by Laura Emmons
Evan Keach
Nov 24 at 10:56 pm EDT
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Let me tell you the story of Arianrhod and Llew.
The Creator made the suns, moons, planets, and stars but loved Earth the most. So Mother Earth and Father Sky were created to help our planet. She covered the planet with soil and he created air, wind and clouds. The clouds spilled rain and formed oceans, lakes and rivers. It pleased the Creator, so one sun and one moon were provided to shine down on Earth. Bathed in light, our planet was beautiful but barren. They created the first nyad, an ocean nymph, to stir the sea to life. Father Sky gave her the power to harness the pull of the Moon on the water so she could form waves. The push and pull of the waves brought life to the oceans. The land was still bare, so he ordered the nymph to step out of the water onto dry land.
As soon as she took her first step onto the sand, she gave birth to a golden-haired son. Shocked and terrified, she ran away from the child. She had never seen a baby and knew nothing of childbirth or child rearing, but the golden-haired boy grew instantly and gave chase to his mother. As she ran away, she crossed from land to sea.
When she stepped into the water, the moon disappeared from the sky. Her power to control the moon tethered it to her person. The boy cried, so Father Sky gave him the Sun to comfort him. The boy ran after his mother, carrying the sun behind him. As he crossed from land to sea, the sun disappeared from the sky.
The nymph, realizing that she was a mother, chased him to give him her love. As she stepped onto dry land, the moon rose in the sky. The two endlessly chase each other around the Earth. When the nymph crosses land, the moon lights the night-time sky. When the son crosses the land, the Sun brightens our days. Father Sky was pleased because the balance of night and day allowed things to grow and prosper. The endless chase of mother and son for each other’s love brought life to the land. The sadness of loss fueled the birth of life. He named the nymph the Queen of the Night and her son the King of the Sun.
Good Night, Mags. Sleep tight.
Maggie Stewart
Nov 24 at 8:10 pm PDT
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That’s a beautiful story. Goodnight, Evan.
Maggie Stewart
Dec 7 at 5:22 pm PDT
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Mom quit her job and broke the lease today. She faxed papers transferring guardianship of Corey and me to Aunt Rose’s lawyer.
I’ve been on the phone checking out moving companies all afternoon.
Mom says she wants us to be in Cacapon by Yule. What’s Yule?
Evan Keach
Dec 7 at 8:43 pm EDT
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Yule is the German term for the Winter Solstice. In Scottish Gaelic we call it Mean Geimhridh. Yule is easier to say. That’s only two weeks away.
Maggie Stewart
Dec 13 at 6:48 pm PDT
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Okay, the plans are set. Corey and I will have our last day of school on the 18th. On the 19th the movers come to get all our stuff. Aunt Rose enrolled us in Morgan County schools today. We start right after the New Year. Mom was able to arrange emergency medical transport to get us from LAX to Dulles International on the 20th, but they won’t transport Corey and me in the ambulance taking Mom from the airport to Fiona’s cabin. Can you come and get us?
Evan Keach
Dec 13 at 9:51 pm EDT
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Dumb question for such a smart girl…just text me the flight info. I can hardly wait to see you.
Maggie Stewart
Dec 13 at 6:54 pm PDT
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Me too. I need a hug. Now I just have to pack everything we own in five days.
Chapter Two
Night of the Mothers
The longest night of the year was also the longest night of my life.
“Tell me about the holiday, Mommy.” My eleven-year old brother, Corey, lay down on the queen-sized bed next to my mother and looked up at her earnestly.
“Well,” she began softly, “Yule starts at sunset with the Night of the Mothers and continues after sunrise with Children’s Day.” I could see how weak she was but she still made the effort to stroke the dark blond tendrils from his face. The image was pure Madonna and Child, even though she was racked with pain; she gazed at him with all the love in the world.
Through the cathedral windows in my Great-Aunt Fiona’s living room I could see the last glow of the year’s shortest day disappear behind the densely forested mountains. The Night of the Mothers had begun.
She struggled to continue.
