The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry

I find it convenient that time moves at its own pace in the faerie realm. It seems that I can be gone for days on the other side of the portal, and when I get back, it has only been a few minutes. It saves answering a lot of questions if you know what I mean, at least one thing is for sure, no one else has any idea that weird things happen in my backyard, not even Bill. Well, he does but he can’t remember.

What do you think he would say if I went up to him and said, “honey, would you miss me if the dark denizens of the faerie realm crept into our room one night and whisk me off to places unknown?” I’m not so sure he wouldn’t just kiss me on the cheek and say, “oh, all right, have a nice time!” Then turn around and think I’m bonkers.

I think I’ll have to have the conversation with him anyway. Alina told me that I have nothing to worry about but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Besides, if anything did happen, I’d be back in time for dinner.

As I was planning how to bring up the subject of the faerie realms darker side with Bill, Arial and Cythia materialized in front of me. Arial spoke before Cythia’s wing tips stopped fluttering. “We have decided that you can not remain in the mortal world, we can protect you better if you come to the palace with us.”

The suggestion caught me off guard. “Oh, like that’s going to happen! I have stuff to do here, I have a life. Who would take care of Warren and Odette? And how about my dogs? Not to mention Bill. What would Bill say?” Besides, the spring faeries are going to be leaving soon and I don’t know the summer ones.”

Arial gave me a smirk. “Now you are just making excuses.” I started to back into the kitchen as the two faeries moved toward me, their wands pointing straight at my head. I squealed as two streaks of green light shot out of the tips of their wands. “Hey! You’re supposed to be the good guy’s!” I ducked  and the two beams hit the counter behind me,  green sparkles ricocheted into the room.

I dropped to my knees and crawled under a chair as another blast hit the seat. Odette had been outside helping Warren and Nam with their new house and came running in when she heard the commotion. “Here, here! whats all this? She squeaked when a shower of sparks cascaded down over her and jumped behind me with her hands over her ears. “Sakes alive!”

This couldn’t go on.  I stood up and faced the two faeries with Odette clinging to my ankle, preparing for the inevitable blast that would send me swirling into the faerie world. Nothing happened.

I lifted my head to find my two guardians hovering in the air, their wands hanging from their fingers and  confused looks on their faces. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what they were thinking. I started to raise my hands in a gesture of peace, startling first Arial, then Cythia. Afraid that they had missed their chance for me to come peacefully, they shot jerky beams of green light toward me.

The arc of light the two beams made when they crossed paths was awe inspiring. The last thing I remember thinking was…I wonder if they were told in faerie school not to let their energy beams touch.

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

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.

And I was worried about the neighbors getting suspicious over the noises coming from our backyard! Bill was standing at the corner of the house when I caught up to him after our walk. He gave me the shush sign by holding his finger up to his lips and pointed toward the driveway. A stooped figure in a dark cloak was slowly slinking away from the gate to the backyard, accompanied by two midnight black cats.

After the initial shock of seeing a strange apparition seemingly “float” down the driveway, my first thoughts were, oh no! the portal has been breached, all of the faerie world’s bone-chilling monstrosities are coming through. They will spread and reek havoc on all my unsuspecting neighbors!

Wait a minute, Arial would have found me immediately if that had happened, no, this is something else. We stepped back around the corner and stuck our heads out just far enough to continue watching the phantom as it slithered down the street. It glided past the big bushes on the Shunners property, and when it got to their driveway, reached up and threw back the deep hood  covering its head. I started to yell, “Is that  Mrs. Shunner?” But Bill clapped his hand over my mouth before I could get out the first syllable. With his hand still over my mouth, he looked over at me and shook his head, then slowly took his hand away. I’ve seen enough scary movies to know not to make a sound once your mouth is uncovered so I just stood there, my mind reeling.

I remembered that I had two little people in my coat pockets only when they started to shake violently. I pulled open both pockets at the same time and looked down at Warren and Odette, who had shrunk down to the very bottoms and were currently sitting with their little hands over their faces murmuring, “Saints protect us!”

“It’s okay, be still now. We’ll go in once we can get to the back gate, just be quiet.” When I looked up again, I watched the Mrs. Shunner thing stand up, the shape under the cloak grew and reformed.  After making an attempt to smooth the cape, she nonchalantly looked around to make sure  no one was watching, then, as if it were normal to be parading around neighborhood in broad daylight like something out of Harry Potter, casually made her way to her back door and disappeared inside.

Now it was my turn to glance warily around the neighborhood. I couldn’t see anyone taking particular notice of the recent events. There wasn’t a soul on the street, so we stepped away from the house and quickly made our way through the gate and into the backyard.

“Arial! Where are you?” Over by the ivy I could see a faint green shimmering light that ran the full length of the hedge. We watched as Arial and five other faeries of the emerald guard materialized, arms locked together and holding the same silver orbs that they had been throwing into the bushes when we were making our way through the faerie forest. The orbs that make things invisible.

“We protected the portal Kind One. A sorceress with her evil minions broached the perimeter of the garden and nosed around in every corner. She did not find any evidence of the doorway. We succeeded in hiding all traces from her prying, squinty eyes.”

“Arial, is there any way for a being from the faerie world to live, undetected, in the mortal world? I have always wondered about the Shunners, they don’t interact with the rest of the neighbors, they keep to themselves. If I happen to be out when they leave their house, and they see me, they scurry back in. I have never met anyone like that, afraid that someone might speak to them.”

“I have heard of some that do not want to be constricted by our laws, those that would seek out the dark side of your world. They do not like the authority of the queen and wish to be free to gather the power to invade and rule our realm.”

“If she is from your side, why didn’t she know about the protection charms?”  It was getting darker now and I hated having this conversation outside. I opened the door for the gnomes, who didn’t have to be asked twice, before they darted for the safety of their pumpkin house under the cabinet.

“I think we should get inside now.”

Bill went around the house and closed all the blinds as we continued to listen. “She must have been here for a long time, if a mystical being is away from the realm for to long, they begin to lose their power. If her powers are weakened, she would not be able to penetrate our cloaking charms.”

I joined Bill at the window. “She might not have enough power to feel magical energy, but she can still change shape, look!” We watched as Mrs. Shunner, the one familiar to us, came out her front door.

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