I awoke the next morning feeling like death warmed over, literally. I’d practically died last night at the hands of a kelpie. I rolled over and realized how much pain I was really in. My whole body ached, my throat felt as if I had been eating fire and my skin still felt cold and damp. Even my bones felt cold. My eyelashes were stuck together with dried mud, but I managed a glance toward my window and noticed that it was either really early in the morning or nearly night time. I heard something move beside my head. It was Lattie. She was all curled up in my hair, which also had dried mud and leaves in it from the pond.
"Hi Avery," she yawned. "How are you feeling?"
"Alive, I guess, other than that I feel like crap." I managed to sit up with great difficulty. "How did you get me home?" I asked, realizing that most of last night was a blur after I had been dragged from the lake.
"Oliver helped me, I couldn’t carry you. He brought you all the way here for me," she replied.
"Oliver?" I asked. My memory was so weak from the night before, the name sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. "You mean the troll?” For someone so grumpy he sure was helpful.
"Yes, the troll,” Lattie replied quickly and almost impatiently. “I'm so very grateful for Oliver, he pulled you out of the water and saved you..." she trailed off sadly.
"Hey, sweetie, what's wrong?" I choked out of my sandy throat.
"Well, if it wasn't for him, you would have surely died.” Hearing the reality of it made my heart race. “I am too small to have ever done anything, and it makes me feel useless." She looked at me now with frustrated eyes. "Avery, you are my very best friend, I cannot lose you." She climbed up onto my chest and hugged my face.
"Oh, Lattie, don't be upset, I’m not going anywhere," I assured her. "But I don't think that I’ll be attending any more of your friends’ parties. I’ve had my share of fairies for one lifetime. You're all I need. You want some breakfast?" I asked her, trying to lighten the mood.
"Sure, can we have pancakes?" She looked at me with a hopeful and childlike face now. I laughed and patted her head.
"Sure sweetie, be right back." I forced myself out of my bed. My limbs felt like they weighed a hundred pounds each, and limped over to the mirror to assess the damage of last night’s events. I rubbed the dirt from my face and pulled my matted hair back into a ponytail. It was the most I could with the energy I had.
It took a while to get started but moving around helped me stretch out most of the aches. I’d just flipped over the last pancake when I heard Julie’s bedroom door open.
"Hey Jules, want some pancakes? I made plenty." I turned to face her with the frying pan in my hand, but it wasn't Julie looking back at me. There was a fairy standing in my living room, staring at me much the same way I was staring at it. I thought it might have been a pixie, I wasn’t sure. It had platinum hair that cascaded down to her waist, extremely pale white skin and large white wings that matched her ethereal complexion.
"Get out!" I screamed. "Did you follow me here? Get out of my house!" I threw the frying pan at it and backed up into the kitchen to look for another weapon. What is it doing here? Why did it come out of Julie’s room?
"What did you do to Julie?" I cried. I was furious now.
"Excuse me?" it asked. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Don't play dumb with me pixie, what do you want?" I demanded.
She looked at me in astonishment and disbelief. "Avery..." was all she could muster out.
"How do you know my name? Did the kelpie send you to finish me off?" I cried as I ran around to the other side of the living room. I tried to get to my bedroom so I could get Lattie. The fairy cautiously came toward me, not taking her eyes off of mine.
"Avery, look at me," she said.
"I am looking at you!" I cried, panicking as I failed to open the door to my bedroom. I had locked it so no one would walk in and find Lattie. "Please, just leave me alone. I won't come back to any of your parties, I swear! Just leave me alone."
She seemed as if she were about to cry. What was wrong with her?
"No, I mean really look at me. Try to see my glamor."
I shook my head in confusion. But I looked at her, trying to see whatever she was talking about. All I saw was an angelic, yet terrifying, fairy. But then, suddenly, she flickered. I blinked and tried to focus harder, it was like my vision had been blurred but only to her shape. She flickered again and then changed. My jaw dropped.
"Jules..." I barely whispered. I think I was in shock. There was a lot of that going around for me lately.
"Yes. Avery, what happened to you? What did you do?" she asked. I could tell that she wanted to hug me but held off; probably worried that she would scare me. She was right. I was completely and utterly freaked out. I thought the stories Lattie’d told me were sweet and sometimes magical. But, as stories, it was easy to forget that they were real. This was too much to handle. Seeing the fantasy come real before my eyes, dying at its hands…it wasn’t fun and magical anymore.
"I...I went to a party last night and ate some fruit," I replied. The fruit was one of the minor things that had happened but it was the only explanation that I could form at the moment.
"That might explain why you can see through my glamor. What about this kelpie you mentioned?"
I began to cry at the mention of the creature. "I drowned last night; a kelpie tricked me into going in the water." I don't think I was blinking; I just kept staring at her in pure disbelief. What the heck was going on? This was Julie, well, supposed to be anyway. I thought I knew everything about her, now I had no idea if any of the things I knew were even real.
"How did you get free?"
"A troll saved me and brought me home." I didn't want to stand here and tell Julie about my night as if nothing were going on. "Jules, I can't do this. Not now. I need to leave, I’m sorry." I held up my hand as she opened her mouth to speak. I’d had enough of fairy problems as it was, I couldn't deal with this strange development right now. I needed to clear my head. I grabbed my jacket from the couch and ran out the door.
