“Whatever,” Tom replied as he pushed passed me to the pantry.
I wanted to get down to the bottom of things. I grabbed Mum’s laptop and sat down at the kitchen table and yes I was still in my Pyjamas. There was no way I was going back up into my room to get changed when I had something running around up there. I started it up and went straight to Google. First thing I looked up was the Otherworld. I wanted to know where Hayden was from. There wasn’t a lot about the Otherworld on Google, but what I did get was that in the Otherworld there’s believed to be layers of existence of supernatural beings and spirits. It didn’t really go into it, but I guess it would mean that they somehow live on top of each other in different parallel realms? That’s what I could understand from the Google search. These “realms” can generally be reached by a tree, river, rope or something that represented an imaginary line. I don’t think Google knew much about it or anyone did for that matter, but all cultures believed in the Otherworld in some form or another. It was like Kate said at practice the other day – myths normally start with some sort of truth, or something like that.
Now, on to the most pressing matter… the footprints on top of my study desk. I know that a mouse did not make those prints, but what did? A shiver crawled up my spine. Whatever it was had little shoes and very little hands. That’s the first thing I Googled – What would wear little shoes? All google came up with was “Orthopaedic” problems. Okay, so clearly I was going to have to think outside the square. Next I typed - pests with little hands and feet. This came up with types of bed bugs and bug bites, those definitely weren't right otherwise I'd be itching all over. How was I to explain to Google what I needed to know? Right, I thought to myself, I know this is crazy but I typed it anyway – mythical little creatures. Bingo, I think this was more like it, or was it? Maybe the light in my body was making my mind think of crazy things or beings that did not exist, but there were little hand marks on my shelves, now I’m no insect/mammal expert but I have never seen these marks before and with all that’s gone on in my life this past week, could it really be that unbelievable? The first creature that came up was an “Adaro” – I’d never heard of it before and I don’t think this fitted the description anyway. They are half human and half fish, and aggressive little fish by the sounds of it, attacking humans with flying fish – weird. The next one below it was “Brownies.” Brownies were invisible brown elves or house goblins that lived in Scottish houses and did favours for the household owner while they slept and by the sounds of it they were loyal creatures and protective of the families they chose to live with, but if they were treated badly they disappeared, vanished. A payment of something to eat is given to the brownies by the Scottish people for the favours they would do for them. The next one was “Gremlins.” I cringed, I’d seen the movie Gremlins and I definitely don’t think we have one of those in the house, or it would have turned to turmoil by now and besides the footprints were too small to be a gremlin, according to the size they were in the movie anyway. I skipped to the next ones, “Leprechauns” and “Pixies” were next up. Leprechauns apparently help people like Brownies in exchange for food, Pixies were thought to have not been good enough to go into Heaven and not bad enough to go to Hell and were doomed to walk the earth forever. They were tricksters but hardworking. I shut the screen to Mum’s laptop. I don’t think Google helped. There’s no way I have a Brownie, Leprechaun or Pixie in my house, that wasn’t plausible, but what was it? Whatever it was, I had to catch it, and I had to know what the hell it was. I started to think back about giving them food in return for favours. This seemed to be the common theme, but what to leave? Once again I turned to Google and decided on cream. I was going to leave a bowl of cream in my room and I was going to be hiding to catch it in action. I smiled as I thought about how sneaky I was, then the smile disappeared as I realised I was going to have to go into my room again to set it up.
◆◆◆
I had my eyes on the bowl of cream that I’d put on my study desk. I tucked myself under my blankets with my torch light. I was going to catch this thing if it was the last thing I did. My eyes started to get tired. I grabbed my book and read it under my blankets for a while with the torch lighting the pages. Then I started to hear it, the slurping from the cream bowl. My heart nearly leapt out of my chest – yes! It was faint, but it was definitely a slurping sound. I slowly lifted the duvet off me and shone the torch quickly on the cream bowl so I could catch it in action.
