I Wish

Chapter 40

There was a lot of stone in this castle. It probably had something to do with that being the main building component involved, but if it was any colder here, the whole place would probably be a giant frostical. It should have been, but that would have made sense and nothing like that ever happened in this world. Considering the only rule that I could seem to find was that physics are all sorts of optional, and they thought humans were intellectually cute. It was never really cold here, occasionally a little warm, or perfectly pleasant but even when it rained the temperature remained mild and temperate. It still should have been colder, but it was like nothing could hold on to it. Not in the walls, or the floor, or the ceiling. If I didn’t know better I’d say that they had some kind of magic heating. Actually that was a thought, for all I knew that was exactly it. They’d tried to soften the stone a little. Wooden floorboards and layers of rugs on the floors, tapestries on the walls, and other various bits of art, and silky looking dark green curtains that framed large stained-glass windows. Every inch of every available surface was covered in flowers and plant life.  All of it perfectly healthy, without a wilted flower or a brown spot anywhere. Ivy deftly led us out of the castle and into the back garden. They seemed to be big fans of glassware too, in fact the only thing I noticed that they didn’t have lots of lying around was metal. In fact I don’t think I could remember seeing anything metal, the entire time I’d been here.

“What do you think?” she asked with a mysterious twinkle in her eye, and whoa… She was not being smug for nothing, this place was… whoa! I was currently too stupefied to find a better adjective than that, because this was nothing like anything I had seen in the human world. It looked like what they were shooting for, in movies. The soft evenly green grass had been laid out with a hundred or so white painted tables with rustic looking chairs surrounding them. There were flowers everywhere. Riots of them. All of the colours you could imagine and some you can’t. In the garden beds, on the tables and in the grass. The bugs that they attracted should have been disgusting, but that didn’t bother me at all. I wasn’t sure if I was lost in how gorgeous everything was, or more likely, because I was an Australian. As excuses go regarding what some people might call ‘unreasonable actions by wildlife,’ it covered waaaay more than you think. Find another country where one of the animals on their national emblem literally wants to box on, kangaroo’s are no joke and they aren’t even the tip of the iceberg. There were a lot of bugs. We’ve got Mosquitoes and flies, not to mention the blow flies which are massive and the only thing more annoying than the regular flies because it was like someone turned up the volume, and the toe pinchers, massive flying cockroaches, and the spiders. Oh my god, do not even get me started on the spiders. What they had going on here was something else entirely. Don’t get me wrong, I was really hoping today wasn’t the day I found out I was allergic to bees, but the way the buzzed around mingling with brightly coloured butterflies was beautiful.

“Formal what?” I blurted out, and she laughed at me… with me? I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t feeling offended about it. There was no way that some human dance with chaperones could ever compare to this. I didn’t care how large and pink the stretch hummer would have been. She linked our arms together and downright escorted me in. People bowing their heads and respectfully murmuring “Your Majesty,” under their breaths as we passed. Logically I knew she was a queen, it still didn’t make it any less weird for me to witness the adoration. “This really is something else, and I’m glad because I would have been pissed if I’d made my poor legs carry me all the way out here for nothing,” I told her, unable to stop smiling every time hints of pride showed on her face. It was cute how happy it made her. Ivy thought my comment was hilarious, as she walked us at a table for two right in the centre. There were roses, and I just knew that it was intentional. Briefly I wondered if it was self-centred of me to wonder if all of this was something that they did, or if she’d done it all for me. I would not be disclosing which of the two options I found preferable, but I’m sure you could take a wild guess.

“See, and there are even people. More and more of them will be filling in every minute,” she informed me, almost bouncing in her seat in delight because she knew that she had something that I wanted, and well… at least she wasn’t hiding her manipulation anymore. In the mood I was in, it was mostly just cute rather than offensive or infuriating. Which beats being mad by a long shot, because I had spent more time angry in the time I’d met Ivy than I had in a long time. I was just so over it by now, and I couldn’t seem to turn it off, so if I could avoid that mess I most certainly would be.  It was also probably pretty unfair that I was assuming she was manipulating me, but it was almost certainly the case. Enough of a chance that I wasn’t about to be charmed so easily. I had some self-repentance to do, and some self-respect to reacquire. Despite all this, the thing about Ivy choosing to manipulate me is that she never wastes it on things that don’t work. Almost unconsciously, I nudged my chair closer to her.

