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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