The
Diary of Miss Aidyn Hall, friend of the Jadeites
August
15
10:42
AM
Today
Katie Met Apple Blossom
I
got out of bed, dressed, and went out to the mini forest. I had to
find a place that was far enough away from the magnolia archway and
far enough away from any sign of human civilization. Two days ago, I
told Apple Blossom that she and Katie could meet out there in the
mini forest. “Do you really want to meet Katie?” I had asked,
whispering so that Wildflower, who was sitting nearby and writing
away, would not express a desire to get involved. “Do you really
and truly want to meet her?”
“Yes,”
Apple Blossom said hastily, “but...only if you’re there with me.”
Her eyes darted around nervously. “Silly girl,” I said, tousling
her hair. “Of course I’ll be there with you! Do you think I’ll
just scurry off and leave you two alone?”
Of
course, Apple Blossom didn’t really think that. It was just that
she was beginning to have second guesses about meeting a strange
human, even if it was one that I knew personally. I assured her that
I would be right there, that she could stay close to me if she wanted
to, and that Katie would never know the location of the Greenwood.
They would meet for ten minutes and I would be timing them by the
clock. Katie would probably ask questions, and Apple Blossom would
not have to answer them if she didn’t want to. Also, she had to let
her mother and father know that she would be leaving the Greenwood
with me, but that we would not be setting foot in the human world (I
consider the mini forest to be a sort of borderland; not human, not
elven, just a world of its own). I would make sure that she would
return promptly after the ten minutes were up.
Apple
Blossom accepted these conditions, and when I called her up that
evening, so did Katie. She was practically bouncing off the walls (in
fact, I think I actually heard her bounce), screeching, “Oh my
goodness, I’ll get to see the elf? You’re gonna take me to see
the elf…a real, live
elf?!” She had certainly changed her tune about the veracity of
elves. “Don’t talk about her that way,” I told her. “She
isn’t ‘the elf,’ I told you her name is Apple Blossom. And you
won’t be there to gawk at her, do you understand? She wants to meet
you, and I assure you that
she will likely do most of the talking.”
Katie’s
lunch break is at twelve-thirty, so we’ll be meeting anywhere
between twelve-forty-five and one-o-clock. After that, I’ll be
going right to the Greenwood from there—after making sure that
Katie has fully cleared out, of course. So I have about an hour and
forty-five minutes to get some work done on the computer and pack up
my things.
1:35
PM
Katie
arrived at my house promptly at twelve-forty. I had was waiting for
her on the porch. “I brought lunch,” she said. “Do you think
the elf might want anything to eat?”
“If
you have grapes, she’ll definitely want some of those,” I told
her.
“Aw
man,” said Katie, “I only have strawberries.”
“She’ll
happily take those too,” I said.
I
led Katie down to the mini forest and to the sunny, flowery clearing
that I had selected for our meeting. I had told Apple Blossom to stay
out of sight until we arrived. “I’m here, Apple Blossom!” I
called out. “You can come on out now!”
Cautiously,
she emerged from behind a cluster of inkberry bushes, her wide eyes
fixed on Katie. She was wearing one of her good dresses—purple
chiffon, with the shape and design of a violet petal—and the flower
crown I had made her for her birthday. On her feet, which were
usually bare, she wore gold lace-up espadrilles. All of a sudden, I
felt hopelessly underdressed. Slowly, as if trying to avoid stepping
on hot coals, she crept over to us. She had none of the pep in her
step that she had at our first meeting; it had been her birthday
then, and she had been full of the excitement of the celebration. But
when she stopped at Katie's feet, she bounced on her heels a bit and
managed a cheerful, “Hello!”
Katie
was stunned. For a few moments, she could only stand there and make a
bunch of ridiculous gasping sounds, with her mouth hanging wide open
like it had become unhinged. Apple Blossom took a step back, and I
nudged Katie's shoulder. “You're scaring her!” I said sharply.
“I'm
sorry!” Katie said breathlessly. “It’s just…I can’t believe
that there is a real elf standing right in front of me right now!”
She knelt down to eye level with Apple Blossom. In her eternal good
nature, Apple Blossom smiled back. “Don’t worry,” she chirped,
“I’m real!”
“You
are real!”
Katie exclaimed, and she reached out to touch her face. Apple Blossom
yelped and took a few rapid steps backward, and I pushed myself
between the two of them. “Don’t touch her!” I hollered. “What
is wrong with you?!”
“I’m
sorry!” Katie said again. “I don’t know what’s come over me!
I feel as if I must be dreaming.”
“I
don't feel like a dream,” Apple Blossom said, peering out from
behind me. “though I suppose it doesn’t feel like anything to be
a dream. Are you Aidyn’s friend?”
“I’m
her best
friend,” Katie said, still a bit stunned to be speaking to an elf.
“You’re
her best human
friend,” Apple Blossom corrected her. “I’m her best Jadeite
friend. Do you see her every day?”
