When the leaves of his tree shook with laughter, the green goblin knew that Elfie's light step had tickled the toes of the tree on her way up.
The wood elf was small as a fairy, but without wings. "Guess what?" she asked as she settled down next to him on his favorite branch. "I've just seen beets in a bucket!"
"Hmm," the goblin replied, scratching his green head,"isn't it early for beets?"
"Oh, I don't mean picked beets, beets planted in a bucket. On a back porch. I've seen flowers growing in buckets, but never beets!"
photo by Micah C. Brown
The full moon was sliding down behind the riverbank when suddenly a giant shadow drifted across it, wide wings and sharp talons heading straight toward the goblin's tree. With a soundless force that shook the branch, a barn owl landed next to them. He towered over them both.
"Morning, all," he said. "What's new with you?" Elfie ruffled his soft feathers and told him about the beets.
Owl listened without blinking an eye, then said, "A week ago when my hunting took me out beyond the last field, I flew home by way of the city, and I saw that way up on a seventh floor fire escape, someone has built a fairy house in a red bucket. Your beets reminded me."
"What fun!" Elfie said. "Can you take us there? I want to see it!"
The owl began to protest that it was too close to dawn, but the goblin said, "There's plenty of time. And besides, we haven't had an adventure together in ages."
So Owl bent down, and the elf and goblin clambered onto his back. Stretching out his great wings, he waited to catch the morning breeze, then off they went, soaring over the sleepy town, the winding river, fields, farms, another village, then the city itself. The green goblin had made occasional visits to children in the city, but the wood elf had never ventured there before. When they finally landed, she almost tumbled off the owl in her excitement because there on a three-legged stool, among all the other flowerpots on the fire escape, was the fairy house!
While Owl sat on the railing to keep watch, Elfie slipped through the front door into the fairy house, and Goblin set about testing its construction. "Somebody built this to last," he said. "It's weatherproof, and sturdy enough to withstand even the high wind of a helicopter going by."
"And beautiful!" Elfie added, poking her head out one of the tiny windows. "It has a bed, and chairs, and a table inside. This is way better than beets!"
She came out and sat down among some star-shaped flowers. "But fairies don't come this far into the city, so even though they could fly here, they won't. It's too bad."
The green goblin, meanwhile, was peering into a window. "The little girl who's asleep in there has fairy pictures on the wall," he said, "and is wearing pajamas with fairies on them. I do wish we could talk a fairy into living here." He sighed, knowing it would be impossible. Then his face brightened. "But you could!" he said, pointing to Elfie.
"I am NOT a fairy!" said the wood elf. "And besides, I can't fly, so I'd be stuck here, seven stories up in the air."
"But," said the goblin, whose job in life was to make people happy, "it's just your size. And you like it. Couldn't you stay for a little while, like a vacation, just a week? I could sleep among the flowerpots, and Owl here could check on us every night, couldn't you?" Owl nodded wisely. The green goblin used his softest, most persuasive voice: "Just a week?"
Elfie didn't answer.
"Ok, how about just one night?" the goblin went on. "Think about all the work the little girl put into this, and no one ever living here. It would be so sad." He sighed an enormous sigh.
Elfie burst out laughing. "Ok, ok, you win! Let's give it a try today. Just promise you won't leave me here alone."
The goblin promised. Owl agreed to return that night, then took off into the brightening sky.
Now on summer mornings, Keesha liked to take her breakfast out on the fire escape. It gave her a chance to check on her fairy house. Even though it had stayed empty for such a long time, she still hoped, every morning. She opened the window, put her orange juice and oatmeal on the windowsill, and climbed out.
She heard a happy gasp, and saw a green face peeking around her mother's flowers. "Is that maple and brown sugar oatmeal?" the voice asked.
Keesha knew not to talk to strangers, but this stranger was only the size of a large cat, and he was green like Kermit the Frog. "What are you?" she asked. "You're too big for my fairy house, but too small to be a person. And you're green."
"I'm a goblin," he said, "and my favorite breakfast in the whole world is instant maple and brown sugar oatmeal."
"What are you doing here?" Keesha asked.
"I've brought a friend to visit your fairy house," the goblin said. "May I have some of your oatmeal?"
"You brought me a fairy!" Keesha exclaimed. "Oh, where is she?"
Elfie stepped out of the fairy house, her eyes sparkling. "I'm here, but I'm not a fairy. I'm a wood elf."
Keesha looked at Elfie, dressed in the soft colors of the forest, standing by the house Keesha had built with her own hands, and she smiled a smile that lit up the whole morning. "I don't care what you are -- just that you're here! You came! Someone came to my house!" She put out her hand, and Elfie stepped gracefully onto it. Keesha turned to the green goblin. "Thank you," she said. "And yes, you may have all of my oatmeal! I can get myself some more."
Turning back to Elfie she asked, "And what do you like to eat?"
Elfie had rarely eaten people food, so she told Keesha to bring whatever she liked best. The goblin was just polishing off the oatmeal when Keesha came back through the window carrying an egg cup with a small scoop of lemon sherbet and the tiniest doll spoon the goblin had ever seen. Elfie laughed as the sherbet skittered around in the cup while she chased it with the spoon, and she laughed again with delight when she tasted it.
"It's the sweetest thing I've ever eaten!" she said. "Do you have this for breakfast, too?"
"Oh, no, it's supposed to be dinner dessert," answered Keesha. "Don't tell my mum."
The green goblin set a gentle hand on Keesha's arm and said, "We'd best not let your mum know that we're here. Grown-ups don't always understand. We can be your secret for now."
Keesha nodded wisely. "She'll be on the phone all day anyway. She answers questions for something called Amazon that I thought was a river but she says is books."
The green goblin curled up for a nap inside an old gray fedora that had been used to hold garden tools (he took the tools out first). The last thing he saw before he fell asleep was Elfie curled up in the palm of Keesha's hand while the two of them made plans to build a front porch for the fairy house.
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