Madam Elizabeth came around and began to rise, her eyes fire red with anger; but as she rose, Mother began to grow until she was no longer a house cat and more like a black panther; and one the size of a Siberian tiger.  Madam Elizabeth’s anger flashed toward Michaela for the briefest second before she was distracted by Mother’s nerve shattering roar.  Poor Michaela collapsed in the corner, hand to her mouth, tears of abject fear in her eyes but unable to shut those eyes against what was happening.

            “What are you?”  Madam Elizabeth demanded of the cat

            “A friend come to set you free,” the cat said as she transformed into the Danna, an inhumanly beautiful but nevertheless human looking person.  Nearly all of the lives of the Kairos are ordinary human and mortal.  That gave Danna an advantage of the other ancient gods when it came to appearing mortal; but to be sure, if Michaela had not been in the room, watching, Danna might have been tempted to let out a little of her true nature, and that might have simplified things.

            “Remarkable, as Mister Casey might say.”  Madam Elizabeth was taken aback by the transformation, but not startled.  “Now there is a real talent, and I would have it.”  The Madam began to chant and Michaela reacted.

            “Beware, Lady.” 

            Danna just stood there and waited.  When the chanting was done, thin tendrils of blue light snaked out from the woman and tried to wrap around Danna.  Michaela shrieked again before she saw the tendrils pass through and return to their mistress without touching Danna at all.

            “What is this?”  Madam Elizabeth complained.  “You are not without power.  I saw your transformation.  I should be filled and reveling in your power, but I am not.  Explain.”

            “I have no power,” Danna said calmly as if she was simply speaking over tea.

            “Don’t be absurd.  All power is derived from other sources.  I discovered my power in Egypt, in the ancient texts.  It is the power of Amonette herself, the very serpent of Egypt.  What can you compare to that?”

            “My mother was Egyptian,” Danna said brightly.  She sounded like a schoolgirl.  “My father was Greek and my husband was from the North, from Aesgard.  That was the agreement that gave my children the West.  But my mother was Egyptian.  She was Anu, the twin sister of Anubis, though in Egypt she was called by a different name.”  Madam Elizabeth looked up as if to ask that name.  Danna dropped her voice and stared down the old woman.  “Bast.”  She spoke her mother’s name.

            “A fanciful tale,” Madam Elizabeth said weakly as her eyes turned to the ground.

            “And I also have another name in Egypt.”  Danna took a single, powerful step forward.  “It is Amonette.  I am the serpent of Egypt.”

            Michaela laughed, but it was a soft, hysterical sort of laugh.

            “No.”  Madam Elizabeth spoke the word Moira had spoken, but in this case it was the word of a woman who was suddenly just old and frail and failing.

            “You see?  I have nothing that can be given or taken away.  I have no power.  I am power.  I am the embodiment of the power itself.  I am the one from whom the power is derived.  This is my authority and my responsibility and my burden from birth, and you are my responsibility as well.”  Danna paused to examine the woman inside-out.  “In this place, in the West, in my jurisdiction, I am the Danna, and my children whom I loved, kept their responsibilities well.  Now, alas, it falls to me once again.  Miss Eizabeth, what shall I do with you?”

            Madam Elizabeth collapsed in a chair, tears in her eyes, her head hung, her hands in her lap worried a handkerchief.  “Mercy,” she breathed.

            Danna waved her arm in her way and the demonic presences that swirled around the woman vanished.  They would never return.  Michaela sat up to see what she could, and she saw Madam Elizabeth raise her arms to the table, drop her head into her arms and weep. 

            “Go home, Miss Elizabeth.  Go to confession and make peace.  The day is gone and the time is short.”  Danna spoke softly before she stepped over to Michaela.

            Michaela was surprised that Danna smiled down at her and held out her hand.  Michaela never felt so much awe and fear in her life, but something inside her said that everything would be alright, so she took the hand and let the goddess lift her to her feet.

            “Shall we see how my granddaughter is making out?”  Danna asked with such a casual tone, Michaela was amazed.  The goddess was actually speaking to her!

            “De Danna.”  She breathed.  She remembered Moira using the words.

            “Yes, that one,” Danna said, and she let out the faintest laugh that was so sweet and perfect and lovely, Michaela almost stumbled from the beauty and joy of it.  Fortunately, Danna never let go of her hand.

###

            Moira got outside in time to see Mister Brannigan throw a net of pink force over Mickey so Mickey could not move.  Mister Brannigan spoke.  “I will drain your life from you, all but the last little bit so you can live as an old man and remember how you cheated me.”

            “You will not.”  Moira acted without thinking.  Her hand came up as it had inside and Mister Brannigan was knocked on his rump by a surge of light and fire.  Unlike Madam Elizabeth, however, Moira’s surge appeared to make the man mad.  He got up and let out his own surge of power, and Moira found herself equally deposited on her butt, and she said, “Ouch!”  Even as Pumpkin zoomed up to her.

            “Lady!”  She acknowledged Moira, but only briefly as she turned fairy fast and zoomed up to Mister Brannigan’s face where she shook her finger and spoke sternly.  “You leave my Lady alone you big, smelly breed!  You don’t know what you are doing.  You are going to make my Great Lady very angry!”  Mister Brannigan was fascinated.  He lifted his hand slowly as if testing the air around the hovering fairy and stared with open eyes and open mouth, but said nothing.  “I’ll get my friends and you will be sorry.”  Pumpkin rushed back into the inn so fast she appeared to vanish.  That gave Moira an idea.  She was not very good at it, but she thought she might do it if she concentrated, and sure enough, she vanished from sight.

            Moira moved quickly from where she had been sitting while Mister Brannigan looked around, finally turning in a complete circle.  “Over here.”  Moira’s voice sounded out behind the man and she moved quickly again as the man spun around.

            “Grrr.”  The man growled like a beast and he let the pink of his magic form a cloud which rapidly expanded around him.  “You cannot hide.  You and the little man owe me, and I will have my justice.”

            Moira was caught in the cloud before she could escape.  It stung her eyes and made her cough, and when it began to clear, she saw Mister Brannigan floating about four feet off the ground, hovering over her and grinning, wickedly.  Moira flew up to meet him and the man’s jaw dropped.  “You can’t do that!”  He shouted, before he shared his deeper thoughts.  “I see why you came out rather than Madam Elizabeth.”  Moira merely shrugged and began to circle him, and while she could not come anywhere near fairy speed, she was able to create enough wind to blow off the cloud.  Moira just smiled and waved at the man as she went invisible again. 

            “Not fair!”  The man shouted.  “You cheat at everything.”  Then he appeared to have a second thought and he floated down to where Mickey was still captive in his pink bubble.  “Show yourself or I will hurt him.  I swear it.”

            “You will not hurt him,” Moira said as she became visible a few feet away.  Brannigan quickly tried to place a bubble around Moira, but Moira merely waked through it and it dissipated like the smoke.  Brannigan tried his shot again.  He hoped to knock her down again, but Moira waved her hand and knocked the shot aside like it was barely there.  Then Moira tried something of her own and Brannigan found himself wrapped in a bubble, but one that was shone like sunlight and it was smaller than the one around Mickey as well so Brannigan could hardly move.  Then Moira reached out her finger and touched the pink bubble and it popped like a pin-popped balloon.  Mickey staggered a little, shook his head and yawned to pop his ears, but he looked unhurt.

            It was then that the big front glass window at the inn shattered and garnered all of their attention.  Pumpkin squirted out the inn door followed by Macreedy and Ellean with bows at the ready.  Prickles had chosen to go through the glass, and a reluctant looking hobgoblin followed the ogre, carefully.  “I’m coming!”  Prickles shouted in a kind of roar that made Mickey fall to his knees in prayer and made poor mister Brannigan soil himself.  When the Little ones arrived, though, Moira stood, hands on hips and tapped her foot.  They all stopped short.

###########

NOTE: To read this story from the beginning or to read any of the stories of the Traveler please click the tab “Traveler Tales” above.  You can read the stories on the right independently, or just the Vordan story on the left, or the whole work in order as written.  Your choice.  Enjoy. 

–Michael.

            Moira entered the back room where she saw the table set up with five chairs.  Michaela was in the corner to make sure there was plenty of coffee, hot tea and ice water along with an assortment of sweets.  Moira set Mother down as Michaela looked up and gave a little curtsey.

            “Mam.”

            Moira ignored the girl and thought she had better wait in case there was a different fifth person expected.  Moira knew her grandmother arranged this and so she knew she had one of the chairs, but she was still having trouble coming to grips with just who her grandmother was, exactly.  It was all too surreal for words.  Mother had no problem with the set-up, however.  She jumped straight to the table, laid down between two chairs and began to wash herself.

            Mickey Dolan was the first to enter.  He went straight to Michaela and hugged her with the words, “Wish me luck.”  Then he went for the chair beside Mother where his back was to the door.   “Miss O’Leary.”  He patted the chair beside him, but still Moira hesitated.

            Danny Casey came in next and Mickey made the man sit one over so he would be on Moira’s right hand.  Moira could handle that.  Both Mickey and the luckiest man in Ireland seemed harmless enough while the other two were scary.  Madam Elizabeth and Brian Brannigan sat across from her, the madam a little to her right and Mister Brannigan to her left on the other side of Mickey where he kept his head and eyes lowered and continued to glance nervously now and then toward the door.   Moira took her seat at last and Mickey started the introductions.

            “Mickey Dolan.”  He said and turned his head to wait.  The others followed.

            “Brian Brannigan, Esquire.”

            “Madam Elizabeth of Dublin.”

            “Danny Casey, the luckiest man in Ireland, and I’ll be apologizing in advance for taking all of your money.”

            Moira grinned at the man.  “Moira de Danna O’Leary,” she said, softly.

            “De Danna.”  Madam Elizabeth scrutinized her opponent.  “Cheeky name.”

