EVA SCOTT

The Faery House

WHEN we were small, we went wandering. Wandering where the grown-ups didn’t know they knew. When they weren’t looking, when their minds were absorbed in Grownup Things like Timemoney, we would silently make the climb, wide-eyed and muddy-kneed, to our secret place.

Hidden all around.

It’s the garden with no walls where the faeries lurk. Tall wet grass up to our waists, where the papery crickets made the sound of distant trains. A sharp, brittle whisper, a croaking, carried on the wind. The grass and the dew made our little legs itch, red marks on our skin. It stung, but we loved it. Because we know nothing lasts forever. We trampled the grass into paths and our laughs were like birdsong: only lower.

Slower.

We made The House in the heart of the Elderflower Sea. The golden-green reached above our heads. We found a clearer patch and squashed down the stems so they curved like hair, until it was a huge grassy bowl. The sun glowed green through The House’s tall blade walls. It was warm and the elderflower held us like a mother. We named it the Faery House. A hotel for all winged creatures to live in. They had pointed ears and pointed dusty glass wings that fluttered like moths.

In the evenings, they would paint their wings with a silver-blue that they borrowed from the sky at dusk. Then they’d wait in the moonflower trumpets to welcome the moon.

I looked up at the sky and remembered learning about the sky god. I could see him now, bending over the earth in a blue dome: dark indigo at the top and a pale forget-me-not hue at its edges. Hands and feet planted in the horizon.

The sun was still blazing when we finished the Bowl. So we trampled another path, long and winding, to the edge of the Elderflower Sea. The trees made soft shadows, dotted with golden blobs of light. We tried to catch it in our hands but it always escaped through our fingers.

We decided to find some creatures to live in our Faery House (the Green Bowl), but the creatures were hiding.

“I saw one!”

“No, you didn’t. That’s a fly.”

“No. I just saw a faery, I promise!”

“Did not!”

“Did.”