“It figures that I wanted to go outside and meet the people, and now because of the lockdowns it's all very unnerving. I just… I haven’t been around people in a long time, so when you bring me places I’m cheering… I’m also really overwhelmed, and kind of freaking out. It’s good though,” I said watching them walk in and take seats. Random scatterings of musician’s moving to take their places.

“How so?” Ivy asked me curiously. There was a glimmer of concern that made me want to wash it away, I didn’t want her doubting that I wanted to be here. I very much wanted to be her, it was just a lot. So I explained that as best as I could, and tried not to get distracted by all of the people moving around me. Doing all sorts of interesting things.

“Four. It’s the number of people, not myself, I’ve interacted with in person for over a year,” I informed her pretending to examine the lacey tablecloth, “There are no masks here, and even when the only place I’ve seen them is on TV… I didn’t realise how much it affected me. No need to keep over a metre between us, while interacting only when unavoidable. I haven’t heard about the word's infection, transmission, restrictions, jab, vax, passports, or cases since I’ve been here. Not one single time, the entire time, I have been here. It was like I didn’t realize how badly we’d been affected, until I came here and it stopped.” It was weird, knowing I was living with this feeling but this was the first time that I could put words to it.

“Well, so long as I live, here is a place that will always welcome you,” she said kindly, and I appreciated her patience, not simply demanding that I stay here. Perhaps she’d learned?  In lieu of answering, I turned my gaze to the table. I don’t know what kind of tea this was, but if I’d ever seen anything like this before, I hadn’t been paying attention. This looked like a kid's magic potion building station, with strange powders, and dishes full of fruit. Strange whisk looking things, cream, ice… lots and lots of ice, and a rose-gold coloured metal teapot with steam coming out of the top. Then there were servers walking around with plates of tiny pastries, and finger sandwiches. There were crêpes and cupcakes, and oh boy, Ivy was not wrong about this being a little kid's dream.

“I think you might make tea very differently here,” I said blankly, all other words that might acknowledge her statement running for the hills and leaving me with this particularly clumsy misdirect to compensate. 

“Here, let me show you,” she said brightly and took a large, tall glass in front of her. In a dish in the centre there were these strange round looking things that she scooped into the bottom of her glass. The penny dropped.

“Oh, we’re making bubble tea. One of my friends is obsessed with this stuff, but I was always too much of a coffee lover to give it a go. Not when my preference for coffee without being willing to try anything else low-key triggered her,” I said excitedly. Candice hated that.

“If humans trigger their friends for fun, then we may have less of a culture gap than I thought,” she commented idly. Hindsight kicked in, and I realised exactly how bad that sounded. She was mixing up some tea and leaving it to cool as we talked.

“We have a weird friendship, but it works for us, and we’ve been playing netball together since we were tiny,” I said, not sure if I was trying to excuse myself, or making it clear that I wasn’t. Strangely, I wondered what Candice was doing right now. Not the crap on tic tok or f*******:, but what was actually going on for her right now. It wasn’t even like I could use the former to speculate about it because I hadn’t had access to my phone in… long enough that I was halfway in between being secure with the fact that I didn’t need it, and gluing it to my hand the second I got home and refusing to move out of range of a charger cord or Wi-Fi for the next month or so. Wisely, I chose not to mention any of this to Ivy. 

“So I can make you whatever?” she asked excitedly, predictably as interested in hearing about me interacting with someone outside of here as I thought she would be. That is to say, not at all. She’d topped her glass with ice, and poured the tea into her glass. A shot of some kind of amber, strong smelling alcohol followed. Milk went in last, and I’ll admit it looked as good as anything Candice had brought in from a café. 

“Surprise me. Make me something pretty,” I requested, shaking my head at her enthusiasm. What I ended up with was beautiful. The little bubbles, tea, and then some sort of purple powder. There was a clear shot of alcohol of some sort, and then milk poured over the top. Taking a small mouthful it was sweet, and delicious, and just a little bit spicy from the rum she’d put in there. Now I was tasting it, I could definitely taste rum.

“Good?” she asked, and for a moment everything was so nice that my brain actively went hunting for that other shoe that was waiting to drop.

“I feel like I should have asked before drinking any, or coming here actually, but this is a drug-free event yeah?” I replied, and she laughed like I was trying to crack her up.

“No, there are no drugs here. At least not ones that are supposed to be, and certainly not at our table. Now would it kill you to just relax and enjoy yourself?” Ivy chuckled and kissed my hand. One day, what was the worst that could happen if I just stopped being so uptight just for today? I guess it really just depended on which way you spun it, now, didn’t it.