“Right now, about two miles from here, the Cacapon clan is gathered outside an ancient cave. It’s about as large as this cabin and has only one entrance. It’s formed in the side of the tallest mountain on Aunt Fiona’s property and it’s so old no one knows if it’s a natural cave or a man-made cave built by an ancient people who have long since disappeared from history. Above the entrance is a hole. When the last rays of the shortest day of the year shine through the hole, they illuminate drawings painted on the back wall of the cave. The light lasts for about an hour so parents take their children into the cave in groups, the Poets recite the story depicted by the cave drawings, and then they rotate another group in until everyone in the clan has seen the pictures and heard the story.”
The hospice nurse came over and silently adjusted the settings on the IV drip connected to Mom’s frail arm. As she checked vital signs and made notations in the medical chart, I took a moment to look around the room. My Aunt Rose and great-aunt had completely transformed it. All of the living room furniture was gone. I had no idea where they’d stashed it. Instead they had set up the bed, with a stately oak headboard in front of the massive fireplace which dominated my great-aunt’s cabin.
On either side of the bed, pedestal tables acted as nightstands. My Aunt Rose sat in her comfy wingback reading chair on one side of Mom. Fiona sat in her old leather chair on the other side. Corey and I were expected to flank Mom on the bed, but I had gotten up to speak with the visiting nurse in the foyer.
“I’ve increased her pain medication. She should rest easier now.” Rose joined us. The nurse gave us both the necessary instructions for managing Mom’s care through the night. She told us what to do if Mom didn’t last that long, and left. Rose and I returned to our vigil.
It amazed me how normal she looked from this distance. You couldn’t tell she was riddled with cancerous tumors. She hadn’t endured chemotherapy or surgery so there were no signs. The hair she’d lost six months earlier from the chemo treatments had grown back long and lustrous and as vibrantly red as always.
Aunt Rose’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Why don’t I take over telling the story from here?”
Corey nodded and I gratefully sighed in relief. The pain meds made it so Mom could barely keep her beautiful green eyes open and she had trouble stringing two words together.
“The cave drawings tell the story of Arianrhod and Llew,” she started. “The Creator made the suns, moons, planets, and stars, but loved Earth most of all, so Mother Earth and Father Sky were created to help our planet.”
Corey interrupted, “Is the Creator God?”
“You can call the Creator God if you like.”
“So are Mother Earth and Father Sky angels?”
“They are very much like angels; they’re high-ranking angels.”
“You mean they’re like archangels?”
“Okay, they’re like archangels. Mother Earth covered the planet with soil and Father Sky created air, wind and clouds…”
I had heard this story before so my mind drifted elsewhere. Accepting the inevitable came easily. I just didn’t know how to live without her.
Rose stopped talking and Fiona took up the telling of the story. I took the pause as an opportunity to stretch out on the bed next to Mom, gently taking her hand in mine.
“So right abo
ut now, outside the ancient mysterious cave, darkness has fallen in the forest. The parents of the clan lead their children through the pitch black back down the trail and into a sacred meadow.” As Fiona spoke, she traveled around the cabin extinguishing all of the lights.
“While they walk, the children are encouraged to embrace the darkness without fear. They are told that even when they cannot see their mothers, they know their love is still there. They are reminded how without the balance of night and day, plants, animals and even children would not grow. Equally as important as the balance of night and day, is the importance of death and rebirth. The children think about these lessons, guided only by their parents’ firm grip. Soon they walk out of the forest and into the meadow, where a great bonfire burns, and everything is bright once more.”
Fiona dramatically lit the wood and kindling in the fireplace and it whooshed to life. Corey audibly gasped. “Wow…cool…”
Rose picked up where Fiona stopped. “In olden days the families in the clan would build temporary shelters all around the clearing. They would hang wreaths of holly and ivy on poles outside their makeshift houses to welcome visitors. They would set cauldrons filled with clove-spiked apples and oranges right inside the doorways. Sometimes they would hang bunches of mistletoe overhead and people who stepped inside the shelters would be obligated to kiss.”
