212. Invitations

212. Invitations

My mum and her cousins, the Seven Fairies, decided the 13th of December would be a favorable day to hold Mathilde and Wildgale’s baby girls’ name day party. Although I had told Mum Mathi and Wild preferred a smallish family party to a big bash affair, organizers always have people they simply have to invite, and eight organizers makes for a lot of must-be-invitees. Alpin and his family, for instance, had to be invited, because they were now Uncle Rich’s in-laws. And I was at Alpin’s house early one morning when the postlady, Joy Or Woe, showed up with their invitations.

“Humpf!” huffed Aislene. “You know what, Joy? Thanks for bringing these, but I don’t think we will show.”

“Whyever not? It’s bound to be a lovely party, with all those ladies competing to see who gives the most outrageous  gifts. And it’s the season to be jolly and have  fun parties, so it´s sure to be a fine one," Joy said to Aislene.

“I didn’t get invited to my own daughter’s wedding,” whined Aislene. “Of course, no one knew my girl would be the bride, but still, having missed that  wedding feels like a thorn in my side. Why deny it? I´m sore about this.”

“What do you mean you didn’t get invited to Richearth’s wedding?” frowned Joy, much surprised. “I distinctly remember having delivered invitations for each and every member of your family.”

“Impossible,” said Aislene, shaking her head and drying a tear. “Only Alpin and Branna got invitations. He was invited so Arley could assist and Branna was invited to chaperone Alpin so Arley could enjoy the party. I felt the Goodfellows were being tacky.”

“Are you saying I have no idea how I do my job? Because I remember every single letter and parcel I deliver, where and to whom. I distinctly remember your son, Alpin, insisting he would take charge of all the invitations I brought here. It was a Monday, and the hour ten to eleven a.m. and he was standing there in front of your house, right under that tree there and as if waiting for me, now that I think of it.  He even took Fiona and that Basque cook’s invitations. You know what? I think we should speak to Alpin instead of griping about what could have happened. Where is he?”

“He just got up. He’s getting dressed. Arley is waiting for him to have breakfast. Arley, do you have any idea what could have become of those invitations?”

I had my guess, but preferred to remain silent and shook my head vehemently.

“Yes, sure,” said Alpin when confronted by Joy. “There were invitations for you all and this woman gave them to me. That ought to teach you not to hand mail lightly to just anyone, Joy.”

Joy made a gesture of hitting Alpin with her mail bag, but I stepped in her way and that held her back.

“I think you should explain to your mum why you kept those invitations from your family, Alpin,” I said.

“You lost our invitations?” asked Miss Aislene, quite astounded.

“No. They’re under my bed. You should sweep beneath that bed once in a while. You would find interesting stuff, Mum.”

“Ah! You forgot to give them to us. But we spoke about this. About how mean of Richearth I thought it was not to invite us.”

“And I said for you not to worry about Richearth. You would soon get to see more of him than you might care to. Didn’t I say that?”

“And I didn’t understand what you meant.”

“Look, Mum. I’m not ashamed of my family. I’m proud of belonging to people everyone is scared of and no one can say no to. How could it be otherwise? But it would have been a lot harder to get that conceited airhead to marry Branna if you and Dad and even Fiona had been present at that moment. His stuck-up dad almost blighted my efforts. But his silly wife managed to calm him down, and that tyrannical friend of Fiona’s, Mrs. Parry, actually sided with me. Well, with Branna. And that clinched the matter. Believe me, what I did intercepting those invitations was in the best interest of our family. And like I told you, you’ll see more of Richearth than most folks can take. I only hope Branna doesn’t  get fed up with him like his other wives did. That wouldn’t be in our best interest.”

“You are a callous cynic!” gasped Joy, dropping her bag, almost on my head.

I retrieved the bag and gave it to her and said none of this was her fault and what was in our best interest was to forget all this matter right away.

“Well, if we did get invited to Richearth’s wedding, I suppose I can’t hold a thing against Branna’s in-laws. And it is I who owe my daughter and her husband a present. I will make this up to that family. I will begin by making the other airhead’s kids a lovely present. I will spin and weave and cut and sew and make them each a beautiful dress that will grow with them and fit them at any age and change colour and shade of colour according to their will, so they will always look gorgeous in those dresses. It´s two new cousins you now have, isn’t it, Arley? Two dresses then. And I apologize for calling your uncle Wild an airhead. I just said that because he always evaporates into thin air when he sets eyes on me. As if I would accost him, poor childish thing. I  know he can be very dangerous, but I always think of him as Gen’s frightened little brother. But then, he’s not the only person that is scared of me. Are his girls pretty, dear? They should be. He has a sensitive, delicate face and I hear his wife is a beauty.”

“They’re cute, yes. Very cute,” I said.

“And what are their names?”

I didn’t want to say Botolpha. And Richenda, rather than provoke a laugh, might have raised eyebrows, so I just said I wasn’t sure what their names were, and that I supposed we would have to wait till the big day to know what to call them.

“Are they mute like your sister was? Your sister is perfectly well, of course. A lovely child. Why did it take her so long to speak out?”

“Valentine couldn’t think of anything but her boyfriend,” I said. “I guess she had his name in her head instead of hers, so she couldn’t tell us what to call her.”

“Ah, I remember. It was that lady who was Alpin’s bodyguardess who got her to speak. Yes.”

“Gregoria. She is still with my sister.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. She got along a lot better with your sister than with Alpin. But it doesn’t matter, because now he has you looking after him and that whole network of neurotics your uncle Gen works with.”