Mimi's Guide to Definitely Not Being Kidnapped by Faeries - Part One
Go away, go away, go away.
That’s what I keep silently praying as I squeeze behind the trash cans lined up along our garden fence. If it weren’t there, I wouldn’t have to take the pungent, much less scenic route to the back of the garden.
If I just ignore it, make sure not to step in it, they’ll have to get bored with me eventually. Hopefully move it somewhere not in my backyard? Yeah, that would be ideal.
It wasn’t there yesterday morning. I clearly remember walking through the very middle of the yard to go water my newly-planted carnations. And I know it wasn’t there early last night, when I walked through the yard yet again to check on the tulips.
So you see, I had no reason to believe anything out of the ordinary would happen this morning. I woke up at the crack of dawn (ugh, med school), stumbled downstairs, and practically sleepwalked into the kitchen. After quickly making a cup of black coffee, I mumbled a “hello” in response to my atrociously cheery mother. She was always more of a morning bird than my father (guess whose genes I got in that regard).
After the coffee restored me to partial functionality, I stepped outside into the warm morning mist to greet my plants (yes, I am a plant nerd. Make fun of me all you want).
And that was when I froze in my tracks - one footstep away from trampling through it.
A faerie ring.
And I don’t mean a couple of cute mushrooms. I mean a six-foot diameter, freakishly symmetrical ring of small mushroom, so small most people probably wouldn’t notice one if it were alone (I say most people - remember, I’m a plant nerd); all together, however, they were a sight to behold.
It was at that moment that Grandma Lucy’s voice echoed in my mind:
“Stay away from those ancient faerie circles. One step inside, and you’ll be enthralled, never to see your home again. Or at least, not for several hundred years.”
Yeah. I think you can forgive me for being a bit wary.
Lucy isn’t my real grandmother, of course. My biological grandmother passed away when I was eleven, and is still missing from the recesses of my memory. I had only met her twice before my parents and I left South Sudan, and I had been far too young to remember anything. She never failed to write me a birthday letter though, and sometimes I feel the pull of a life, of a family, that I’ve never known. What would my life be like if we had never left South Sudan? If we hadn’t moved to the monotonous suburbs of Des Moines, Iowa? Sometimes I find it difficult to reconcile these two pieces of my life, the past and the present clumsily intertwining like clasped hands that don’t quite fit each other.
I do know that I wouldn’t trade Lucy for any other life. She’s a sweet older lady who works at the local library that I occasionally visit. I was never much of a reader, but I do enjoy checking out new cookbooks or gardening tips once in a while. I think Lucy recognized a bit of a lost soul in me, because, from the first time I set foot in the library at age ten, she was there to help. She talked to me about my passions and my dreams, those far-off ambitions that only little kids dare to express. She helped me with schoolwork, talked me through my problems, and helped me realize when I had made mistakes (something I do quite often, but acknowledge far less). It was her support that pushed me to reach for my goals, and culminated in my scholarship to medical school. If I hadn’t had her for the past 16 years, who knows where I’d be.
And, incidentally, she’s where I get my basic knowledge of faerie tales from.
So when I walk into the yard and discover a full-blown faerie ring, I do what any rational adult would do: I go out of my way to step carefully around it. Which involves nearly falling into the garbage.
Once I check on my plants, I take the same route back inside, a little more confidently this time.
It’s not that I believe I’ll take one step into the circle of whimsical mushrooms and get whisked away to a land of nightmares. But you can only listen to Lucy’s stories so many times before they begin to make you a little paranoid.
Upon returning to the kitchen, I take a few deep breaths, resting against the door.
“Are you alright?” my father asks, one eyebrow raised from where he sits at the kitchen table.
I nod in assent so as not to give away my nerves through a shaking voice.
Maybe I’m just imagining it. Yeah. That makes sense. I’ll come back from class this afternoon and it’ll be gone. Slightly reassured (but who am I kidding), I push myself off the wall and hike back upstairs to get dressed.
