March 28, 2020

This social distancing and sheltering in place has cramped our style. We are fortunate here in the Pfafftown that our yard gives us some space to stretch out and look for frogs in the creek and relax on the swing. And we can go for walks in the road and maybe not even see anyone we need to stay 6 feet away from. We aren’t sick, and I haven’t heard that anyone on our road is even feeling poorly. It’s very different and isolating in other places. We have to be careful and mindful that we might not be protecting ourselves by sheltering in place, but maybe someone we will never meet.

But what happens in this time of social distancing because of COVID19? Can we find ways to keep our distance without losing touch? I don’t know how this would be different if it was wintertime. A friendly neighbor would never have a chance to get inside when we slam the door so quickly to keep out the cold. But it’s Springtime and everyone is cutting the grass and trimming trees and planting flowers and gardens and taking walks. Is it just me, or are we looking for reasons to get outside with other people? I did hug an old friend at Lowe’s on Thursday just out of habit before realizing I shouldn’t have. But aside from that, we keep our distance. But we want to feel like we are all in this together, don’t we? Don’t we want a reason to smile and laugh with one another even if we have to keep 6 feet apart? I’ve had 2 face to face meetings, but still keeping apart, with my back door neighbor in 24 hours, for reasons as banal as pepperoni and begonias. And the begonia meeting turned into a magical quest for fairies with 3 little girls.

It wasn’t too long ago that fairies were all over our yard. They came out to dance with the lightning bugs at dusk, and disappeared before the morning glories opened at daybreak. If they were unable to finish their meal of marshmallows and raisins and Cheerios that Oh Emily would leave for them, they would neatly clean up and not leave any crumbs. That’s how Emily knew they were fairies; trolls would never politely clean up after themselves. And we did have trolls. Emily and Ava damn near caught one. I still don’t know how he escaped from that string trap, but all that was left was a pair of tattered blue jeans, (just about the size a Barbie doll would wear). And those trolls used to make fun of Brad the Elf on the Shelf for wearing the snowflake skirt. Brad was never one to defend himself, which is why he was an easy target for the leprechaun who threw a flower pot on his head. Haven’t heard much from Brad lately. It’s a shame since he used to write love letters to Emily every month. And Emily used to say she saw the Pfaffsquatch in our woods, but she was convinced that ponies were make-believe.

I spent a few hours planting flower pots today. I spruced up the fairy village that Emily quit tending quite a while ago. I didn’t see hide nor hair nor wings of any fairies last summer, which made me so sad. I don’t know…maybe they never really did come around. But I think they did. I think they stopped believing that anyone believed in them, so they moved on.

But begonias. I offered to share some spare begonias with my Mo3D neighbor. The Mother of 3 Daughters said she’d like to have them, and that turned into 3 Littles rearranging my fairy village. It seems I had the whole thing set up wrong. They moved this and that, and the whole time I didn’t see hide nor hair of Oh Emily. (That’s alright; I still believe in her, and she will manifest again when she is hungry or when she needs help with math.)

The Littles giggle a lot and one of them really fretted and hollered over a bee. You forget how much noise can come out of Littles. But I kept hearing…no I probably didn’t hear anything. I’m sure it was my imagination. It sounded like tiny wings flapping. It must have been the birds. They love my bird feeders. But the sounds coming from the creek…of course we did see the frogs in the water, so that explains it. I did tell the Littles to leave all the fairy house doors open wide and we can check them tomorrow. If the doors are closed then we know there must have been fairy visitors. But the squirrels and chipmunks dash and dart through here, and their tails could close the doors. But I’ll check tomorrow morning and just see. Who knows. Now that PFT has new Littles who believe, maybe the fairies will come back to play, and maybe Oh Emily might try to come take a look.