The Fairy Godmother Part 65

“Sulking,” I muttered to myself, walking deep into the park. I knew there was only so far that she would follow. Too many examples of his art and too much nature for her comfort.

“All these questions and I was still no wiser,” I thought. “So who do I ask next?”

“If I was trying to get to the bottom of some problem with a company, I’d go to the next level, someone higher up the tree. If I go higher up the tree with family, that must be Enid and Adam’s parents. The problem is finding out who they are and where they are. It took long enough finding out my parents.”

“Hello,” said a voice, bringing my back to the here and now.

“Violet!” I said with a jump.

“Dad asked me to find you, he was worried with how you would react to what your Mother had to say,” she said.

“Well, it’s nice to know someone cares,” I replied.

“There are a lot of people who care,” said Violet. “Dad’s parents are coming round this afternoon for tea, would you like to come along?”

“Are you sure I wouldn’t be in the way?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t have invited you if I’d thought that,” said Violet. “I just thought you might like to meet them and they may be able to answer some questions for you.”

“I wouldn’t want to monopolise them,” I said.

“I think they would like to meet you as well,” said Violet. “They’ve known you existed for a long time, but they weren’t allowed to meet you.”

“OK,” I said. “But kick me out if I’m taking over things or you’ve got fed up of me or whatever.”

“Come and meet the olds,” said Violet.

There were scones and cups of tea and some people who didn’t look particularly old, but they did look a bit like Adam.

“Nana, Granddad, this is Myrtle,” said Violet.

“We are your Father’s parents,” said Nana. “God knows why Enid saddled you with that name. Sorry, but I can’t imagine that you like it.”

“I’d done a pretty good job of forgetting it, till Enid reminded me,” I said.

“It’s interesting that you should call her Enid and not Mother or Mum,” said Granddad.

“I’ve been working with her for quiet a while and she managed to hide who she was,” I replied. “Now I find it hard to see her as anything other than Enid.”

“Would you like a cup of tea?” asked Velvet, handing one to me.

“Thank-you,” I said taking the cup.

“And a scone, you must have a scone, Velvet bakes the best scones I have ever eaten, better even than my own,” said Nana.

“That is high praise in itself,” smiled Granddad.

“Thank-you,” I said taking a plate with a nicely buttered scone on it.

“Do you want jam as well?” asked Violet.

“I think she’d just like to sit down,” said Velvet, ushering me to a chair with an occasional table next to it for me to put the plate and teacup down on.

“I feel sure you have a lot of questions to ask,” said Granddad. “Adam said he’d been talking to you, but there will have been things you thought about afterwards. We may be able to help you.”

“There are a few things,” I said slowly and taking a sip of tea to help calm my nerves and focus my mind.

“Fire away,” said Nana. “We’ll do our best to answer them.”

“How did you feel when Enid and Adam got married?” I asked.

“It was never really that formal,” said Nana.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“She proposed to him and he said yes,” said Granddad. “But they never actually got married. I think she was relying on fairy tradition, if the bride says they are married, then they are.”

“But it was never legalised?” I asked.

“No,” said Nana. “That is why she could ban your Father from seeing you and there was nothing he could do to question it. His name was not on the birth certificate, so he had no rights.”

“I wondered about that,” I said. “How did you feel about it?”

“I didn’t feel as if it was our place to comment,” Nana said.

“That doesn’t mean you didn’t have any opinions about it,” I said.

“No, it doesn’t,” said Nana. “We weren’t happy. OK we hadn’t met her and so couldn’t judge, but the way she was going about things, it smacked of being rushed, something just wasn’t right about the whole thing.”

“When we met her,” Granddad said slowly. “I thought, if we got to know her, it would be all right.”

“But it wasn’t,” I said and bit into the scone. “This is delicious,” I smiled at Velvet, not that it was a surprise, I couldn’t imagine her doing anything badly. Enid baked something once, for the office, the recipe called for choc chips, she put granite ones in instead, didn’t understand the difference.