* * * * *
The glass door of the library swings closed behind me as I head straight for the desk. Long gone are the days where I pretended to be remotely interested in browsing. I pass a few other librarians who nod or wave when they recognize me before I reach Lucy.
“Lucy, you’ll never believe what I saw this morning.”
Lucy peers at me over her glasses while simultaneously scanning in a book. “And good afternoon to you too, missy. Cutting class, are we?”
I roll my eyes. “You know I don’t have an afternoon class on Tuesdays, Lucy, you don’t have to make that joke every time.”
“Ah, but what else are forgetful old ladies for?”
I snort. “Anyway, I woke up this morning, half-dead as usual, and went out to the garden, again as usual. But today, in my garden, I found…” I trail off in anticipation. Lucy raises her brow, waiting. “A faerie ring,” I finish.
I had some time to mull it over, and I decided the best way to deal with it is to act like it’s not a big deal. I had probably imagined it, so why not play it off as a joke just to make sure?
Lucy’s eyes widen. “A faerie ring? Are you sure, Mimi?”
I lift my hands palms-up in self-defense. “Honest to God truth. A perfectly symmetrical mushroom circle with at least a two-yard diameter.”
“Hmm,” Lucy grunted.
“So?” I prompted, waiting for a fuller reaction.
“I say go for it,” she said matter-of-factly as she returned to scanning the books.
“Wait, what?” I feel my face scrunch up in confusion.
“Honey, it’s a faerie ring. That alone spells ‘adventure’. And if there’s anything you need, it’s an adventure.”
I squint at her. “Is that an insult?”
“It’s a fact,” she says as she continues with her work. “All you ever think about are your studies. And maybe your garden. It’s a 95/5 percent split. All I know is that you need a break.”
I sigh. Maybe she’s right. How is it that she can read me like a book?
Maybe it has something to do with her being a librarian.
Suppressing a groan at my horrible and utterly useless joke, I suddenly notice the look in her eye. Doubt. Indulgence. Of course. All of a sudden, I realize: she doesn’t believe me. No, that’s not quite right - she doesn’t believe herself. Those faerie tales she told me, back when I was just a child, were only fiction to her. I can’t decide whether the fact relieves me or disappoints me.
I can’t help but think, however, that there’s a hint of sincerity among the mischievous twinkle in her eye when she looks up, leans towards me, and says, “So what are you waiting for?”
* * * * *
I arrive home completely out of sorts. Sliding off my bike, I note the empty driveway; my parents must be working. They own a small bakery right off the main road, not hugely successful but popular enough among locals to make a living. I have fond memories of my adolescent years, helping them to bake muffins or to perfect (more often catastrophically fail at) a new recipe. School takes up too much time to bake as a family these days.
After unlocking the door, I step inside, quickly shutting the door behind me. It makes me scoff at myself, but there’s a pulsing sense of urgency in my bones to check the backyard. I close my eyes and breathe before forcing myself to first deposit my bags upstairs. I then slowly make my way back down the staircase, a stone forming in the pit of my stomach with each step I take.
Just one look, I tell myself, to prove it’s not there. I approach the back door. Steeling myself, I yank the door open.
And promptly slam it shut.
It’s. Still. There.
I want to scream. I’m not quite sure what to do.
I think about Lucy’s obvious disbelief. What can a couple of mushrooms do anyway? But then I think about what she said about me. I never realized before how right she was. Sometimes I’m so trapped in the same routine that I can’t breathe. There has to be more to life than useless, unfulfilling ambitions. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy med school. It’s what I want to do with my life. I love the rush I get when I know I’m doing my best work, when I’m using my brain to the fullest of its abilities and helping people at the same time. But sometimes it gets so…predictable.
I think about the faerie ring again. But, regardless of Lucy’s beliefs, I’m not sure if I’m confident enough in it harmlessness to walk into it quite yet.
I look down and realize I’m pacing. Stressing this much about such an inconsequential event can’t be healthy.