            “My mother was an O’Leary.”  Moira said nothing about her Father’s family.

            “Deal.”  Mister Brannigan insisted as Michaela brought each contestant an equal number of white, blue and red chips.  Moira knew they represented certain astronomical denominations, but she took comfort thinking of one, five and ten pennies.  She had played that game before.

            The first ten hands sped by without much change among the players.  Moira, like the others, won two, lost two and folded six times.  Mother sat quietly all that time, watching, and only occasionally batted a chip that was thrown or flipped in her direction.  Moira thought about her Little Ones upstairs.  She did not hear any screaming or yelling, so she supposed they were being good, all except Pumpkin who was hiding somewhere up on top of the china cabinet, watching.

            As the cards were dealt, Moira looked again at both Madam Elizabeth and Brian Brannigan.  She decided there was something wrong about both of them, though she could not pinpoint exactly what.  It was similar to what she felt about Mickey, only in Mickey it seemed benign.  In these other two it seemed wicked or twisted in some way.

            As the cards were picked up, Moira thought about how she was now able to look Prickles in the face for what he really was, and without screaming.  She felt proud about that and considered how her eyes were adjusting to going back and forth between seeing the glamour of humanity and the reality of their spiritual selves.  When she picked up her own cards, she looked again across the table and had to stifle her gasp.  She could see the cards the others were holding exactly as if they were pointed at her, but worse, she could see something of the nature of each contestant. 

            Mickey looked smaller, and in a way miserable.  It was something that could not be seen through his outward, perpetual smile.  Danny Casey still looked human, but he had a golden glow about him.  Moira could not discern the source.  The other two, though, were hard to look at. 

            Madam Elizabeth was surrounded by a demonic presence, or maybe presences.  They were limited in what they could do through their vessel, the Madam, but they were horrifying to perceive.  They were not so mundane to form into faces or figures but rather swirled around her like a patch of darkness that no light could penetrate, and given what Moira felt, she was glad she was practiced on stifling her screams. 

            Brian Brannigan was worse, in a way, as the man’s visage constantly changed between skeleton and grinning demonic faces and a ghost-like or smoke-like creature that would not be pinned down.  Every view was terrifying, and Moira was glad when Mickey nudged her.  It was her turn to decide if she was in or out.

            Moira could not avoid looking at the cards that the others held before she looked at her own cards.  She was in and raised the pot, but then she turned her vision back to normal and told herself that seeing their cards was cheating.  To be honest she was terrified by the other things she had seen.

            Ten more hands went by with only a slight difference shown.  Mister Brannigan and Madam Elizabeth were gaining at Moira’s expense.  Mickey and Mister Casey were holding their own, but barely.  After another ten hands, they were all gaining and Moira was losing, and by then it was getting late.  Michaela was in the corner yawning.

            At last, Mickey was to deal and he set the cards down for Moira to cut the deck.  Mother finally moved and placed a paw right on top of the deck.  Moira looked at the cat, and then looked around the table, and said, “I believe that will be fine as it is.”

            “Alright,” Mickey said, and he scooted the deck from beneath the cat’s paw and dealt.  Now, Moira had been taught to wait for all of the cards to be dealt before she picked up her hand, and she maintained that courtesy even if the others did not.  This time, though, when all of the cards were dealt, Mother rolled over in front of Moira and sat right on top of her cards.  What is more, the cat was not going to be moved, and let out a guttural sound and showed her claws to underline that fact.

            The betting went around the table with each person raising the pot, but none too much.  When it came to Moira, she felt she was just going to have to move the cat and look, but she was distracted by a sudden weight on her belt.  When she reached down, she found a leather purse just like the one her grandmother had given to her old boss back in Derry.  She did not have to look inside to know it contained gold coins.  Moira looked at the cat again who nonchalantly cleaned a paw, and she said, “I’m in.”  She pushed all of her chips to the center and then dumped the purse of gold coins on top.  “This should make up for wherever I may be short.

            Everyone else immediately looked at their own cards but one by one they pushed everything they had into the center and made up for wherever they were short with money from their own pockets.  Since no one took any cards, and since Danny Casey was the last, he laid down his cards first.  He had four tens.  Mickey had the Jacks, Madam Elizabeth the Queens, Mister Brannigan the Kings, and when Mother finally moved, it was to no one’s surprise that Moira had four aces under the cat.

            Mister Brannigan jumped up.  “Cheaters!”  He yelled and pointed at Moira and Mickey.  “You two have been working together all night.”

            Michaela shrieked.  It was not because of the game.  Pumpkin leaned over a bit too far to get a good look at what was going on and Michaela saw her, and so she shrieked, but Mickey took that as a warning and he raced from the room, Mister Brannigan hard on his heels.

            Moira stood as Madam Elizabeth stood.  The Madam stared at her as if studying her, or perhaps to hear what the demons had to tell her before she spoke.  Danny Casey spoke into the silence, but it was only one word.

            “Remarkable.”

            “That was quite a trick.”  Madam Elizabeth spoke at last.  “And I did not even see the magic, and that is remarkable Mister Casey.”  Madam Elizabeth grinned a grin that Moira could only call witch-like in the extreme.  “That is a power I shall have, but first I think you need taking down a bit.”  With that, the Madam’s hands flew up and something like electricity shot across the table.  Moira was stunned for a second because it was like a taser or like she put her finger in an electrical socket, but the feeing only lasted a second as something rose up inside of her.

            “No.”  Moira found her own hands fly up as if by their own volition, and a strong light, bright as the sun streamed from her hands and struck the witch square in the chest.  The old woman slammed back against the wall as surely as if flicked by Prickles, and then the old body slumped to the floor, dazed and just barely conscious.  Moira was mortified at what she had done, and looked at her hands as if they were not her own.  She ran from the room and only Mister Casey spoke.

            “Remarkable,” he said.  “Remarkable.”  He repeated himself because Pumpkin fluttered past his face in pursuit of Moira.  Danny Casey got up and followed.  He was not about to miss any of this.  That left only the Madam and Michaela in the room, and Mother the cat who jumped down from the table only to stop in the doorway.

            When they arrived in Nevan, everyone was quiet, and while that worried Moira, she could not help take advantage of that for a little while.  Her grandmother had taught her many things in the night and she needed time to process it all, and some of it she just had to practice.  It was not all easy and natural, like breathing.  When they went into the inn for supper, Moira finally asked the Little ones what was wrong.

            “Nothing wrong, Lady,” Macreedy answered.  “It’s just your grandmother said we had to stay in our rooms tonight.”

            “That’s not so bad for me and Macreedy, and maybe Pumpkin as long as we can find her some cartoons to watch,” Ellean said.  “But it may be hard on Ignatius and Prickles.  Ogres and Hobgoblins rather like the night.”

            “Not as bad as if it was a troll and a true goblin,” Macreedy countered.

            “But Prickles is positively dragging.”  Moira pointed at the ogre who yawned.

            “Ah!”  Ignatius had been listening in.  “That is because ogres have a very slow digestion, and this one has been eating a lot lately.  Ogres don’t always get three square meals.”

            “True,” Prickles confirmed.

            “So they eat a lot when they can, except they kind of fill up after a while and then they hibernate while their system works it all off.”

            “When the ogre is fed you are safe in your bed.”  Pumpkin repeated the old rhyme, and smiled.  Moira thought of something else.

            “Why would grandmother tell you to stay in tonight?”

            Macreedy shrugged.  “She said there was a game you had to play tonight.”

            “And I like games.”  Pumpkin looked ready to pout, now that she was thinking about it.

            “I do too,” Ellean agreed.  “But she said stay in, and so I will.”

            “She did say you need to keep Mary with you,” Macreedy added.

            “Mary?  Oh, yes, the rock.”

            “So, where is our waitress?”  Ignatius was impatient.  Moira looked around in time to see a young man enter and walk right up to a waitress at the work station where they kept all of the silverware and glasses.  He looked like a fine young man, only he was barely five feet high, while the waitress, who looked and pointed at them was at least five-six, a full head taller than the poor fellow.  The waitress whispered in the young man’s ears and he followed her to the table.  He stayed a couple of steps back to watch.

            “Hello.”  The waitress kept her eyes on Moira as if there was some comfort there.  “My name is Michaela, have you decided what you would like this evening?”

            Moira passed the buck, so Ellean ordered, followed by Macreedy.  Michaela wrote it all down and looked at her writing the whole time.  She refused to look up at the couple.  Then it was Prickles’ turn, but he just tried to wake up and tried to figure out what was going on, so at last Michaela had to look up.

            “And for the O, the-o, O,” she stuttered.

            “The big fellow will have the biggest steak you’ve got, and just as rare as you can make it.  Raw if possible.”  Ignatius spoke up.  Maybe Prickles was half asleep, but there was a little drool that dripped from the corner of his mouth all the same.  Michaela gladly turned her head, but then she decided that this person was not any easier to look at.  She returned to her writing.  “Now, I’ll have the filet, but you better make it well done.  Burnt would be fine.”  Ignatius turned to the group.  “Best way to keep the ogre’s fingers off it,” he confided.  “And you better bring a baked potato.  I had chips last night, but I like them American style, with plenty of ketchup, and Prickles kept grabbing them, thinking that the ketchup was blood.”  Michaela shrieked and the young man took a step closer, just in case.

            “That was mean.”  Pumpkin scolded the hobgoblin and turned to the waitress. She ordered a small house salad and a glass of milk.  “Mother might have to help with the milk if I can’t drink it all.”

            “I am sure that would be fine,” Moira said as she petted the cat that was currently in her lap.  She looked up at the waitress then and the waitress looked furtively around the room before she offered a little curtsey. 

            “And for you, Mam?” 

            “But—.“  Moira did not quite know what to say.

            “Yes, m’lady.”

            Moira shook her head.  “You have to call me Moira.”

