215. Comforting the Light

 

215. Comforting the Light

“One of us should go see Lucerna, Titania,” said Dad. “If you prefer to go back to bed, go right ahead. Your aunts will probaly be all there looking after their ill niece and I understand it won’t be pleasant to hear them bawl you out  for your unladylike behaviour yesterday.”

“What?” said Mum. “What was I supposed to do? Those babies have a mother, and she didn’t move a muscle to stop her husband from destroying the joint or to save her babies from the shower of flying objects. Besides, the whole mess only lasted the time it took Even to put the savages to sleep.”

“Nobody could get to the babies,” I said glumly. “I tried, but every time I flung myself  towards them I kept getting flung back myself. Ironically, the only person I was able to save  was  Alpin. I pushed him to the floor and he rolled under a table and was safe there. I didn’t do it to help him. I shoved him so he would stop flinging cookies.”

“You did what you could, Arley, darling. I’m not ashamed of my behaviour. The occasion merited it. But I would indeed prefer to return to bed. If Lucerna is with Henny, she’s in good hands. Maybe I’ll drop by this evening to check on her. You tell her that.”

“I would love to go with you, lads, but I have too many things to do just now,” said Uncle Gen, whincing a little as he raised his bandaged hand off the table where it had been resting and got up and stepped on the ground with his bad leg. “Tell Lucerna I, too, will check on her this evening, Oberon. See you there Titania.”

“Now, Arley, have you any idea what I can do to hide this bandage on my head so no one will think I am a yob? Should I disguise myself as an Indian prince and wear a turban? Your brother Dev can lend me one.”

“Wear your war wounds proudly, Dad,” I said. “Look at Uncle Gen limping away.”

“Hmm,” said Dad. “He looks more like a martyr. All he lacks is the palm.”

We decided to walk to Aunt Lucerna’s house because though we were just a few days from winter the day was very fine. As we strolled through the Honey Meadows in Apple Island, Dad stopped humming Faithful Triumphant Sword  and said to me.

“I hope you’ve learned something from all you’ve heard your elders say today at breakfast, Arley.”

“Learned?”

“Yes. There are so many things one can learn from what was said. You could have learned that your grandfather is a meanie capable of allowing a child poisoner to flourish like the best of the plants in his gorgeous gardens. Or that your Uncle Gen is a candid being. Simple as Simon.”

“Uncle Gen? Unsophisticated?” I very much doubted it.

“Weren’t you listening when your mum told the story of how his little four year old self had refrained from rushing into the mad dwarf’s poisoned garden and paused to allow the toddlers way?”

“Of course I was listening.”

“And what do you think it goes to show?”

“That Uncle Gen was born a gentleman, doesn’t it?”

“What did he get out of what he did? What did he gain when he refrained from entering the garden first?”

“He didn’t get sick, I think I remember hearing that.”

“Right. But was sparing himself harm his purpose? No, Arley. What he wanted was for the most vulnerable children to have a chance to get their share of eggs. But because they were among the first to enter, they were among the first to be poisoned. Gen’s noble purpose was defeated.”

“But that wasn’t his fault. He did what he had to do.”

Dad nodded.

“He tried to help and was rewarded for his kindness. He didn’t get poisoned.  But he wasn’t able to help others, Arley. This proves that there is no controlling what happens in this world.”

“Why did you try to stop Uncle Wild from blowing everyone off the clouds then? You jumped into the fray, Dad.”

“My wife was on her knees trying to knock one of her brothers senseless and trying to avoid getting knocked down herself by the flailing arms and legs of her two ferocious brothers. This was a social matter, Arley. What would society have said of me if I didn’t try to put an end to that?”

“Oh, come on, Dad! I can’t believe gossips are the reason why you interfered…that is, intervened.”

Dad smiled.

“You’d better beleive it,” he said. “Or you’ll have to live far  from the murmuring crowd all your life. You know, Arley, your uncle has been trying to oust Botolphus the Atrocious from those gardens since that lamentable Easter day. Oviously without success. He thinks your grandfather has to have some dark secret that Botolph is familiar with and that the gnome is lord of the gardens because he is blackmailing your grandpa. Now the reason Gen can’t discover what this secret is is that it doesn’t exist. When Virbonus hired the gnome, the old man probably gave him his word that he would be able to do whatever he pleased with those gardens. And that’s it. Your grandaddy doesn’t want to break his word.  As if I didn’t know my father-in-law! If I were to tell you the story of how I got Aeternus to allow me to marry your mother you would flip.“

“Do!” I said, suddenly curious.

