Chapter 6 - Fairy Godmother

               As soon I made my last mark on the scroll, it whipped shut and disappeared. I snapped my head up to the Crone and looked my question at her.

              “Don’t fret now, you will start to adjust to our ways of doing things very quickly, I have no doubt. And as the contract stated, should you ever wish to make adjustments to our agreement, you have only to ask, and we can decide together on how to proceed. If you decide you no longer wish to participate at any time, we can handle that situation as well. But for the moment, would you like to meet our first interviewee? I know you’re not ready to begin recording, but I thought it might be fun to give you a taste of what we will be working on.”

              I was already in neck-deep, so why not jump all the way in? “Sure,” I said, “who is it?”

              “I thought we would begin with some stories you are more likely to be familiar with, at least in their modern conceptions. I assume you know the story of Cinderella?”

              “Yes, I do. Well, I’ve seen the cartoon movie. I think it comes from a French story? And maybe there’s a Grimm brothers’ version too? I don’t know much about those.”

              She beamed. “Oh wonderful, I’m so glad you know about those! Don’t worry about the details at this point, we will get more into human story version research as we go – it would certainly help to have your perspective as we work on developing interview questions.”

              I started to realize she wasn’t just interested in using my equipment, but there were likely other reasons she wanted human involvement in this project.

              “So you know the basic story,” she continued, “and that there are different versions. In each one the details vary, but the basic idea is that a delightful young woman loses her mother and finds herself in an unpleasant situation. Through some type of magical intervention, she manages to dress herself beautifully and escape to wealth and happiness. I believe there is usually something about a shoe involved as well.”

              I nodded, “the glass slipper, in the one I know.” She laughed. “Ah yes, what an impractical thing. But either way, would you like to meet our character? You would know her best as ‘The Fairy Godmother’.”

              With that, she plunged her hand under another fold of her dress, and drew it forth to display a little bird sitting on her extended finger. It was small, maybe 5 or 6 inches tall, with a dainty face and beak, striking blue feathers trimmed with white, and a pale yellow breast. It eyed me sharply, quirking its little head to one side as if taking me in.

              “Hello,” I said, “it’s very nice to meet you.” The bird quirked its head the other way, turning to eye me from the other side. Then it looked up at the Crone. “Go ahead,” the Crone said, “it’s why we’re here after all!”

              The bird rustled a moment, then hopped up off the finger. So quickly I couldn’t see how it happened, a small, plump woman appeared standing beside the Crone, with brilliantly blue hair tipped with white and a pale yellow dress. “Well, hello yourself.” She sounded brisk, but not unkind. “It’s been a while since I’ve spoken to a human.” She looked around my office, quirking her head in a very bird-like way as she took in the computer. “Things certainly have changed. And it wouldn’t kill you to have a few plants in here. You don’t even have a window, though, so I suppose you couldn’t keep them alive.”

              “Oh, well, I could look into getting some plants.” I was caught off guard, and defaulted to accommodating. “As for the window, I could get some grow lights. They simulate sunlight for indoor plants.” She snapped her gaze back to me. “Simulated sunlight? Fascinating. Unnatural to be sure, by definition really, but fascinating.”

              The Crone threw her head back and laughed again, clapping her hands together. “Wonderful! I knew this was going to be entertaining. We are off to a delightful start!”