“They are summing up the court case today, or starting to,” said Myrtle.
“It was a bigger case than even I thought,” sighed James. “And it isn’t over yet, they need to trace all the stolen children and their parents. Not an easy task.”
“I would have thought your parents would have been in touch by now,” said Myrtle.
“Why?” asked James.
“They seemed keen to have you in their lives,” said Myrtle.
“They know where we are,” said James. “If they want to contact us, no one is stopping them.”
“There’s no one stopping you contacting them either,” said Myrtle.
“I know that,” James replied.
“But they wont think that,” Myrtle sighed. “They’ll think that I am stopping you from talking to them.”
“Does that bother you?” asked James.
“Part of being a Fairy,” Myrtle replied. “I don’t like people thinking badly of me or my kind.”
“Dammed if I do, dammed if I don’t,” sighed James.
“So the truth of it all is that Fairies didn’t steel baby James,” said Mary, looking out of the window of their home.
“That’s what they want us to think,” said James senior.
“We have just sat through a year long court case, we have gone through the evidence so many times that I am seeing it in my sleep and we have listened to the confessions of several of the people involved,” Mary snapped. “How much more evidence do you need?”
“You didn’t have to sit through all of that,” James senior responded.
“I know that,” Mary replied. “But I chose to and I wanted to look the woman who stole my baby, in the eye and ask her why she did it.”
“I don’t know why you put yourself through that,” said James senior. “We know that the Fairies took him and that this is nothing but hog wash.”
“No, we don’t know that the Fairies took him. All I knew was that he was taken,” said Mary. “All the evidence and confessions point to him being taken by humans.”
“Are you doubting my word!” asked James senior.
“I am doubting your impartiality,” said Mary. “You saw the same evidence as I did, you saw the video footage of babies being taken and you saw them traced and identified by DNA and none of them were taken by fairies or given to fairies, yet you still persist in blaming them.”
“What are you saying?” asked James senior.
“That you went into that court case having decided that fairies were guilty of all of those child thefts and it didn’t matter what the evidence was, you weren’t going to change,” said Mary.
“Do you really think that I’m that close minded?” James senior asked.
“In most things, no, but in this one thing, yes, totally,” said Mary.
“I was only trying to protect you,” James replied.
“Worked well didn’t it,” she said, heading for the door.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“For a walk, I need to clear my head,” Mary replied.
“Where does this leave us?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she sighed.
“Can’t we talk about it?” he asked.
“Not now,” she replied. “You need to think about what you’ve done and why.”
“But?” he asked as the door shut behind her.
The sound of a phone ringing woke the twins.
“Is that your phone or mine?” asked James as they both leapt up from their chairs to locate the source of the sound.
“Mine,” said Myrtle frowning. “It’s your Father!” she added answering the call.
“I hope you’re proud of yourself, poisoning my wife’s mind against me,” he yelled. “She’s walked out on me now!”
“I haven’t been in touch with Mary in over a year,” Myrtle replied. “So how am I supposed to have poisoned her mind?”
“You fairies have your ways,” shouted James senior.
“Is that your response to everything, don’t bother about the facts, blame the fairies whatever?” asked Myrtle.
“I don’t have to listen to rubbish like this from you,” stuttered James senior.
“Neither do I,” said Myrtle hanging up and then blocking the number.
“I’m sorry about that,” said James junior.
“It’s not your fault,” Myrtle replied. “But I think it might be an idea for you to check up on Mary.”
“You don’t think he’d hurt her?” asked James junior.
“I don’t know,” replied Myrtle. “But if she’s walked out on him, then she may need some help.”
“Your right,” said James junior, ringing his Mother.
“Hello,” said Mary. “You are the last person I expected to hear from.”
“James, your husband, rang Myrtle, my wife and just blamed her for you walking out on him,” James junior explained.
“I told him I was going for a walk to clear my head,” said Mary.
“So why did he think you’d left him?” asked James.
“The verdict of the trial has been reached,” sighed Mary.
“He didn’t believe it?” asked James junior.
“Not one single word of it,” Mary sighed. “He sat through the same evidence as me and dismissed it all as lies. He is so determined that the fairies where behind it that he wont listen to anything that says otherwise. He was asking where we stood, as a couple, just before I went for a walk and I said I didn’t know. It was part of what I wanted to sort out, in my mind. All these years and he’s either pretended that you weren’t taken or insisted that it was the fairies that did it. You begin to wonder if you really know someone.”
“It isn’t as if he lied to you,” said James junior, not really sure what to say.
“At first he tried told me that I was mistaken, I’d only had one baby. I showed him the photo from the ultra-sound, it clearly shows two babies,” she explained. “Then, for a week, he said that the baby had died and he thought it was better for me to think that there was only one son and that I should concentrate on him. It didn’t wash then, but I was too tired to argue with him. The idea that the fairies stole you, that is fairly recent.”
“Can you think of what triggered it off?” asked James.
“It was just after your brother brought his wife to be home,” Mary replied. “She spent ages talking to your Father about fairies.”
“Could it be something that she said to him?” asked James junior.
“I think it could be,” said Mary. “It is the only explanation that makes any sense.”
“What are you going to do?” asked James.
“I shall have to talk it out with him,” said Mary. “This stupidity has gone on too long.”
“Will you be safe?” asked James.
“You would know that your Father is not a violent man if you’d been left with us,” sighed Mary.
“You’ve said yourself that the things he has been saying, you begin to wonder if you know him,” said James.
“That’s true,” sighed Mary. “But, I still need to talk to him.”
“Leave the phone on,” said James. “If we hear anything alarming we can get you out of there.”
“Are you sure Myrtle will do that for me?” asked Mary.
“I would do the same for anyone whom I thought was in danger,” said Myrtle.
“Thank-you,” said Mary. “It’s more than I deserve.”
by Janice Nye © 2021
