“O horrible,O
horrible, most horrible!” went the chorus.
“Is that him?
Is that Alpin right there on the ground?” whispered Mons aghast. “Oh, what have I done?” he cried.
“Absolutely nothing!” said Alpin, exonerating
Mons. “I should have spoken to Garth before experimenting on my own.”
“Oh, pick
him up before one of us steps on him!”
Mons was very badly shaken. There had been no
expecting anything like what had happened to Alpin. A little, red, one-eyed
apple, peeking through the tall grass. That was Alpin. But he smiled with a
very tiny mouth.
“I don’t feel so bad,” said Alpin. “All things
considered. I just hope no one eats me.”
“With that mouldy-looking eye on you? They’ll
think twice. I’ll bet you can give anyone that comes near you the evil eye,”
said Fons.
“That would rock,” said Alpin.
“I’ll have to speak with Garth,”said Michael,
very seriously. “This won’t do at all. This
I cannot explain to your mother.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Mons. Pons and Fons
volunteered too.
“I hope Feathers doesn’t peck at me,” said Alpin,
sitting on the palm of Michael’s hand. “Feathers is my pet hen. Do hens eat
apples?”
“The worm that made that eye, yes, they would
eat that. Is it still inside you?” asked Michael.
“No. I don’t think there’s anything but seeds
and a core inside me.”
“Can you see anything with that eye made of
black and white mould?”
Alpin blinked.He opened his creepy eye wide, shut
and opened it again.
“Anything? Everything!
I think I can see anything I want to. I only have to think of someone or
something I want to see, and I see them, no matter where they are.”
“Thank goodness he at least has abilities,”
said Pons.
“Where is Garth, then? Can you tell us where he
is?” asked Mons.
“Speaking with my mum,” said Alpin.
“Oh, dread!”
sighed Mons.
“He is saying something to her in her garden
and – Oh! She has just fainted. He’s
picking her up and laying her on the swinging sofa in our porch. Now he’s
writing a note and pinning it on the lace round her wrist.”
“Can you see what it says?”
“It says I’ll have to wait a year to see if I
get over this.”
“What else?”
“It says Mummy can’t sue anyone because I’m not
allowed in the forest. Artemius formally ordered me never to invade it years
ago.”
“But you’re always in it.”
“Oh, Artemius never fails to chase me out when
he sees me there. And he said he wouldn’t answer for anything that might happen
to me in there. I’m warned, so there’s no suing him, or the forest, or its creatures,
or Garth.”
“We’ll have to speak with Darcy.”
“Don’t bother. My bro is meaner than Garth.
Awfully stingy with his dandy gift when it comes to pleasing others. Just put
me somewhere where I’ll be safe. As an apple, I only want to be where they won’t
eat me. I think I can wait a year if I’m somewhere safe.”
Patience had never been one of Alpin’s virtues,
so everyone was surprised to hear him speak in this way.
It ocurred to Michael that Fiona should be
asked to keep Alpin in the safe where she kept the Gingerbread Salty. But Alpin
said that this wasn’t a good idea.It would be dark and lonely in the safe. He
said he would rather just hang around at home, inside an urn or among wax
fruit. His mum had a bowl with wax fruits and flowers on the dining room table.
No one ever thought of eating that. She could put a glass cover on it and set
it somewhere safer and that would do.
“Somebody had better go revive Aislene,” said
Mons. And they all set off to do that.
That is where I, Arley, already was when they
arrived, already consoling Aislene. But strangely, as I spoke to her saying all
would be well and Garth would see reason and Alpin was sure to be himself again
before or after a year was up, I knew that nothing would be the same again. Did
anyone really want Alpin to be himself again? And I needed consoling myself.
I have no choice but to end my tales on a sad
note.I had done nothing marvellous or heroic.I had lost a friend who had been
so annoying that I had never realized he was company, in his peculiar way. I
had lost the person I considered my true love and realized I had never been as
important to her as she was to me. I felt more distanced from my parents than
ever. I had had dealings with humans
that led me to conclude happy everaftering was going to be near impossible. And
the more people I met the stranger I felt. I was more alone than I had ever
been, or at least much more aware of how alone I was.
“You’re going to become one of those gloomy
fairies that sit in caves, silent as stones,” sighed Vinny.
I could see what he meant. I imagined myself
sitting quietly, brooding with half closed eyes, growing a snakey grey beard
that flowed from between the fingers that held up my chin.
“Don’t let that happen,” said Vinny.
“I’ll try,” I said. And I meant to, but I had
to learn how.
“Think of all the fun you’ve had,” said Vinny.
“Was it?” I asked.
The answer to that question would seal my
future.
“Was it fun?”
The end?
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