“Ewww…” interjected my brother.
“Oh, it gets worse,” I warned him.
“But tonight, most of the families will use camping tents to represent the houses. Several of them are pretty fancy and they’re definitely sturdier and dryer than the lean-tos my parents used to build when I was a kid,” added Fiona. She continued, “They’ll take all of the children around from tent to tent, giving gifts, singing carols, and eating sweets.”
I saw something move from the kitchen into the living room. At first it looked like a piece of the wall had broken off and started to float toward us, but then I realized Grog, the house Brownie, had just handed a tray to Rose.
“Yay!” yelled Corey. Rose produced the tray of candy and caramel apples. She left and returned with hot, spiced cider. Medium sized cauldrons of clove-spiked apples and oranges had suddenly appeared on the hearth on either side of the fireplace. Fiona’s house Brownies must be working in the background, camouflaging themselves to look like their surroundings and being careful not to alert Corey to their presence, but still dutifully performing the chores that made our lives easier.
“After going door-to-door…”
“It sounds like trick-or-treat,” said Corey.
“It’s more like tent-or-treat,” Aunt Rose responded.
“Why does the clan hide in a meadow?”
Rose answered. “Because most people don’t celebrate Yule anymore and wouldn’t understand our traditions.”
“Especially the next part,” I muttered.
Fiona took up the dialog and it occurred to me that she and Rose imitated the Yule celebration more for my mom’s benefit than for me or Corey. Had Mom missed her family’s unique traditions all those years she survived in self-imposed exile? I would bet she did…terribly so.
“Next, the single young men in the clan put on their antlers,” Rose snuck up behind my brother and placed a headdress made from a buck’s rack on his head. He looked eager to hear the next part.
“And they dance the Horned Men Dance. During which the men are encouraged to seek one young woman from the clan and ask her to be his girlfriend.”
“What? Yuk!” Corey stripped off the antlers and tossed them under the bed.
“After the dance, the families return to their respective tents and hand out the presents,” Fiona finished.
“Presents! Why didn’t you say so? Let’s do presents first!”
Fiona, Rose and I had all agreed we would exchange our Christmas presents on this night, since the hospice nurse had made it clear Mom would probably not survive three more days. She had been dozing on and off as her sister and aunt shared the traditions of Mothers Night but when Corey exclaimed ‘Presents!’ she roused herself enough to participate. I helped hand out the presents from under the huge, albeit artificial, Christmas tree. Fiona had explained that the dryads, aka wood nymphs, would flay her alive if she ever snuffed the life of a perfectly healthy tree for such a frivolous reason.
I knew Mom would never dip into our college trust funds for something like Christmas presents, so I suspected Fiona had contributed the funds needed to acquire the bounty in front of us. By the time all the presents were opened, several hours had passed and the room was a sea of red and green wrapping paper and ribbon. Fiona had served ham, since it was Mom’s favorite.
Corey had received every video game and DVD he’d requested. Even I was flabbergasted when Rose opened the door to the screened-in back porch and returned with a BMX bike for him. While he squealed and Mom smiled sweetly, the pocket of my sweatpants vibrated. I’d received a text from Evan. He said he’d successfully escaped participation in the Horned Men dance and did I want him to join us. I texted back, Not yet.
I’d been given a lot of awesome presents as well. Mom gave me a textbook on human physiology I’d wanted for months. Fiona gave me a new notebook computer she said I would need for school. Rose gave me gift cards for downloading music, movies and e-books. Finally, they pulled the big present out from behind the tree. It was a pamphlet.
Huh?
I looked at the title which said, ‘Eastern Panhandle Driving School’. My heart leapt into my throat.
“Driving?” I asked, completely caught off guard. In California it was legal to get a provisional license, or learner’s permit, at the age of fifteen-and-a-half, but since car insurance was so outrageously expensive for teenage drivers, and because the Blue bus went everywhere I needed to go, I’d never considered taking driving lessons.