“It would take me all day. Maybe another time. What I want to tell you now is that it´s good that you are working with your uncle trying to make the world a safer place, and it seems you are doing this well too, but don’t get disenhearted or unnecesarily worked up should something go wrong and you fail to achieve your high purposes. The outcome never will depend entirely on you. And the truth is, it will always be what it wanted to be, whether you win or lose.”

We had reached Aunt Lucerna’s home, a large  white and yellow house with a garden full of daisies and asters and other star and sun shaped flowers and plants. At its golden gate, one usually comes face to face with busy buzzing bees who don’t always make easy way for you, and can be more intimidating than a barking dog,  but this time they were mostly huddled on a windowsill, peeking in through the brightly coloured stained glass windows. Though the sky was blue and the house looked so cheerful, this was not a good omen.

It was Henbeddestyr Parry who opened the door when we rang the bell.  Within, it was quite dark. Just the light that slipped in through more than half-lowered blinds. The many lamps with prisms that decorated the place barely reflected any light, unlike other days, when the walls were full of mini rainbows.

“How is she?” asked Dad.

Henny shook his head.

“Do me a favor and get her aunts out of this house if you can. I’ve been fighting to all morning.”

Before Dad could ask what the matter was, Mrs. Aureabel Parry came down the stairs.

“Tell your patient to get up this minute, Henny!” ordered Mrs. Parry. “You’ve cured her, and she has to admit it. Look, here´s Oberon with a bandage round his head just like hers. And he’s not ashamed of it.”

“Yes, I am,” said Dad. “It makes me look like a yobbo.”

Mrs. Parry nodded.

“What you are looking like since last night, at least in public opinion, is someone incapable of solving a problem without resorting to violence. Personally, however, I think you did right to try and drag your wife out of that indecent brawl. Now you get Lucerna out of bed, Henny. You’ve fixed her forehead. Why is she still lying there like an invalid? And do something for Oberon too, so he can remove that silly bandage that makes it hard to forget what happened yesterday." 

“Leave Lucerna be, Mother. She needs time to heal.”

“Well, she hasn’t any. She has to return to her work. She’s needed by many,” Mrs. Parry turned to me and peered at me and said, as if I had something to do with all this, “Know, little boy, that when one’s spirits are low, moping will only sink you lower. Get up and work!”

“I’m having an off day,” I began to explain, though I couldn’t understand why I was justifying myself. 

“They let you off so you could come here and see your aunt? This girl’s puny attitude is affecting the normal progression of our affairs. Get that crybaby out of her bed, Henny!”

“Mother, Elysio is dead!” Henny suddenly hissed.

“What?” said Mrs. Parry. “Who is that?”

“Lucerna’s admirer. The moth fairy.”

“That disgusting insect that was always hovering around her head? About time!” said Mrs. Parry.

"Witch!" shouted Henny.

"Ummmmm!" went Mrs. Parry. 

Dad had the risky but fortunately right reaction of stepping in between them and asking Henbeddestyr if Lucerna knew this.

“She knows he isn’t anywhere near her. She thinks it’s because there was a short circuit and her lights went off and she looks awful, so he doesn’t love her any more. She says she can’t concentrate on fixing the lights in her head so he will come back. But he won’t ever return because he’s dead.”

“How can he be dead?” asked Dad. “Was he electrocuted? That doesn’t happen to us. That is, it could, but we would recover from it.”

“Another possibility is he was smashed flat when one of those flying objects hit him. His mashed body probably stuck to the object and someone must have wiped it off thinking it was yucky dirt.  Or if he fell to the floor in a faint, someone may have stepped on him and left him unrecognizable. As well as dead.”

“But where is the corpse? Can’t you bring it back to life?” asked Dad “Maybe my son Thymian can do something for it. He’s done weirder things for both corpses and insects.” 

“Nobody even noticed Elysio was gone until Lucerna asked for him this morning. When people picked up the gifts and cleared up that site, nobody must have found him, because nobody thought to look for him. He must have been swept away. Now I have to tell her he is dead, and I don’t want to. I hate giving my patients bad news.”

“Does Uncle Gen know about this?” I asked.  “He didn’t mention Elysio this morning when he had breakfast with us.”

“No, I don’t think he knows. I didn’t tell him, because when I spoke with him, Lucerna hadn’t called for Elysio yet. I hadn’t given the moth a thought.”

“Maybe Cobweb did the cleaning up. Maybe she will know something,” I said.

“The spiders she wears in her hair probably ate the moth,” groaned Henny.

“No! Not they!”

I was determined to go find poor little Elysio and said so.