Christopher sits in his stone chair facing a young woman with long loose tresses of auburn hair. Only she’d never call herself a woman. She’s a lifer, thank you very much and at the moment a lost one. She sniffs at the mists of the Cauldron with distaste.
Pausania: Honestly, can’t you adjust the background here?
Christopher: What would you like to see?
Slightly curved sandstone pillars rise around Pausania and Christopher. The two of them are sitting on a floating terrace under a magenta sky with the occasional crystal drifting by to twinkle in the rosy air.
Pausania relaxes into her chair, made of vines and something like a cross between bamboo and cedar.
Christopher glances down at his own seat to see it’s the same.
Pausania: Much better. Ah, I remember when my lover took me here. I was as wide-eyed as Phaedra at the time.
Christopher: Where are we?
Pausania: Calliope III, my poor child. No one has taken you here? It’s one of the most relaxing planets in the Intergalactic Democracy. Much better than Semele. Everyone goes to Semele, but every girl should come here as well.
Christopher: Well, I’m not exactly a girl, so I’m not sure if I should. It does look interesting, though.
Pausania: Wait, what? (She shrinks back from Christopher the same way Phaedra did.) What are you?
Christopher: I’m Christopher. We’re actually in the Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration, our scribbler’s blog. Err, a place between worlds, err, universes on the web. Sort of. It can be Calliope III, though, if you want it to be.
Pausania: A Cauldron? A place between universes? (She tightens her grip on the arms of her chair.) Are you some forgotten godling from Ancient Earth come here to make mischief? Are you Dionysus?
Christopher: No, I’m not Dionysus. (He considers her words.) I suppose as Happily Ever After I could be considered a godling. Perhaps. I’m not trying to make mischief. I’m only here to talk. Phaedra was here last week.
Pausania: Phaedra?! What have you done with her?!
Christopher: Nothing! We just talked. She disappeared after we spoke, the way all guests do when they’re done talking here.
Pausania: Is that so? (She narrows her eyes.) Make a lot of guests disappear, do you, Happily Ever After? Am I next?
Christopher: In a way. Once you’ve finished talking, you’ll return to your story.
Pausania: My story? (She raises an eyebrow.)
Christopher: Your universe. Wherever you were before you came here.
Pausania: Where I was was home. Phaedra just walked out on me.
Christopher: She mentioned that.
Pausania: She did, did she?
Christopher: Yes. She said she missed you.
All the snark seems to run out of Pausania. She slumps in her seat.
Pausania: Godling from another universe, I’m about at my wit’s end. You call yourself Happily Ever After? What happily ever after can I have after the things I said? I regret them, yet I wonder if I wasn’t meant to say them, giving Phaedra a chance to say everything she couldn’t. Not until I was cruel enough to give her an excuse to.
Christopher: What did you say?
Pausania: What I thought I was supposed to. What I thought was true. Now I’m no longer sure. Of anything. I just want to find Phaedra. I want to talk to her.
Christopher: She’s probably on her way to a symposium? She really wanted to go.
Pausania: (She buries her head in her hands.) That’s the last place I want to go. (She lifts her face, staring at something only she can see. Or someone.) Only if Phaedra is determined to enter the predator’s cluster, I can’t let her go alone.
Christopher: You’re going to this symposium, then?
Pausania: For Phaedra’s sake, yes. (She lets out a strained groan.) Here’s hoping I don’t regret this.
Christopher: I hope you don’t either.
What happens at the symposium? Will Pausania regret going? Find out at…
Every Saturday or Sunday, those participating post and share six sentences of LGBTQIA+ fiction on their blogs. It can be their own. It can be someone else’s. It just needs to be LGBTQIA+.
For mine, Phaedra will continue where she left off last weekend in A Symposium in Space…
“Phaedra, beloved of Pausania.” A melodic voice, filled with sly suggestion, came from the orb. “I’d be very pleased if you and your lover would attend my symposium in space.”
“A symposium?” I murmured, confused by the archaic word. It conjured more images of Ancient Earth, but this time of our patriarchal past.
Christopher sits facing a young woman in an orange jumpsuit and short purple hair. Long bangs fall over her pale forehead.
Christopher: That’s an unusual outfit.
