283. The Sixth Moonly Letter

The Leafies Speak: We returned to Predictit Pond and were able to read the sixth moonly letter, letter that Heather will write to Arley this June.   

283. The Sixth Moonly Letter written by Heather to her brother Arley during the warm lavender moon, in which it is proven there are those who feel concerned about the oyster’s tribulations.

My dearest brother,

Not much news this month. Since it has been established that neither Radley nor Beaurenard poisoned Alpin, and since Darcy has asked  his mother to accept this and take no action whatsoever against Beau, we had no reason to remain longer at the spa. We returned home, and we are living as we were before all this trouble.

Beau and I, however, could not help thinking that all was not right. He was so obsessed about the pebbles and the splinters in the oyster that I decided to do something about this. 

"I can't understand why you feel guilty about things that aren't your fault. Whether or not you are responsible for Alpin's having become an oyster may be debatable, at least in the opinion of those who are seeking for the terribly distant origin of this unfortunate piece of business, but you certainly haven't incited Betabel to torment the oyster. So you are not guilty of this."  

"I don't feel guilty about Alpin's having become an oyster. But I can't help thinking I now feel awful for having tempted him to eat what he did. I had to protect you, and I did that as best I could. That is what I was sent to you for. But I didn't tell Betabel that pretty as the pearls Alpin produces may be, they are the result of the oyster's sufferings.And that what she is doing to her husband is going too far."

"And you didn't tell her because you knew she already knew that. Isn't that so?"

"I didn't dare to tell her this because it looked like she was enjoying tormenting him and because, sincerely, I don't think she is in her right mind."

"We don't know what may have happened to make her be the way she now is. But we know that two bullies fooled her, making her think they were aliens, that her family got sick and tired of her for all the trouble she had caused them and ended up disowning her for marrying Alpin. And being married to Alpin cannot have been easy. I had no idea that oysters suffered when they produced pearls, The pearls we have in fairyland are all the result of accidents. All natural. No one provokes oysters to make pearls. It doesn't surprise me that you said nothing to Betabel. It isn't easy to say something like that to a person who has problems. But we are in time to do this."  

We booked a room at Betabel’s hotel. A very fine one it is, with great views , and I must say we enjoyed our stay at Easter Island. As soon as I found it prudent, I spoke to Betabel. Her necklace is already the best to be had of fay pearls in the fay world, with strings and strings of robust and brilliant pealrs, for a fay oyster is a very special magic treasure, and can produce pearls at the rate of thirty at the same time. I congratulated Betabel on her fine and unique necklace, though I had my reservations about how it had come to exist. She tried to sell me some pearls and I saw my chance to put a stop to the oyster’s torment. 

"This necklace is right now a marvel. But part of its value is due to how uncommon it is. There are no pearls as lovely as these. But if you create more and more and sell them, beautiful as they are, they will become common and therefore less valuable."

And that was enough to make Betabel stop torturing the oyster. But that wasn't all. I had a proposal to make. I made it, and she accepted.

So, when we got back home, we went to see the pookah, Beau and I. We walked all the way to Garth's bridge in Minced Forest. There were a lot of beautiful plants growing all around, on and even under  the bridge, bright green mosses and spreading lamium with its silvery foliage and pink flowers, blue foxglove and pale water violets and  lady’s mantle with its jewel-like leaves and its smiling baby stars, to name a few,  but there was no trace of the pookah. However, a Leafy asked me if it was  Garth I was looking for and told me he  was having lunch with Michael O’Toora at Michael's tree house, and thither we went.  Happily, because I felt I could count on Michael to help me handle the pookah. And so it was.

I began by asking Michael if he thought that Alpin had been a nice young man when he was a garbage-eater. Michael said that yes, he was much improved. Never had Alpin been a more bearable being than when he was this young fellow. And then I dared to ask the pookah if he might not turn the oyster into that young man again. The pookah was reticent at first, he was about to glare at me, but Michael helped me convince him this was the humane thing to do.

 And the Leafies put in a word too. They said the garbage-eater had never harmed the forest. Only once had he eaten a thing that had grown there, the filthy blackberry that had turned him into a one-eyed apple. But that didn’t count, because it was only an experiment. It was true he had made a snack of trash humans left behind there. But that was good for the forest.

 Only Alpin’s mother had objected to his being a garbage-eater, and she was distanced from Alpin now, for the oyster was wholly in Betabel’s possession. And Betabel, though she had never met the garbage-eater, had told me she could use one, whereas she might have no further use for the oyster, for if this unique creature produced too many pearls their value would decrease and they would be considered common. Yes, she repeated what I had told her as if it were her own idea. And I’m so glad she did. The guests at the hotel, she also said,  left behind a lot of trash, and having someone dispose of that would come in handy, always supposing the garbage-eater proved to be as tame a person as he was said to have been, for she didn’t want to go through what she had when living with Alpin. She voiced plenty of grievances but it is not necessary to repeat them here and it wouldn’t be nice of me to do that.

I left Michael’s treehouse with Garth’s promise to change the oyster into the strange young man it had once been if Betabel promised to keep him in Easter Island and away from Minced Forest. Before I left, Michael produced a likeness of the young man, a picture he had drawn of Alpin in this guise, and told me to show it to Betabel so she would know what to expect. I was a bit worried she might not like what she saw, but when I showed it to her through my crystal ball, she looked pleased and gave Garth the green light.      

“The change will take place on Midsummer Night, the twenty-first of this June,” said Garth, “when the Waxing Gibbous Moon sets a few hours before sunrise. Tell that girl to have at hand dry clothes and a mop, because her man will emerge from the fish pond she keeps the oyster in clothed but soaking wet. ”

And so it was. And as far as I know, the garbage devouring Alpin seems to have accepted his wife and they seem to be getting on nicely.  But the person who is most pleased with this arrangement is Beaurenard, who has thanked me profusely and repeatedly for having put an end to the oyster’s tribulations. He said he is very concerned about animal rights, for since he sometimes turns into one or another kind of animal himself, he knows how they feel. This very afternoon we mean to visit Apple Island’s Swan Lake, where we will swim, both in the guise of swans.

“What we both have to learn from this,” I said to Beau, “is that one has to be kind to one’s sentimental partner, just the same as to anyone else. Familiarity mustn’t breed contempt. And that it isn’t wise to be too jealous, Beau.”

And now, what we are concerned about is trying to make it possible for the Atshebies to have a name day party. This sounds easier than it is.

Heather

P. S. Little Mauel had an angel cake this month, all covered with zesty orange glaze. Many cats don’t like citrus fruits, but Little Mauel craves them, though he is very careful not to squirt their juice into his eyes.

Orange, Vanilla and Poppy Glaze

Three tablespoons butter, unsalted

One and three fourth’s cup powdered sugar

Three tablespoons of fresh orange juice

One half of the seeds of  a vanilla bean

A pinch of sea salt

One half teaspoon of poppy seeds

Melt the butter in a small pot over low heat. When melted add the sugar, the orange juice, the salt and the vanilla bean seeds.

Whisk mixture until very smooth.

Gently pour over the angel cake.

Before the glaze dries, decorate by sprinkling the poppy seeds over the glazed cake.