I screamed and dropped the torch on the floor. The little man with his butt crack showing knocked over the bowl of cream and disappeared in front of my eyes. I threw the duvet over me again and tried to reach down to get my torch. OMG, there was a little man in my house, in my room! Google was right! I could hear my heart pumping in my chest and a whirring noise in my ears. Get it together Brigid, I said to myself, you have the light of a goddess running through your veins, you can deal with this. I reached down lower and felt along the floor. My hand scraped against the torch and I grabbed it. I slowly threw the duvet off me and sat up at the side of my bed. I shone the torch again to my study desk. There was a puddle of cream and footprints leading up to my jewerly box. I took a deep breath in, you can do this Brigid. I sat up and walked slowly over to my jewerly box. I quickly opened it and shone the torch in. Nothing, only splatters of cream against the pink velvet lining.
“Hello” I whispered. I waited for a while and said it again when I got no reply.
“Hello. My name is Brigid, I won’t hurt you. Hopefully you won’t hurt me.” I heard a scuffle and saw some of my trinkets move. I knew it was in there. It was a mythical creature after all, it must be because what else would be invisible.
“I saw you before. Its okay, I’m friendly… do you want some more cream? I’m sorry I frightened you and made you spill it.” It was still quiet in my jewerly box, but I knew it could hear me and it was listening.
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll go and get you the biggest bowl of cream if you show yourself to me.”
I waited for a good couple of minutes. “I promise I won’t hurt you, I just want to see you and I really want to give you a big bowl of cream. You seemed to be really enjoying it before I rudely interrupted before.”
I waited a while longer. I didn’t think it was going to show itself. I huffed, this wasn’t helping. I didn’t want to sleep in my room with some creature I didn’t know. I didn’t know if it wanted to harm me or not. I slowly put the box back up on the shelf. I went to shut the lid when I saw a couple of large pointy ears. It stood up and smiled at me. It had cream all over its face. My heart melted, it looked so cute! How could this cute little creature want to harm me? It moved backwards to the far corner of the box, looking warily at me. This thing wasn’t going to hurt me, I knew it in my bones.
“I won’t hurt you, I just wanted to know what you were and who you were.”
He went to talk but nothing came out. His hand went up to his neck and he nodded his little head. He was wearing a little brown woollen cap with huge pointy ears poking out of it. He had on raggedy brown clothes with little brown boots. His large black eyes were wide apart and nearly sat on the side of his face. He was so ugly that he was cute.
“Can you not talk?” I asked as I held my own throat, mimicking him in case he couldn’t understand me.
He nodded his head sadly.
“Can you understand me?”
He nodded again as he scratched his bum. He smiled and I saw a row of pointy little teeth which was slightly worrying.
“Are you going to hurt me?” I asked him.
He threw his head back and opened his mouth. He held his round belly as he shook. He was laughing. I smiled at his reaction. He stopped laughing and shook his head. He pulled his pants up further and rocked back and forth.
“That’s good” I said delighted he wasn’t going to hurt me. I think at the back of my mind I already knew that. “What are you? Sorry I know you can’t answer that, how about I ask you a question and you
can nod or shake your head to answer me – okay?”
He nodded his little head again.
“Okay, so are you a pixie?”
He screwed up his huge nose in disgust. “Okay so you’re not a Pixie.”
He shook his head roughly.
“Are you a brownie?”
He nodded with his eyes wide and a huge smile beaming on his face.
“Wow! You’re a brownie?”
He kept nodding his head, but stayed to the back corner of the box.
“Why are you here? I mean, why are you living in my room?”
He shrugged his shoulders and looked confused.
“You don’t know?”
He shrugged his shoulders again. He held his finger up and looked at me. He then pushed his arms up over his head in a circular motion and then looked at me again to see if I understood what he was trying to tell me. He was about as big as my index finger, he was so tiny.
I had no idea what he was trying to explain. I shrugged my shoulders. “Sorry, I don’t understand.”
He tapped his little foot in frustration, and then held his finger up for my attention. He pushed his arms up over his head again in a circular motion then froze looking up at the roof. He paused there for a moment for effect before he looked at me again.
