Iron & Wine

Chapter Seventeen - Acceptance

Chapter Seventeen-Acceptance

We sat across the table from one another, just staring. At least ten minutes passed before anyone spoke. Honestly, I just didn't know what to say but I could tell that Julie had a lot of questions.

"Why is no one speaking?" Lattie finally asked. "Is this a normal way to behave in human custom?" She had been impatiently looking back and forth at us the whole time.

"No Lattie, it's just the way people behave when they're in shock or don't know what to say," I answered her, not taking my eyes off of Julie.

"Oh, well I can solve that problem. Why don't you start Avery? Ask Julie what you are thinking. Ask her what she is," Lattie chirped. Sometimes her social skills weren't the best.

"Ave, I'm sorry that I kept this from you. But, I thought that if no one knew, then it would be easier or something," Julie explained.

It came out all at once. "When, how, why? Do your parents know? Are they..." I was vomiting words now. She held up a hand to signal me to stop.

"I'll tell you everything starting from the beginning, but you have to listen first and judge later," she demanded. I just nodded and sipped on my coffee, remembering Celadine's soft words of advice.

"My parents are not my real parents. But, I wasn't exactly adopted either. I'm a fairy, and sometimes when fey children are born they can be sick or dying. I was one of those babies. My fey parents swapped me with a human infant so they could have a healthy child. They put glamour on me to appear as if I were a rosy pink baby and left me in the cradle in her room. My human parents were not supposed to ever know the difference and I would die from what seemed like natural causes. No one would be the wiser," she explained. Her eyes were far away like she was picturing everything as she said it.

"How do you know this?" I asked her. Surely she couldn't really remember being that young.

"Well, I don't know for sure, but I've been researching this almost my whole life. That's what fairies do. It explains everything. Mom and Dad did have a newborn child before I came into the mix, and I was sick when I was a baby," she continued. "But they wouldn't give up on me. They had been trying for years to have a baby with a lot of failed attempts. When they finally managed to have one, my Mom nearly died in child birth and the doctors told her she could never have babies again.

So, when I became sick, they did everything in their power to make me better. Dad had the best doctors in the country looking at me. But nothing worked. I had a terrible cough, ear infections, the whole works. I was ill for well over a year, when my Mom finally went to extreme measures. She found this witch doctor guy and had him come to the house. After examining me, he told them that I was allergic to metal and that I needed lots of plants in the house to cleanse the air." She laughed at that part.

"He knew what I was of course, but he didn't tell them in fear that they wouldn't want me anymore. Mom and Dad got rid of almost all of the metal objects in the house and filled it with plants and flowers, my nursery looked like a greenhouse."