Phaedra: It’s the latest lack of fashion, according to Pausania. I’m dressed like the pilot of a ship even though I don’t have a ship. (She blushes a bit.) Well, I didn’t have a ship.
Christopher: I take it you do, now?
Phaedra: Yes, the Timea. I’m surprised I’m not at her controls now. What is this place? (She looks around at mists surrounding her, at Christopher seated in his stone chair opposite.) Some sort of transportation nexus?
Christopher: What’s that?
Phaedra: I’m not sure if I can explain it myself. It takes you out of your ship, transports you into a different part of the star cluster it’s part.
Christopher: And what’s a star cluster?
Phaedra: (grimaces) Something a lot fancier than a space platform or station. The only one I know anything about is the one Agathea created. She’s one of the richest citizens of the Intergalactic Democracy, so it’s not something just anyone can afford.
Christopher: I see…no, actually, I don’t see at all.
Phaedra: Neither do I. And why am I trying to answer your questions when you haven’t answered mine? Where are we?
Christopher: This is the Cauldron. It’s nothing like Agathea’s star cluster. Actually I’m not sure if it is or not. Both are creations of our scribbler. Maybe they are similar.
Phaedra: Why would they be? Who is this person you call our scribbler?
Christopher: Our creatrix, yours and mine. The creatrix of our respective universes. This blog, this Cauldron, this place is a space between universes where we can meet or interact.
Phaedra: Blog? Cauldron? Those are some old-fashioned words. Particularly blog. Rhymes with bog. Or frog.
Christopher: Blogs don’t exist where you’re from? Places where people post online?
Phaedra: Online? That’s another old-fashioned word.
Christopher: I guess you don’t do anything like that.
Phaedra: Maybe. I have shared poems on in the intergalactic web. Along with trains of thought or trails. Sometimes we just call them trains or trails.
Christopher: That makes sense.
Phaedra: Judging from your expression, you’ve never heard such an expression. Not for the intergalactic web.
Christopher: To be honest, I shudder a bit at the notion of an intergalactic web.
Phaedra: Why? It keeps all lifers connected.
Christopher: What’s a lifer?
Phaedra: You really don’t know? Lifers used to be called women back on Ancient Earth. It was a term for a girl when she matured to womanhood. Goddess, I’m using some archaic terms. You do still use the terms women and girl, don’t you? You’d still be referred to as a girl?
Christopher: (trying to keep a straight face) Yes, we use the terms women and girl where I’m from, but neither of them would apply to me. Not right now.
Phaedra: Huh?
Christopher: I’m a boy. Sort of.
Phaedra: What? Really? (She draws back, taking a sharp look at him.) Wait, what do you mean, sort of?
Christopher: I’m made of shadow, scattered bits of memory. Some of them belonged to girls and women. Only my current form is that of a boy.
Phaedra: Wow, that sounds so weird! You must be the product of some extremely advanced science!
Christopher: Actually I think I’m the result of magic and will. My existence is a bit of a mystery.
Phaedra: I shouldn’t wonder! This explains why you don’t have even a trace of a beard.
Christopher: I don’t think boys had beards. Not in the Gardens I dimly recall once living in.
Phaedra: Gardens? That sounds lovely. I admire any world which emphasizes an active plant life. This is one of the few things Pausania and I had in common. (She looks sad.)
Christopher: That’s the second time you’ve mentioned Pausania.
Phaedra: Pausania almost became my lover. She wanted me to be her beloved. She was beautiful, charming, eloquent, interesting…only she was also irritable, constantly finding fault with me, and sucking all the cheer out of a room.
Christopher: Sounds like a challenging person to be with.
Phaedra: Oh, she was. I wonder if she wasn’t too challenging. (She lets out a sigh.) Being with her was stifling.
Christopher: You’re not with her any more?
Phaedra: I’m not sure. We had a fight and I walked out on her. Perhaps it was the wrong thing to do, but I really wanted to go to the symposium.
Christopher: The symposium?
Phaedra: A gathering in space at Agathea’s star cluster. I’ve never been anywhere like that before.
Christopher: Pausania didn’t want to go?
