“Remember, no phoning me whilst I’m at work,” Myrtle told James as she was getting ready to leave for her second day back at work.
“OK,” said James. “But you will let me know if you’re going to be late?”
“You know I can’t make any promises,” sighed Myrtle. “Any more than you could make promises like that if I asked you.”
“But I worry about you,” he replied.
“I know, but this is my job and I’d like to be able to do it,” said Myrtle.
“I know, but if it gets too much,” said James.
“If it gets too much then I shall take maternity leave, till then I need to get back to work, I think they are in two minds about me working as it is,” said Myrtle, waving her wand before he could say anything else.
“Myrtle! I didn’t think you were coming in this morning,” stuttered Violet.
“Whatever gave you that idea?” asked Myrtle.
“You had a busy day, yesterday,” Violet stuttered.
“I’ve had worse,” said Myrtle.
“But you weren’t pregnant then,” said Violet.
“Being pregnant should not be an issue,” Myrtle replied. “If I am not well enough to work, I shall contact you.”
“Of course,” said Violet.
“Now what is my work for today?” Myrtle asked.
“Well things are going OK with King Rufus,” said Violet rather quickly.
“So what is Rosemary doing today, I am supposed to be mentoring her,” asked Myrtle.
“I realised that her computing skills aren’t quite up to date,” said Violet rather hastily. “You know what the Fairy College is like, as you said, they don’t really do computers.”
“Wouldn’t Ethel’s time be better spent bringing the college up to date?” asked Myrtle.
“I agree, but at the moment I can’t get them to agree to include computing on the curriculum at any level. They think that the students will spend all their time playing computer games and not get on with any work,” sighed Violet.
“Do you want me to talk to them?” asked Myrtle.
“No, I don’t think that would be a good idea, you are Enid’s daughter,” sighed Violet.
“And what’s that got to do with anything?” asked Myrtle, though she could guess that her Mother must have been ruffling a few feathers.
“The course I sent her on,” Violet said, hesitating a moment.
“What’s she done?” asked Myrtle.
“Reduced the lecturer to tears within half an hour of arriving, they then spent the rest of the day trying to work out what she’d said to do this,” said Violet.
“Didn’t they try asking Enid?” snapped Myrtle.
“Your Mother told them to ask the lecturer and she just sobbed louder,” sighed Violet.
“And no one thought to tell me about this?” asked Myrtle.
“We didn’t want to bother you,” said Violet.
“Because I’m pregnant?” asked Myrtle.
“I didn’t say that,” Violet replied quickly.
“You didn’t have to,” Myrtle sighed. “So what am I supposed to do today, you’ve passed my apprentice on to someone else and I can’t go and talk to the Fairy College because my Mother has upset them. Do you want me to talk to Enid, I am assuming that she isn’t at the College today.”
“They said that Hell would freeze over, catch fire and sink before she is allowed into the grounds again, let alone in the building,” said Violet.
“Could be worse,” said Myrtle. “Do you want me to talk to her?”
“If you don’t mind,” said Violet. “I tend to forget what I’ve come to say as soon as I see her and then she always gets her way.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” said Myrtle. “You got her to go to the college in the first place. It isn’t as if she was keen on the idea.”
“Thank-you,” said Violet, looking over to Ethel.
“No your laptop hasn’t finished it’s update,” said Ethel. “It is only 60% through the download.”
“You aught to come with me,” said Myrtle. “You are the Head of the Fairy Godmothers, you shouldn’t let Enid boss you about.”
“But,” muttered Violet as Myrtle waved her wand and the two of them appeared in Enid’s sitting room.
“Hello,” smiled Enid. “Sorry I’m a little late, there was a problem with the alarm clock.”
“Is that why it’s embedded in the wall?” asked Myrtle.
“It rang at some ungodly hour,” Enid replied, waving her wand at it. The clock fell to the floor, the glass fell out, the hands fell off, followed by the dial and various cogs.
“I’ll send it to the repair people,” said Myrtle.
“If you must, but it wasn’t a very nice clock,” said Enid, more cogs fell out of it.
“Then I shall keep it,” said Myrtle, feeling sorry for it. “You can always set an alarm on your mobile phone.”
“I wouldn’t know how to do that,” said Enid.
“Perhaps I should come back later,” said Violet. “You two have so much to talk about.”
