276. The Fountain of Purple Water

276. The Fountain of Purple Water

It was a long night, the longest in the year and that resulted clear. I led the dancers  in the dance until my sister Heather took mercy on me and left her booth of lights and came to my rescue. We gave a few steps together and then she said, “When this song ends, you can stop dancing too. When one receives this gift, one dances nonstop for half an hour, which is needed to check if it works. But after that, one dances at will.”

And I did that. I stopped dancing and smiled and  bowed, accepting applause and praise.

“Again! More!” hollered some of those present. I imagine these were habituées of the second fairy ring, who never do anything much but dance. “Later!” I answered.

“Go to Mum’s table and have something to eat and drink,” said Heathie. “Replenish forces.”

“The case is I’m not tired.”

“True,” said Heather, “because the gift makes one enjoy like a vocational.”

“I’m glad I’m not wearing the infamous red slippers,” I said. “At least I haven’t had to have my feet cut off with an axe to stop dancing.”

Grandpa was also sitting at my parents’ table. He had scorned to sit at Grandma’s because, he said, it was plague full of old busybodies.

“Do you like what Grandpa has gifted you with, dear?” Mum asked me.

“Just like that, without asking first?” added Dad, not without a touch of raillery.

“Yes. It is…okay. Of course I like it. Everything comes in handy eventually. I…”

 “Only okay?” said Grandpa. “Why, you have surpassed even me. Never before has anyone danced better.”

“Surely I haven’t either, Grandpa,”I said.

“But we are not going to know that, are we?” questioned Grandma, peeking from behind her husband’s chair and bending to whisper “Sourpuss!” in his ear. “Alway sullen, always annoyed!”

“Don’t try to seduce me with sweet nothings,” answered Grandpa, pulling away. “That won’t work tonight. I hate you too much for bringing me here.”

“No, we won’t know which of you is the better dancer unless AEternus gets up and you both dance together, Arley. Would you, boys?” suggested Grandma.

“Will you stop trying to twist my arm and go see what your spoiled sons are up to? Having held their reins so far, they’re likely to be ready to wake snakes any minute.”

“Gen is at that table. He will crush any outburst. He won’t allow his brothers to ruin his godparents’ fundraiser.”

“All we need is for the renegade to start raining indoors and dampen us all,” muttered Grandpa.

“But Uncle Evenfall is there too,” I said, “and though he pretends to slumber, he always wakes in time to control the rest.”

“That depends on the day he is having,” said Grandpa, “for there have been times when all he has done is turn off the lights and shout `Let anything happen!' ”

“I’ve never known him to do that,” I protested timidly.

“Nor will you learn today, because your grandma is going to scurry off to that table instead of remaining here to sass me.”

“Let Papa be, Mama,” said my mother. “He’s made an effort enough coming here tonight.”

“He always has to end up looking like a bogy.”

“I am one,” said Grandpa.

“No. You suffer from social anxiety and refuse to be treated  for it. Look at our son-in-law. What a nice, friendly man he is. He treats everyone kindly.”

Dad smiled. The truth is he's one fellow who doesn’t get along badly with his mother-in-law. But I think that is all Divina's merit.

“You can be a darling man when you want to be. People love you, AEternus. And they want to feel that you love them too. They want to see you beam on them and be jolly and share your happiness with them.”

All the while Grandma Divina was speaking, Grandpa was shaking his had and making faces of denial.

“What they want is to dominate me. Like you, Divina. If they wanted me to be happy, they would leave me be. What part of `I want to do as I please?´ can’t anyone understand? Besides, there are people present here who actually hate me. Aren’t there, Oberon?

“The islanders adore you, AEternus, no question about that,” said my father, deftly avoiding a more complicated answer.

“But we aren’t in the island. And here there are people who have left it because they can’t stand me. Nor my lifestyle. Nor the peaceful life I offer them. If I get up and dance and one of the fools out there decides to cast coins at me, I would be forced to split him in half with a lightning bolt. Yes, because violence is the only thing that kind of people understand. And how would that make me look?”

"The strong have to prove they are strong," sighed Mum.

"You're clever, AEternus. Why don't you just do something like make the coincaster's pants fall?"

"Because other idiots would laugh and then try to fool some nitwit into repeating this behaviour so they could get a second laugh. I already said this kind of people understand nothing more sublte than an axe cracking their foreheads."

“Ah, I give up, you old grouch!” sighed Grandma. “We’re not going into that subject now.”

There was a moment of silence, and then, “Now what?” hollered Grandpa suddenly. “What are those two felons doing here? Tell me, Arley, Demetrius has let them go, hasn’t he?”

Right next to a popcorn vending machine, Uncle Richi´s once kidnappers were smiling nervously at us. They were aware that Grandpa had noticed them.

“Uncle Richearth put them in a ship that drifts aimlessly forever but allows them to make it to a port and walk on land for certain days a year and this must be one of them.”

