by Sarah Earlene Shere, Hosanna Heralds, ©2022
(Oct. 31, 2022) — [See previous installments in this series here.]
Roland held Cassandra close as the wind swirled around them. The leaders of the town stood, huddled, at a distance. All were watching in amazement and wonder as the mysterious visitor was lifted into the air. The floating yellow, red and orange leaves began to envelop her, like a cocoon. Her two friends saw her turn her gaze toward them and smile before she vanished from their sight.
Suddenly, the wind stopped, and all was deathly still. One of the leaders muttered, “Good riddance,” as they straightened themselves and walked back toward their homes and places of business.
Cassandra gently pulled away from her uncle’s arms. Taking his hand, they began to wander within the graveyard. “Uncle Roland, why were we the only ones who could hear Victoria when she finally spoke?”
“I suppose it’s as she said: only the innocent (like you) can hear her.”
“And those who are kind, like you.” They stopped and studied the headstone of one of the town’s founders before the child spoke again. “Victoria said she had been guarding this town since humans first settled here, when people still believed in the spirits of the earth, like fairies, like herself. But then she and her kind had to start disguising themselves by taking on other forms when people started accusing them of being witches. Why did she take on a human form and come to see us?”
Roland knelt down and looked steadily into his niece’s face. “You heard what she said: every couple of hundred years she shows herself to those who can be trusted to care for the weak, the poor, the oppressed and the outcasts. It’s up to you and me to be her ambassadors, to continue to live our lives for others, rather than ourselves. Like Victoria and her kind, we are sort of guardians of our piece of the world; not only us, but all who are kind of heart and are as innocent in their love and trust as a child.”
“Do you think Victoria will find more like us, if she comes back and looks in another two hundred years?”
“I pray so, my love. I truly pray so!”