            The waitress stopped trembling for a second.  “Moira,” she said, and she honestly tried to smile.

            “You have the sight, don’t you?”  Macreedy interrupted.

            “Yes, er, sir.”  Michaela responded with a quick look which just as quickly returned to Moira.  “People say I have my grandmother’s eyes.”

            Moira nodded.  “Then you should know that these are my friends and they won’t hurt you.”

            “Yes, Mam.  If you say they are friends, I believe you.”

            Moira frowned and ordered, but when she was done, Ignatius had to get in one more word.

            “And believe it or not, even I am a nice fellow, most of the time.”

            “Sir.”  Michaela acknowledged that she heard, but after another brief curtsey for Moira, she ran off to the bar, the young man following her.

            “Are we really your friends?”  Pumpkin asked.  There was such hope in her voice, everyone was drawn to look in her direction.  After a second, they all looked at Moira because clearly that was the question in their minds as well.  Moira took the time to look around the table and even looked at the ogre and the hobgoblin for what they really were; something she could not have done just a day ago.

            “Yes,” she said.  “All of you are, and I can’t imagine feeling any other way.”  It was true.  Even after such a short time with these creatures—people, even if they weren’t human people, she honestly and clearly cared deeply about them.  She looked at Pumpkin and wondered if anyone could be anything but friends with a fairy.

            “Gee.”  Prickles spoke up.  “I never had a friend before.”  He turned red and Moira smiled for him.

            “You said Michaela had the sight?”  Moira turned to Macreedy for an explanation.

            “She could see us for what we really are,” Ellean answered.  “Maybe not exactly.”

            “Probably not exactly,” Macreedy interrupted.  “But near enough to know we are not exactly human.”

            “If she is a true seer, she might even catch glimpses of tomorrow,” Ellean concluded.

            “Or the game tonight,” Ignatius added.  The poor Hobgoblin had a small tear in one eye, still thinking about friendship in his own twisted way.

            “Yes.”  Pumpkin found her pout again.  “What kind of game is it, anyway?”

            “Poker,” Moira said.  She figured out that much.

            After supper, Mother stretched and dug a claw straight into Moira’s leg.  “Ouch!  Mother!”  Moira scolded the cat, but as she reached to grab the cat, the cat jumped to the floor and began to move through the tables.  The Little Ones watched, not thinking anything of it, but Moira knew it would not be good to have people complain about cat hair in their food, so she got up to retrieve the beast.  Mother went straight for the bar, leapt up right between Michaela and the young man and startled them.  Michaela was immediately drawn to pet the cat while Mother settled down and began to wash herself.

            “Oh, be careful,” The young man said.  “This beastie is not one for playing around, I think.”

            The bartender picked up a rag to snap at the cat to get her off his bar.  As he snapped the rag disappeared.  He thought he dropped it, but when he did not see it right away, he picked up another.  This one disappeared in his hands, and he saw it.  He was frightened.  He looked at the cat and shouted out his fear.  “Hey!”  But then no other words came out despite all of his efforts so he decided a quick retreat to the back room was in order.

            “My apologies,” Moira said as she came close.

            Michaela looked up.  “Lady.”  She curtsied and went about her duties.

            “Mother.”  Moira reached for the cat, but the young man stopped her with a word.

            “Your familiar?”

            “Eh?”  Moira knew what a familiar was.  “No, just a stray I adopted,” she said.  She reached out but Mother slapped Moira’s hand with her paw and let out a little growl.  Moira raised her brows and looked again at the cat.  “All right, Mother,” she said.  “You adopted me.”  She scooped up the cat and snuggled.

            “Acts like a familiar,” the young man said.  Moira shook her head and prepared to turn and go back to her table, but she stopped when the man spoke again.  “So you’re not here for the game?”

            “Poker?”  Moira asked.

            The man nodded his head and stuck out his hand.  “Mickey Dolan.”

            “Moira O’Leary,” Moira responded.  She shifted Mother enough to give the man’s hand a half shake.

            Mickey raised a brow of his own.  “Moira de Danna O’Leary?  I thought you would be older.”  He said that as if he knew her.  “They say you never lost a tournament.”

            Moira paused and thought back.  She remembered the games she used to play with some of the girls back in her Catholic High School.  It was true that they soon stopped playing with her because she never lost.  But that was the only poker she ever played, and it was strictly penny ante.  “So what makes this game so special?”  Moira decided to cut straight to the point.

            “Ah!”  Mickey sat back, took a sip of his drink and allowed for a long pause.  “It’s a struggle for position, you might say.  First, there is you who never lost, and me, and I’m thinking I may have a few tricks you haven’t seen.  Then there is Danny Casey there.”  He pointed and the man waved in a very friendly manner before he took another long swig of his beer.  “Mister Casey calls himself the luckiest man in Ireland and he figures to put that to the test.  Then there is Madam Elizabeth.”  He pointed in a different direction toward an old lady in a shawl who appeared to be working on a crossword puzzle and ignoring them.  “They say she is a witch and can make the cards do her bidding, if you believe in that sort of thing.  And finally, there is Brian Brannigan.”  Mickey pointed to a man who sat alone with his back to the wall.  He appeared to be looking all around, furtively, as if he expected some enemy to show up at any minute.  “He is a mysterious character from down in County Cork.  They say he is a terror to his neighbors with his mischief, mayhem and magic, if, as I said, you believe in that sort of thing.”

            “And what about you, Mickey Dolan?  What does Michaela say?”

            Mickey paused again before he answered, but this time it was not for dramatic purposes.  Instead, he had something on his mind.  “She says there is no way I can win against you; not if I had all the money in the world and sat at the table forever.  She is usually right about things, you know.”

            “And so does that mean you will be dropping out?”

            Mickey shook his head.  “Not a chance.  That means I am more curious than ever to see how it all turns out, even if it costs me the price of admission.”

            Moira cradled Mother and the cat let out a little meow which prompted Moira to stroke the cat’s luxurious fur.   “You really like Michaela, don’t you?”

            Mickey did not hesitate to nod.  “Since the first time I saw her, but she says I am only half a man and she won’t be satisfied until she meets the other half.”  Mickey looked at his shoes as he confessed himself.  “The trouble is I have never known my father so there isn’t anyone to meet.”

            “It seems to be going around.”  Mickey looked up briefly before he returned to gaze at his shoes.  Moira spoke.  “I’ve never known my father either, but my friends are taking me to him, so don’t give up hope.  Maybe someday some friends will take you to yours as well.”  Mickey shook his poor, sad head, but his eyes never lifted which prompted Moira to ask a question.  “You wouldn’t be a cobbler by chance, would you?”

            Mickey lifted his head and grinned a little at that.  “No.  Why?”

            “Just a thought.”  Moira said as she turned to go back and sit with her new friends for a little while longer.

            They reached the inn in Eniskillen in good time and Moira strictly charged Macreedy and Ignatius to keep everyone back and quiet while she registered.  Mother, the cat followed Moira into the lobby and leapt up on the front desk to watch the proceedings.

            “A cat, I see.”  The man behind the desk was rude about it.  “It will have to sleep out in your van.”  He spoke as he looked up their reservation.  He paused when he read it, and his attitude changed drastically.  “My apologies, your ladyship.  The jeans and with you driving and all.  I should have guessed right away.  Of course you may keep your cat with you.  Whatever you like.  Does he have a name?”  The man’s hand started in the cat’s direction.

            “Mother,” Moira said, content to watch the exchange.  Mother wanted no part of the man and slapped his hand as a warning.  Mother kindly did not extend her claws, but it was a warning well taken.  The man returned to business and turned the register for Moira’s signature.

            Moira wrote “Moira,” and then paused.  She had been raised an O’leary.  That had been her mother’s name, but she thought she ought to defer to her father, only she did not know his name, and for all of her pleading, the Little Ones would not tell her.  They were sworn to secrecy.  Still, she decided that she ought to write something more, so she wrote “Moira de Danna O’Leary,” and left it at that.

            The man looked at the signature before he handed her the keys.  “The reservation card says you live at Tara.  I know the ruins and all, but I was not aware of anyone living there.”  He made light of the situation.

            “Don’t believe everything you read,” Moira said.  “I am between places right now.  Where I will end up is yet to be determined.  Come along, Mother.”  And Mother followed as Moira took her troop up the stairs because she imagined the elevator would not hold the ogre.

            When it came time for supper it was the usual madhouse at the table.  Prickles could not get his steak rare enough.  Ignatius ordered the most expensive thing on the menu, just to be obnoxious.  Pumpkin would not eat, but at least Moira figured out that while she might be in her big size and look like a normal woman, she was really just a little fairy and so probably did not need much.  A glass of milk and a piece of bread or some greens really was sufficient.  “The fairy diet,” Moira called it.  Meanwhile, Ellean cut up Prickle’s food and tried to teach him to use a fork.  You can imagine.  And Macreedy showed discomfort with the whole enterprise, not only because he was stuck in the night with a hobgoblin for his companion, but because the alternative was to be stuck with Ellean, and that idea made him really uncomfortable.  His conversation that night consisted of a few, surly words.

            Moira found her own eyes shift more than once to a table of six very old men.  Two were in wheelchairs, two had walkers nearby and one had a cane.  She doubted that she ever saw a collection of wrinkles to match; but they sounded happy and carefree and clearly they liked each other and enjoyed each other’s company very much.  Moira’s table by contrast gave her a headache.  She cut the supper short, sent everyone to bed and claimed that she was anxious to see how Mother was making out with her bowl of milk.

            “But I’m not sleepy,” Pumpkin protested even as Prickles let out a big yawn.

            “So fly around the room for the night,” Ellean suggested and they smiled, but all Moira could picture was her own inability to sleep while she swatted at the biggest insect in history.