Phaedra: She didn’t want either of us to go. She wasn’t too nice about it, either. Not that it was just about the symposium. A lot of things which had been building up between us were finally said. There’s no way to unsay them. I’m not even sure if I want to.
Christopher: I’m sorry.
Phaedra: Don’t be. I’m having an adventure, perhaps the first real adventure ever, making my way to the symposium.
Christopher: Good luck in getting there.
Phaedra: Thank you.
How does Phaedra get there? What happens at the symposium? Find out in A Symposium in Space available at…
Every Saturday or Sunday, those posting share six sentences of LGBTQIA+ fiction on their blogs. It can be their own. It can be someone else’s. It just needs to be LGBTQIA+.
For my own, I’m going to offer a taste of my novella, A Symposium in Space which I’m in the process of reading right now…
The invitation resembled an eyeball.
A floating, pink orb drifted up to the open panels of Pausania’s apartment and fixed me with its lidless stare.
I froze, unsure how to react. An unfashionable citizen of the Intergalactic Democracy, I still ran around in a vest with pocket protectors, unfamiliar with the latest technology. The bobbing globe made me think of tales of magic from Ancient Earth.
Christopher walks up a path, a familiar path lined with roses to a white house. It’s not part of his own story, but he’s been here before.
He opens the front door, smiles at how it reminds him a bit of the Navel’s door along with the Old Cottage’s in Omphalos. I have a certain fondness for types of doors. It shows in my stories, something he’s noticing.
He opens it, entering the house.
The setting changes to that of a cozy room warmed by a roaring fire in the hearth. The tea things are still out on the table, a pot and plates in a forget-me-not pattern.
A young woman sits on the couch in front the table, her long red skirts flowing out over her legs. She wears a loose russet sweater with a cowl neck, her coppery-brown hair falling in a cloud over her shoulders. She clutches a green journal with strong fingers dusty with pencil lead.
Nathalie: (without looking up) Hello, Christopher. I’m almost done.
Christopher says nothing. He waits, recalling Damian being in a similar state of concentration. If he allowed it, the garden, the gazebo, the multicolored sky, and Damian at his easel would eclipse this time and place, bleeding into it, replacing it. Christopher holds those memories at bay, waiting for Nathalie.
Eventually she closes her journal with a snap, laying it down on the couch beside her.
Nathalie: Thank you. I wanted to finish that one scene.
Christopher: You have that in common with our scribbler. Making people wait, letting food burn because she has to finish a scene. Whether she’s writing or reading it. (He smiles to take the sting out of his words.) That and you like to write in pencil.
Nathalie: Pencil is transitory. It can be erased. It’s perfect for rough drafts because that state of writing is also transitory. I like using a tool which captures that mood, even if I seldom erase what I’ve written.
Christopher: Spoken as if you were our scribbler herself.
Nathalie: Parts of me are drawn from her personality. Other aspects were inspired by many things, including other people.
Christopher: Like our scribbler’s father?
Nathalie: You’re not the only one who catches glimpses of our scribbler’s past in dreams and visions. (She smiles) Did you know her father told a story about the Greedy Tree as opposed to the Giving Tree? A tree that was taking over half the trees in America until it was chopped down. Afterward it became a Greedy Stump. The tree itself became greedy sawdust, sawdust which became paper. It affected all of the corporations which used it.
Christopher: (smiling slightly yet in a thoughtful way) This would explain a lot.
Nathalie: The Stump of Wisdom in Wind Me Up, One More Time is an homage to this. I guess our scribbler got her father’s love of tale tales as well as fairytales which she passed on to me.
Christopher: I wonder how much of you is in Princess Nathalie? The other Nathalie in your mother’s stories. Princess Grace’s sister, Theodora Bear’s former child, and Iama the Terrible’s beloved in Grace and Theodora: Magic and Mishaps? The fairytale waiting within Wind Me Up, One More Time?
Nathalie: Just because Princess Nathalie and I have the same name and creator doesn’t mean we’re the same person. Any more than either of us are the scribbler’s childhood friend she named us for. (She stands up, moves away from the table to stop in front of the fire.) Even if I do have certain things in common with her.
The light from the fire reflects upon her hair, catching the gold in it. The gold shimmers, sliding and gliding around Nathalie’s form, changing it. Everything turns into gold, swallowing the room.
