The Green Fairy

I died again today, but I always came to in the same New Orleans drinking place. The dimly lit building with windows hiding under wood shutters meant protection against the strong storm raging outside.  I slowly got up from the booth I woke in, and sluggishly worked my way over to the bar and took a sat in one of the tall round bar stools with no back.

 I looked up, in the reflection in the mirror over the bar across from me, my eyes locked on the front window. Something was off about it but I couldn't figure out what in the fog of my mind. I turned back to the archaic bar. There were bottles of booze everywhere with thick dust on them, but as I look around there wasn’t one person anywhere.

 When I looked back up in the mirror I was astounded. I quickly took my gaze off the mirror, turned in the stool, to see a dark-haired man come waltzing through the door. He wore a top hat, a large rose colored dress with a rose in his mouth, and yes, he was actually waltzing.

I turned to laugh at the silliness of the moment, but everything was suddenly different. My first thought was what happened to the stash of dusty bottles? But then I caught his gaze in the mirror, drawn into the saturnine look of his eyes. Had Jim Morrison come back from the dead too, I thought?

 

As the man danced towards me, I spied a green bottle in his hand Absinthe...The Green Fairy!

Absinthe, I love the stuff; wonder who he is, this handsome hunk?

He leaped into the air like a prima ballerina and lightly landed in a chair...and motioned for me to come and sit down on the dusty seat next to him.

I thought, I'll just wait for someone else to join him...but this place was empty and so lonely. He smiled as I stood to walk over to him.

 "People call me Two Screws Loose Lautrec," he said as I took a seat.  He pulled out two shot glasses and a special spoon with sugar cubes from under his large loose dress.

 

Why was he wearing a dress? Is he Scottish? No! It's a ballet dress more correctly, a Tutu. Am I dreaming? No of course not, I am dead, again.

So I reluctantly joined T.S.L. Lautrec for a drink. I took the glass he offered. “Cheers,” we say smiling. But before the glass touches my lips someone called out. “Put some proper pants on!”  I turned towards the sound and to my surprise someone was now behind the bar.  Where did he come from?

 The bartender shouted at him again, making a fuse over the state of his clothing. "Put some proper pants on, now!" he fumed. "Or I'll call the sheriff down to buy you a pair,” He shook his head looking at T.S. L. adding, “With his own money, no doubt!"

There is a sheriff of the dead?  Who would want that job; I mean what else could he do? You’re already dead.  This place was crazy, a man waltzing around in a Tutu, a living dead bartender too who popped out of nowhere and now a sheriff enforcing the laws for the dead. Gawd!!   How can I get out of here?

 I down the glass of Absinthe beginning to remember something. There is a way to get back to life, if I could only remember what to do.

 Why do I keep thinking, Green Fairy?

"What's your name, miss?" T.S.L. asked as he poured me another drink, completely ignoring the bartender's outburst.

For a moment I couldn’t remember, it seems as if my name was some kind of mist I can’t grasp. I tried to think but nothing came.  Then I just said the first name that came to my mind. “Jane Avril,” I told him.

"Why are you wearing a tutu?" I asked.  I had a feeling confusion was written all over my face because he frowned in a mocking fashion.

 "Two Screws Loose, that didn't give you a clue?” He stepped down from the chair and spun around. “Actually you wouldn't believe how comfortable this thing is." I watched as he spun around, dancing and laughing like a child at play. I was almost tempted to join him. Moments later he suddenly stopped and took a seat next to me, smiling pleasantly.

"Now let’s talk about the Green Fairy." T.S.L. looked around the empty bar like he's making sure nobody is listening, and then he continues in a hushed tone. “You know she's the only one who can get you out of this place."

“How do I find her,” I asked anxious, ready to leave this craziness.

 He cocked his head to one side. “Well, my lady Jeanne Beaudon, being that’s your real name, this isn't a tutu but a can-can dress which I'm gifting to you. You will be famous in all of France...and beyond.”

 

 

I didn’t ask him that, I wanted to know about the Green Fairy. But I looked into those eyes of his and saw myself dancing. He stepped out of the dress and the stilts and became about four plus feet tall, yet a giant in my eyes.  He held it out  for me and I accepted it.

 Not even a moment later I was in the dress and to my surprise it fit perfectly, as if made only for me as I spun around like a school girl.  “He's right, it is comfortable," I muttered, hoping he didn’t hear.

 

"Would you like to dance with me to get use to the dress, my lady?" he asked bowing to me.  I stared down on him with a look of fear. I was worried I would step on him, how had he become so small?

 

"Of course," I said. "But what about getting out of this place?"

 

"You might not worry about that...once you pick me up and we begin," he guffawed. "Bartender! Do you have 'One Day I will Kill You' on your Juke?"

 

The bartender shook his head. "Juke's broken, but I play a fine kazoo if that'll suit you?" We nodded and the Bartender began to play.

 

I, in all my days, never heard the blues played so well on the kazoo!

 

"That's fine," T.S.L. replied with a small smile as we begin to dance.

We danced until dawn, that when the bartender opened the windows, the storm had passed and the sun shone through bringing with it light and hope.  It was time for the Green Fairy. Would I finally get to go home?

I looked over at T.S.L. who small frame sat in a chair looking sleepy, but he was smiling at me.  I'm having such a good time, I have to admit; do I really want to leave this place?

“Are you ready?” T.S.L. said, climbing down from the chair.

 “Ready?” I was confused, “for what?”

“For the magical Green Fairy,” he said, just as perplexed by my question. “It’s time.”

T.S.L. points to the bartender, I turn in time to see the puff of green smoke engulfing the bartender. I can see his silhouette being transforms into a beautiful fairy, a Green Fairy.  When the smoke dissipated I could see her clearly. She stood only inches taller that T.S.L. with pointed ears and an angelic face. Her skin was the color of summer grass and her smile out shinned the morning sun. When she spoke it sounded like a spring rain shower. “Hello dear!”

“What, how?”

“Well let’s take them one at a time. What I’m I, I’m a Dryad and this if my establishment.” She spreads her arms wide. “T.S. L. is a Leprechaun and a dear friend.” She smiles at him and he bows. She turns back to me. “ How did you get here, you died and I brought you here.”

“You …brought me here?”

She smiles nodding. “I always bring you here.”

I let that sink in. “So, you are a Dryad and he’s a Leprechaun then what I’m I?”

“You’re a sprite dear one, a wanderer. You go out into the world and experience life and once that life ends you returned to us for a night of laughter and play until the dawn. Then you leave us again. You have done this many times.”

“So I return to the living?”

She nodded. I look at T.S. L. he nods too although sadly.

 Suddenly I remember everything. Jeanne Beaudon was my first incarnation, but not my last. I have returned to the living many times in many manifestations to help humans.

“It’s time you return my dear,” the Green Fairy said, with her wide welcoming smile but somehow it’s sad too.  She approaches me with a long thin stick in her hand, and I know it’s her wand. I don’t want to leave; I want to stay here with my friends with my...

 I hold up my hands to stop her. “Wait! Who will I be this time,” I asked, stopping her from waving it over me.

“Only you know the answer to that,” she said.

She kisses my cheek before waving the wand over me.  The last thing I see are the tears falling from my mother’s eyes.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 15.10.2013

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