“So now I have to put up with six months of being told how to run my own country,” King Rufus said to Myrtle after the delegates had gone to their rooms to prepare for the banquette that had been put on it their honour.
“Yes,” Myrtle replied. “You might learn a few things on being a king. At the very least you could learn how they think and how they run their countries.”
“And that would be useful because?” asked Rufus.
“Whilst they are teaching you, they aren’t invading and you could learn what signs to look for if they should still decide to attack,” said Myrtle.
“So what I am doing is keeping them at bay for six months,” Rufus sighed.
“Probably a bit longer than that,” said Violet.
“Yes,” said Rosemary. “They’d have to think of a good reason to invade.”
“Also, it would be hard for them to all agree that that is the best way forward,” said Liam.
“You think that there might be some disagreement on how to divide up my country?” snapped Rufus.
“It would depend on how you reacted to the six different teachers,” said Myrtle. “Some of them my think that you show promise as a leader and would prefer to work with you rather than go to the effort and expense of an invasion. Some might think that there’s might be the next country in line for take over and that once their neighbour has got an army together, they may be the ones being invaded as well as you.”
“Sweet talk them and keep them at bay?” asked Rufus.
“Something like that,” said Violet, as Myrtle’s phone rang.
“Hello Sweetheart, when are you coming home?” asked James.
“Who is it?” asked Violet.
“My husband,” said Myrtle to Violet.
“We are in the middle of something,” Myrtle explained to James. “I’ll give you a ring back soon,” she added and hung up.
“I thought he understood what the job of being a Fairy Godmother was about,” said Violet. “You can’t do any useful work if you are dashing home at 5pm, it’s not that sort of job.”
“I know that,” snapped Myrtle. “And I thought he understood, perhaps he thought that as I was looking after an apprentice and that this is my first day back, that things would be different today.”
“I thought that we would be finishing by now,” said Rosemary yawing loudly.
“I think we can look after things here,” said Liam, looking at Rufus. “You just have to turn the charm on and we both know how well you can do that.”
“OK,” said Violet. “But we will be available at any time, should you need us,” she added looking at Myrtle, waving her wand and taking the three of them back to the Fairy Godmothers office.
“I shall explain it to him,” said Myrtle. “He’s a Doctor, he should understand that sometimes jobs just don’t fall into the 9 to 5 timing.”
“Make sure he does, I can’t have you clock watching,” said Violet. “Meanwhile, you need to get some sleep,” she added to Rosemary. “And you need to understand that part of this job is staying with it till it is sorted.”
“Yes,” said Rosemary, looking rather disheartened.
“It’s just the way it is,” Myrtle smiled at her.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be any good at this,” Rosemary muttered.
“You are here to learn,” said Myrtle. “You’re just starting, don’t give up.”
“OK,” sighed Rosemary, heading for the door.
“Do you really think she has it in her?” asked Violet.
“There’s promise there,” said Myrtle.
“But?” asked Violet.
“It’s been a bit of a full on day for her and she’s had you as well as me watching over her, give the girl a chance,” Myrtle smiled.
“The college said how good she was,” said Violet. “Thought she could go straight in on the job without supervision.”
“The people there haven’t been in the field for over a hundred years,” said Myrtle. “They could probably do with a refresher themselves. It would save us having to fish some of them out of difficult situations.”
“That’s true,” said Violet. “I shall mention it to them.”
“I think you need to do more than just mention it,” said Myrtle. “Some of them, their ideas are so outdated, they don’t even know what a computer is, let alone how to use one.”
“You are right,” sighed Violet. “And I know it, which is probably why I’ve been putting it off. Anyway, you need to get home to talk to your husband and I need to talk to the Head of the Fairy Godmothers College.”
“Good luck,” said Myrtle, giving her wand a quick twitch.
“I’m sorry,” said James as soon as she appeared. “It’s just that I’d got tea ready and then I remembered that you’d gone to work.”
“I know it’s the first day back,” said Myrtle. “But you have to understand that I can’t just drop everything because it’s 5pm where you are.”
“Wasn’t it 5pm where you were as well?” asked James.
“No, it was 11.30 am,” said Myrtle. “And we were in the middle of trying to prevent one country from being invaded by six others that surrounded it.”
“Did you succeed?” asked James.
“The six countries are giving the new mentoring on Kingship,” said Myrtle.
“An interesting idea,” said James. “I take it that the armies are being stood down?”
“For the time being,” said Myrtle. “If all goes well, that wont change.”
“So, no harm done?” James asked.
“Not today, but Violet asked me to explain to you that that sort of thing can not happen again,” sighed Myrtle.
“But,” said James.
“Would you like it if I rang you up at work?” Myrtle asked.
“You wouldn’t,” said James. “Not unless it was an emergency or the baby was about to be born.”
“At the moment, the baby being born would be an emergency,” said Myrtle, patting the bump. “But the same has to go for when I’m at work, you can’t just ring to see if I’ll be home for tea.”
“I thought it wouldn’t be a problem, what with you mentoring an apprentice,” said James.
“Anyone else in charge and I might have lost my job,” said Myrtle.
“But it’s your first day back!” said James.
“As it was, Violet thought I hadn’t explained the work to you, not properly,” said Myrtle. “And I have an apprentice who came top in her class thinking that she isn’t up to the job!”
“Did you have to tell Violet that I rang?” James asked.
“I didn’t tell her, she was with us,” snapped Myrtle.
“Why?” asked James.
“Her laptop was doing updates, the sort that keep your computer tied up for a day or two, I said she could come along so that she didn’t drive Ethel mad asking her when the updates would be finished,” Myrtle explained, sitting down suddenly.
“And now you are tired,” said James.
“Don’t try to talk me out of working,” said Myrtle.
“I wasn’t going to,” said James quickly. “But I do think it is time you had something to eat.”
“Smells like tea is ready,” said Myrtle.
“I wont ring you at work again,” said James.
“Thank-you,” said Myrtle. “You should have seen the look on Violet’s face when you called me Sweetheart, it was so hard keeping a straight face.”
By Janice Nye © 2021
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