“Darn it!” hissed Grandpa. “We´ll have to put up with that! Divina go tell that son of yours who says he also has another mother to go keep an eye on those fools that are leaning on the popcorn vending machine. Don’t breathe a word of reproach to Demie. Don’t let him even suspect we are up to this. Do not upset him.”

“But who are these people? Potential coincasters?”

“Really, Divina, you are always making apparitions at social gatherings but you never know what is going on in the world. Why do you go to those hen huddles if you don't listen to gossip? These bounders kidnapped our son, but, against my advice, he practically rewarded them for it and lets them live like kings on board a magic ship and visit land now and again. I am considering turning them into wastebaskets, because people are throwing stuff and there is too much junk on the floor. How filthy people are! Feel sorry for Cobweb’s crew, look at all they will have to sweep!”

“People aren’t throwing things. They drop and fall.”

“Well, they should pick them up then.”

“You ask for too much from ordinary people,” said Grandma.

“Because he gives them a lot too,” said Mum. “Mama, tell Gen to watch those two, just like Papa said. They are too close to the Australian diamonds. We don’t want trouble.”

And Uncle Gen, hearing himself named, appeared at our table and said, “They haven’t come to steal anything. The bins of their ship are full of gold and precious stones that replace themselves. They have bought a lot of stuff at various stands.”

"Thus proving that it pays to sequester my son and also encouraging others to follow this example," said Grandpa.

“Those capricious two, if they haven’t got pink diamonds among their stones, will surely filch some. Why, back at the island they had everything they could possibly want. That one is Bagpiper´s son, and Bagpiper is filthy rich,” said Mum. "What need did he have to kidnap Richi?"

“They have bought a few pink diamonds. To see if they could cajole the sirens. Get them to visit their ship when they are out at sea. But those girls are clever and were unimpressed by these boobs.”

“Ah, the granddaughters of the Lord of the Seas! They lack for nothing. What could one offer these girls?” said Grandma.

“What matters is that these two fools have paid for the diamonds,” said Uncle Gen.

“Well, let them return to the ship and pay for having kidnapped my son,” roared Grandpa, who was turning purple just looking at them smirk nervously at him.

“If they cause trouble it will be on their last day of freedom. I don’t think even they are stupid enough to cause it on day one and right in front of you, Papa.”

“Why do you call me that? You are nothing but a stubborn fool who refused to be my son!”

“If I am stubborn it is probably because I take after you,” said Uncle Gen calmly. “And I have never refused to be your son. Only your slave. Would you like to be mine?”

"I have slaves? I?"

"I suppose not, because you do let me use my brain now and again."

“Now, let’s not get started on that,” interrupted Grandma, "we all know what you have is volunteers, AEternus. Please hold your tongue, Gen, because your father won't."

"Fine. I've been silenced, Mama," nodded Uncle Gen. 

And Grandpa got up and hissed, “I’m leaving with my beloved grandson, who isn't dripping with insolence, who listens to me and whom I need to speak with!”

And Grandpa and I appeared in a garden, as esoteric as any.

“Here is where you will have to come when you are ready to,” he said.

“But where are we and how does one get here?”

“You’ll know when you decide to come.”

“Hi, AEternus, nice dawn to you,” said two spirits whose faces popped up in the hollows of two trees. “Is everything okay?"

“Everything is okay,”nodded Grandpa.

Between both these trees there was a fountain from which sprung water that looked mostly purple but sometimes a violetish  lavender blue.

“It is likely that this boy who is with me will be coming by here one of these days. Allow him to drink water,” said my grandfather.

“Okay,” said the faces, studying me as if to remember what I looked like so they could recognize me.

“He may come in the company of Camelia. And he may bring along with him another girl. Let that girl drink too.”

“The girl he and Camelia will bring here?”

“Yes. That one.”

“Shall we let your boy drink today?”

“No,” said Grandpa. “We’ll wait till after the holidays.”

“Will you drink?”

“Me, neither,” said Grandpa. “I’m only here to introduce my grandson to you.”

“He should give us a drop of his blood so we will be sure to recognize him and not confuse him with anyone else.”

“Would you give it to them, Arley?”Grandpa asked me.

“Is it safe to?”

“Yes, they can be trusted.”

 “But who are they?”

“These ladies are security guards,” said my grandfather. “In shining silver armour and both armed with swords, one with a mace and another with a lance. They would spring out of the trees if anyone unauthorized tried to drink from this fountain, and no one has ever prevailed over them. Never.”

Then Gradpa waved a hand in the air before me and though it was spring in the garden, a holly tree sprang out of the earth, a little spotted with snow and with more than a leaf or two showing signs of frost.

“Look, choose a thorn and prick one of your thumbs with it. Then rub the blood aginst the trunks of these two trees.”

I did what I was told and the spirits in the trees thanked me.

“Now they will recognize you always, because they know your blood. You won’t have to shed more. They will read your face under your skin and inside your veins as if checking a passport. Now we can go home.”

And we went home and when we got there, it was Christmas Eve.