“And what will you do back at the office?” asked Myrtle. “Your laptop hasn’t finished downloading the updates yet.”
“I heard that one was a killer,” said Enid.
“How have you avoided it?” asked Violet.
“I turned off all the updates, about a year or two back,” smiled Enid. “They were so annoying.”
“You shouldn’t do that!” snapped Violet. “As a Fairy Godmother you are obliged to keep the software on your computer up to date and that means getting all the updates that come.”
“I’ll do it, at the weekend, if it’s that important,” muttered Enid.
“You will do it now,” Violet replied.
“I don’t know how to get to the updates,” said Enid. “I’ll ask Ethel, she’ll be able to find them.”
“Where is your laptop?” asked Violet. “I shall take it with me now.”
“Hang on, are you saying you don’t trust me to get my own laptop updated?” snapped Enid.
“No, she’s trying to get out of asking you what happened at the Fairy College yesterday,” said Myrtle.
“Ask the college,” said Enid.
“We would, but they don’t know, you wouldn’t tell them and the lecturer was so upset I doubt if she could even tell us what her name was let alone anything else,” snapped Violet. “So what did you say to her?”
“I told her how Lily died,” said Enid.
“What!” stuttered Violet and Myrtle together.
“She was letting rip at me about what bad examples Lily and I where. That we should both be locked up and that we weren’t fit to be there, that she was glad that she’d told the Council Secretary how evil Lily was, all that sort of thing,” said Enid. “Then she asked me where Lily was, so I told her.”
“I am so sorry,” said Violet. “She shouldn’t have done that.”
“I thought I deserved it,” said Enid.
“Doesn’t matter what you have done,” said Violet. “You didn’t deserve that, no one does. I think you should stay with your Mother today,” Violet told Myrtle. “I shall go to the Fairy College and tell them what I think.”
“Are you sure?” asked Myrtle.
“No one treats one of my Fairy Godmothers like that and gets away with it,” said Violet waving her wand.
“Did she really do that?” asked Myrtle.
“I wouldn’t lie about something like that,” said Enid. “I’d get found out.”
“That’s true,” said Myrtle. “Are you OK?”
“It was a bit of a shaker at the time, I thought everyone knew what Lily did,” sighed Enid. “But, I’m tougher than that, which is more than can be said of that lecturer.”
“Yes, you’d have thought, if she was dishing that sort of stuff out, that she would be able to take it,” Myrtle agreed. “I’d like to hear what Violet says when she gets there, she did seem to have her mad up.”
“That bunch could do with a bit of a stir up,” said Enid. “I tried to do it whilst I was there, but they were so stuck in the mud, that’s why I left to become Head of the Fairy Godmothers, I thought I’d be able to get them into the 20th century from there.”
“We are in the 21st century,” Myrtle reminded her.
“We are, they are still back in the 1800’s at the best,” said Enid. “That reminds me, they took my phone off me before they would even let me into the place and they’ve still got it.”
“I’ll text Violet with that,” said Myrtle, fishing out her phone. “She’ll get it back for you.”
“So, what do we do now?” asked Enid as Myrtle put her phone away. “Do I get to spoil you? Talk about babies or maybe get some clothes for the little thing?”
“It’s a bit early to get clothes, we don’t know what sex it’s going to be yet,” said Myrtle.
“Do you want to find out?” asked Enid.
“No, I can see the charms of finding out when the baby is born,” smiled Myrtle, patting the bump. “I’m sure they’ll be perfect whatever they are.”
“So no big gender revel party?” asked Enid.
“James has been telling me all about the accidents people have with them, it’s enough to put anyone off,” Myrtle explained.
“Fair enough,” said Enid. “Talking of James, I heard you had a bit of a problem with him yesterday.”
“He’s not used to me going out to work, that’s all,” said Myrtle. “I’ve explained it to him.”
“Good, because you can’t have him stopping you from working, you are so good as a Fairy Godmother,” Enid explained. “You are, by far, the best Fairy Godmother I have ever met.”
“You didn’t say that when you were Head of the Fairy Godmother’s,” laughed Myrtle.
“I didn’t want you sitting on your laurels,” said Enid. “I wanted to encourage you to do better always and now, no one is better than you.”
By Janice Nye © 2021
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