            When the girls got upstairs, Moira excused herself, went straight into the bathroom and ran the water for a bath.  It was not that she especially needed a bath, but she needed the privacy – a little time alone.  After that, she was not sure what happened.  One minute she was testing the water temperature and the next minute she was with her grandmother, downstairs, back in the dining room, facing the table of old men.  There were two chairs pulled up to an open space at the table which Moira did not notice before.  She wondered briefly if she honestly did not notice or if her grandmother made the places and made the men not notice.

            “Gentlemen.”  Danna spoke.  “This is currently my granddaughter, Moira.”  The men all nodded to say hello while Danna sat and pulled Moira into the other chair.  “Moira, this is the Ancient Order of Hibernians.”

            “Hello.”  Moira was polite but her grandmother was not finished.

            “Dana O’Neil was a dentist for years.”  Danna began to introduce them around.  “Michael “Mickey” Donnely was a plumber, John J. Kavanaugh, known as J. J., was a fine businessman., William “big Bill” Smith whom the others call the Englishman, was a traveling salesman, William “little Bill” Flynn worked several trades over the years, and John “Jack” Kennedy, retired from the army nearly forty years ago.”

            “Any relation to the former American President?”  Moira asked to make conversation.  Three of the men said, “Yes,” and “of course” and “absolutely.”

            Jack said, “No,” and shook his head, but he smiled.  “Not really.”

            “These gentlemen are members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.”  Danna repeated herself.  “They also served together in the same company during the war.” 

            “Oh.”  Moira looked interested.

            “And they gather every February first to feast and celebrate the day of Saint Bridgid.”  Danna stood so Moira stood with her.  All at once, the men looked at them with different eyes as if a veil had been lifted so they could see clearly for the first time.  It was J. J. Kavenaugh who spoke up for them all.

            “Say, who are you, and how is it that you know all about us?”

            “Gentlemen.”  Danna smiled and the men were so taken by her beautiful smile they dared not interrupt.  “I just want to thank you for remembering my granddaughter.  Bridgid was one of the only people who ever lived that I allowed to call me Grandmother.  Now, Moira is another.”  With that, she took Moira’s arm and turned her toward the wall so Moira did not get to see it from the perspective of the men.  She did not see the mist rise up in the room or smell the heady smell of golden apples, or see the vision of the cliffs and the sea, or the fact that she and her grandmother glowed like angels and ever more brightly until the men had to close their eyes and look away before the brightness became like the flash of a camera and vanished so only the wall remained.  From Moira’s perspective, the wall itself appeared to part or perhaps become invisible, and in a step or two, she was standing on a grassy knoll overlooking those very cliffs and listening to the crash of the sea.

            Moira looked up.  The moon was up and the stars were extra bright now that the clouds had cleared off.  She could see well in any case.  She could see in the pitch dark if she wanted to.  It was one of the things that was different about her, and she knew it.  “Grandma.”  She had to talk.  “Who am I?”

            “You are my granddaughter, Moira de Danna O’Leary.  I like that.  And you are a fine young woman, I think.”

            “Grandmother!”  Moira had accepted that much.  “You know what I mean.  Can’t you read my mind?”

            “I prefer not to,” Danna said honestly enough.  “Most did not do that in the past, despite the publicity to the contrary.  Life is much more interesting when you don’t have all the answers up front.”

            Moira said nothing, she simply lifted her arms and began to rise into the air.  She glowed like the moon.  When she was high enough to be over Danna’s head, she spoke again.  “But look at what I can do?  Isn’t it frightening?  And there are other things I can do, too.”

            Far from being frightened, Danna smiled broadly and floated up to hover beside her granddaughter.  “I am proud of you.  It isn’t frightening.  It is wonderful.  Why, I bet there are all sorts of things you can do that you don’t even know.”  She took Moira’s hand so they could fly together, and that night, under the moon, Danna taught her many things.

            Moira’s eyes popped open as the sun rose.  She was in her bed at the inn, lying in fetal position, as clean and warm and comfortable as if she had taken that bath.  Ellean made no sound at all when she slept, but Mrs. Pumpkin, her little self asleep on a pillow, her legs and arms splayed out and moving like she was making angels in the snow was breathing rapidly.  Moira imagined for a fairy that was the slow, deep breaths of sleep. 

            Mother the cat poked her head up from where she rested comfortably against Moira’s leg.  “Go to sleep.”  Moira whispered to the cat, and the cat responded with a soft purr while Moira snuggled down and shut her eyes for a little more sleep.

            That morning, they headed out for Nevan.  Moira had said that all of this was silly since they could have driven all the way from Derry to Tara on the first day; but Grandmother said they had reservations in Nevan, and she asked if Moira played poker.  She did not explain.

            The morning was drizzly, not exactly raining, but it was a cold October.  Moira stood, backpack ready, raincoat over all.  She stomped her feet and thought that running shoes were perhaps not the best choice, when she saw Ellean and her skinny boyfriend, Macreedy come over the little rise.  Moira drew her breath in sharply when she saw them, because what she had seen in a cloudy sort of way at the bar, and later sensed in her insides was now shown to her eyes as plain as day.  Ellean and Macreedy were not human.  Elf was the only word she could imagine that might describe them, and just before they arrived, and just before Moira said something silly about not believing in elves, a marvelous thing happened.  Mrs. Pumpkin came flying over the rise so fast, Moira could hardly keep her eyes on the fairy, and she zoomed right up to Moira, face to face, or rather, Moira’s face to Pumpkin’s whole body; and while Pumpkin still sounded like a grown-up woman, her contagious, child-like enthusiasm and excitement did make her sound a bit like a three year old. 

            “Good morning Moira.  Are you ready to go?  I am so glad you are going with us.  How far is Eniskillen?  You have a backpack.  Can I see what’s inside it?  I could ride in your backpack and watch the rear as long as I don’t have to look at Prickles.  Ignatius is pretty scary looking, too.  My Lady said I could ride on your shoulder, but I had to ask permission first.”

            “Ahem.”  Macreedy coughed and Pumpkin flew to hover beside Moira’s shoulder where she sat and watched and only tugged once on Moira’s long, red hair to get her balance.  Macreedy and Ellean both bowed since they were both in pants, like Moira who was in her jeans..

            “Elves.”  Moira said the word at last.

            “We are elves of the forest of South Park on the long march beyond the Castle of the Free,” Macreedy said, which meant nothing to Moira.  “But the first question must be, can you still see the glamour?”

            Moira almost shook her head because she could see no disguise at all, but at the last second she refrained and thought that it might be like an optical illusion.  She tried to look at the two before her in a different way, and all at once she saw a man, not quite so skinny, and a girl about her own age, or maybe a little younger, still dressed in the same dress she wore at the church.  “Yes, I think so,” she said.

            Macreedy took out a plain tin whistle and tooted a few quick notes.  Prickles and Ignatius came and Moira was glad she was still seeing the glamour.

            “What are they?”  Moira asked.

            “Ignatius is a hobgoblin, and a sorry excuse for his father’s son if you ask me.  Prickles is an ogre.”

            “But not a terrible bad person once you get to know him,” Pumpkin said in Moira’s ear, and that caused Moira’s head to turn and Pumpkin almost lost her seat.  “Sorry.”  Pumpkin was the first to apologize.

            Moira was startled for a second because the fairy looked like a parakeet.  “No, I’m sorry,” she said while they waited for Ignatius and Prickles to catch up.  Then Moira made them wait a bit longer while she looked at both of them without the glamour.  She shivered when she saw what Ignatius really looked like.  She screamed, but only briefly when she saw Prickles, and Prickles lifted his head in pride.

            “I like you,” Prickles assured her.  “Why, I can look at you and not even get hungry.”

            “Very reassuring.”  Ignatius spoke for Moira as Moira pulled herself together and asked a question.

            “So where is my grandmother?”

            “Ah, that is a bit of a story.”  Macreedy spoke right up.  “She says she will see you in the night while we are on this journey.”

            Pumpkin interrupted.  “But during the day, she said you have to be stuck with us.”  Pumpkin sounded pleased with the idea.

            “Stuck is right,” Ignatius mumbled.

            “I don’t know why she used the word stuck.”  Macreedy spoke more thoughtfully.

            “Hush.”  Ellean hushed them both.  “The Great Lady just wants her granddaughter to have a chance to get to know us, that’s all.”

            “Being with the Lady’s granddaughter is next best to being with the lady herself.”  Prickles spoke up.

            “What about the lady’s daughter?”  Pumpkin asked.

            “Hush.”  Ignatius used Ellean’s word.  “You’ll give him a headache.”  And Prickles did look like he was thinking about that one rather hard.

            “I still think it would be better if we went invisible,” Macreedy said, grumpily.

            Ellean took Macreedy’s arm.  “Now, if we went invisible, how could we order lunch?”

            “I would like some lunch,” Prickles said.

            Moira rolled her eyes.  She imagined they would stay there all day talking if she let them.  “Come on.”  She turned and started to walk down the road, heedless of whether they followed or not.  Within the hour, the rain started to come down hard, and that dampened everyone’s spirits until a step van pulled over in front of them and the driver leaned out.

            “Need a ride?”  The driver shouted through the rain.  The whole group ran, and while they had to open the back doors to get Prickles inside, in short order they began to dry and feel much better.  Moira sat in the front with the driver and his cat that seemed content to stay curled up on the floor beneath the driver’s seat and who barely lifted an eyelid when the great crowd invaded the van.  “Mother.”  The driver called the cat, and the cat appeared to respond as if acknowledging her name.  “She goes with the van,” he said.  He pulled over to where a pub was lit up in the dreary day, beside the road.  “This is as far as I go.”

            “Oh.”  Moira was disappointed that it was not any further, but she prepared to get out when the driver stopped her.

            “No.  This is where I get out.  The lady who rented the van said she would see you in Eniskillen, and meanwhile she would not be far away.”  He smiled and slipped on his slicker.  He looked once at the crew in the back.  “I suppose you had better drive,” he said.  “Oh, and I almost forgot.  The Lady said you need to keep her purse.”

