Far Away and Øther Places

Once in the Red Forest

Before

It was on the hill right outside of town that the Laceway children last saw their mother. She was a lovely young woman and as they walked through the town people waved to her and her small army of children trailing her. The oldest was Jamie- and because his father was in the capital visiting his brother the nine year old boy was the man of the house. He walked straight with a serious look on his face and he held the 3 year old twins hands in his. So as they walked past people so first the the young boy leading the tottering twins with his little sister Alice May following him, carrying the basket of food. Their mother held her newborn brother and looked like pure peace and joy that day.

When they got to the hill into a pleasent valley outside of town she lay back on it and let the sun warm her face and she and her baby slept. Jamie unpacked the basket and served the sandwiches his mother packed to his siblings and they all ate the picture of obedience until little Henry tugged on little Henrietta's braid and it all dissolved into chaos. They fought until that grew boring and soon all the children were laughing and running down into the valley were a small stream wound.

Jamie and Alice May dipped their little siblings toes into the the stream and got soaking wet without any supervision. Alice May wove flowers into all of their hair- even Jamie whose hair was as long as hers anyways at shoulder length. Then they sat in a ring around the eldest of all of them and held court.

"The natives have kings- the island empire does too," Jamie began in a proud voice.

"That's our king too right?" Alice May chirped, she kne the answer but she wanted to hear him say it.

"Yes, he's the king of the colonies too. Now as I was saying, we got kings of fairies in all of their courts. Every country across the sea got's a king- but did you know the fish have a king?"

They all shook their heads no.

"He is king of every river in the world, in the Homeland and the Øther. This river is part of his court too. What do you think he looks like?" He asked his siblings, kneeling down so he was at their level.

"Like da," said Henry.

"Yeah, but like a duck too," Alice May added, her mind filled with fairy tale illustrations of fairy kings.

Henrietta picked up a smooth rock from the ground that was moss covered and slimy in her hand, "like this!"

"You are all right," Jamie told them and they smiled with pride. He is king of fish and ponds and streams and all sorts of things. He is big like dad and has a big nose and dark eyes and a scratchy beard. But no one would mistake him for dad because this king is not even human. He has a crown of feathers growing in his hair which is green and made of moss and instead of arms he has wings and instead of human legs he's got skinny orange legs with webbed feet."

Jamie kept spinning his story about this duck king starting with his years as a prince and his brother and sisters were captured by his words. None had eyes for their sleeping mother and none knew when she left. They were only alerted to anything amiss when baby Mercer started to sob.

The baby was curled alone on the blanket their mother had been resting on and their mother Mary Grace Laceway was nowhere to be seen.

Jamie did not want to be the man of the house anymore. He was scared. Eventually he Alice May, only 7, sit with the baby and the twins and he set of to the town. As soon as he had made his way out of his sibling sight he started to cry. It was getting late now and he was scared.

The people of the town Redcradle remember well the young boy with dripping clothes shivering in the near night coming into town. They had seem him walk through earlier and now he walked up to the first adult he saw and informed him, "my mom's gone."