How To Find Your Way in Minced Forest

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Saturday, 4 April 2020

79. The Blank Check

Michael’s party came and went, and it was a boisterous, roaring success that year too, thanks to Santichu’s green wheat grass cocktails.

Soon it was December again and Mr. Binky made himself the gift of  modernizing his office and applying new technology.


He kept saying that the coming year would be his watershed year and he was so happy that he allowed my sisters and me to decorate his office with a Christmas tree made of some of his papers, mostly those in the wastepaper basket, and stars made of old yellowing files too.

                                             
He got a bit worked up when he began to write down his New Year’s resolutions, an endless list of them, but we managed to calm him down and reduce the list to those most likely to come true and he was alright again.
                             

Seeing him so happy, I felt the coming year could be good for me too and I finally got up the courage to write to the Three Wise Men and ask them for what I had been truly wanting for years. It was a strange gift to ask for. At least I have never heard of anyone who has asked for something like it.

While browsing in the library I had discovered a book called The Interpretation of Dreams. It was written by a certain Dr. Sigmund Freud, great psychiatrist. And it ocurred to me that this man might be able to put a stop to the recurrent nightmare I had when I slept in my room at my parents’ home. I think I have mentioned that the nightmare was about humans attacking the fairyworld, invading it and taking it over, and making it just like the mortal world was. I think I have also explained that when I have this nightmare several consecutive nights I leave the palace and go sleep in a car in the garage of a little old lady’s home in a mortal city. Only when I have slept there several nights in a row without having this dreadful dream can I think of sleeping anywhere else.

It ocurred to me that perhaps Dr. Freud could interpret my dream and help me get rid of it. But I didn’t want to tell my parents I wished to cosult a psychiatrist. Doing some reseach about this Vienese doctor I had read that he blamed most people’s mental problems on their relationship with their mothers. I wasn’t sure mine would understand that I might have a problem with her. So I figured I had to ask someone else for mortal money to pay Dr. Freud for his services with. Hence, my letter to the Magi.

Why did I choose to write to the Magi over other gift givers for this gift? On the one hand they and I had become personal friends through the intervention of Don Alonso, and on the other, my parents  had always had us write letters to Saint Nicholas, and often read them to see what we were asking for, but had never supervised any letters we wrote to anyone else. As I said before, I had reasons for wanting to keep my parents out of  this affair.   

What did I find in my shoe on the sixth of January? A white envelope with three small crowns embossed in gold on the lefthand corner and my name in the middle of it. Within the envelope I found  a note and a blank check. The check was signed by all three of the kings and bore the marks of their seal rings too. The note said they had left the check blank because they had no idea what Dr. Freud would charge, but that they trusted me to fill in that quantity properly, whatever it might be.

Though I was very discreet about my Christmas gift, the information that it was a blank check leaked out. I had only asked for Dr. Freud’s fees and so, when Alpin asked me what the Magi had brought me, I had nothing explicit to say. So I said “nothing.” Alpin would not believe me. He said I was a good kid and the Magi doted on good kids. If  they brought even bad kids sugar coal, it was impossible for me to have received nothing. He insisted they would have brought me something even if I had forgotten to write them a letter asking for it.That is what friends were for.  

When we had this conversation we were sitting in Mrs. Dullahan’s kitchen. She was there  too, speaking about something important to Darcy. Alpin began to scream accusing me of lying to him. He got so worked up that Darcy, with his mind on something else, unwittingly asked me if I could please do something to stop Alpin’s screaming.Of course there was. I could tell him about the blank check. And since it was No no Darcy who had asked me to, I did.

Alpin stopped screaming when he heard about my check. He stood there staring at me openmouthed.

“Goodbye, Alpin, I have to go,” I said before he could react, and I left the Dullahan home as quickly as I could.

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About Me

My blogs are Michael Toora's Blog (dedicated to my pupils and anyone who wants to learn English and some Spanish), The Rosy Tree Blog (dedicated to RosE), Tales of a Minced Forest (dedicated to fairies and parafairies), Cuentos del Bosque Triturado (same as the former but in Fay Spanish), The Birthdaymython/El Cumplemitón (for the enjoyment of my great nieces and great nephews and of anyone who has a birthday) and Booknosey/Fisgalibros (for and with my once pupils).