            “Eh?”  Moira took the big cloth and fringed bag which looked to her like some hippie bag and certainly not something she would carry.  She looked inside.  “But there’s only a rock in here.”

            “Aye,” the man said.  “The Lady called it Mary and said you should guard it because she was thinking of making it into a door knocker.”  He smiled again and hopped out.  He did not look back before he ducked into the pub.

            “The Lady is very thoughtful,” Ellean said.  The others all agreed.

            “Can I get little again?”  Pumpkin asked as soon as the man was out of sight.

            Moira paused and looked at her with strange thoughts going through her head.  “Why are you asking me?”

            “Because you are the Lady’s granddaughter,” Pumpkin said as if the answer was so obvious.

            “We can’t help it,” Macreedy explained.  “All of her Little Ones will defer to you.  It is sort of like breathing, you know, blood ties and all.  It makes you like a Princess of the realm.”

            “And for the sake of your father,” Ellean added.

            “I don’t know my father,” Moira said as she shifted into the driver’s seat.  The cat immediately jumped up into the passenger seat as if staking the claim before someone else came forward.  “Isn’t that right, Mother.”  Moira spoke to the cat, but the cat just licked her paw and said nothing.  “Alright, Pumpkin.  Just don’t fly around and distract me when I’m trying to drive this thing in the rain,” she said and started out on the road

            Lunch was a thing to behold.  Danna had stocked the van with sandwiches and a side of beef which kept Prickles happy even if he did start nibbling around ten.  Ignatius only wanted a flank steak, raw.

            “But I claim the bones,” Prickles said.  “I get all the bones.”

            “Fine, fine,” Ignatius agreed, but then Prickles would not let him cut his piece for fear that he would cut too much.  Macreedy finally had to draw out his knife and cut it, to which he said the hobgoblin owed him a plethora of divots, and Ellean giggled and Pumpkin asked how much was in a plethora, so Ellean had to explain while Ignatius kept repeating “Sim, Saladin,” and tipping his hat and Prickles was busy examining the beef to be sure no bones got cut, and that would have been fine except he was humming, and I don’t know if you have ever heard an ogre hum, but it isn’t comforting and it isn’t soft, and finally Moira had to yell.

            “Quiet!”  And there was quiet for a whole minute while she stuffed the turkey on whole wheat in her mouth as fast as she could.

            Moira came back to the table as soon as she was free, and as she sat, Danna gave her all her attention.

            “Tell me about you and Daniel,” she said, and that seemed to open things up.

            “We dated,” Moira said.  “I liked him.  Very much.  I don’t know how serious we were.  Now I’ll never know.”  And with that she cried, and Danna held her.

            “My mother died five years ago in just the same sort of… accident.”  Moira sniffed.  “I was just fourteen.  The sisters found me a good catholic home to live in, but as soon as I was old enough, I got my own room.  Oh, Grandma.”  She cried some more.  She was not exactly keening for the dead, but she did not have to 

###

            After they ate, Danna put Moira in the hands of Pumpkin and Ellean while she excused herself.  There was an old man at the bar she felt drawn to see.

            “I was wondering when you were going to get around to me,” The old man said as she took a seat.

            “So you know who I am, Matthew Mconough?”  Danna asked.

            The man shook his head without realizing that she certainly knew who he was.  “But when I first saw you, it was like a wee bell went off in my head.”

            “Ah,” Danna said.  She did not reveal anything in particular with that sound.  “And so here I am.  Now, what was the egg timer set for?”

            “Well.”  The man sat up straight and sipped his drink before he talked.  “I am a fisherman, you know.  I’ve worked all my life right near the docks where so many went to the Americas all those years ago, in case you’re a stranger to the facts.  From here I can go out to deep sea.”

            “You and many others.”  Danna nodded.

            The man shifted a little in his seat as if looking for a comfortable spot.  “Well, it’s like this.  I met a man once, only once mind you, only he wasn’t exactly a man.”  Mister Mconough leaned in close and spoke softly.  “He was big, and gray like a fish and green like the sea, and he had seaweed dripping for his clothes, and I was scared.  I don’t mind telling you that.  I was frightened half out of my mind.”

            “I don’t blame you.  He can be very frightening sometimes.”

            Matthew Mconough paused and let his eyes open plenty wide at her words.  He took a long draught of his beer.  “So you believe me then?”

            “Certainly,” Danna said.  “But I had the feeling that you have something to tell me.”

            The man took another drink.  “I do, I do.”  He took a third drink to empty the pint and wiped his upper lip with the back of his hand.  “It’s just… It did not make sense when he said it… just.  Another!”  He pointed to his empty before he turned and spoke quickly.  “He said when I see you I should say, Please don’t worry and don’t get excited.  He will be going over to the other side, soon.  Very soon.”

            “Uh-huh.”  Danna smiled, nodded and sounded like she did not believe a word of it.  “He has said that before, you know.”

            Matthew Mconough swallowed and tapped the bar.  “Be quick now.”  He called for his drink.  He swallowed again before he spoke, and Danna watched the old adam’s apple bob up and down in the fisherman’s throat.  “Would I be wrong in assuming that the man I met was Mannanan, the Old God of the sea?”

            “Son of Lyr and Pendaron, but he calls me Mother,” Danna confirmed.

            The man’s eyes got a bit bigger.  “And that would make you?”

            “The Don?”  Danna said.  “Danna, D’Anu, Dannan.”  She was offering him choices.  Different people in different places and different times called her by all sorts of different names.

            “Nevermind.”  Matthew Mconough yelled at the bartender and tipped his hat to Danna as he staggered out of the bar as fast as he could go and remain upright.

            Danna just smiled and thought, what a sweet old man 

###

            The following day, Danna found Moira down by the docks and without a word, sat quietly on the park bench beside her.  Moira said nothing for a while.  She just watched the river and the boats that plied the waters.  When the sun began to drop, she spoke, but it was as much to herself as to Danna.

            “I love the water.”

            “I know.  And there is one who can teach you all about the wind and the waves.”

            “One of your children?” 

Danna nodded before she spoke.  “A most disobedient child.  You know he no longer belongs here, and neither do I.”

            “I was raised a catholic.”  Moira looked at Danna for the first time.

            Danna nodded again.  “What need have you for my children?”  It was a rhetorical question.

            Moira examined this woman in every way she could, her perfect lines and perfect skin and honestly, everything about her that was perfect, before she spoke again.  “Who are you, really?”

            “Danna, your grandmother.”  Danna smiled.  “But I suppose the simplest way to put it is to say that I was the mother of the gods of the Celts.  All of my children and grandchildren called me Mother, and even the people who once ruled this land called me Mother.  When the children of Mil came and conquered the people in this land, all that changed, but I remain the mother of the gods.  Does this surprise you?”

            Moira looked again at the water before she spoke again.  “A little,” she said, and then she fell silent to reflect on what that revelation might mean.  When she opened up, she explained why she was not more surprised.  “I can do things that are supposed to be impossible.”

            “I bet you can do all sorts of things, if you are willing to learn.”

            Moira did not answer at first.  She was still thinking.  “I couldn’t save Daniel, though.”

            Danna nodded for a third time and took Moira’s hand to offer her comfort as she spoke.  “The first thing you must learn is that for us there are twelve commandments.”  Moira looked up.  “Eleven is to remember that people die.  Twelve is that even the gods are not permitted to change number eleven.”

            “That sounds hard,” Moira said.

            “It is not cruel to leave such decisions in the hands of the source.”

            “You mean God, I mean, you are taking about the real God, aren’t you?”

            Danna nodded yet again.  “But in the spirit realm we do not refer to him in that way.  It is hard for the spirits that dwell upon the earth because while the human race has received grace, the spirits still live in uncertainty.  But yes, the source decides and we are not to interfere.  Even so, it is sometimes very hard.”  Danna dropped her eyes and Moira was surprised.  Moira had not thought of it that way, and she felt compelled in her own spirit to give her grandmother a real hug before she stood.

            “Time for work,” she said.  “But I am just going to say thank you and to quit.”

            “You have plans?”

            Moira paused to dig her toe into the dirt before she spoke.  “Would you take me to my father?  Is he far away?”

            “Four days.”  Danna nodded for the final time.  “But he may ask you to help him in his work.”

            “Family business?”

            “Not exactly, but rather important work.”

            “Maybe we could just see him first,” she said, and Danna stood to return the hug.

            “We will leave in the morning,” she said, and let the girl go to close up her affairs and get ready to travel.

            “Cead mile failte, I’m Moira.”  That was all the girl got out before she began to stare through her tear reddened eyes.  She looked at each person around the table, one by one, with her mouth partly open until at last she came to look down on Danna.  “It’s you,” she said, and she fell to her knees and cried on Danna’s thigh where Danna could gently brush Moira’s hair and speak soothing words that only Moira could hear. 

            A man came quickly from the bar, but Danna spoke up before the man could say anything.  “It’s alright Mister Moran, I’m her grandmother.”  The man paused, not noting the absurdity of the statement since Danna barely looked older than the girl at her feet.  “Just bring me some bangers and mash and a pint of your local.  Ignatius, you need to order for Prickles.  There there.”  She went back to soothing Moira’s hair.

            After a very short while longer, Moira looked up at the angelic face above her and quickly got up and into a chair that had magically appeared between Danna and a truly lovely woman who Moira thought was something else.  She could not think about that just then, though, because one word kept echoing through her head.  “Grandmother?”

            Danna smiled.  “On your father’s side,” she said.  “He is my son, or grandson, or great-grandson, but I would rather not figure it out.  He calls me Mother.  Most of the children do, but in your case, I think I would not mind if you called me grandmother.”

            “But that is crazy talk.”  Moira drew a bit closer to the woman.  “You can’t be much older than myself.”

