“So what’s it like living with the Mother-in-law?” asked Enid, appearing just behind Myrtle as she was bending down to take the plates out of the dish washer.
“What have I told you about appearing like that?” asked Myrtle as a plate slipped out of her hand and went crashing back into the machine.
“In general, I think the idea was don’t, but these aren’t normal times, so I thought you wouldn’t mind,” smiled Enid.
“You are right about it not being normal times,” said Myrtle. “That being the case, I would have thought you could provide a bit more of a warning before you appear, our nerves are shot through as it is and Mary hasn’t got the hang of you just appearing.”
“We are fairies, it’s what we do,” smiled Enid.
“I know that, you know that, she’s trying to get her head around the idea that someone may want to kill her,” Myrtle tried to explain.
“I can’t imagine anyone wanting to kill her,” said Enid.
“Even if they think she knows more than she does?” asked Myrtle.
“You don’t think she knows anything?” asked Enid.
“I think her husband was the one who may have known something, but we wont know what it was now,” sighed Myrtle. “Meanwhile we are trying to work out what to do next.”
“So the visit to the prison?” asked Enid.
“Seems to have rattled a few cages, but it is hard to interpret the result,” said Myrtle. “I feel sure something more is coming, I just don’t know what.
“Talking about Mary, where is she?” asked Enid.
“I was beginning to wonder that,” said Myrtle. “She was keeping an eye on the twins, but they are all being a bit too quiet,” she added heading back to the living room.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” said Enid. “Perhaps a bit of wand work might be called for.”
“You mean go in small or invisible?” asked Myrtle.
“Probably a bit of both,” said Enid, giving her wand a quick flick, they appeared, six inch tall, invisible and on top of the bookshelf by the window.
“I don’t think it was very polite of you, pushing your way into here,” said Mary.
“You wouldn’t let us in,” said the taller of the two intruders.
“That wasn’t very welcoming of you was it,” said his shorter friend.
“I don’t know you,” Mary replied. “Why should I let you in to my daughter-in-laws flat?”
“Your daughter-in-law,” smiled the taller of the two. “You do know that she is a fairy?”
“Of course I do,” snapped Mary. “It isn’t as if I’m happy with the idea, but she is who my son married, I didn’t have any say in it.”
“So much for playing happy families,” sighed Myrtle.
“It shows how much of an act it all was,” said Enid.
“Either that, or this is the act,” said Myrtle. “So hard to decide.”
“So what do you intend to do?” asked Enid.
“Watch for a little longer to see what unfolds,” said Myrtle. “The twins are asleep and it isn’t as if she looks in immediate danger.”
“So why are you still here?” asked the shorter intruder.
“You made it very hard for me to go home,” Mary replied.
“Remember, we can get to you any time we want to,” said the tall man.
“Not from our cells you can’t,” said the security man standing in the open front door.
“Thank God you came,” said Mary. “I didn’t know what to do. I thought if I kept them talking, perhaps someone would come to my rescue.”
“Thank-you,” said James as the security men took the two intruders away.
“No problem, sir. Thank-you for calling us,” said the security man.
“You saw them?” asked Mary.
“And I heard what you said to them,” said James.
“I don’t know what I said,” Mary replied. “I was just gibbering. Saying whatever to keep them talking.”
“I’d like to believe you,” said James. “But I heard what you said and how you said it. You know more about this than you are telling us.”
“If I knew anything you’d be the first to know,” said Mary.
“I think you need to go home,” said James.
“I’ll find out what I can from those two,” Enid said to Myrtle.
“Remind them that the people they work for don’t like loose ends and that is what they are now,” said Myrtle.
“My pleasure,” smiled Enid.
“I think she needs to tell us everything she knows,” said Myrtle, standing by the kitchen door.
“Where were you when I needed you?” asked Mary.
“I was checking up on the twins,” Myrtle replied. “Remember them, the ones you haven’t paid any attention to since breakfast.”
“They were asleep,” said Mary. “I wanted to keep things quiet so as not to disturb them. There’s nothing like screaming babies to turn a situation like this bad.”
“I could almost believe you meant that,” said Myrtle. “But if that was the case, the first thing you would have done when those two were arrested would have been to check up on them.”
“I feel like I am being thrown out, back to the place I lived in with him. I thought I knew him, all those years we spent together and I had no idea about what he had done,” said Mary.
“I think it is probably the best place for you,” said James. “After all, you don’t want to stay in the home of a fairy, do you?”
“They know where we live. The security people here thought I wouldn’t be safe there,” she pleaded.
“The security people will inform the Police that you have decided to return home,” said Myrtle.
“And what good will that do?” asked Mary. “They don’t do anything.”
“If you’d wanted to stay here, you should have had some respect for my wife,” said James. “Myrtle, could you send her home?”
“Of course,” said Myrtle, giving a quick whisk of her wand.
“If I die, you’ll never forgive yourselves,” said Mary as she disappeared from the room.
“Is everything in place?” asked James.
“Yes, nothing happens there without us knowing,” said Myrtle. “We can pull her out of there at any second, should we need to.”
“So we wait and see what happens next,” said James.
By Janice Nye © 2022
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