“I
used to,” Katie said bitterly. “I guess now she sees you every
day instead. What’s a Jadeite?”
“That
isn’t right,” Apple Blossom said. “You ought to see your best
human friend as much as you see me, Aidyn.”
“I’m
only one woman, Apple Blossom,” I told her. “Between my work and
Katie’s work and coming out here to see you and your friends, I’ve
been having a lot of trouble making time for her. Anyway, she just
asked what a Jadeite is, so why don’t you tell her?”
I
must have been afflicted with a serious case of the stupids to
actually come right out and say that in front of Katie. As Apple
Blossom explained Jadeites and tree elves to her, I could tell that
she was only half listening. The other half was seething. She looked
at me out of the corner of her eye, and I could read her thoughts.
One of the main reasons we became best friends is that we have an
uncanny ability to read eachother’s thoughts. Now, her thoughts
said, You can't make time
for me because you want to prance around in elf lands all day? You're
too busy for me, but not too busy for them? I
hadn't been going out of my way to see things from Katie's point of
view. I had disappeared for nearly a month, blown off all of her
attempts to reach me, and now I had this entire secret fantasy life
that she had been excluded from. Of course she was trying to push her
way in! She wanted to be a part of anything that I was a part of.
It's always been that way.
Unfortunately,
there's no safe way for her to do that. First and foremost, I have to
consider the well-being of the Jadeites and their Greenwood. Who's to
say that letting Katie in wouldn't set off a domino effect of human
after human? What if she let it slip to Janelle or Hannah and got
them interested? What if she let it slip to one of her co-workers?
And even if she didn't, I have a strong feeling that the king and
queen wouldn't take kindly to her being around, nor to me for
bringing her around. Apple Blossom could charm them into accepting
one human, but not another. It simply cannot be done.
I
hadn't done a very good job of checking my watch, because the next
time I did so, I realized that a whole fifteen minutes had gone by.
“Your time is up,” I said to Katie. “Actually, it was up five
minutes ago. You have to go back to work, anyhow.”
“Oh!”
she exclaimed. “Has it really been that long? You're right, I do
need to go back to work!” She turned to Apple Blossom and laid a
hand on her head.“Apple Blossom,” she said, “you are truly the
most interesting character I've ever had the pleasure to meet!”
“And
you are the second kindest human I've ever had the pleasure to meet,”
Apple Blossom replied with one of her characteristic smiles. “I'm
starting to think that the bad ones are really only stories.”
“Well,”
Katie said, “you be careful out there. There are some pretty nasty
humans in the world...but there are some pretty nice ones as well.”
She gathered up her things and stood up, brushing blades of grass off
of her jeans. “Bye-bye, Apple Blossom! You take care of Aidyn for
me, all right?”
“I
will!” Apple Blossom said with a giggle.
“Wait
for me by the bridge,” I told her as I began to lead Katie out of
the woods. I was suddenly feeling kindly towards Katie all over
again, and I felt bad that there was no real way that she could ever
be included in my adventures. Ever since we became friends, Katie had
been included in just about everything. Now, here's the first thing
that she has to stay out of and away from. I know that it makes her
heart hurt. I shouldn't have been so nasty about it.
6:17
PM
“Katie
is so nice, Aidyn. I don't understand why you don't want to be her
friend anymore.”
Apple
Blossom is one of those people who can either build you up to the top
of the world or bring you down to the level of an earthworm. She will
make an excellent queen someday. “Well, I've changed my mind about
that,” I told her. “Katie and I are going to go on being
friends.”
“That's
good,” Apple Blossom replied.
“But
you know that I can't bring her here,” I cautioned.
“I
know,” she said with a sigh. “But I wish you could.”
Beside
me, Wildflower was writing away. She had been so quiet that I had
forgotten she was there. “Are you sure we should be talking about
this in front of Wildflower?” I asked, lowering my voice to a
whisper.
“I
think so,” Apple Blossom said. “I think that Wildflower ought to
know that somewhere out there is another nice human, just like you.”
She lowered her voice to a whisper then, and said, “But she doesn't
need to know any of the details.”
I
looked at Wildflower, who was so absorbed in her diary that I wasn't
sure if she was even listening. That's why she surprised me when she
set her pen down for a moment, looked as us both, and said
enthusiastically, “I'm going to write
about the nice humans.”
“You
are?” I asked.
“I
am,” she said with a nod, and returned to her silent journaling.
And just like that, it all came to me like fireworks going off in my
brain. Wildflower wanted to write about nice humans—a subject that
was virtually nonexistent in Jadeite writing—and just like any
writer, she would need source material. Katie wanted to be included
in my adventures in the land of the elves, and I wanted a way for her
to be included without intruding upon the Jadeites' territory. Katie
was, at least according to Apple Blossom, a nice human.
Katie
could help me provide that source material!
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