            “You can’t always judge by appearances,” Danna said, and she drew Moira’s attention to look again around the table.  Moira looked at Macreedy and Ellean who smiled for her.  They liked the girl already.  She squinted when she came to Prickles and Ignatius, and she had to look away.

            “It’s alright.”  Pumpkin took the girl’s hand.  “I can’t look at them either, especially when they are eating.”

            “What are they?”  Moria closed her eyes altogether and turned her head back toward Danna, though she willingly held on to Pumpkin’s hand.

            Pumpkin whispered.  “Patterwig is a spooky hobgoblin and Prickles is an ogre, but I think he is really a nice person if you give him a chance.”

            “And if he doesn’t eat you.”  Ignatius leaned into the conversation, having heard despite the whisper.  Pumpkin took her hand back to shove the goblin face.

            Moira shook her head and looked up at Danna.  “I don’t understand.  How can you be my grandmother?  I never knew my father, so how can you be so sure.”

            “But I know you.”

            “But you’re not old enough.”

            “I am nearly ninety,” Danna confessed.  “And by the Storyteller’s estimate, I was born in 3266 BC.”

            Moira scoffed.  She looked around and expected the same reaction from the others but the others accepted what this woman said without the least trouble.  “But you can’t.  Who is this Storyteller?”

            Danna paused before she nodded.  “No time like the present,” she said, and she put her hand on the table while she grasped Ellean’s hand with her other hand.  “Take my hand,” she told Moira.  The girl did so readily enough.  “Now don’t let go no matter what.  It is tradition.”  Ellean quickly nodded.  Moira was a little slower, but she also promised.  Then Danna went away from that time and place, and Glen arrived to sit in that pub, a long, long way from the university woods.

            Moira shrieked and let go, but she could not scream because Ignatius had leaned over Pumpkin again and slapped his hand over Moira’s mouth.  He quickly took it back when the danger was passed, and meanwhile, Ellean squeezed Glen’s hand in a sign of welcome home.

            “This is really my lifetime,” Glen said.  “I’m in the University in America and I should be home studying my psychology textbook, only right now I’m lending a few of my days so Danna can be with you.”  As he finished speaking, a bar maid came up with their drinks and she could not help but speak as she set them down.

            “Decided to take the night off after all, I see,” the girl said.  Moira took Glen’s hand which was still laid out on the table, and she took it almost without thinking, even as Glen let go of Ellean’s hand.

            “No, that’s not it,” Moira started to protest.

            “I’m her grandmother.”  Glen looked up at the girl and smiled.

            “Cheek.”   The girl looked right back at him.  “And with Daniel laid to rest just this very day.  What would he say?”

            Glen answered.  “He would say mind your own business and stop meddling in things you know nothing about.”  He raised his hand.  He thought maybe he could do it.  Danna set the glamour, but they were his little ones too, and sure enough, the glamour that disguised them all and made them look human lifted with his arm.  The girl from the bar screamed, and all the louder when she saw the ogre and the hobgoblin, and she ran off even as Glen put his hand down to bring back the glamour.  He went away again to let Danna come back into her seat.

            “Nosey, isn’t she,” Danna whispered to Moira whom she was pleased to see had not gotten the least bit upset on seeing the gang for what they really were.  Instead, she stifled a giggle at the absurdity of what just happened.  Of course, by the time the barkeeper came over, all was back to normal.  “I don’t know what she is on about,” Danna said.  “But after all that Moira’s been through this day, I think she needs a little time with family, don’t you think?”  And of course, Danna touched something in the man’s soul so he did think that.

            “Of course, dear Moira.  You take all the time you want.”  He turned to the girl.  “And you leave them alone!”

            “These are not the droids you are looking for,” Moira said.  “I saw Star Wars.”

            “Something like that.”  Danna smiled again.  “And didn’t you ever wonder why you could do things and see things that ordinary people could not?”

            “All the time,” Moira said, but she was distracted.  “But mother always insisted I act normal, no matter what.”  She got up.  There was a commotion at the front door.  Ian and Annie Thompson, Daniel’s parents came in with two other men.

            “I was told he would be here.”  Annie shouted while her husband tried to calm her.

            “Mister and Missus Thompson.”  Moira ran up to the couple at the same time as the bartender.  He was the one who spoke.

            “Even if Paddy was here, I wouldn’t tell you.  I have a business to run and I will not have any of that in here.  It belongs outside.”  Unfortunately, at that very moment, the elderly Paddy O’Kane came in the door with a half-dozen younger followers.  Annie Thompson turned on him.

            “How could you!”  She accused.  “My Daniel never did anything.  He never took sides.”  The woman wept and the old man was taken aback, but only for a second.

            “Casualties of war,” he mumbled, and to be sure, he did not say it very loud.  Meanwhile his six followers crowded Ian Thompson and his two friends.

            “Not a very fair fight,” Danna said as she stood.  “Gentlemen.”  She called her little ones that and compelled them to come, not that Prickles needed to be compelled to get into a fight.  “Macreedy, how is your fisticuffs?”  She asked.

            “I’m better at chess,” he admitted.

            “Don’t start anything.  Just don’t start anything.”  Moira yelled.

            “What do you expect to do here but make trouble.  You are all nothing but trouble.”  The bar maid from earlier stuck her nose into the middle of it and in her own way, egged them on.

            “Erin Megan O’Riley.”  Danna got the bar girl’s full attention.  “You need to stop speaking, and I think that should be for the rest of the night.  You can have your voice back in the morning.”

            Erin O’Riley wrinkled her nose, found her most snide expression, placed her hands on her hips and opened her mouth, but nothing came out.  Danna had already turned away from her and she had something more to say.

            “Paddy O’Kane, sit!”  The man immediately sat at the nearest table.  His eyes got big.  “Annie and Ian, as I said earlier, I am very sorry, but Annie, there are no answers here.”  She reached out and hugged the woman.  “Go home.  Please.”  She urged, and Annie began to weep in earnest as Ian caught her and moved her toward the door.  His friends tried to follow, but several of Paddy’s boys moved to block them.

            “Gentlemen.”  Danna remained calm as Moira became occupied with the Thompson’s for the moment.  “If anyone starts anything, I will end it.”

            The two with the Thompsons looked at each other like they did not like the odds, but one big man, the biggest of the lot stepped forward, like he was going to make their exit difficult whether this woman said to or not.

            “Er, Mike.”  Mister O’kane tried to get the big man’s attention, but the big man was determined to be stupid.

            “Have it your way.”  Danna shrugged.  “Prickles, don’t hurt him.”

            Prickles, a much bigger man than the big man stepped forward, and Mike almost had second thoughts, but at the last second he threw a punch.  It was a good swing, fast and it landed right on Prickles’ jaw.  Of course, the ogre did not even flinch, and in fact Mike pulled back his hand like maybe he busted it slamming it against a rock. 

            Prickles grinned and flicked his finger into the man’s chest.  That man flew backwards with such force, he took two others with him, and two slammed into the wall while the one on the end flew right out the door and just missed the Thompsons on the way.  Paddy’s other men scattered and took the big man and his compatriot with them.  The two friends of the Thompsons looked like they would rather not stick around, and left quickly.  Paddy also looked ready to leave, but Danna interrupted him.

            “Stay!”  She commanded, and the man found his seat glued to the chair and the chair glued to the floor.  While Ignatius and Macreedy escorted a very disappointed ogre back to his seat, and Erin the barmaid kept trying to talk, and the barkeeper examined his dented wall and Moira walked out with the Thompsons, Danna took a seat and stared at the man.  The man found he could not look this woman in the eyes, and he not only had to look away, but in fact he covered his own eyes and trembled. 

            “Every innocent life will be laid not only on your head, but on the head of your descendants even to the tenth generation,” she said.

            “Are you threatening me?”  The man asked without looking up.

            “No.  I am just reminding you of what you already know,” Danna said and she got up and walked back to her own table without looking back.  By the time an angry bartender came up to the table, Danna had reached into her purse and pulled out a small bag.  She partially dumped it on the table.  It was full of gold coins.  While the bartender watched, she scooped the coins up and put them back in the bag and handed the whole thing to the bartender.  “Open an inn or something.  Maybe a dozen rooms or so would be nice, only right now, we are a bit hungry if you don’t mind.”

            The man took the bag.  “Of course,” he said.  “Erin!”  He turned and walked back the way he came.

            On Sunday morning, Danna dressed her crew in their Sunday best and blinked them all to Londonderry.  Prickles was dressed in a glamour to look like a big man, albeit a very big man.  He still appearing nearly seven feet tall and with a build that would make a weightlifter jealous, but he looked like a man even if he tugged at his shirt and nearly tore the jacket, which is impossible to do with fairy weave.  Danna left off the tie. 

            Macreedy and Ellean looked like a happy couple.  Macreedy was still skinny, but not terminally so, and Ellean spent plenty of time in front of the mirror because she did not wear dresses very often. 

            Pumpkin, of course, needed no help, except to make her dress a bit longer and color it with a soft pastel and flower print.  Pumpkin could be big sized all on her own, and she was beautiful as fairies are, but she otherwise looked human enough.  She would not draw too many stares; at least not the kind that would question her humanity.  The trouble with Pumpkin was it was difficult for fairies to stay in their big size for long periods of time, so Danna would have to watch that. 

            Ignatius, last of all, looked like a grumpy fellow, which he was the minute he got a look at himself in the mirror.  “I look like a moron,” he said.

            “Mortal,” Pumpkin corrected.

            “Same thing,” Ignatius responded.

            Naturally, no one let Prickles see himself in the mirror for fear that he might think the glamour was real; so they arrived outside the church in full human appearance and went straight in to the service without incident.  Danna sat quietly and listened.  Prickles looked around and fidgeted some, but mostly tried to understand what was going on.  Ignatius kept his eyes closed and his fingers in his ears because he did not want to know what was going on.  Macreedy and Ellean became absorbed in each other and so missed everything for other reasons.  Surprisingly, Pumpkin sat quiet,  paid close attention an even sang the hymns – she had a sweet voice – and lowered her head during the prayers.