“Sorry, I still don’t understand.”
He looked like he was growling with frustration. He climbed out of the jewerly box and dropped to the shelf below it. He climbed down that one and dropped to my study desk onto the spilt cream. He put his finger in the cream and started to draw a picture. He started with a circle with lots of little lines poking out from it. When he was satisfied with what he’d drawn, he licked the cream off his fingers.
“It’s a sun!” I yelled. Then held my hands over my lips when I realised I could have just woken up my whole family. “Sorry, I meant – is it a sun?”
He smiled and nodded his head.
“You are here because of the sun?”
He nodded again and drew a stick figure of a girl with long hair beside the sun. Then it dawned on me.
“You are here because of Brigid, the sun goddess.”
He put his hands on his hips and smiled broadly. He pulled out a little sword from the back of his pants and swung it around pretending to fight someone.
I jumped back a bit, I did not expect that. It didn’t seem like he wanted to hurt me though, he was showing me something. It looked like he was protecting me from something.
“Are you protecting me?”
He put his sword away and bowed.
“Well thank you, I certainly appreciate it.” It was nice to think he was here to protect me. “I already have a protector though.”
He looked at me and shook his head as he screwed up his large nose again. His large pointy ears wiggled with the movement. I really wished he could talk to me. It would make this so much easier. He kept shaking it and held up his finger for my attention. I nodded my head to show him I was paying attention. He drew a picture of a man with sharp pointy teeth and then put a big cross through it. He looked up at me for my reaction.
I didn’t understand, but I think I just found the culprit of the picture in my mirror. “Did you draw that picture on my mirror?”
He nodded his head and bared his teeth. He wrapped his little arms around himself and turned so his back was showing to me. His hands were clutching his back. He started rubbing them up and down. He then turned his head and puckered his lips like he was kissing someone. He jumped back around to face me again and bared his sharp pointy teeth.
I shook my head, “I’m sorry I don’t understand?” Gosh he was cute.
He threw his hands up in frustration and sat down on the edge of the desk with his hands on his head.
It upset me to see him so frustrated, but I didn’t know what he was trying to say. I decided to change the subject. We can try and work this out another time. “I promised you something didn’t I?”
He looked up at me with his wide black eyes with a look of anticipation.
“Does somebody want some cream?”
He jumped up and nodded his head licking his lips.
“Okay, I’ll go downstairs and get some more. Do you like my jewelry box?” I asked him.
He nodded and put his hands together and put them both to the side of his face and pretended to sleep.
I laughed at his cute interpretation. “Okay, you can sleep there if you want.” I smiled “I’ll be right back”.
How cute, I’ll have a brownie sleeping in my room, that’s a bit different from the norm. I don’t think any other teenager in New Zealand can say the same.
◆◆◆
I came back up with a big bowl of cream and some cotton balls. I gave the bowl of cream to the Brownie. He jumped up and down and ran to the bowl. He bent over and started to slurp. I laughed at him as his bum crack appeared again when he bent over. I leant over and gently pulled them up slightly. He stopped slurping and looked up at me as he wiped his mouth. He nodded his head in thanks and gave me a cheeky smile, I was sure he was laughing. I then put the cotton balls in the jewellery box and organised them so they were a comfortable mattress.
“There that will be better” I said to him.
He ignored me as he slurped at the cream. I went to my drawers and grabbed out a bandana from my underwear drawer. This will do for a blanket for him. Hopefully he’ll be warm enough I thought to myself. It was summer, so he shouldn’t need too many blankets. It was still hot at night, but if he was staying with me over the winter, I’ll organise something else to keep him warm from the cold Dunedin nights.
Once he finished his cream I held my hand out for him to climb onto it. He looked at me with a confused look on his face. “Well, it’s better than climbing up those shelves.” I told him.
He nodded and walked onto my hand. He was heavier than he looked. I gently placed him in the box. I went to close the lid. “Good night Brownie.” He smiled at me as I smiled back. I shut the lid and climbed into bed. I had a Brownie in my house, what a turn of events.