Christopher stands before a young woman, like and unlike Nathalie. She has the same golden-brown skin, but her coppery hair falls in waves over a peach gown. Christopher and the woman stand in a long hall, captured and reflected by an endless series of full-length mirrors. Sometimes you can catch glimpses of other people in the mirrors, other characters, ghosts drifting through the glass.
Princess Nathalie: Hello, Christopher. Unlike my namesake, I am a character in a fairytale. I suffer mishaps which are mythical in nature. They set the tone for those struggling through their reality. Like the other Nathalie. She and I do share a similar passion, though, a similiar heartache.
For a moment the mistress of the mirrors appears in each reflection, standing behind Princess Nathalie. Iama the Terrible lays slender gloved fingers upon the princess’s shoulder. Such a fragile cloth barrier between the enchantress and the effect of her touch, yet she cannot resist reaching out. Nor does the princess try to prevent it.
The hall of mirrors disappears along with the princess and the enchantress. Christopher is back in the cozy living room with the Nathalie who stands in front of the fire.
Nathalie: Both the princess and I have an Iama the Terrible. Only my Iama isn’t nearly as terrible as she thinks she is.
Christopher: You mean Maia?
Nathalie: Please sit down.
Christopher takes one of the chairs, a handsome wooden one with a creamy pattern of flowers and vines appearing in subtle shades.
Maia leaves the fire, returning to the couch, smoothing her skirts out around her when she sits.
Nathalie: Did you know Maia is an anagram for Iama? I guess Auntie Cassat, Maia’s mum thought she was being clever. Or the scribbler did.
Christopher: Why did Maia named her daughter after Iama the Terrible, the villain of Grace and Theodora: Magic and Mishaps? Isn’t Iama supposed to be, well, terrible?
Nathalie: Call her a villain if you like. I don’t think she’s evil.
Christopher: Which Iama are you talking about?
Nathalie: It’s easy to reduce a strong woman with power over the unseen like hearts and emotions as well as the tangible to a simple label which symbolizes the awe, fear, and attraction she generates. Like an evil enchantress. Iama hid her heart away. Everything she touched turned to gold. There has been times when Maia has done the same. Isolation, loneliness, turning inward makes us all terrible.
Christopher: She took life with a touch. Even if that life was restored, she did steal it. (He looks at his own fingers.) I’ve done the same thing. I will again unless whatever hungry thing inside me is checked.
Nathalie: (looking him up and down with the speculative eye of a writer who’s just sniffed out a potential story…sorry, Nat, he’s taken) Do you think this hunger comes from loneliness?
Christopher: In part. It may also come from being shattered, continuing on in shadow form. I’ve created life as well as taken it.
Nathalie: Really? (looks even more interested)
Christopher: (blushing) Or I will create it. Someone will drink my own energy, flourishing into an existence as an innocent being with the ability to touch things, connect with the world in a way I cannot. It’s too dangerous for me to do. For myself and others.
Nathalie: (considering his words) I can see why you identified with Iama. She feared her power as well. As did Maia.
Christopher: That’s only sensible. Isn’t it?
Nathalie: Iama kept everyone she touched in a collection of golden statues. They were the only company she was allowed or so she thought. In her loneliness she lured away the other Nathalie, out of a wish to connect with someone else.
Christopher: A wish which was granted.
Nathalie: Your wish can come true, too, Christopher. Just don’t expect it to manifest in a form you’d expect.
Christopher smiles at this for what can he say to the truth?
Nathalie smiles back, resisting the urge to reach for her notebook and start writing down ideas generated by this talk, the curse and the blessing of a writer. She hums an odd little tune under her breath, to help remember this talk for when she does have a chance to scribble it down.
This is another trait she got from me.
Hope you enjoyed meeting Nathalie! If you want to learn more about her, Princess Nathalie, their romances with their respective Iama the Terribles, and what part Grace and Theodora Bear played in them, visit these buy links…
Every Saturday or Sunday, those participating post and share six sentences of LGBTQIA+ fiction on their blogs. It can be their own. It can be someone else’s. It just needs to be LGBTQIA+.