I walk to the kitchen sink. Washing dishes is how I destress. It helps me take my mind off of what’s happening around me, and that can be just what I need to find a solution.
I’ve only just picked up a dish and a sponge when I hear voices. Angry ones. And they’re coming from the kitchen window, which I realize now is open.
“It’s not my fault that the human won’t step in it!”
I stare at what appears to be thin air, looking for the person who spoke. Suddenly a sharp movement catches my eye, and I look down. I barely make out what appears to be two small humanesque figures in the grass.
“Well, it’s not mine either! You were the one who said to put it here!”
I should be panicking right now. Why am I not panicking?
Lucy said I should go for it. My impulses take over. I walk calmly towards the door. Before my brain catches up with what my body is doing, I’ve already opened the door and stepped into the yard, still taking care to avoid the ring.
What are you doing? my brain screams.
“What exactly is the problem?” My mouth forms the words without my brain’s approval.
Both figures, standing in the middle of the ring, pivot sharply to face me. Almost instantly, plumes of purple and gray smoke appear out of thin air, enveloping the creatures in its clutches. Before my own eyes, the smoke swirls and expands, until it fades away to reveal two very human-sized figures - faeries? - in its wake.
My first thought is that they’re not what I imagined faeries would be. They’re both extremely beautiful; that part at least is accurate to the legends. The male’s beauty is classic fae, with sharp angles, glowing pale skin, and piercing blue eyes. Are those horns that peek through his messy red hair? It’s difficult to tell. The female, however, contrasts sharply to him. She stands several inches shorter than me, with a warm brown skin tone only marginally lighter than my own. While he is all lines and angles, she is all curves. From her body, to her flowy bohemian dress, to the purple hair cascading down her shoulder in natural curls, everything about her is swirling; and while her appearance differs drastically from written descriptions of the fae’s beauty, it doesn’t make her any less stunning. In fact, she’s even more beautiful than the faeries I’ve read about.
And that is the moment it hits me: either I’ve gone stark raving mad, or there are two faeries in my backyard.
With their predatory gazes fully focused on me.
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The Good Points of Sliding Gates on Fences
There are several good points to installing sliding gates on the perimeter fencing around your property versus installing the traditional ones that swung to and fro on hinges. Most of the times when you are talking about fences you need to consider the purpose of the fence in order to determine the style you should install and the materials you should use to do this. The sliding gates on these items are more useful for the people with certain types of fences than they are for other people.
Sliding gates on simple yard fences that are no higher than four feet are unnecessary and they would look very strange. These type of enclosures are designed more to establish the perimeters of a piece of property than they are to keep anything from getting onto the property. They do deter children and the neighborhood dogs from running on your grass and through your flowers beds, and they keep your children and pet in your yard, but they are basically there for the looks.
Sliding gates on fences that are enclosing commercial properties like auto repair shops make better sense than the old swinging style do. You can secure the sliding gates better than the ones that were mounted on hinges and therefore you can make the property more difficult for thieves to get onto.
When you have sliding gates you do not lose a large portion of your property to the area where the gate swings. The panels on hinges swing open and closed like the doors on your house do and you have to keep the area in front of them free of obstacles that might hinder them. In commercial areas where space is often limited this amount of space can cause difficulties.
These types of closures are less likely to have problems and need repairs. The old versions that swung on hinges can become warped and then they do not close well. The holes where the hinges are attached to the post can become enlarged and then they do not close well because the gate begins to sag. The sliding gates do not have these sagging problems. The biggest problem with them is that the ground beneath them needs to be relatively level for them to operate correctly.
You will be able to install automatic closures if you have the type of panel that slides from side to side. You can also install these panels on steel fencing that is part of an electric fence, or a high security fence. The panels are sturdy in design and it generally takes a power tool to cut through them, where the old style gate can be easily taken down from its hinges and then put back when the criminal is through.
You can easily install these pieces yourself or if you prefer you can have them professionally installed. Maintenance is very easy on them but you will want to oil the wheels on occasion and check them for debris.
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