Rose answered my unspoken question. “If you’re gonna live here, you’ll need to know how to drive.”
“Driving…” I said again, this time with awe in my voice. Then, as the idea captured me, and I pictured myself with that much freedom, I squealed. I jumped up and hugged both Rose and Fiona. Mom just smiled.
Our gifts to Mom were all home-made and hand-crafted. I’d sent Fiona a bunch of family photos which she’d turned into a fluffy picture quilt. Rose had made a bunch of candles scented in Mom’s favorite types of flowers. We placed them in a perimeter all around the bed so the room was filled with fragrance. Corey and I had made food: fudge, gingerbread cookies and brownies, although we knew she’d never eat it all. She’d had practically no appetite for weeks.
Eventually the celebration was over and we all ended up dozing by the fire together. Corey was tucked in under the new quilt snoring softly, his arms wrapped around Mom. I snuggled into her other side. Rose and Fiona dozed in their chairs. At one point, I felt movement above me. Fi was using her magical healing hands technique to check on Mom’s condition. I used my healer vision to look also. Then I looked at Fi, she nodded her head and increased the pain medicine on the IV drip as high as the governor would allow it to go.
Just as the first rays of Alban Arthan, the Winter’s Light, came streaming through the stained glass inset on the front door of the cabin, making a rainbow pattern throughout the foyer, the colors in my mother’s aura started to fade. As the jewel-toned light spilled into the kitchen, her light dissipated into a translucent whisper, and disappeared.
She was smiling, and I fervently wished that it meant she had found my father, and they’d left together.
I texted Evan. Now.
Corey must have sensed my movement because it woke him. He took one look at Mom and started bawling.
I had barely skirted around the bed to envelop Corey in my arms before Evan burst through the front door. The sacred meadow wasn’t far away but still, there was no way Evan had been waiting there. He must have been hiding in Fiona’s driveway. Both of us held my brother, talked to him, rubbed his back.
Nearly forty minutes passed b
efore he stopped crying. I envied his ability to let it all out. I had no tears. Behind us Rose and Fiona followed the nurse’s instructions. They made phone calls. Eventually, people arrived. She was examined and given an official time of death. All the arrangements had been made in advance, so now the plans were executed. People took my mother’s body away, still draped in her new quilt.
There was nothing more to do than sleep. I tucked Corey into the camp bed in Fiona’s home office. Rose had set herself up on an air mattress in the sitting room of Fiona’s master suite. That left me in her bedroom. Evan tucked me in then lay on top of the covers holding me. Finally, when it was just the two of us and Corey was sound asleep, I buried my face in his chest, and wept.
Chapter Three
Corey
When I woke-up my head felt like it had been stuffed with cotton. That’s right…I remember…Mom passed away last night. I fell asleep crying into Evan’s t-shirt. Hey, wait a minute…he’s still here. While I’d slept, I’d turned over to lie on my side facing away from him. He draped his heavy, muscled arm around my middle and spooned me. By the sounds of his breathing, he still slept.
The bittersweet realization reminded me how I was an orphan. Neither of my parents would ever hold me like this again. On the other hand, being this close to Evan comforted me. He was truly a kind person.
Of course, several of Fiona’s hand-made quilts enveloped me and Evan lay on top of the covers, fully clothed, but I could still feel skin-on-skin where his arm pulled me close. I took a moment to savor the calmness that washed over me when he held me tightly. He stirred. The moment ended.
I knew the instant he became fully awake. He pulled his arm back as if it had been burned.
I shrugged and made my way to the guest bathroom, just as Corey was leaving.
He still had the toothbrush in his mouth so he mumbled. “You’nd yer boyfriend better stop foolin’ ‘round ‘ngit dressed…” he removed the toothbrush, “Fi says people are coming to visit.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I responded reflexively. Then it hit me. Oh Goddess, we need to warn Corey. Mom had insisted on keeping Corey in the dark, as if hiding the existence of magic would keep any gifts he might have repressed, but Mom was gone and he lived here now, in Magic Central…I’d have to tell him everything.