Once I got outside and around the corner, my legs collapsed and I plopped down on the sidewalk. My knees hugged into my chest and my body rocked back and forth as I tried to wrap my mind around the past twenty-four hours. I wasn’t sure how well equipped I was to handle this secret world I’d stumbled upon. I had no idea where I was going. I didn't even get my bike. I needed to walk, my body felt stiff and sore from drowning. But, before I even realized it, I was in front of Celadine’s house. She lived in a small mansion not far from the gallery, a turn of the century home with oversized window peaks and black trim. A pair of iron gates led the way to a set of large wooden double doors. I marched up the stone walkway and banged the huge, brass door knocker. A few moments later, Celadine opened the door. I found it strange that she wore white silk pajamas, considering it was early evening after all.
"Avery! What's happened to you? Are you alright?" she asked in alarm. I didn't even think about the state I must have looked, dried mud and leaves in my hair, cuts, and bruises on my arms and legs.
"Um, I had a bad night," I mumbled, looking down at myself. "And a really bad day. Can I come in?"
"Of course darling, you do not have to ask.” She moved aside and put her arm around me as I entered. It felt nice to be embraced by a normal person who had no idea of my not so normal life. She led me to a gigantic living room filled with huge white Victorian furniture and a big television. I sat down on the couch and she handed me a blanket.
"You sit here and I’ll go make some tea." She smoothed the top of my head like a mother would and then left toward the kitchen. I sat there for a few minutes and thought about what I was going to tell Celadine. The truth? Would she think I was crazy? No, I didn’t think so. I thought she would believe me, even if she didn't understand what I was saying, I knew she would still believe me. Just then, she came back with two cups of herbal tea and handed one to me.
"Now, tell me everything,
" she demanded with a smile as she took her place beside me.
"I don't know how to start. I don't know what to say without sounding crazy."
"Well, just say it. Don't think about it, do not worry about what I will think or say. I am here to listen."
"Okay." I took a deep breath and it hurt my throat. "Well, I guess I should start with Lattie, that’s kind of where it all began. She's my new roommate, only Julie doesn't know about her because she's a sprite that lives in my bedroom. She took me to this party in the park and I ate some fruit and then a kelpie drowned me. I was saved by a troll who knew CPR and he brought me home."
My boss stared blankly at me for a moment. "Well, that is a strange night indeed. This Lattie, is she a trouble maker? Is that how you wound up in the hands of a kelpie?"
"No, Lattie is a great friend. I was dancing and lost track of her. Someone told me that she was down by the water, so I went to look for her and that's when I ran into the kelpie. But that's not all. When I awoke today, I found a fairy in my apartment. But, it was Julie...she's been lying to me my whole life. She's not even a person." I looked down into my tea cup as I tried hard not to cry. Saying it out loud made it all the more real, and it hurt. I told Julie everything, we were like sisters. How could she not tell me something so huge?
Celadine leaned closer to hug me and smooth my hair and face. She wiped the tears from my cheeks and smiled at me. "Darling, I do not think you should judge someone for whom or what they are. You already know that you like the 'who' part, now you need to accept the 'what' part. Who cares that she is not a human? She is still your friend, I’m sure her feelings are not altered toward you because you are different from her."
She was right. Of course, she was right. But, that’s not why I was upset. Julie could be a duck for all I cared. It’s the fact that she’d hidden it from me this whole time. Still, Julie must have been so hurt by my reaction. She obviously felt that she had to keep this a secret for some reason, maybe she had no choice. After all, I never told her about Lattie. Well, now I just felt awful. I had to go back and talk to her.
"Thanks, Celadine. You know, I never even thought about coming here. I just started to walk and ended up at your door. It's like I knew somehow that you should be the person that I went to." I rested my head on her shoulder and she held me close to comfort me.
"Avery, I will always be here to help you, to comfort you and listen, or whatever it is that you may ever need. And I will never judge or think lesser of you. All I ask is that you show me the same courtesy if I ever turn out to be...different than you expected." I had no idea what she meant by that. I knew Celadine would never hurt me or disappoint me, no matter what she did.
"I know. I'm so lucky to have a friend like you, Celadine. Thanks for listening to me and not thinking that I’m crazy. I have to go, though. I should talk to Julie about this and get things figured out." I got up off of the couch and handed her the blanket and she walked me to the door.
"Can I give you a ride home? You don’t have to walk back in your sleepwear." Celadine offered. I looked down at myself and realized that I’d left the apartment in such a hurry that I was wearing only pink polka dot shorts and a tank top under my jacket. I blushed in embarrassment.
"Thanks, but I get so car sick, I don't think I could manage today. My stomach doesn't feel the greatest after everything that’s happened. I should be fine if you could lend me some pants, though."
"Of course, I will be right back." She left and headed up the grand staircase to her room. She returned, moments later, with a pair of jeans. The same pair that she’d given me the night I took the bus.
"Thanks," I said as I quickly pulled them on over my shorts. "Hey, how's your brother? Is he still in town?"
"Ah, yes. He is. He will be staying longer than planned. Actually, he will be at the gallery show this weekend," she replied. But it was like she didn't want me asking about him.
"Well, maybe I’ll get to meet him."
"Hmm, yes, perhaps you will," she quickly answered. "Well, good luck with Julie, and let me know if you need anything. I will see you at the gallery tomorrow?"
"Um, yes, there are a few things I need to double check before the show on Friday." I gave her another hug and turned to leave, waving over my shoulder as I did. She waved back awkwardly and then shut the door. I brushed it off and hurried home to talk to Julie.
I walked into the coffee shop, out of breath from practically running home. Everyone seemed to watch me as I walked through the shop. I stared at the floor and hurried up the stairs. I took a deep breath and opened the apartment door. Inside, I found Julie and Lattie sitting at the table. They both turned to look at me but didn't say anything. I guess the sprite’s out of the bag on that one.
"Looks like we have a lot to talk about," I said.
"Yeah, I guess we do," replied Julie.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ACCEPTANCE
Iron & Wine Page 22