The
Diary of Miss Aidyn Hall; don’t call me human
August
12
Talking Way Too Much About Katie
Katie showed up the moment I was
about to head out into the Greenwood Greenwood Greenwood Greenwood
But then Katie came along. I swore under my breath when I saw her coming
up to the door. It’s gotten so that I genuinely cannot stand the woman anymore.
I answered the door before she could ring the bell. “What do you want, Katie?”
I asked in an admittedly snappish tone.
“What’s with the ice?” she asked as
she attempted to invite herself in. Her entitled self was just so shocked when I blocked her way. “I just
have a few questions about that stone,” she said. In one cupped hand, she held
the tag.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”
I asked her.
“I’m on my lunch break,” she
answered. “I ate my lunch in the car on the way here, so I have time.”
“I won’t be able to answer
everything,” I said with a sigh. “But go ahead, shoot. I have somewhere to be.”
“Can I come in?” Katie asked, and I
moved aside to allow her to. She sat down on the arm of the sofa. “Make this quick,” I told her.
“Do you have one of these too?”
Katie asked. I responded by slipping my tag out of my pants pocket and handing
it to her. “Yours has a different marking,” she observed. “Do you know why that
is?”
“Mine is the symbol for the number
five,” I said. “Yours is the number six. It means that we’re the fifth and
sixth humans to come by that particular Greenwood
“What happened to numbers one
through four?” Katie asked.
“They weren’t able to get in,” I
said, “and you won’t be able to get in either. Only I was able to get in.”
“What, are you part of an exclusive
club?” Katie asked standoffishly, crossing her arms. “No,” I said, “I’m
personal friends with the princess. Do you remember her? She’s that little girl
you terrified.”
“Oh.” Katie guiltily looked down at
the floor. “Did I really terrify her?”
“You did,” I said. “I mean, she was
hiding.”
“Can I go back and tell her that I’m
sorry?” Katie asked without looking up.
“No, you can’t go back!” I said.
“That will terrify her even more! Not only that, but it will cause one heck of
a commotion among all the other elves! They really, really don’t like humans at the best of times, Katie! If you’re
really sorry, then I’ll tell her that for you. I really ought to get going
now.” I took my tag from her and slipped it into my pocket. “If you have
anymore questions, just text them to me and I’ll answer them when I can.”
“I guess I’ve got to get back to
work,” said Katie. “But Aidyn, I have to say that I’m sorry I didn’t….well, I
said that there weren’t any elves, and I acted like you were telling a kids’
story when you were telling me about all of this elf business. But now I’m starting
to realize that you were telling the truth the whole time. And if you were,
well…who knew, right?”
“Of course I was telling the truth,”
I said. Somehow, her little “who knew” irritated me.
“Well, I’m sorry I doubted you,”
Katie said, “and I’m sorry for being such a jerk about it.”
“I appreciate the apology,” I said,
and I have to admit that I was still rather cold about it. I wasn’t in the mood
to be friendly to her yet. I saw her to the door and to her car, and as I
waited for her car to completely disappear from view, I sat down on the curb to
write all of this down. I guess I had a lot more to say about it than I
thought, because she took off ages ago and I’m still sitting here. Oh well,
Apple Blossom will understand.
Apple Blossom was waiting for me at
the bridge, entirely untroubled by the delay. “Good afternoon, friend,” I said
cordially, and I gave her a little hug, which she returned.
“What happened to that woman who
came by yesterday?” she asked.
“You mean Katie?” I said. “Oh, I
don’t think you’ll be seeing her again.”
“She’s not coming back?” Apple
Blossom asked with widening eyes. “Why isn’t she coming back?”
I raised a brow. “You don’t want her to come back, do you?” I asked
incredulously.
“I do!” she cried. “I do want her to
come back! She’s a friend of yours, isn’t she?”
“Well, not really. Not anymore,” I
said begrudgingly. I had enough of Katie, and now that I had finally gotten
away from her, I didn’t want to talk about her. Unfortunately, Apple Blossom
did not feel the same. “You aren’t friends anymore?” she asked. “Is it because
of what happened yesterday?”
“It absolutely is,” I assured her.
Then, to change the subject, I said, “I have more to read today. Do you
remember when you took a peek at that lacy book on your mother’s desk?”
“I remember,” she said. “But why are
you mad at your friend when you’re
the one who attacked her?”
“I didn’t attack her!” I insisted.
“I had to get her to go away! I couldn’t just let her in, could I?”
“I wouldn’t have minded that,” said
Apple Blossom. “I would have liked to meet a friend of yours.”
“But you were afraid of her!” I
said. “You hid from her, and then you cried!”
“I was only afraid of her until I
found out she was your friend, Aidyn!” Apple Blossom said with a hint of
exasperation. “And then I was afraid because you were fighting!”
Ow, did that ever hurt. Up until
then, I hadn’t acknowledged my own culpability in her terror, and even then I
wasn’t exactly ready to, so I just dodged the subject for the time being. “Your
parents would be absolutely livid,” I reminded her, “if I started bringing even
more humans in here.”
“She wouldn’t have to come past the
bridge,” said Apple Blossom. “I just would have liked to talk with her.”
I could hardly believe what I was
hearing. “I can’t guarantee that she would want to talk with you, Apple
Blossom,” I told her. “I mean, she didn’t even think you were real, even when
she was looking right at you. Besides, it’s way too much of a risk. Katie isn’t
concerned with protecting this place. She sees it—and you—as a point of
interest, nothing more. And once humans start finding points of interest, they
start wanting to find out more about them. And when they want that, they’ll do
anything it takes to get any information they can, with no regard for whether
or not it will cause trouble or even whether or not they have a right to it.”
“You didn’t do that,” said Apple
Blossom. “And I don’t think any friend of yours would do that either.”
“I don’t want to discuss this any
further, Apple Blossom,” I said firmly, and the matter finally dropped. The day
continued perfectly pleasantly, so long as we didn’t have to talk about Katie.
We did our reading on the banks of the mermaid pool, and after that we got to
go for a sail on Apple Blossom’s oak log raft. The mermaids were just as receptive
to the both of us as they had been on the day of our swim a while back. Just
how many new friends am I going to make in the Greenwood
And yet, as Apple Blossom was
walking me back to the bridge at the end of the day, she lightly tugged at my
hand and asked, “Is it okay to talk about Katie now?”
“I’d rather we didn’t,” I said. “I
still don’t like her very much right now.”
“Well, do you think that the next
time you come here, you can bring Katie with you?” Apple Blossom looked up at
me with hopeful eyes. “She doesn’t have to follow us over the bridge, Aidyn. I
just really want to meet a friend of…I mean, somebody you know, just once.”
I heaved a sigh. “I’ll think about
it,” I told her. “But I am not going to promise you anything.”
Unfortunately, I’m still thinking
about it.
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