She laughed at me when I asked if she remembered. She called me a fool! Then she got a sly look on her face and took my hand. I followed her down the river path that led deeper into the woods. We passed over the river and crossed through an area that was completely over grown with Ivy. Finally we came to her desired spot. At the foot of an oak tree in soft mossy knoll, she kneeled and bowed toward the tree. Then from her pocket she pulled a small silver spoon. A silver spoon that looked suspiciously like the spoon we were using for jam this morning. In the spoon she placed a bit of sugar from her pocket and laid both on top a mossy log with bright red mushrooms sprouting out of it. She then stood, took my hand and pulled me into a dance. Awkwardly at first, but she gave me a look that said to trust her. Her eyebrows were raised in question and her smile was inviting and playful. I decided that I would in fact trust her and so became a willing participant in her deep woods ritual. When we finally finished dancing, in a bout of laughter we plopped onto the soft moss. She gestured with her head to the log. There, in the spot where the spoon was, sat 2 acorn caps filled with a clear amber liquid. She smiled and raised the acorn in a toast. As I looked upon her with a ray of sun streaming across her grinning face in the frivolity of the moment, I was flashed back to the memory of having done this ritual many times as a youth! This was even the tree that we had claimed as our clubhouse! Of course she remembered everything, it was I who forgot! I raised the acorn to cheers and we drank the warm bitter sweet liquid. We then laid back on the soft green moss and talked about things we remembered from being youths in the woods. There were so many situations in which we would have seemed in grave danger, but somehow our childhood innocence pulled us through. And the resilience! On one occasion we were chased and bitten and scratched for having picked the wrong flower in a protected grove, the very next day we were back in the same grove! Imagine an adult having the first experience, never again would they take a walk in the woods. The faeries enjoy children for these reasons. Adults have so often been ruined by the ‘civilization’ that has been forced upon them. Our beautiful, individual, rough and natural surfaces have been polished off to resemble every other lump of rock. Anyone who still has a rough spot is pointed out and chastised. We do as we are told, because we were trained like dogs to do so. But children, they are so open to any possibility! They haven’t learned what beliefs are allowed by the civilized. They do as they please, even traveling to other dimensions and back in a single afternoon. Lying there in the soft moss, I felt it again. That beautiful warm peaceful and wild detachment from the world, I was free. Free from the responsibilities of society, free from the responsibilities I had set on myself. I have a feeling I will be chasing this moment for the rest of my life.
-Edward Grayson Stone (Journal Entry 15)
