Elona of the Great Green

Elona of the Great Green

You can hear it in the rustle under all the other sounds, kind of a tap tap like nuts cracking open, then it’s gone. It’s a small enough sound that makes you think you never heard it, in fact people tell themselves that they never do hear it.

My mom was the first one to show me, I was very young, too young to remember, but it’s something you don’t forget. The first time, the very first moment as I held my breath suspended between here and there, then and now, I listened with a finely tuned ear and there was no mistaking the sound, something was out there. I looked over to my mom, she saw them. In between the must dos and the most be dones she still took the time to listen and she could see them as clearly as I could. My eyes followed hers, they rustled the leaves of the trees and seemed to speak with the wind.

My mom’s eyes grew wide with pride at seeing my astonishment, the kind of bright sparkling look you dream of seeing glint across a mother’s face; that mix of pride, love, joy and wonder. I felt warm and full, for there in the tree just staring down at me was a fairy. I caught a glimpse of her in the corner of my eye. I could hardly contain my joy.

I spent the rest of the late afternoon sipping cold tea with my mom and auntie, all the while knowing she hovered overhead.

It became a haunting awareness over the years that they lived in my aunt’s old oak tree. I had often looked up to see them playing there. My mom regarded the tree with a reverent smile. She would look at me with eyes that asked if I could still see them. Of course I could, but we never spoke of them, neither of us did.

My aunt always referred to them, the fairies, as living in my heart, it was probably true as they did eventually take up residence there but at the beginning they were far from it. They lived in an old oak tree. Rustling leaves and speaking as the wind blew to mask the sound. I would offer them food and I knew they took it, but I never saw them eat. In fact it was rare that I actually ever saw them, until that day, the day I met Elona of the Great Green.

So this is page one of the short story. As the story will progress we will learn more about the fairies and why Magenta’s mother never speaks about them to her.

Essentially as this first chapter progresses we will discover that while her mother DOES believe in fairies…Magenta’s aunt and mother are playing make believe, that her mother teeters on really believing they exits and believing for the sake of her daughter. What will be discovered later in the book when Magenta brings the issue of the fairies losing their homeland and solicits her mother’s help, is that her mother is losing her ability to believe. So not only is Magenta trying to save the fairies, she is also trying to save her mother’s ability to believe. In doing so, she learns the magic and bravery of life, that she can face the hardest of obstacles, which will help her overcome her feeling of confusion about the world.