325. The Green Elfs of the Prestigious Candid Candied Moon Garden Center and Nursery

 325. The Green Elfs of  the Prestigious Candid Candied Moon Garden Center and Nursery

“No, Beau!” I said to my boyfriend. “Don’t even think of doing what you’re thinking of doing. It’s not worth it, please!”

“Nobody busts my true love’s garden and gets off scot-free. And much less if it is pinkheads.”

“Who are those?” asked Thistle, who was also outraged and ready to avenge me ferociously.

“It doesn’t matter who they are, just don’t even think of vengeance, And much less in the heat of the moment,” I insisted.

“Look here, sister, you are a fool!” Thistle said to me. “How could you defend Binky? And do it yet while I was trying to get that mystical voice to let us hide him in her cave. Of course Binky was an imbecile! And to top it all you faulted our father! Daddy is our father! And we defend our own! Maybe the poor man unthinkingly suggested Binky hound Uncle Gen, But surely he never thought that idiot would really do it. And so unrelentingly yet!”

“Okay. I hope you are right. I want to think so. I want to believe that Daddy only made the mistake of not taking Mr. Binky seriously.But what a mistake! When you deal with someone who is as mad as a hatter you have to be careful what you say! Sir Mungo was an executive. A person with a boundless will to do what he considered had to be done.”

“Yes, turning our world upside down and against the free will of everyone else. There you’ve nailed him. Binky believed that he was the only person with good intentions in the whole universe and that he knew better than anyone else what was good for everybody and therefore had the right to force his ideas on us and manipulate us as if we were his puppets and he the puppeteer. He didn’t see himself as our equal. He saw himself as a superior being with the right to do what he willed with us. He felt no respect for anyone but himself. Nobody ever had better ideas or intentions than he did,in his own opinion, of course. I have the power. And power is to be used. That is how he thought. Well, in any dictionary, that is the definition of a tyrant. One must not be that, my ultracompassionate sister.”

“Beau! Where are you? Hold it right there! You’re not going to act now like Thistle says Mr. Binky did. This is my garden. I decide what to do about it. Respect me a little.”

For a second I had lost mental contact with Beau, but fortunately he listened to me and returned from wherever he had vanished to.

And once he was visible he said, “Fine. We’ll serve this dish cold. But this is not going to stay like it is.”

“And so it won’t, I have brought people who will leave this place just like it used to be, Heathie,” said Uncle Gentlerain. “Or better than before. If you want to make improvements, now is the time to say so.”

My uncle had appeared in my wreck of a garden with the green elfs from the prestigious Candid Candied Moon Garden Center and Nursery, the best of its kind on this island. And with Arley too. Yes, my brother had come too.

“Thank you so much,” I said. “Just like it used to be, please!”

I was truly grateful. To leave my garden like it used to be would have taken me much time and effort. And it was best to have it repaired as soon as possible because the plain sight of the ruin only encouraged Beau and Thistle to think of exterminating  the vandals. For these two, revenge was a priority. For me, and for my uncle, I think, repairing the garden came first.

“They won’t return, sis,” said Arley. “They know what they are searching for isn’t here any longer.”

“But do they know where it is at?”

“Even we have no idea where you’ve hidden Binky. Because it was you who carried him away, wasn’t it?”

I nodded. Actually, rather than nodded, I answered moving my eyebrows. I was that afraid to say that we had moved Mr. Binky.

“The gardeners will remain here working. While there is light, they will clear the garden and remove the debris. When it gets dark, they will plant. Our Moon will do you, Heathie, the favour of going through all five of her phases in one night, so the gardeners can plant everything they mean to. All that grows below the earth and all that grows above it. So as not to disturb, we are all going to my house. All of us,” said Uncle Gent. I knew he was saying that because it is safer to speak there. “Like Arley has said, the vultures won’t return. Now they are spying on your father, convinced that he has hidden his prime minister. I made them think so myself. Never in my life did I ever think I would end up aiding my persecutor. But the world revolves and many a turn does life turn.”

At Uncle Gent’s house, Granny Milksops and Pearl were already preparing an early dinner. Our uncle left us in the dining-room and went for Mabelle. He managed to draw her out of the library and we began to tell her all that had happened.

“Those of you who are wondering who the pinkheads are, know that Beau can give you the answer,” said Uncle Gent.

“The family of that persistent pest. Not even they could put up with him. They didn’t let him work with them. They left him on his own, doing what he could to dominate us.”

“Mr. Binky is a vulture fairy?” I asked. I had never known him to take this shape.

“Not as much as the rest of most of his people. But the obsession with obtaining all there is to be had he did have too. In his way,” said Beau.

“Those people are very calculating. They calculate and calculate. They know that they can lose their powers and turn into mere mortals if they go too far when at their sullen trade. They haven’t wounded any of the Lorcans because that would have made them look more wicked than they wanted to look,” explained Uncle Gent. “I must say they have never messed directly with us. They only deal with the shady ones and the mortals. That is how they justify their acts.”

“Why do they want that mummy back now? These people never sew with threadless needles. They must be up to something,” said Beau.

Uncle Gent shrugged. “I suppose we will eventually find out. For the present we had better not let them have their relative. They should have come for him at the very start of the man’s problem. It wouldn’t have cost them a thing to claim Binky kindly back then. You have never hidden him. He was lying out in the open for all to see. But then, Binky was never much considered by his family. They found him rather second class. They didn’t understand each other. Not much.”

“And you are going to help him? You really want to do that?” Mabelle asked her husband.

“Want to, I don’t want to. But he will have his second chance. Everybody gets one from us. And he has been like annulled for years. Who knows how he thinks now?”

“A second chance to put an end to us, Gentie? Look how we have relaxed since he was knocked out cold.”

“They are going to say you are a fool, uncle,” said Thistle to Uncle Gent.

“That is most likely. But who knows? Maybe we’ll be lucky.”