“No,” said Nana. “She arrived late, to start off with.”

“That isn’t fair, she said the traffic was bad,” Granddad said.

“It was a Sunday, there’s never any traffic on a Sunday,” said Nana. “She barged past us and walked round the house as if she was inspecting the place. Told us that she knew a good interior designer who could bring the décor up to date and then criticised the tea and scones!”

“Sounds true to form,” I replied. “It is very good tea, by the way.”

“I’m so glad you like it,” said Velvet.

“I am afraid Enid is about as subtle as,” I paused trying to think of something. “A hurricane.”

“And has a very similar effect,” said Granddad.

“She made me feel as if nothing I had in the house was worth the effort of dusting,” Nana sobbed.

“I’m so sorry she made you feel like that,” I said. “And I’m sorry to remind you of it.”

“It isn’t your fault,” said Granddad.

“No,” Nana sniffed. “Please forget about it, I didn’t want it to be like this.”

“Enid hurt you,” I said. “I know how that feels.”

“Yes, she hurt you more than most,” Nana sniffed.

“How did Adam act when she came to tea?” I asked.

“Like the world revolved around her, he was so attentive, he couldn’t do enough for her,” said Nana.

“And when he saw you were upset?” I asked.

“That was the problem, he didn’t see,” said his Mother. “It was like she had him under a spell.”

“That could have been what it was,” I replied because it was the sort of thing she would do, without a thought to anyone else.

“What was he like when he found out that I was due?” I asked.

“I don’t think he realised anyone else existed,” his Mother sighed. “She had him under her control, we never saw him without her.”

“And when I was born?” I asked.

“You were his world, suddenly, he had forgotten about her, at first I thought this was good, but I was beginning to get worried, no one likes to be replaced by someone younger than them,” said Nana. “Then, she sent you to the nursery, banned him from seeing you and threw him out on the street. He was a mess when he turned up on our doorstep.”

“He’d been sleeping rough for a couple of weeks, didn’t want to be far from the nursery and you,” Granddad added.

“She told me that I was distracting him from his work and that was why she took me there,” I explained.

“Couldn’t she have looked after you?” asked Violet.

“Then I would’ve been in trouble,” I laughed.

“But,” said Violet.

“Have you ever seen her pick a baby up?” I asked.

“Come to think of it, no,” said Violet.

“She did once, that I can think of, some argument between her and a wicked fairy over a baby, she picked the baby up and put it on one side, if the wicked fairy hadn’t been quick that baby would’ve had it’s chips. She handed the baby to it’s Mother, said you have enough to cope with with your helpers and promptly left. Enid claimed it as a great victory, but it wasn’t so much her winning as the wicked fairy giving up. I met her a few years back, she wasn’t all that wicked, really quite nice compared with Enid.”

“I shouldn’t laugh at your Mother,” laughed Nana.

“I wouldn’t worry,” I said. “If you don’t laugh, you cry or hit your head on a brick wall, whatever, it doesn’t have any effect on her. She doesn’t see that anything she has done could possibly be wrong and I think that is the big problem. If she was in the least bit repentant, it might help understanding her, but she isn’t and I can’t see her ever changing.”

“What will you do?” asked Velvet, gathering up the dishes, the tea and scones having all been consumed.

“I shall help you with the dishes,” I replied.

“I meant about Enid,” Velvet replied. “Though I never turn away an offer of assistance with the dishes.”

“I’ll wash,” I said.

“You’ll get no arguments there,” laughed Velvet. “But Enid, she isn’t going to go away?”

“I know,” I sighed. “This is one problem that I don’t as yet have a solution to, but I haven’t spoken to everyone yet.”

“Who else do you need to talk to?” asked Nana.

“Enid’s parents,” I replied.

“Do you know who they are?” Granddad asked.

“No, but I know she spoke to her Mother when Lily died,” I replied. “So I think I have a way in, if the direct approach doesn’t produce any results.”

By Janice Nye © 2020