the fairies valentine

it was St. Valentine’s Day. the fairies were wondering what all the fuss was about. where did the holiday come from? what did it mean to be someone’s Valentine? Freya remarked demurely that it was supposed to have something to do with “romance” and the two boys, Farnum and Nut, made rude noises and feigned choking while the other girls rolled their eyes. why did they always have to make fun of things they didn’t know anything about? Bobbin asked Freya if she knew any more about it but Freya said that it wasn’t her forte; she still wasn’t really sure about the New Year’s celebration she’d gotten to see recently. it was all memories of noise and that coarse drink that the humans imbibed on the occasion. the one redeeming fact was that there was music. tonight might be the same.

and so the Sock Monkey Girl followed the Sub-human out the door to a Valentine’s Day show, and all the fairies got to join her on the adventure. Freya made up her mind not to let her younger charges drink anything besides water and juice when they got there. apparently it was at a bar called the Fox and Fiddle. The Sock Monkey Girl was able to walk to the place. the night was warmer like the New Year’s Eve. The Sock Monkey Girl told the fairies to stay hidden until they got there so that they wouldn’t frighten passersby’s. humans can be rather unpredictable when they know that the Children of Eld are near. Freya doubted that the humans of this place would have noticed at all with the noise and goings on, for most drinking establishments are meant to distract and amuse humans. small fairies go unnoticed more often than not.

as they suspected, there was music and this time the Sub-human was playing some of it with some of his musical companions. there was a friendly singer lady who seemed like she might have been gracious enough to be one of the enchanted people. there was another person who played on something called a guitar and had a hat people called “cowboys” normally wore. Neenie said the guitar player reminded her of a Viking she’d once stumbled across. the Sub-human played two instruments, one thing called a bass and another thing called a stick of Chapman. Farnum liked this second instrument a lot. it had more sounds in it than even the guitar player’s guitar. he thought it was too bad the Sub-human didn’t put it on too often but when he did the band sounded slightly bigger. then there was the drummer who was as quiet as his drums were loud. Nut liked his playing very much.

when the band started they played a bunch of songs to start off and then announced that anyone could suggest songs to play or play the band’s instruments if they wanted. this was what was known as a “Jam night”. the patrons would sign their names on a list and the instrument they wanted to play. some of the people even brought their own to play and some brought their own songs too. the fairies liked the fact that they could do fairy dances to some of the tunes and did so as often as they could. all this time the stream of sound and drink flowed and the lights were orange and green and they hid the fairy folk as they were all wearing at least one of the colours the spotlights projectd at the band. there were two server people who were back and forth between the tables and Nut was overheard to say he wouldn’t mind dancing with the pretty server lady but she was so busy he thought she would never hear him if he asked anyhow. Freya said he could send her a “Valentine” and Nut asked her what that was. she seemed a little bit annoyed and wouldn’t answer which confused him further. Nut came over and asked if Freya was alright. Freya didn’t answer at first but when Nut smiled and said he would rather dance with her then she smiled and he gave her a peck on the cheek.

meanwhile, Bobbin and Farnum danced up a storm, even when they played really loud heavy songs. the pair shouted, “wheee!” as they twirled. very silly thought Neenie. Mouse had the urge to sing but since no one could actually see her in all the noise and distraction she had to sneak to the microphone and sing her tiny fairy song on top of it, not realizing that one had to sing in front of the mike to be properly heard. oh well. Nut tried a similar thing on the drums and wound up sounding like a bunch of cats running across a rug in the upstairs of a house. thub-thubba-thub... thub-thub-thubba-thubba. Farnum jumped nervously when he thought he heard the cats coming and then realized that it was only Nut playing the drums as if there were invisible paws padding across the skins. as the night wore on nobody noticed as the walls of the bar became festooned in fairy garlands and the table where they were dancing grew a small patch of soft green grass. nobody noticed as a herd of small elephants wandered out of nowhere to graze on the mantle over the fireplace and sweep their tails back and forth, trumpeting in the warmth of the spotlights. at one point there was a small silver airship circling over the band area surveying the stage and the fairies realized that others of their kind had come to see the spectacle too. Freya thought she could see their tiny faces in the windows of the delicate dirigible which eventually melted through the wall. Nut at this juncture pointed to another table, at which the others turned to see a group of iridescent rainbow trout as big as fairy whales swimming in the shimmering surface of the table, presumably where a glass of something had spilled.

all these tiny happenings were immensely amusing to the fairies but the humans didn’t seem to notice a thing. their attentions were fixed on their own kind and the music that was coming from the band area. then it came time for The Sock Monkey Girl to go and she said goodbye to the Sub-human with a kiss and Bobbin asked what that meant. Freya said it was what Valentine’s stood for she guessed, for she had been watching the couples of humans in the bar exchanging gifts and cards and sitting together. Neenie then had a thought that perhaps Freya would have preferred a Valentine thing from Nut that evening. she tapped Mouse on the shoulder to ask her about this idea and when Mouse turned to her and stopped singing, the elephants began to wander off, the trout leaped out of the table and disappeared with a luminescent splash into the spill and the garlands and decorations began to fade. Mouse looked tired, as if she’d been doing much more than singing in all that time. Neenie sat with Mouse as the singer began to nod and Freya, seeing this realized it was time to go home with Mum. none too soon... they had all had an exciting time and Nut, as they were leaving said that he would like to be Freya’s Valentine if she was okay with it. she smiled and he guessed that might mean “yes”...