I had a hard time choosing what mine would be for New Year’s Day. Should I share a little from A Symposium in Space which I myself am reading right now? Or should I share something from Stealing Myself From Shadows, Christopher’s story? (I find myself stealing the time to write this tale, which is evolving into an entirely new draft from the one I had, due to all the development Christopher and the other characters have had via blogging at this Cauldron. :))
I decided to do Wind Me Up, One More Time, my novel and other holiday story. After all, it’s New Year’s Day and still the twelve days of Christmas. 😉
From Grace and Theodora: Magic and Mishaps
Theodora Bear could sense the little princess, her Nathalie, her child was in peril. Growing up and away was natural for children, but what was happening to Nathalie was not. She no longer remembered Theodora, her home, her kingdom, or her sister.
*Grace.* She called upon the princess’s younger sister, using the not-voice stuffed animals could use in extreme danger. *We need to find Nathalie. We need to save her before it’s too late.*
Quartz sits, glowering somewhat sulkily at the tall, imposing stern-faced man with neatly combed mustaches and a trimmed beard, crossing his long legs covered in dark slacks with a hint of red pinstripe. He wears a long black cape lined with crimson silk over his shoulders.
Quartz: So you’re Dousselmause. Cracktooth’s uncle. Marchen’s godmother. The bane of all mice.
Dousselmause: (raising a winged brow to look down on Quartz) That is why I chose to reveal to the people around me and the mice that fear me.
Quartz: What’s that supposed to mean?
Dousselmause: I might address you in turn as the oldest of seven dwarves who live in a cottage in the Forest of Tears under questionable patronage. I might refer to you as the keeper of the crystal coffin of dubious properties. I might add that you harbored a human princess from her relations and her realm, an action which led to your untimely demise.
Quartz: (brindling) Do I look dead to you?
Dousselmause: (brindling right back) If am, indeed, the bane of all mice, why did Madam Mousenip live to squeak about it? Not to mention Mousetrick himself?
Quartz: (stops in the middle of his glowering, considers) Huh. You have a point.
Dousselmause: (drawing himself up haughtily) Of course I do.
Quartz: Right. You’ve got so many points, you’re pointy. I didn’t get myself killed, taking my Fairest in, nor anyone else.
Dousselmause: Are you certain of this?
Quartz: I told you. I’m not dead. Just sleeping off a curse. Or the backlash of a curse.
Dousselmause: And I told you. I’m not the bane of all mice. Otherwise I wouldn’t have humoured Cracktooth’s ridiculous romantic feelings.
Quartz: You didn’t. Not at first.
Dousselmause: Can you blame me? He fell in love with a mouse!
Quartz: Right. You’re the one who gave him paws, whiskers, and a tail along with an affinity for things squeaky.
Dousselmause: (brindling once more) And you’re the one you let yourself be sweet-talked into listening to a kobold’s promises. Not to mention you opened your door to a human princess, in spite of sensing that trouble would follow her.
Quartz: (glowering at Dousselmause) Like you never let your best intentions get the better of you.
Dousselmause: (glowering in turn) You’re a fine one to talk after what happened to you.
Quartz: And you might have known or guessed what would happen to your nephew.
Dousselmause: I never! (standing up) Not as things happened!
Quartz: (standing up as well, aware that he’s only a fraction of the magician’s height) Neither did I!
The two glare at each for a long moment, breathing hard. Abruptly both sit down again.
Quartz: Guess we’re both stubborn old fools. Knowing better just makes us bigger fools.
Dousselmause: Wiser words were never spoken. (He speaks with a weary sarcasm, mocking his own mockery.) I just wanted my nephew and Marchen to be happy. Happier than I ever was.
Quartz: Got it. I just wanted my brothers and my Fairest to be happy. Happier than I’ve ever been.
Dousselmause: Were you truly unhappy?
Quartz: (thinks for a moment and shakes his head) No. Not really. Been luckier than some. Worse than others, but better than some.
Dousselmause: As have I. (He draws a slow, considering breath.) I’ve been an outsider in the time and place I’ve lived. I lack confidants, playing the part of a mystery. Or perhaps simply a freak of nature to those I live under the same roof with. When I’m not outright at odds with them. I’ve still had that roof over my head, patronage, resources. Even if I’ve had to play a part to have them.