            “Of course,” she whispered to Danna.  “I went to Mass all the time with Michael Henry.”

            “First of all, this isn’t Mass.  This is a protestant service.  And second of all, Casidy did not go to church all the time.”  Danna whispered back.

            “True.”  Pumpkin grinned, slightly.  “But I went often enough to know what to do.” 

            Danna said no more.  After the service, she went up to a woman, a complete stranger, and she gave the woman a hug.  “I’m so sorry,” she said.  Then she hugged the man who stood beside the woman and repeated herself.  “I’m so sorry.”  Lastly, she came to the young woman with the red hair and green eyes and hugged her as well, and especially hard, but with different words.  “Be strong, my daughter.  I will see you later.”  And without any explanation or introducing any member of the group with her, she turned and walked away.  The others followed her to a pub where they had a fine lunch, once Danna got the cook to manage several steaks tartar. 

            Macreedy was the one who finally broke the ice with his question.  “So who were those people and what was that all about?”

            “A ritual repeated far too often these days in this hard and intolerant place,” Danna responded as she pushed her salad around.

            “So who was that woman?”  Ellean tried her luck.

            “Annie.  One of thousands who cry in the night and have no answers.”  Danna responded.

            There was silence for a minute before Pumpkin spoke.  “So who was the girl?  I like her.  She seems nice, but sad.”

            “Red hair and green eyes,” Danna said with a slight smile.  The Fee were very empathic, sometimes to their detriment.  “A good combination for a good Catholic girl.”

            “Oh!”  Pumpkin pulled in her breath.  “Then she should have been at Mass, no?”

            “Special occasion.”  Danna let out her smile, but then she said no more.

            After another time of silence, Ignatius spoke up.  “I’ll bite.  My turn.  So you sensed this all the way across the earth when you first filled the Lord’s place.  Right?”

            “This and other things.”  Danna responded.  “Did you think Gwyn looked better when we left?”  She asked a question of her own.

            “Oh, yes.”  Everyone agreed, but it was really a matter of opinion.  Finally, everyone looked at Prickles, something they normally could not have done while he was eating, but Danna had been careful to cover up Prickles with a strong glamour just for the occasion.  Prickles stopped in mid-bite, not to say he ate anything much in pieces, and he looked at face after face before he spoke. 

            “These shoes are comfortable,” he said.  He was not wearing any shoes, but he saw the glamour and thought he was, and he was rather proud of that fact, never having worn shoes before.

            After lunch, they all trooped back to the church.  It was 2:30 and time for the funeral.  The man and woman that Danna had hugged were in the front row, and the girl was right there with them.  The girl cried a little.  The woman never really stopped crying.  Everyone who got up to speak said what a fine young man Daniel was and how he never meant ill to anyone.  They said that he deserved better than he got and how the violence had to stop.  They said that only the innocent were suffering and the guilty needed to be caught and punished.  Some of the speakers sounded militant about it, and Danna could only imagine going to the Catholic church in a week for another funeral.  She shook her head.

            Moira, the girl with the red hair and the green eyes noticed them sitting in the back, but she stayed with the couple and went with them to the cemetery while Danna led her troop to the waterfront.  There was a place there where they could get three rooms.  Macreedy and Ignatius got one room with twin double beds and the threat that if they did not get along the offending party would have to sleep with Prickles.  Prickles got the center room, and they pushed the two double beds together to make one big bed for the monster.  Danna, Ellean and Pumpkin got the third room which also had two double beds, but Danna knew that Pumpkin would get little again as soon as she had a chance and would only need a pillow for the night.  In fact, Danna took them up to see the rooms specifically so Pumpkin could have some time fluttering about, while she wrote and posted a letter to a friend of hers on the continent.  Then she sat out on a bench that overlooked the river and minded her own business until the others finally came to find her.

            “I’m hungry.”  Prickles summed things up nicely, and so Danna led them to Iona House, a fine place that was right on the water.  She knew exactly where to seat them, in the corner in the back, and she knew exactly what they needed to entertain them so they would not get into trouble.  She also made sure Moira was their waitress.

            “Where are we?”  Pumpkin asked.  She sat on Danna’s shoulder and played with Danna’s hair as she looked around.  Wherever they were, it was dark, not like six in the evening, but more like midnight.

            “The old homestead,” Danna said.  She looked around at the scattered hills which were actually mounds built up over a long period of time.  “Sorry.  I have Casidy on the mind.  We are at Cathair Crothind; or Cathair na Ri to be more precise, or Temhair-an-ri as they might say these days.”

            “Where?”  Ellean looked around as well, but this was all new territory to her.

            “Tara.  In Ireland”  Ignatius spoke before Macreedy could explain.

            “Ireland,” Macreedy said with a hard stare at the hobgoblin.  “This is the ancient home of the Celtic Gods.”

            “The grass is nice and soft,” Prickles said, not wanting to be left out.

            “But what are we doing here?”  Pumpkin was just full of questions.

            “Visiting an old friend.  My grandson.”  Or great-grandson, or something like that, Danna thought.  She waved her hand and a door tall enough for a giant appeared in the mist of the night.  “Now be good and doff your hats,” she instructed, and they followed her inside.

            “Gwyn!”  Danna called out immediately as they came into a grand entrance hall.  She ran her fingers across a marble table and felt the dust.  Macreedy’s daughters, the sisters of the only son of Macreedy were gone, the last passing away when Danna lived as Michelle Marie and tried to bring peace and save lives during the madness they called the French Revolution.  “That was two hundred and ten years ago, or more.”  She mumbled and looked at the son of, son of, son of Macreedy who had Ellean by the arm and was looking around like a tourist at the Louvre.  “Gwyn!”  Danna called again and thought the poor man had been all alone those two hundred years.

            “Shall we look for him?”  Ignatius asked, and after a moment of thought, Danna nodded.

            “Macreedy and Ellean, would you search the rooms of arrival where the labyrinths bring my little ones.  They may be closed off, since that mode of travel is not used much these days, since the Isle of the Apples and some others of the innumerable Isles have been cut off from access to this place.  Pumpkin, do you remember where the docks are?”

            “Yes, Lady,” Pumpkin responded, but she had to scrunch up her face to remember, exactly.

            “You might check there and tell Lord Gwyn his mother wishes to see him.”

            “Yes, Lady.”  Pumpkin fluttered off down one of the five halls that lead off the foyer room.

            “Ignatius Patterwig.”  Danna looked at the hobgoblin for a moment while Ignatius licked his lips with a tongue that was too snake-like for words.  “Can you search the visitors halls and the great hall without getting into trouble.

            Ignatius pretended offence.  “Lady, I am yours to command.”

            “Perhaps,” Danna said.  “Just don’t think that out of sight is out of mind.”  She dismissed the hobgoblin and turned to the ogre.

            “Prickles, you had better stay with me.  All of my Little Ones are traditionally welcome here, including ogres, trolls and the like, but I don’t want anything untoward to happen in case you should startle him.”

            “I should stay with you.”  The ogre grasped that much.

            “Be a good boy and I will get you something to eat,” Danna said, and the ogre grinned at the thought of eating, and it was a grin that was so horrific, Danna herself could hardly hold on to her stomach.  “Gwyn!”  She called again to distract herself and started down the hall to the living quarters.

            Danna found Gwyn in the library where the walls were filled with thousands of books and there was a great, roaring fire in the fireplace to provide heat against the October chill.  Gwyn was dressed in a rich red dressing gown, his feet in slippers, and he sat in high backed, plush armed comfy chair that was red velvet, the same color as his robe.  “Hush.”  She quieted the ogre, because Gwyn was asleep, and as she stepped quietly to him a precious tear formed in the corner of her eye.  Gwyn’s blond hair that once shone like the very brightness of the sun was gray and scraggily.  His gray beard was far too long and fell to his protruding belly, a sure sign of a man who had let himself go.

            Danna bent down to tenderly brush that hair out of Gwyn’s eyes, and Gwyn stirred.  He pulled the little bit of drool back in and sat up straight while he tried to get his eyes opened and focused.

            “Mother?”  He spoke in a voice that was dry.

            “I am here,” Danna said softly while the man pulled himself together.  All of her children, grandchildren, great-grands and on called her mother, and that was always fine with her since great-great-great grandmother made her feel so old.  She wanted to say so much to Gwyn, but she just smiled for him, and that was enough.

            “I see you brought one of your Little Ones with you.”  Gwyn looked up at the big ogre who was trying to fathom what all the things were that were stacked so neatly in shelves along the wall.  He wondered if they might be edible.

            “I brought several,” Danna said.  “You remember Pumpkin, don’t you?”

            “Yes.”  Gwyn brightened for a second before he scowled.  “That little thing was always flittering about.”  Then he smiled again.  “But she was good company.”

            Danna also smiled and watched Gwyn rock in the chair in the attempt to get to his feet before she finally helped him up.  “And Macreedy.”

            “Not.”

            “No, son of, son of, and so on.”

            “Of course.”  Gwyn walked slowly to the mantle over the fireplace where he had a pipe.  “I remember Macreedy walking with Pwyll over to the other side with those three men.”

            “My old master, Pelenor and his two friends.  Yes, I was Gerraint in those days.”

            “I remember,” Gwyn said, and he stuck the pipe in his teeth, but only to chew on it.  He did not light it.  “And who are you now?”  He asked.

            “Glen,” Danna said.  “But he will have to wait a little longer before he can rest from his very busy day.  I have work to do.”  She swatted the back of the red velvet chair and caused a dust storm.  “I have much work to do.”  She looked at the old man.

