219. The Rest of the Holiday Season

219. The Rest of the Holiday Season

Elysio  wasn’t beyond help. Vinny made certain of that. He slipped off my cap and sat on the lid of the glass jar that held Elysio prisoner. Since the metal lid had a few holes in it, he was ale to converse with Elysio through it. They emitted tiny sounds and soon Vinny told me that Elysio had recovered the minute he heard that his adored Lucerna was well.

“Peachy,” said Uncle Fi. “Now we can get the ****out of here. We take this guy home and we go have dinner with your folks, Arley.”

This we did do and I think that happiest of all for it was Henbeddestyr the Apothecary, who could finally leave Lucerna’s bedside and flee from the mob of ladies that surrounded her. Lucerna’s  six sisters were all there and they decided to come have dinner with my parents too and leave Lucerna and Elysio, both now recovered, to themsleves. Mrs. Parry , that is, Aunt Aureabel, insisted on giving Mum warning that they were on their way there. She called Mum and Mum said sure, great, they could come, and that she was delighted Lucerna was well again.

I returned to work the next day, though I didn’t have to, because Alpin had been searching for me. When he found me, he began to malign me for not having been where I could be reached. It seems it had not taken the Richearths long to kick him out of their house.

“It wasn’t your uncle, he was being really nice to me. It was my ungrateful sister, who said I was giving her a headache. No wonder her head ached. You can’t imagine how high she holds it now. And she defends her husband at all hours, as if everything is a threat to him. So I began to look for you, but there was no finding you. I thought you would be lying abed like Richard and Robert, the lazy men, being as sluggish as you are. But you weren’t at your parents’ home. Where were you? You should have been available.”

“It’s your fault,” I said to him, so he wouldn’t be the only one to get to blame others. “If you hadn’t thrown cookies at the Wildgale Babies  I wouldn’t have had to go searching for Elysio.”

I didn’t give him any of the details and only spoke of the blow and the disappearance. But to no avail. He found out about Epon anyway, because when the round of holiday parties began, Epon was the gossips' main subject of conversation. So Alpin found out more than I myself knew about him.

“You aren’t going to do anything to help this cracked up nut? That’s not like you, Arley.”

“Dad says nothing can be done because he is centuries old. Dad tried to help back when it seemed possible. But he is no minor and since he hasn’t harmed anyone, well, we have to let him do as he chooses.”

“Your cousin is a disgrace even for the breed of donkeys.”

“It’s not that big a deal,” I said.

“So he’s to be allowed to dwell in the hills with his pen of horror?”

“It’s not real. The stuff there is made of wax. Uncle Fi thought it was plastic dolls, but we know now that Dad, back in the eighteenth centrury, found him a job in a wax museum. He only spent a little while there, but he learned enough to create the pen.”

“Are you sure that is all he learnt there?”

“He only has the pen to dissuade people from accosting him. It seems it was Michael O’Toora who gave him the idea. Not meaning to, of course. Michael gave Epon a very old book on mythology with lovely plates for his name day. And the only part of it that interested Epon was the tale of Diomedes' carnivorous mares. He was much impressed by that.”

“But  that wretch actually had a name day party? Hardly anyone knew of his existence. My mum says she used to think the evil tongues had invented Epon to spite your mum. My mum hates gossips, because  they have made her suffer a lot. She was very surprised to hear that Epon actually does exist.”

“Epon’s name party was at Lucerna’s. Very few people assisted. Those that did showed up without an invitation. She didn’t invite anyone becasue she thought no one would want to come.”

“That’s because many people don’t approve of Lucerna’s relationship with the moth fairy.”

“Well, it’s no business of theirs.”

“It never is,” said Alpin. “But that’s how evil tongues do their wagging.”

“If Lucerna and Elysio are always together, it’s no wonder that they found Epon at the same time. The rumors about Mum and the midsummer night are just Shakespeare’s fault, according to the Wise Sisters, who have this strong dislike of Will. Dad says he doesn’t play practical jokes on people because it takes too much trouble. And he says that if he had jinxed Mum, she would have made his life impossible once she came out of it. The literati like Dad, and he is grateful for their attention, but they invent stuff about him that he doesn’t always like. He tolerates Will’s play because it is mostly beautiful, and much loved.”

“Sure, but you know how they say that when the river runs, water flows.”

“I think that’s when the river sounds.”

“Well, in brief. There are too many whackos on the loose out there. It doesn’t surprise me that your grandpa locked himself up instead of rounding them up and throwing away the key. Much easier, of course.”

I raised my eyebrows but said nothing.

During the rest of the winter parties, I never let Alpin out of my sight, not even for a second. I did my best to keep him occupied eating, because I didn’t want another incident like the one at the Wildgale girls' name day affair.