Quartz: Do you play a part with Cracktooth and Marchen?
Dousselmause: (pauses to think about it) To a lesser extent than with others. I’ve been their guardian and father, a role I willingly accepted, due to a lack of either in Cracktooth and Marchen’s lives.
Quartz: Aye, I’ve been the same. To both my brothers and Fairest.
Dousselmause: Honestly, they drive me mad sometimes! (clenches his hands into fists) I just want what’s best for them.
Quartz: Aye, me, too.
Dousselmause: (slumping in his seat) What can we do when they make choices which confound and perplex us?
Quartz: Try to understand them, even when it’s a challenge. Moments like that define a dwarf. A man, too.
Dousselmause: I’m not always a man.
Quartz: That so? Take the chance to be more, then. Someone wiser, more accepting.
Dousselmause: Even though we may never understand our children’s choices?
Quartz: Doesn’t mean you should stop trying to understand them. Or not accept them.
Dousselmause: (lets out another sigh) I guess you have a point.
Quartz: ‘Couse I do.
Dousselmause: You’ve been just waiting to say that, haven’t you?
Quartz: Heh, as expected of someone with a sharp set of whiskers. You’ve got a sharp mind, too.
Dousselmause: I don’t always have a sharp set of whiskers.
Quartz: Sorry to hear that.
Dousselmause: Don’t be. Having a different form that this one I can slip into is enlightening. Satisfying. Fulfilling in a way most cannot understand.
Quartz: Sounds like you’re lucky in this.
Dousselmause: I am, even if countless others try to convince me I’m not.
Quartz: Don’t let them.
Dousselmause: Easier said than done.
Quartz: Right. As if anything worth doing was easy.
Dousselmause: Well, well. You make an admirable argument.
Quartz: (a bit huffily) No need to sound so surprised.
Interested in what you’ve been reading? Want to learn more about Dousselmause was talking about? Here’s the story he, Cracktooth, Marchen, Madam Mousenip, and of course Mousetrick all appear in…
I’m not actually here. Hopefully I’m having a Merry Christmas of presents, dim sum for breakfast, and spending the day with my family; the two-legged and four-legged members. 😉 I wanted to post something for Rainbow Snippets, something which seemed perfect for today…
Forgetting neatness, she tore open the paper.
A brown furry head with small, cloth ears emerged. Two button eyes regarded the little girl over a solemn muzzle.
“A Theodora Bear!” Grace squealed in delight, pulling the rest of the paper from her round torso and stubby legs. “Oh, thank you, Nat!”
“Actually they’re called teddy bears, but yes, this could be a Theodora Bear.” Nathalie nodded with grave seriousness.
Want to read more about Nathalie, Grace, and Theodora Bear? Here are buy links to their story, along with the fairytale alternate versions of them appear in…
Christopher gets up from his stone seat and starts to walk through the mists. They part, revealing a large white house with a rose garden in the front.
Christopher: Wherever I go, I seem to find roses.
Theodora: Growwr.
Christopher turns to see a little girl in a scratchy red sweater, holding a large teddy bear in her arms.
Christopher: (for he’s met these two before, had them as guests at the Cauldron) Hello, Theodora. Hello, Grace.
Grace: Hello, Christopher. Theodora says not to be frightened of these roses. They’re Mama Morisot’s roses. They’ll only scratch you if you’re careless.
Christopher: I’m more frightened for the roses. If I get too close to them, they may wither and die.
Theodora: Growwr.
Grace: Theodora says let’s take a walk and have a talk, OK? Away from the roses.
Grace turns down a path lined with other houses, carrying Theodora with her. The air gets colder. Singing fills the air, a chorus raised in praise of the holidays. Just a little melancholy for what was lost in the passing year, yet filled with hope and joy for what’s to come.
Christopher follows, feeling the chill, the melancholy, yet touched by the hope. If he let himself truly listen, those voices might start to sound familiar.
Grace: It was at this time of year I met Theodora. Yes, she was a Christmas gift from Nathalie, but it was also when we met.
Theodora: Growwr.
Grace: Yes, it was a cold day, but I was warm and happy. It should be cold now. Funny how the roses are still blooming in front of Mama Morisot’s house.
Christopher: The roses are always in bloom where I come from.