CHAPTER 10
The Brownie quickly made himself at home, he was quite adorable. One night, I caught him stealing Burger Rings from my brother while he was playing his video games in the lounge. When he realised I’d caught him, he gave me the cheekiest smile with chip crumbs spilling out of his overfilled mouth and disappeared. He took great delight in riding the cat, Winkles, up and down the stairs. Winkles, believe it or not, didn’t seem to mind, she took it in her stride. The Brownie would grab Winkles’s long ginger fur with one hand and hold the other one up in the air as Winkles bounded up and down the stairs, like he was riding a bull at a rodeo. His large pointy ears bounced in delight as he threw his head back showing his spikey teeth in silent laughter. The rest of my family just thought Winkles was going mad with age, they couldn’t see the Brownie riding it like a bull as it bounded up and down the stairs. He even fixed my Dad’s shelf in the garage and the sensor light outside. My Dad was absolutely amazed. He spent the next few days trying to figure out who’d done it. He knew me, Mum or Tom wouldn’t have fixed it. My Mum and I had no idea about DIY and Tom, well let’s just say Tom was too lazy to fix anything. I asked the Brownie if he’d fixed them, he smiled and nodded his head looking chuffed with himself. I thanked him and gave him a bowl of cream which he slurped away at eagerly. So that’s what happened every night, it became a routine. I’d leave a bowl of cream, or nuts, or anything that I knew he liked on my study desk before I went to sleep at night. It didn’t take me long to realise that the Brownie was nocturnal. He slept during most of the day and was awake at night. Some nights I’d wake up to him gently pulling my eyelids open trying to wake me up for a game of draughts. He loved that game. I learnt to love him. He was so much fun and cheeky and the cat loved him too. Winkles spent more time in my room than she’d ever done in the past. He did odd jobs around the house, he was a delight and extremely helpful. I just wished I could tell my family about him, but
they didn’t seem to be able to see him and that was his choice. I knew that he didn’t want them to see him. One day maybe he’d trust them. I knew deep in my heart that they would accept him, especially when he used his magic to wash the dishes that were left out at night, that I was currently taking the credit for in the mornings. They would love him and when the time was right I was sure he’d show himself to them.
◆◆◆
I jumped out of the shower in a rush. Hayden was coming to pick me up, it was Friday and we were going to a bomb-fire party out at Stephen’s house in East Taieri. It was going to be huge! It had become sort of a ritual in Dunedin for our school and Stephen had been doing it for the last few years. Mum had even brought me a four-pack of Bacardi Breezer RTDs to take with me this year. I reassured her that Hayden would drop me back at home by 10.30pm and no later. I had tried for 11.00pm, but my Dad wasn’t having a bar of it. I flicked my wet hair forward and wrapped my grey towel around it. I twisted the length of it and then stood up as I flicked it down my back and looked at myself in the mirror. Staring back at me was another picture. This time it was a stick figure picture of a girl with long hair holding a little stick figure in her hand with big pointy ears. There was a smile on the little stick figure’s circle face. I broke into a smile. It was a picture of my little Brownie and me. He was showing me that we were friends. He was such a little dude. I had to find a name for him… calling him Brownie wasn’t right. A thought popped into my head. What about “B?” It could be short for Brownie. I reckoned it would be okay for now. I made a mental note to ask him when I saw him later that night. I looked at my watch. It was going on 7.00pm, Hayden would be here soon. He was picking me up at 7.30pm. I took one last look at my awesome picture B drew for me and walked eagerly out of my bathroom to figure out what I was going to wear. We would be out on a farm, so I thought faded blue denim jeans and maybe a loose black high low top would work. I’d definitely be wearing my brown boots his time. I remembered Stephen’s bomb fire party from last year and the amount of cow and sheep poo I had on the bottom of my feet was disgusting! They smelt for days. I would not be wearing sandals to Stephen’s farm again in a hurry.
The Sun Goddess of Cargills Castle Page 6