The Fairy Godmother Part 57

“Time to go home,” I said to Ella as a nurse looked meaningfully at the ward clock.

“But I want to stay with Mummy and Baby,” she mumbled.

“Don’t we all,” sighed Ian.

“Well, if Mummy is OK tomorrow than she and baby can go home with you,” said the nurse.

“Can’t she go home now?” asked Ella.

“She has to see the consultant,” the nurse smiled. “And he went home hours ago.”

“I wish it was tomorrow,” sighed Ella.

“Tomorrow will come quickly if you go home and get some sleep,” smiled Jessie.

“Come on Ella,” Ian said. “Mummy needs to get some sleep as well. You don’t want the consultant to think she is too tired to go home.”

“Of course not,” said Ella. “Promise you will go to sleep as soon as we’ve gone,” she told her Mum. “And don’t keep waking Mummy up,” she told baby. Baby gurgled and she read that as agreement.

“Good by,” Jessie smiled as we walked down the ward with a bag of dirty washing.

“We should get breakfast ready,” said Ella at 6am. I was sitting on a chair in her room, keeping an eye on the phones and her.

“Why?” I asked.

“So that we can get to the hospital early,” she answered.

“They wont let us in any earlier,” I replied. “We would just spend ages hanging around outside.”

“But that isn’t fair,” Ella replied.

“Fair or not, it’s what they do,” I explained. “If they let people in to see their relatives whenever they wanted to then it would be very disruptive of the hospital.”

“I don’t see why,” Ella replied.

“Well, there are some people I know of who would be there 24/7,” I replied.

“I don’t see why that would be a problem,” said Ella.

“Because some people would find it difficult to get any sleep,” I explained. “Also, those chairs aren’t very comfortable.”

“I suppose,” she sighed. “But I can’t sleep, I want to do something.”

“I suppose we could get the breakfast things ready,” I smiled. “But we have to be quiet, your Dad needs to get some sleep.”

“OK,” said Ella leaping out of bed. We tiptoed theatrically down the stairs and went into the kitchen.

“We didn’t tidy up last night,” said Ella. “Mummy would be most disappointed in us if she came home to find the kitchen looking like this.”

“I think everyone was a bit too tired last night,” I smiled. “But it’s easy sorted,” I added giving a quick wave of my wand, the sink started to fill with hot water, the washing up liquid bottle squirted at the water and the green scratchy thing leapt into action. No sooner was something clean than it was on the draining board, the tea towel was drying it and it was flying back to it’s place in the cupboards. Meanwhile, all the mucky dishes were scraping themselves clean of any left overs, all of which went in the bin, and were lining up ready to be washed.

“Mummy sometimes says she’d like a dishwasher,” said Ella. “But I think a magic wand would be much more useful.”

“They’re not limited to just doing the dishes,” I agreed as, with another wave of my wand all the jars and packets that were sitting on the work surface either found there way back into their places in the cupboards or sorted themselves into the right bins.

“We should put out the recycling,” said Ella. “The bins are going to be emptied today.”

“No sooner the word than the deed,” I replied, giving my wand another wave. The kitchen looked clearer, but the work surfaces needed a wipe down.

“What did I say about the wand?” I felt sure I heard Enid say, but much as I looked, I couldn’t see her anywhere.

“If you can’t be bothered to show yourself, then you aren’t really there,” I thought and dismissed her from my mind or tired to.

“We just need to get the surfaces wiped down and breakfast things ready for when your Dad comes down,” I smiled at Ella.

“We need to clean the floor,” said Ella shaking her head. “We must have walked some mud in or something. Mummy wouldn’t have the kitchen floor in that condition.”

“OK,” I smiled, waving my wand again. A cupboard opened and a bucket and mop hopped out. The mop proceeded to clean all the muck off the floor and then took itself and the bucket back into the cupboard.

“I wondered where you all were,” said Ian standing at the kitchen door. “I do hope you realised that I was going to get up early to do all of that.”

“Of course,” I replied.

“But?” he asked.

“I wanted to do it,” said Ella.

“But you didn’t do it,” said her Dad. “Myrtle waved her wand and it was done.”

“We were going to sort out breakfast next,” I said, trying to change the subject slightly.

“Well, I’ll sort breakfast,” said Ian. “And you little Missy can go back upstairs, get washed, clean your teeth and get dressed. Breakfast should be ready by the time you’ve done all of that.”

“Yes Daddy,” she said, giving him a big hug and skipping up the stairs.

“If I tried doing that I’d fall to the bottom before I even got half way up,” he laughed.

“Me too,” I smiled.

“I know it would be quicker if you waved your wand,” he smiled. “But, it is nice to be able to do something.”

“I think I might have got into trouble with the Fairy Council if I’d used the wand any more for a few hours at least,” I laughed.

“They are restricting the use?” he asked.

“They are beginning to find out that there are consequences to the use of the wand,” I smiled. “Some of which would be hard to see the connection.”

“Such as?” Ian asked.

“There was an apprentice, he got hold of his masters wand, thought he’d use it to do the cleaning, it ran away with him, the castle was flooded before his master could get back and sort it out. As for the ballet dancing elephants, they made quiet a mess especially when they saw the crocodiles,” I smiled. “Clearing all the water out of the castle caused a lot of flooding problems down the hill from the castle, some of the crocodiles escaped, the people in the nearby town didn’t see them in quite the same light as the apprentice.”

“Thing got out of hand,” said Ian.

“You have to know what you are doing,” I replied. “Hence, the magic wands are more of a last resort than a go to solution.”

“So why did you use it today?” he asked.

“Ella does very well, left to herself she would have done the washing and put everything away, only some of the things she would need a step ladder to put away and she may have dropped one or two thing whilst washing,” I replied.

“Only one or two things,” smiled Ian.

“She’s trying hard for her Mother,” I smiled.

“And she makes me very proud of her,” Ian smiled.

“Do I?” asked a little voice from the door.

“Always,” said Ian. “I think baby is very lucky to have an elder sister like you.”

“Do you think so?” asked Ella.

“I think baby thinks that you are wonderful,” I smiled.

“How can you tell?” asked Ella.

“I can see it in her eyes when you lean over the cot, totally absorbed, she never looks away,” I smiled. “And the fact that she doesn’t cry when you are around, speaks volumes.”

“I hadn’t noticed that, but you are right,” said Ian. “Your little sister loves you.”

“She needs a name,” said Ella.

“I was hoping we’d have thought of one by now,” sighed Ian. “Such a happy joyful baby, I’d have thought we could come up with a name by now.”

“Joy,” I said. “She brings Joy to everyone.”

“I like that,” said Ella.

“So do I, but we will have to see what your Mummy thinks about it first,” said Ian.

“Then we had better have our breakfast and get ready to get her,” Ella replied.

By Janice Nye © 2020