Theodora: Growwr?
Grace: Huh, good point, Theodora. (She turns her head to face ahead, but she’s speaking to Christopher.) Maybe Mama Morisot’s roses are blooming because of you. They shouldn’t be. Maybe it’s part of your magic? Or something like that?
Christopher: Roses don’t generally bloom in my presence. Not anymore.
The sky overhead darkens. The street disappears.
Grace: (stops in her tracks) What?
A barren landscape lays before girl, boy, and bear with only a single tree with a golden apple, glowing upon its seemingly skeletal branches.
Golden leaves wink into existence all over the tree. They fall in a gentle rain over Grace, changing her. A slightly different little girl with coppery waves instead of curls falling over a red cape instead of sweater stands there. She’s holding the same bear.
Christopher: Hello, Your Highness. It’s good to see you again.
Princess Grace: (for it is Princess Grace from the fairytale Grace and Theodora: Magic and Mishaps tucked within Wind Me Up, One More Time) It’s not good to hear you talk like that, Christopher. You make me think of Iama the Terrrible.
Christopher steps over to look at the pulsing, glowing golden apple on the branch.
Christopher: Is this where Iama hid her heart so it could no longer hurt her in Grace and Theodora: Magic and Mishaps?
Theodora: Growwr.
Princess Grace: (lifting her bear up so Theodora is a little closer to the apple) Is this a mishap? Or a choice? To hide her heart?
Christopher: I suppose it was both.
Theodora: Growwr.
Princess Grace: Anyone might choose to do the same. Anyone with a heart which pained them too much to wish to feel it.
Christopher gazes at the apple as if spellbound.
Christopher: I could almost see it; all the fragmented confusion, all the pain leaving me. Becoming silver cherries growing all over the tree.
For a moment, the gold of the apple fades. Tiny pinpricks of silver light appear all over the boughs, quivering, bright and pale.
Theodora: Growwr!
Princess Grace: I agree! (She grabs Christopher’s hand, shifting Theodora to under one arm.) We need to leave. This place isn’t good for you.
Christopher: Touching me isn’t good for you. It isn’t safe when I’m so hungry…
He grows silent when the darkness parts, revealing a cozy living room with a fireplace. A fire burns within it. A handsome wooden table covered with a lace tablecloth sits in the room, placed where everyone in the comfortable chairs and couch can enjoy its warmth.
The table different than the one Mousetrick scampered up, a little simpler, yet very pretty. A Forget-Me-Not china pot sits upon the lace tablecloth along with two cups and saucers. There is also a platter of gingerbread.
Princess Grace is gone. It’s Grace in her scratchy sweater once more, studying Christopher with a worried frown.
Grace: Here, hold Theodora. I think you could use a stuffed bear’s hug.
Christopher isn’t sure if this will help. He still gives Theodora a squeeze. Oddly enough he does feel a little warmer. Or maybe it’s just the fire.
Grace strips off her sweater, tossing it to the couch. She’s wearing a handmade green dress with a lace collar underneath. She pours two cups of tea and offers one to Christopher.
Christopher: No, thank you. I have trouble drinking liquids.
Grace: Just hold it. You can still smell it, can’t you?
Christopher takes the teacup, passing the bear back to Grace.
She accepts Theodora, giving her a squeeze.
Theodora: Growwr.
Grace: I know, Theodora. (She takes a sip of tea, put downs her cup and saucer. She picks up a piece of gingerbread.) That was a cold place. You seemed like you were going to stay there, even though you didn’t want to.
Christopher: Did you actually turn into Princess Grace? Or were you both there? Are you both here now?
Grace: Yes. Anything is possible at the Cauldron. You told me that, remember? Stop trying to hide. You’re doing what Nat and Maia do to hide from things they don’t want to talk about, asking me something else.
Christopher: (smiling a bit) You know you’re a bit like Danyel. You’re relentless.
Grace: Is that good thing or a bad thing? And stop hiding! You’re still hiding behind all these questions!
Christopher: (smiling a bit) Sorry. (His smile fades, crumping around the edges.) Sometimes it seems like everywhere I go is a cold place. Or it turns cold.
Theodora: Growwr.
Grace: Not it’s not. This place is warm and you’re here. We’re not about to let it get cold.
