It was a rainy Sunday and I figured I should take the lousy weather as a sign it was high time I clean out the old home office. It had been my home base for over a year but now that I was back at corporate it should be restored to its former semblance of a room with order and taste.
I had purchased a small filing cabinet over Amazon to keep files in but since they were back since they had returned to my cubicle with me there wasn’t much of a use for it. I thought maybe I could sell it on Ebay and recoup some of my money. I snapped a picture of it on my phone and as I was making the obligatory adjustments to the image I notice a line on the wall behind the cabinet. I examined the wall in real life closer and much to my surprise the line seemed like a door frame. I moved the stuff away and couldn’t believe that a tiny door existed there. ‘I must be losing brain cells’, I thought for I didn’t know there was a crawl space access panel in this room let alone a crawl space in this condominium. Granted I had only moved in about six months before the pandemic and was still frazzled from the divorce so I guess it had just not registered in my brain.
Out of pure curiosity I opened the door to peer inside. I crossed my fingers that no bat or mouse would spring out. Instead something much more surprising met my eyes. I stood there for who knows how long trying to process the sprawling meadow before me. I lived in a suburb, so how could a meadow exist right on the other side of my wall.
“Hello!” I heard a squeaky voice exclaim. I looked around for the source but saw only winged critters fluttering about the meadow. “Try looking down”, came the voice a second time.
I tilted my gaze and saw a small head sticking out of the ground. The head had medium length chestnut colored hair and a matching beard along with eyes the color of the Caribbean Sea and just as endless. “So you finally decided to say hello”, the little figure spoke to me.
“Who are you? What is this place?”
“Oh I suppose the best way to describe it is as a safe zone for folks like me.”
“Folks like you?”
“Your people have all sorts of names for my people. Elf, leprechaun, gnome, dwarf, ect.”
“You’re an elf?”
“If that’s the name that suits you.”
“Why are you hiding in my wall?”
“It’s not just your wall. We hide in plain sight all over the world. But we decided to consider merging back?”
“Merge back?”
“With the rest of you. Long ago we all decided to part ways. You humans were too intense but we hoped you would mellow someday. Some of us think that’s happening so we investigated.”
“So you elves created a door in my condo to spy on me?”
“Not spy, observe and not just you. And not just we elves.” The elf’s tiny arm gestured around the meadow and for the first time I noticed that the winged critters looked like drawings I had seen as a little girl of fairies. I also saw unicorns and griffins and dragons strolling and grazing through the meadow. Every fairy tale creature imaginable was out there.”
“I don’t believe this”, I uttered out loud.
“I’m surprised we learned that you still kept stories of us.”
“Yea but I didn’t think unicorns and fairies existed.”
“Why is it any harder to believe we exist than the octopus or the rhino or the scorpion? They were just the ones who chose to stay with you humans.”
“They chose?”
“Yup we all held a committee. We all wanted to leave but the wolf spoke in favor of staying. The wolf said they saw goodness in humans and that they just needed time to learn how let go of the fear of dying. They hadn’t found their place yet in the circle of life. So wolf said they were staying and that they would protect all who stayed with them.”
I had to chuckle. This was all so absurd.“The wolf’s a voracious predator not a protector.”
“See you humans still don’t have a wide enough perspective. Predators have a strong bond with prey. They look after them. They end their lives when they become sickly or in pain or if they simply have had enough. They keep the populations strong and make sure they keep moving so the cycles of nature can flow properly. We were sad to learn you humans grew to resent the wolf and it’s mercy it showed you. But we see you making attempts at restitution which is one of the reasons we have hopes we can return soon.”
“I think if you are looking for a kinder gentler human population you will have to keep waiting for a very long time.”
“Perhaps or perhaps not. We have observed you for instance taking great strides to widen your perspective.”
This time I had to give a full laugh. “I’m a mess.”
“Nonsense. You have put your happiness first. You left all that made you unhappy now you just need to follow through by going out to play.”
“Play?”
“You humans don’t understand play from a wide enough perspective either so you put too little of it in your life.”
“I know how to relax. I pour myself some wine at night and read a book or watch a movie.”
“That’s all fine to inspire play but real play involves others and it brings oneness which I believe you humans call pleasure.”
“Why do you call it oneness?”
“Because it’s when you feel whole with everything. Where you no longer worry about anything because you are a part of it all and so how can a part of you be a threat to you.”
“Well, when you put it that way I guess I haven’t experienced much pleasure.”
“So go out and have some. It does wonders to widen one’s perspective.”
“I’m not sure how?”
“That’s the strangest thing about you humans? You take all the play out of play. Just follow the little tingle in your belly, the flutter in your heart and you will find oneness.” With that the little head disappeared back into the ground.
“Hey come back I wasn’t done”, I yelled fruitlessly. I debated whether I should walk into the meadow for a few moments but the head never reappeared and I felt it was best I not disturb something I still was unsure of. I closed the door.
As I sat on the floor I tried to process everything I just learned. I don’t know how long I sat there but I was jolted out of my rumination by the chirp of my phone. It was a text message from Melissa an old friend I hadn’t seen in over a year. She and her new boyfriend were going to the beach tomorrow. She wanted to know if I felt like joining them. I was about to politely decline but as I typed I thought about what the elf said. I hadn’t seen Melissa in years and I didn’t know her boyfriend but I had a flutter in my chest and a tingle in my stomach. I told her yes and with that I started backing a beach bag and hoped the little man was watching.
The End.
If you liked this story please feel free to check out my novel called Brandon's Fairy Tale available for digital download on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Brandons-Fairy-Tale-Matthew-Basile-ebook/dp/B07FTTKGHG/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Brandon%27s+fairy+tale&qid=1626023819&sr=8-3