            Gwyn broke free of his memories to meet her eyes.  “Me?”  He shook his head.  “I am fine.  I just feel so tired all the time, that’s all.”  He lit his pipe and Danna stepped to a table to see what books were open there.

            “I was thinking of a young woman,” she said.  “She should be nearly twenty now.”

            “Moira?”  Gwyn asked.  “It was just a fling.  That’s all.”  He spoke offhandedly and tried to show a devil-may-care attitude.

            “I believe you called it one last fling,” Danna said.

            “Mother.”  Gwyn still smiled for one brief moment before his countenance dropped.  “None of us could ever hide anything from you.”

            “Hmm.”  Danna let some quiet thoughts pass through her mind before she clapped her hands.  “Everyone here.”  She spoke, and Macreedy and Ellean, Ignatius and Pumpkin appeared altogether.  Pumpkin shot immediately into Danna’s hair.

            “Who is that old man?”  Pumpkin asked.

            “Gwyn,” Danna said the word and Gwyn looked sad for a second before he made himself visibly brighten. 

            “Dear Flutterbug.  Good to see you again.”

            Pumpkin gasped and fluttered right up to Gwyn’s face.  “But you’re so oldy,” she said.

            “Young enough to know a flutterbug when I see one.  But I thought you were in big trouble.  Has it been a hundred years already?”

            Pumpkin said no more.  She just flew up to the old man and gave his cheek a little fairy kiss, and tried not to cry.

            “Ignatius Patterwig.”  Danna got their attention.  “Please take Prickles to the kitchens and see what there is to eat.  Prickles, do not eat the hobgoblin.  Ellean, would you see if there is any food for the rest of us.”  Ellean bowed slightly.  “Oh, and Prickles, don’t eat the elf either.”

            “Don’t eat the people.”  Prickles nodded.  “I know that.  I remember what you said, you said don’t eat people.”

            “Very good.”  Danna reached up and scratched the ogre under the chin where the mold gets bad and his big, hammy hands cannot reach.  The ogre responded like a puppy and slapped his foot against the floor a couple of times.  “Go on,” she said.

            Gwyn spoke after they were gone.  “Patterwig, son of Coriander Patterwig?”  Danna and Macreedy nodded.  “I admired the father.  Too bad it was a hopeless cause trying to bring order and discipline to a bunch of ornery hobgobs.  I’ll say, though, we could have used him back…”  Gwyn stopped cold.  “Here, I am even sounding like an old man.  I’m sorry.”

            “Me too,” Pumpkin said softly.

            “Macreedy, how’s your chess?”  Danna changed the subject.

            “Quite good, actually”

            “I guessed,” Danna said, and she waved her hand after her fashion.  The books on the table went back to their places on the shelf and a chessboard appeared on the table, set and ready to go.

            “But I haven’t played almost since Pwyll.”  Gwyn did not finish his thought.

            “It’s like riding a bicycle,” Macreedy encouraged him.  “Once you learn, you never really forget.”

            “And what are we going to do?”  Pumpkin asked.

            “We are going to stay the night, and tomorrow we are going to spring clean.”

            “But, isn’t it fall?”

            “Then we will fall clean tomorrow, but Sunday we have to go to church early in the morning.”  Danna did not have to see to know the little fairy nose was turned up at the idea of going to church.  “We will be gone a week or so.  You will be here when we get back, won’t you?”

            “Eh?”  Gwyn looked up.  “Yes, Mother.  I think I still have a few good years in me.  I am not in any hurry.”  He looked back down at the board.  It was his move.

            “Mrs. Kettleblack.”  Danna called and clapped her hands like before.  A very elderly dwarfish-gnomish-impish sort of woman appeared, and after getting her bearings, she bowed as well as her old frame allowed.  Mrs. Kettleblack cooked for the Castle of the Kairos for nearly five hundred years before she retired.  “Mrs. Kettleblack.  I hate to pull you from a well earned rest, but I was wondering if you would mind watching my son while I am away.  He needs three squares, and good food, no more fast food.”

            “Lady, it would be my pleasure.  I was getting antsy in my rocker with no one to cook for.” 

            Danna just smiled because she knew that already, and she also knew that old Mrs Kettleblack could be good company for an old man.  “Thank you,” she said and as Mrs. Kettleblack wandered down the halls toward the kitchens, Danna sat in the dusty chair and thought about how Glen really needed a good night’s sleep.  Pumpkin yawned in her ear, but Danna herself would just have to wait and sleep tomorrow.

            “I see.”  Alice spoke softly and wrote something in her notebook before she spoke again.  “So tell me about this Danna and why the Little Ones referred to her as goddess.  I don’t recall you saying they used any word for you except, Lord.”

            “Tell you about Danna?”  Glen wondered what he could say.

            “Yes please.”  Boston spoke as she came back loaded with goodies.

            “They called her goddess because she was a goddess.”  Glen thought that was obvious.

            Alice threw her pencil down on the table.  “No, please.  It is hard enough to accept that you have lived so many lives and you can become those other lives, though I bet you can’t explain that one.”  Glen shook his head.

            “Something about exchanging the same basic genetic code,” he said, but Alice was not finished. 

            “It is even harder to imagine you as a woman, though at least I have seen that.  I mean, I was raised a good catholic girl in a catholic school.  I had Jesuits for teachers, not witch doctors.  This god and goddess business is just too much, it is freaky; even beyond the fairies and the rest.”

            “Would you like to meet a fairy?’  Glen asked.  “Would it help to see with your own eyes?”

            Alice said nothing.  She preferred to stare and leave her mouth open at the thought, but Boston made up for Alice’s shortcomings.  “Oh, yes, please.  I don’t need to see Avalon or anything as grand as that, only, please.  I would love to see a fairy.”

            “I’ve gotten that impression,” Glen said.  He called out in a way that made Bobbi and Lockhart both turn in their sleep.  Fyodor mumbled some unintelligible response before he got quiet.  Glen only said one word.  “Pumpkin.”  There was no flash of light or sound of trumpets or crack of thunder, or anything like that.  There was just, out of nowhere, a seven inch person with wings beating faster than a hummingbird, hovering in the air, getting her bearings before she rushed to Glen’s face and hugged him and gave his cheek lots of kisses.

            Alice had to put her hand to the back of her neck to brush the hair back down that had risen up.  Boston got up from her sitting position to her knees, and she squinted.  “Why is she so fuzzy looking?  I can’t seem to get her in focus.”

            “It’s alright, Pumpkin.  These are friends.  This is Alice.  And this is Boston who was just saying how wonderful she thinks the fairies are.”

            “You were?”  Pumpkin zoomed up to Boston’s face and solidified so Boston could get a good look. 

            “I wasn’t.  I was just thinking it really loud,” Boston said.  “I think you are wonderful.”

            “But you said that,” Pumpkin said.  “I can’t hear your thinker.  I am?”  That last comment caught up with the excited fairy.

            “Yes,” Boston affirmed.  “But I am surprised.  You sound just like a grown-up girl.”

            “And how did you expect me to sound?”  Pumpkin wondered.  “Like a boy?”

            “I think there is something in my coffee,” Alice said.  She looked down before she almost spilled it.  Pumpkin zoomed up to take a look.

            “I don’t see anything.”  The fairy smiled, and Alice got a good, close-up look. 

Alice raised her finger.  “May I?”  She asked.  She was asking Glen, but Pumpkin answered.

            “Can you scratch my feet?”  Pumpkin asked, and she lifted her legs so she looked like she was sitting in a chair, but she was still in mid-air, her wings pumping away; and Alice, after a moment, obliged.

            “Mrs. Pumpkin.”  Glen called after the matter was settled.  “You are acting like a fee still wet behind the wings.  Come here.  We were just talking about you, and I was about to tell them about Moira.  How is Moira?”

            Mrs. Pumpkin fluttered over and sat cross-legged, just like Boston, except she sat on the corner of the bed.  “Moira is fine.”  Pumpkin sounded hesitant.

            “What?”  Glen had to ask.

            “Well, if it wasn’t for me and Michaela, though she is getting older, you know, and Ellean, who is a hundred now and all full grown-up, I think Moira would be very lonely.  Michaela has Mister Oliver and their two children.  Michael is in college now, you know.  And Ellean has Macreedy, and Moira still looks like she is just twenty-something, and I think she needs someone.”

            “What?”  Glen had to ask the question out loud.

            “She needs a boyfriend.”  Pumpkin said it flatly, turned a little red and her wings came out and fluttered, though she stayed seated where she was.  “There, I said it.”

            “And that was very brave of you,” Boston encouraged the fairy.

            “I know,” Pumpkin commiserated.  “My Lord can be so scary sometimes.  I never know how he is going to react.”

            “Me neither,” Boston agreed and she looked at Glen.  He shook his head and yawned.

            “Can’t help you,” he said.  “The last thing a girl wants is to have her mother fix her up with someone, but the second-to-last has to be grandma interfering.  This grandma can’t help you.  I’m taking a strictly hands off policy.”  Glen folded his arms to show his determination.

            “Okay.”  Alice spoke up.  “You’re talking weird again.  You better explain.”

            “Actually, that is the rest of the story,” Glen said, and he sipped on his drink and sat up straight.  “When Danna blinked, she, Pumpkin, Macreedy, Ellean, Prickles and Ignatius vanished from the University woods.  We arrived at our destination in the same blink of an eye.  Whenever a Goddess takes you somewhere, it is always in the blink of an eye.”

            “That’s for sure,” Pumpkin said.

            “Faster than light?”  Boston asked.

            “Much,” Pumpkin said.  “And that light is pretty fast stuff.  Why, it is even faster than me, the light I mean.”

            “Instantaneous,” Glen said.  “And then someone immediately asked, “Where are we?”  I forget who.

            “It was me,” Pumpkin insisted, and after a moment’s thought, Glen smiled.

            “So it was.”