Christopher: You’re definitely like Danyel. (He breathes in the fragrance of the tea, savoring the scent.) This is a very warm place. It would be so easy to stay here. Or someplace like here.
Grace: Why don’t you?
Christopher: It won’t last. (He shakes his head.) No matter how hard I try to hold on, it won’t last.
Grace frowns at this, holding Theodora close.
Theodora: Growwr.
Grace: Theodora says nothing does. Not the warm places. Not the cold places. In the end, it’s what you do in that place to make them warm or cold that matters. Even if the time you have in them is fleeting.
Theodora looks at Christopher for a long moment, a sad wisdom shining in her button eyes.
Christopher: (gazing into those buttons in a moment of mutual understanding) Thank you, Theodora.
Grace frowns at Christopher, then looks at her bear with the same frown.
Grace: Stop right there. Why not?
Christopher: Huh?
Theodora: Growwr?
Grace: Why can’t those places last?
Christopher: (shrugs) Why can’t we live happily ever after? Because nothing lasts forever. Things change. No matter how hard we try to hold on, they change. It’s what makes everything precious, including happiness. Everything is fleeting and should be treasured.
Grace: And you’re going to let that stop you from living happily ever after?
Christopher: Grace, I was Happily Ever After. Or an incarnation of Happily Ever After. I tried to grant it to people. They didn’t want it. Eventually they changed, moved on, stopped being happy. They had to. It was part of life.
Grace: So what?
Theodora: Growwr?
Grace: So a warm place may turn cold. A cold place might also get warm. Or a person will change, move on, stop being happy. It doesn’t mean they won’t be happy again. Just because they’re in a cold place doesn’t mean they can’t warm it up.
Christopher: (chuckles again, breathing in the warm tea) I suppose that’s true.
Grace: Besides, why should we fear change? Sure there’s going to be bad changes, but there will be good changes to. Especially if you’re trying to change things for the good.
Theodora: Growwr.
Christopher: (glancing at the bear with a smile) I think I understood you, Theodora, even if I don’t speak your special language. What your child is saying makes a certain amount of sense.
Grace: Of course it does! Why can’t we live happily ever after if we keep reinventing happiness?
Christopher: Reinventing happiness…
Grace: It’s one of Nathalie’s favorite words; reinventing. Maybe when your happiness runs out, you have to reinvent it. Once you’ve gotten over the sadness.
Christopher: Maybe we should. Maybe I should. Thank you, Grace.
Theodora: Growwr.
Grace: You’re welcome. I learned from the best. Not everyone has a bear to listen to, or to listen to them. A bear who’s learned a lot from a Stump of Wisdom.
Theodora: Growwr.
Christopher: (smiling) I can guess what she said this time, too. She’s proud of you.
Grace’s golden-brown cheeks don’t show blushes, but the brightness of her eyes and the shy smile that spreads across her lips are answer enough.
A very special thank you to the Great Leadership Reset for the gift of optimism they gave me this year. I was able to give some in turn to Grace. Grace was able to give some to Theodora and Christopher. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. Never stop.
Speaking of gifts, how about getting adding this holiday story to someone’s book collection? 😉 Wind Me Up, One More Time; the story of Grace, Theodora, Nathalie, Maia, Princess Grace, and Iama the Terrible is available at these places…
Every Saturday or Sunday, those participating post and share six sentences of LGBTQIA+ fiction on their blogs. It can be their own. It can be someone else’s. It just needs to be LGBTQIA+.
To sample different stories of an LGBTQIA+ vein, go to…
For my own, I’ll be finishing up my free taste of Seven Tricks…no, this is not a vampire story. Don’t be confusing by the biting, even if it was love at first bite. Vampires can’t have all the fun. Mice and nutcrackers want to make a point of this or perhaps a nip? :)=
I sank my teeth into his hard shoulder.
His head turned very slowly. He regarded me with wide hungry eyes. The strange prince dropped his jaw, only to close it on my snout.
In a moment of intimacy, we bit each other.
I awoke with the taste of bitter sawdust in my mouth, mixed with the salty residue of nuts.
What comes after a mouse prince is once bitten and all the more smitten? Find out by reading the rest! 😉
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