m going to get it too. I didn’t say that though, I just said, “Whew.”

She ignored that sigh of relief from me and went on. “Fairies are magical you know. When you are close to them you see them, and can talk to them. If you get further than ten feet away you can’t see them anymore and the memory of them fades away like a dream. Do you understand? Bill, have you had any odd dreams lately?”

I didn’t want to admit it, but there was something in what she said. Didn’t I wake up one morning and she was meowing like a cat? And sometimes out of the corner of my eye I catch small darting glows just at twilight. It’s like something you are trying to remember but can’t quite get it into focus. Like a dream she said, that’s it, it’s like a dream. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. I’d let it go for now, but believe me I’m going to find out who to call just-in-case she gets worse.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.

I didn’t know if Bill wanted to laugh or cry. One thing was perfectly clear, he wasn’t at all happy about having his wife turned into a cat. He sat down on the porch step and stared at me. Arial and Cythia had each taken a protective position, hovering a few inches off the ground on either side of me.

I have noticed that when situations get tense, the faeries will hum softly. It has a calming effect, like the time my little Chihuahua, Edie, got plopped on the head with cold wet snow.  She will always let us know when she is not happy, and by the sounds of her wild screaming that day, she wasn’t happy! The faeries paralleled her every move, humming a gentle lullaby, until she stopped. Then of course she looked at us like nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

Arial and Cythia were humming like that now, but this time it was for Bill. When the shock began to wear off, and the two faeries were satisfied that he was calmer, they left my side. Arial went to perch on Bill’s shoulder and Cythia proceeded to braid the strands of hair that she had pulled out of my head prior to my feline transformation.

Arial repositioned herself on Bill’s shoulder, leaning forward to observe Cythia’s work. She scratched her head, “Potions are tricky things.” Since Bill hadn’t been home to witness my metamorphosis, Arial had to do a little explaining. “Unless you know the exact magical strength of the creature you are going to change into, it is hard to gauge the length of time before the potion wears off. Obviously Mrs. Shunners cat wasn’t just a cat, or, the shape shifter had placed charms on it.”

“She won’t stay like that will she? We have dogs, and gnomes!” Bill edged a little closer and held out his hand to me. “Please forgive me sweetheart, I had no idea you were a, he gulped, cat.” I knew that I would have to make him dinner tonight, but right now I decided to play the cat role to the hilt. I turned my back and proceeded to lick my paws, glancing around to give him a detached look of disdain. “Tonight, you get tuna!” Meooow.

Cythia finished the braid and wove it into the fur on the top of my head. She moved back  waving her wand over me and chanted. Pink sparkles fell from the tip and disappeared into the thick black fur. “That should do it! Her natural DNA will recognize the strands of hair and the transition back to her former human self will begin.”

We waited. When nothing happened, I started to get nervous and began pacing around in circles. “I can’t stay this way, I can’t stay this way!” Meeeeoow, meeeeoow! Bill stifled a shudder and gently rubbed my fur. “Ah honey! Thanks for that show of support, I forgive you, you don’t have to eat tuna tonight!” Meow, Meoow.

All of a sudden I felt a tingling, it started at the tip of my tail and worked it’s way up my spine and out the tips of my ears. My eyes opened wide and I stood very still, waiting. Everyone else must have known that something was about to happen because they all took several steps away from me. For a split second, I felt as if the whole world was collapsing in on me. Everything compressed, then in a sudden explosion of sparkling pink light I materialized, and from the relieved smiles on their faces, looking quite myself.

At first no one spoke, then, everyone was speaking at the same time. “Well done!”  “Welcome back.” “I thought you would stay that way forever!” “What did it feel like?” “What’s for dinner?” (that’s my hubby, it’s all about the food!).

Faeries were buzzing around my head, Bill was hugging me. I think Warren and Odette even got in on the welcoming committee, of course, the dogs were barking madly. I let their relief wash over me, happy to be myself again, aside from a slight buzz in my head, I felt rather good.

When the celebration had subsided, and Bill couldn’t hug me any tighter, I extricated myself from his arms and stood back to look him in the eyes. With hands on hips, and with a mock tone of indignation in my voice, the first words to come out of my once again human mouth…”Shoo cat!?”

Bill’s eyes opened wide and he stammered, “You understood me?” I nodded. Not being able to hold in my happiness any longer, I pointed at him and began to laugh. “You should have seen the expression on your face!” I heard Odette’s high laugh, then Arial’s, and finally Bill.

We were all out of breath, “I don’t know about anyone else, but I need a coke, my mouth feels like it has feathers in it!” We all looked at each other and broke into renewed gales of laughter.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.

There was no time to waste, Arial flipped her wings once and rocketed  into the air carrying Krystal in her arms, accompanied by four of the emerald guard. The remaining faeries stayed behind to make sure the invisibility and protection charms around the perimeter of the yard remained impenetrable.

I looked around the yard, it was empty, not a single faerie was in sight. “Hey, guys? I haven’t changed back, hello?” In my head I was making perfect sense, but what I heard coming out of my furry little mouth was…meeeooooww! Meow, meow, meeeeeooow! I started pacing nervously back and forth in front of the door.

Of course this had to happen, I had envisioned the morphing thing a little differently, something like: I drink the goo, I change into a kitty cat, I grab the faerie, I change back to myself in a beautiful shower of sparkles. Wrong! Didn’t Cythia say something about “just in case of an emergency?” Now that I think about it, I never did get a clear explanation of “emergency”.

It seemed like I had been pacing in front of the door forever when I heard someone coming in from the garage. Head held high, ears pivoted forward, I padded down the walk toward the gate. Bill and I met at the corner of the house. He had stopped at the store to pick up a few groceries and both of his arms were loaded with bags so I thought it would be best not to try to get him to pick me up and carry me into the house.

I wanted him to know that it was me under all this fur. “Hi honey! you will never believe how my day went!” Meeoow, meow, meow, meow. Well, that didn’t go over so good, darn my kitty mouth anyway. I knew how Bill felt about cats, but I had to take a chance, I started rubbing up against his leg in an attempt to gain his favor, maybe he would sense that it was me.

I purred so sweetly, walking around his legs  like I had seen my evil twin do with Mrs. Shunner not all that long ago. “Pick me up please!” Meow, meeooow!! If cats could laugh, I’d be splitting my sides right now, Bill looked like he had just been dive bombed by a seagull with intestinal distress, and it was running down his forehead by the looks of it.

Bill walked to the patio table with me happily padding along behind. He put the bags down and turn around, “Oh good! He’s going to pick me up” Meeoooow (shoot! I can’t wait until I can communicate on a human level again).  I was preparing to purr contentedly and do another pass around his legs when I saw him pick up the broom I keep by the back door.

We stood there looking a each other for a moment, then with one quick sweep, he waved the broom at me. “Shoo! Pisst! Shoo cat! Shoo! I jumped quickly to one side. “Hey! Stop that, don’t you recognise me?  I swear, if you don’t stop that you won’t get any dinner tonight! Meeeeoooow! Meeooow, meow!

He kept swishing the broom at me in an attempt to drive me out of the yard. Didn’t he wonder why I was not going? I was about to take refuge in the Hawthorne tree when Cythia and Arial came to my aid (wow, it would be easier to climb this tree as a cat, unlike the time I saved Pip from the Blue jay).They flew wildly around and around Bill’s head twittering and scolding and tweaking his ears.

“Stop it! You’re trying to harm the Kind One!” Arial perched on his nose and with her hands on her hips, gave him a stern scowl. “That”, and she turned around pointing and smiling at me, “is the Kind One.” Bill’s mouth hung open and the broom dropped from his hands.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry,