MYSTICAL CREATURES
Prompt - Mystical Creatures : Angles, fairies or other mystical creatures - write about them!
"Hello dear."
I whipped around in shock at hearing a voice from what had been an empty space a minute before.
"Sorry, did I shock you? It must feel like I was creeping up on you." She smiled warmly. Unable to say anything for a few seconds, I took in this mystery woman who'd suddenly appeared in my bedroom. About sixty I thought, middle height, wide hips, sturdy stance, round affectionate face topped with grey curls randomly sticking out form the strangest floral hat I'd ever seen, all pinks and yellows. She wore a woolen twin set in salmon, straight from a 1950s knitting pattern. Her voice was accented in a way that suggested English wasn't her first langage, yet at the same time imitated Home Counties pretensions. There was nothing about her that said threat, but she had mysteriously materialised so i could't be anything but suspicious. She filled the silence.
"No doubt you're wondering who I am dear,and why I'm here. Shall I fill you in on the details?" I nodded. "Let me give you the short version, then you can ask questions afterwards. You are Gemma Stanton, we haven't met before, at least not in the sense you'd mean, but I do know a lot about you. My name is Serena and I, and I know this will come as a bit of a surprise to you dear, I am your fairy godmother."
"What?" I hadn't recovered my articulacy. I wasn't sure my hearing was functioning properly either.
"I did say it would be a surprise, didn't I? You weren't aware I existed, but I can assure you I'm real. And I'm here to help."
"Fairy. Godmother? That's... There's... You can't... Who are you really and whose idea was this?" I was starting to feel annoyed, I'd never been much of a fan for practical jokes.
Serena sighed, still smiling. "Don't worry, this bit is always difficult, everyone finds it hard to believe at first. So maybe i can lay on a little demonstration, to win you over." She smiled even more broadly, appeared to be enjoying herself. "Earlier this evening - and what a lovely night it is, don't you think? - earlier on you were getting a bit exasperated that you couldn't get the chord change right after the middle eight. Try it now."
She'd been listening in, must have been. My window was open, and she'd heard me play the same section of the song over and over, trying to get the transition effect I wanted. But why, how, would it be any different this time?
"I know, I know, what is the crazy old lady talking about? Just humour me dear, go on. You might find something's changed."
I still couldn't think what to say to her, and maybe shattering her daft fantasy would be a way to bring this charade to an end, so I turned back to the keyboard. Picked up the tune a few bars from the end of the eight and... played something I'd never played before, a natural progression that lifted all that gone before and transformed the whole song. How the hell had that happened?
I played it again. It felt so right, so natural, I wondered why I hadn't thought of it right from the start. I turned back to face a beaming Serena.
"I hate to say I told you so, but..." She laughed, a laugh decade younger than her voice.
"How did you do that? Did you do that? What happened there?"
"All I did was unlock what was already there inside you. You just hadn't found it yet. But what you just played exactly fits the vision you began with, doesn't it?"
"Uh huh." I still had no idea what was going on. "And that was you doing that?"
"No, no, it was you dear, all you. I just did a little unblocking."
I still had no idea what to say.
"Perhaps one more little gift from me might help convince you?" I said nothing, moved nothing, felt ever more unsure. "You remember you were trying to play that boogie-woogie tune yesterday?" I nodded. "It was giving you a few problems, and you gave up in frustration. I think maybe you should give it another go now. Will you do that for me?"
What else could I do? This was the strangest, scariest, stupefying event of my life so far, but it also felt transformative, even if I didn't have any understanding of what or how, or why. I put fingers to keys again and played. And played. What had seemed so near to impossible the day before flowed from me today. Behind me I could hear dance steps and little whops of joy.
When I turned back Serena was redder of cheek, dishevelled of garb, and the wide smile has somehow got wider. "Oh, I needed that, a good jig about was just what I needed. And now... starting to believe in me yet?"
"Fairy Godmother?"
"Yes dear. But we're not all like Cinderella's you know. Not many of us left these days, it's so hard to get people to believe. And if not enough believe, well, that's it for us. It's belief that keeps us going. So, you see, I need you as much as you may find you need me."
"And why do you think I 'need' you?"
She paused, looked thoughtfully at me, as if considering the best approach to whatever came next.
"D'you mind if I sit down? Bit puffed after the knees up, not as young as I used to be." She moved over to the bed and plonked herself down. "Sorry about the cliches, one of the hazards of the job. Got to slot into the stereotypes sometimes.
"Anyway, to business, if that's OK with you." She swept on without waiting for an answer. "You're seeing a producer on Tuesday and you need to impress him. Do that and your career can take off, fail and you'll be stuck going round the bars doing open mic nights. You've got a good collection of songs, but they're album material, not hits. Or they weren't until a few minutes ago. Keep going from that progression you came out with earlier and you'll find you have something wonderful on your hands. So wonderful that he won't be able to ignore it. Am I right so far?"
Yes. But.. Yes. You're right." I knew she was. I didn't know how I knew, but I did.
"You also need something that bit different to show your versatility. There's a song about the suffragettes in your head, but you've never worked out what form to play it in. But if you use your boogie-woogie abilities..."
She was right. Again. I could hear it in my head, couldn't wait to make a start. But first I had to finish the song I'd been working on. I turned back to the piano, looked at Serena. She nodded. I played, I sang, I wrote. I did it. But when I turned again, triumphant, she was gone.
Had she ever been there?
Two days later I did my thing for the producer, he signed me up immediately, and that was where it began. Today is the twenty first anniversary of the most marvellous, mystifying, mind blowing night of my life. I still have no idea what happened. But I do believe. And I hope Serena's made it to some of my gigs. I hope she danced.
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