[Increase, Work]
Lu, Becker and I were just finishing our supper but before we left the table to start getting ready for our book club.
Becker said.”I wanted to tell you two something, but I don’t want you to freak out ok.”
“Oh, that really inspires confidence, Paula.”
“Especially you Rose.”
“Why especially me?”
“Because you are invested?”
“Invested in what?”
“Beckracken”
“So that old pervert charmed you, did he, do you have any idea how old he is?”
“Who”
“Sparky”
“Euu no, he is too old and snarky.”
“I thought up a better ship name for you too, Becken, get like beckon.”
“I get it Rose and it is a terrific ship name, only a writer could come up with.”
“Now you’re just flattering my ego.”
“Is it working?”
“Of course it’s working, who’s the lucky guy?”
“Eldara!”
“Well why didn’t you just say you switched teams, we could have skipped all that ship name stuff, Pauldara.”
“So you’re not mad?”
“Not me but you’re telling Salome, I’m not crushing a young girl's dreams.”
“I’ll just point out that he’s available now and I could introduce them, when she turns eighteen of course.”
“Now dish Paula, how many dates with Eldara? Is it official? Will you make an announcement tonight?”
“One date so far, she said if the good night kiss was good there would be a second, and it’s planned for tomorrow night.”
“We’re so happy for you, so you plan on sticking around then?”
“If it’s ok, I’d love to stay a little while longer, I wanted to ask Lily about an apprenticeship and you paid me so much money, I’m thinking of getting an apartment.”
“This is terrific news and Eldara really seems like such a nice person.”
“She is, she really is, I sat in at the library while she did story hour for the kids and she was just wonderful.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Then some more of the book club arrived. Nim carried a keg of beer under one arm and a box of homemade pretzels in another. Lu helped her set up the keg in the library annex and brought some beer mugs from the sideboard where helpfully and magically they appeared. Juliet jumped in. We hugged. I introduced her to Nim and got her and I a mug of the homemade beer, which was delicious and I don’t usually drink beer. Lily and Salome and Talbert came in next.
I grabbed Nim and introduced her to the latest arrivals then I introduced her to Daisy and Doug. She thanked Daisy profusely for everything that Daisy had done to help free her daughter from the kidnappers.
Then Eldara arrived carrying a bottle of wine. Which she promptly dropped as she cried.
“What is that doing here?” While pointing at Nim.
“Ehhh, Elf.” replied Nim as she quickly put up her fists.
“Whats going on here? Do you two know each other?”
“I didn’t know you were elf lovers. Thank you for saving my daughter, but I’m leaving.”
“Don’t bother, dwarf, you think I’d stick around a room that smells of dwarf, no way.”
“What is this about Eldara, Nim?” asked Rose.
“They stole our land.” Nim said.
“Did not, we paid a dwarf for that land. Hence it became our land. You people have been trying to get it back ever since.”
“Eldara, That dwarf didn’t own the land and had no right to sell it. Just because you pay a con man doesn’t mean you own what they sell.”
“What land is this?” I asked.
“Quintessence.” They both said in unison.
“That was thousands of years ago. What possible relevance could it have now?”
“Doesn’t matter. We’re still at war.” They both replied.
“How is that even possible?”
“After we beat the dwarfs at the Battle of Quintessence, the dwarfs went home to the Mithril Mountains. We haven’t spoken since.”
“So neither of you can be civil in my home, because of something that happened thousands of years ago, to people I can only assume are long dead. Reasons being tall, thin, pointed ears, short stout, rounded ears. Well you can both get out I won’t have racists in my home. I feel very sorry for the mean little lives you lead, to hate someone for such petty reasons you both are despicable. GET OUT!”
They both left pretty quickly. I cleaned up the broken wine bottle with Lu’s help. Then I apologized to everyone.
“I’m sorry, I broke the fellowship before it began. But when I was a young girl I read this book about racists written by a fourteen year old girl. She and her entire family hid in an attic for two years before they were arrested and the fifteen year old girl died in a prison camp. Less than seventy years ago in the two Paula’s supposedly free country people of color had a special book of the places they were allowed to eat, the hotels they were allowed to stay in. Doug, could you make eleven copies of the Diary of Anne Frank. It’s a heartbreaking book, but I never imagined I lived in a world where it still went on. Becker would you mind bringing a copy to Eldara. Lu could you please take a copy to city hall, tomorrow. You are all welcome to stay but I need to go lay down. I’m sorry I spoiled the night.”
Lu came into the bedroom a little while later. Everyone‘s gone Rose, no one blames you, you’re not expected to stop a war thousands of years old.
“It just makes me sad, that sweet little girl, Ilina is going to grow up in a house surrounded by hate and get infected by it. It’s so easy to hate and so hard to love. On top of that I threw Becker’s girlfriend out of the house, now she’s in a horrible position.”
The next morning things didn’t look any better, I went to the book store, came home Lu and I had a quiet night reading to each other. The next morning was much like the prior off to the bookstore. Someone must have told Sparky that something happened because he hasn’t teased me in days.
Then something remarkable happened at the bookstore around lunchtime. Eldara and Nim walked in together, walked up to the counter and said in unison.
“We’re very sorry Rose for the trouble we caused. We both mean that from the bottom of our hearts.”
“Rose, you are an even better librarian than I am. That book made me see past the prejudice and hate drummed into me by my parents. It’s no excuse, Paula explained the context, the war, the Nazi’s everything. We had a long talk about racism in the human world and it’s parallels here.”
“Rose, I don’t want Ilina to grow up and be consumed by hate. Arthur read the book to me last night. He told me that hate is contagious and he didn't want his daughter growing up in it. Then I stayed up all night re-reading it. That could have been Ilina, or Salome, hiding in a cold dark attic. We understand you don’t want anything to do with us anymore. But we wanted you to know that this morning we met up at city hall and had a good long talk, while we can’t say that we’re friends yet, we’ve taken the first step on the road to overcoming the hate that was instilled in us, we hope. Thank you for the book and confronting us honestly.”
“Well, just be ready for the The Fellowship, at next week’s book club and Nim if you could bring another keg of beer, Lu and Paula polished that last keg off already with a little help from me. Eldara, we can always use a nice bottle of wine too.”
“Do you mean it, Rose.”
“Of course I mean it, we need the beer and the wine too.”