Alpin only got two chances to make bad trouble. The first was when, during the Mortal New Year’s eve party Mrs. Party crossed his path and he asked her what she had against Elysio and Lucerna’s relationship, because everyone knows she doesn’t approve of it.

“Look, child,” said Aunt Aureabel, “they may say that we fairies are endogamic. Do you know what that means?”

“That we marry people that belong to our own tribe,” said Alpin.

Mrs. Parry nodded.

“Spirits are not like mortals. Mortals have to mix their blood as much as they can to live longer. If they don’t do that, they weaken. But spirits don’t have problems with things like genes. The more equal we are, the stronger the common spirit.”

“And Epon is crazy because Elysio is a moth fairy and Lucerna isn’t? Because I think it is because both of them are foolish.”

“Lucerna isn’t stupid,” I said. “And I have no reason to believe Elysio is either. He’s just dazed with her.”

“It is incredible how being so pretty Lucerna hasn’t found a worthier admirer than that moth. But it is probably only bad luck that they chanced upon such a difficult child. There is no telling why we find the children we find. Sometimes, we become obsessed with something and suddenly we find a child that has to do with our obsession, whether good or bad. There are statistics. Take the case of those who actually order children from people who can provide them, like Lucina. Well, children one has asked for are always more peculiar than those that just pop up. Like your sister Valentine, though there is nothing really wrong with her, she is so one-track-minded! It makes one wonder where providers find these babies. And then there is reason to believe that people who want to change their babies for others have taken hold of creatures that weren’t meant for them. I know that’s not your case, little unchagedling, but that is because both your parents are problematic too. And that has saved you.”

“Hey there, lady!” began Alpin.

“Nobody knows why some people find kids that have nothing to do with them,” I said. “That’s just what Aunt Aureabel has said, Alpin. Epon is nothing like Elysio or Lucerna, though he does look like his mother. But you are like your own. people.”

“Not like his sisters,” said Mrs. Parry, who never knows when to change a subject or how to humour crazy people to avoid trouble. “All must be said. His sisters are flawless girls.”

“This is what I get for bothering to give dotting old women kind attention out of pity,” said Alpin.

Fortunately, Mrs. Parry expected nothing better from Alpin and moved away only saying “Hmmmm!”  She could have turned him into an oyster in a snap.

The other moment that could have caused a serious problem occurred when the Blue Twins came to our table to say hi and Alpin suggested they find a bride for Epon. But the Blue Twins just disappeared as fast as they could without answering him.

When Alpin went home, I approached Mum because she was looking a little sad. I knew that she always looks a little sad on Mortal New Year’s Eve, but this time I decided to ask her why. There are lots of mortals who become sad on this eve, but that is precisely because they are mortals. The passage of time does not affect us the way it does them.

Mum smiled at me sadly.

“So you’ve noticed?” she said. “It’s because of your uncle Gen. You know how he is my twin brother and that your grandfather found us both at the same time. But my mother wasn’t able to take hold of both of us at once because your father’s mother interfered and tore Gen away before Mama could clutch him. My mother has always sustained that Gen is her own child, but to avoid greater evils she had to cede Gen, at least partly, to my mother-in-law. Celestial wanted to take him away from us forever, but Papa managed to get her to agree to only have him from the first of January to the twenty-first of June. So, during Mortal New Year’s Eve, at midnight, when the bells were ringing and just after toasting, Gen deposited his cup on our table and went out the door and got into a carriage that took him to his other home. He didn’t leave a shoe behind, like Cinderella, but I would take the cup he had drunk from and keep it in a little drawer in my dressing table. And on the morning of the twenty-first of June, I would wake up early and take the cup and go outside to wait for the carriage that would bring Gen back to us. Only when he was descending from the carriage did I give the cup to a lackey to take to the kitchen. He doesn’t know this, but that is what I did whenever he left. It’s not that we never saw him during those months. He showed up for parties and celebrations, in the company of his other siblings. But that was not the same thing as having him at home. Our home was so different when he wasn’t  living there. Less cheerful and more disorganized.Well, I still feel sad again when I remember all this. When he married so young, I suffered a depression. And I suffered another when he disappeared. I couldn’t avoid that. So, you see, time does affect us too, in ways. But you are the only one who has asked me why I look sad.”

In the end, what Alpin said about Epon’s being a disgrace even for the breed of donkeys turned out to be true. The Association of Wild and Domestic Donkeys filed a complaint saying Epon’s behaviour caused people to take them for what they weren’t and asked that the defamed mares in his pen be released immediately. Even a compensation had to be paid them. Dad was about to pay it himself because Epon didn’t have that kind of money when Elysio showed up with a small fortune. He said moth fairies always knew where to find money. That is why some people think it is lucky to see moths and that this means they will soon receive money or some kind of valuable gift.