Faerie Folly and Wizard Wands

Chapter Three

A year after Granna exposed her suspicions to me, another woman showed up at the cedar house they called home. Sabine had often seen this woman come. Often she visited Granna, just spoke of herbs, then left. Seldom did she buy-she always seemed to need a cream from them when they needed the sum from the sale. Always, she would look for Sabine, and stare piercingly into the shadows where she lurked, then engage in learned conversation. Sabine asked Granna, once, who she was, and if she was truly a long time friend.

"I don't know quite exactly what-who-she is, Sabine." she had frowned. "Truthfully, I believe Tildie showed up the very year you did...she's also wise in the herbs. In fact, many a brew she's taught me."

Tildie showed up when Sabine was eleven, then twelve...and when she was very much older still-well into her twentieth year-she came, dressed as brightly as always, and wobbling along their wooded path.

"Hellooo!" she caroled across the garden. Sabine stood from the merriweather, and smiled. Tildie made her way through the muddy rows to stand next to the young woman. As Sabine had finally gotten height from years of better nutrition, Tildie barely touched her shoulder; just as Granna, too, was much shorter as well.

"My! My Sabine! You're twenty now, ah eh?" she said, in her clear cut, nasal British accent.

"Yes, I am, thank you." Sabine smiled, and bent to kiss Tildie's cheek, as she had been taught. Granna may not go out in public of any sort, but she had somehow taught her charge well in social mannerisms. Perhaps Sabine did not act as a natural woman who is twenty, but she had little else to compare to.

"Grown up, indeedy you did!" Tildie appraised, then scurried to the red cedar house Sabine had called home for so long. Sabine picked up her hoe, and went to put it away, then entered the house from the back to wash up. Suddenly, it seemed her hearing became more acute, broader, and a thousand sounds entered. It was as a radio dial, when being turned up and down, her acuteness varied in pitch and tone, going up and down in a crazy newness, until it suddenly stopped, hovering on one single sound;

Tildie was speaking to Granna; "No, no, Mattie, my dear, I haven't come for any creams. Besides, you know aperfect that I can brew my own ifen I was a-wantin'. Nay, I come on a business...I'll wait 'til Sabine decides to stop a-listenin', an' comes out to hear."

Sabine felt heat run up her cheeks in a thick tide, finding herself wondering how Tildie had known her hearing had risen. Just as suddenly as the realizations assailed her, the hearing level dropped again, and became dully normal. Tildie's silence in the other room seemed to demand her entrance, so she went to where they sat in the deep dusk their house always held.

She sat across from where the two elderly women resided. They both had tea cups in their hands, and now Tildie set hers down, her eyes raking over me. Granna looked, the first she'd ever seen-nervous-her eyes darted from Tildie to Sabine in a never-ending pattern.

"There, now, Sabine, Mattie," Tildie arranged herself comfortably. She always wore a cape of deep red, and never matched her clothing. Granna always dismissed this, saying the woman was simply eccentric. As she stretched out her rubber booted feet, she smoothed her cape and fifties styled dress. Then she looked at both women, finally stopping to meet Granna's eyes.

"I've come to take Sabine with me, Mattie. It's time for her to go home to England," she announced.

"Home! But I was born in America!" Sabine burst, before good manners choked her. Granna did not speak. Tildie turned to Sabine.

"Sure, child, you were born in America, but you're British. It's in your blood. I can feel it. And you haven't any legal messes about nationality. I've checked." She nodded knowingly. "Aye...Felt it..along with a few other things I cannot, for all my learning, place!" she frowned, then smiled. "But England is where you got to be, Sabine, so if you would to go pack your bags."

Granna stirred. "Tildie, you know you can't just take the girl."

"Girl! Child! Ha!-there's a woman settin' here, and it's to England must she go to find what she is."

"She's my..." Granna began quietly.

"What? She's your what?" Tildie said sharply. "She's not yours, Mathilda Greyson, that's most certain. Nay-the young woman's a something special."

"I know that." Granna said. "But she shouldn't travel far, she's never left these woods-she oughten to stay here."

"Mattie, you cannot stop me." Tildie said lowly, in a voice Sabine didn't recognize. Her eyes pierced the young woman's; a clear vibrant hazel. "I think I know some of her, Mattie, but not all, and...nay, the fates and future has written that I cannot say. She must come with me. Pack your things, Sabine."

For a moment, Sabine sat, quite unbelieving, then stood, and looked down at Granna. Something deep inside awoke, something unknown, but alive, and the cool, quiet young woman began to feel her inner spark glow.

"You are something unusual, I'm not denying..." Granna said slowly, sadly. "And you must go sometime. So, go, Sabine. Pack."

Sabine went to gather her things silently, then; this departure triggering locked doors in her mind, and they slowly opened, though she did not know so yet. She somehow did not mind that she was leaving the only home she remembered, and there was no pain in her heart. When her meager things were packed in a small traveling trunk, she took it to where Tildie waited at the door.

"We go so soon," she murmured, then looked at Granna. Her brown muddy eyes were filled with tears; many streamed down her face without wiping. Sabine smiled at her, goodwill looming into her being at the sight of the frail old woman. "You knew I would have to go someday, Granna. I know I shall always remember you, and all you learned me. I shall write, perhaps very often. Don't weep, Granna, this is just another moment of passing time." She stooped from her height to kiss Granna's forehead, then her cheek. Sabine felt tears prick her own eyes, and blinked hard.

"Dear, dear Sabine-my heart's a-breakin' at this. You kept me young, dear child!" she cupped Sabine's face with both hands. "I lover you, dearest, as ifen you were my own. Always come back, ifen your ways gets too hard. Good-bye, and happy luck, dear Sabine!" She stood on her toes to kiss Sabine's forehead in return, then stood and watched as Tildie and Sabine set off through the woods.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Sabine never saw Granna again, for a few months later, she died. She feared her leaving left Granna with nothing but old age and herbs, and the old woman had nothing more to live for. Deeply did Sabine cry at the news of her death, and felt it was completely her doing. She grew to understand later that all was fate and meant to happen, but when she left, she had not known it was the last she'd see of Granna; the wise and always calm woman who raised her into the world of humans.