"If you're wondering if that extreme discount extends to family members the answer is yes. Have a seat," I said when Lily's mom showed up in my establishment on what seemed like a normal day. Oh, who was I kidding – there were no such things as normal days…
"Love the outfit by the way. Very classy. So what can I get you…?"
She only looked at me, clearly confused by my overly friendly tone. It took me a while to catch up to the fact that this was a woman that spend most of her life feared and despised. Of course she was regarding me with suspicion…
"Sorry. I met your daughter the other day," I said tuning down my smile a bit. "Tiger Lily," I offered. "At your service. Now what can I get you…?"
"Maleficent," she said in reply.
"I know. Unlike me, you're very famous. Is that a pocket watch? I love those things…" I grinned.
"Are you always this talkative?"
"No. I'm a listener, usually. Just have the feeling with you it'll be my job to keep the conversation going," I shrugged. "Now seriously, where did you get that watch? It's really lovely. Kind of a Wonderland vibe, but it still works on you…"
Ignoring my questions she ordered a drink and probably hoped I would move on and focus on other customers – all of whom seemed to go pretty tense in the last few minutes. Clearly they were under the impression I was playing with fire. I wasn't. The other Lily – that would be the by-the-way-I-can-turn-into-a-dragon Lily – actually told me a great deal about her mother and she sounded nothing like the monster we heard about in our homelands.
Not that I was exactly surprised by that. There usually was more than one side to every story.
"So how come you're here?" I said handing her the drink she ordered. "You don't have that I need a drink expression."
"Lily, why don't you stop with the questions…?" said one of my regulars giving me a pleading look, "The lady clearly doesn't want to be disturbed."
"None of us ever wanted to be disturbed, yet here we all are. Sometimes you just don't get a say in these things. All that's up to us is how we cope – now my thing is talking…"
"I noticed," said Maleficent with a grimace that fortunately seemed quite amused.
"But only when I don't get to do the other thing I do so well," I said smiling right back at her. "Which is listen…"
"I've got nothing to tell you young lady," she answered in a tone that didn't really sound like a warning.
And maybe she really thought she didn't have much to tell me, but then again everyone used to think that. Until they didn't.
"Nothing to tell me yet," I smiled. And left her to drink in peace for the time being – but only because the redhead with the funny accent just walked in and she left me mid-narration yesterday. Knowing she might be gone any day now I really wanted to get some more out of her.
"Well hello there. Ale, right?" I said – and that was me pretty much done with preliminaries. "So here's something that's been bothering me. You know how you turned your mother into a bear."
"Is someone likely to forget something like that…?" grinned Anton the Giant before I gave him my let me do my thing look to shut him up.
"And when you turned her back again – you said everyone was there. I assume you meant the other clans…"
"They were," said Merida, clearly not seeing where I was going with this.
"So these guys saw you break a curse right in front of them not to mention fight off a demon bear…"
"My mother did that," corrected Merida.
"Still. You stood your ground while there was a monster attacking you. And they all saw that. And they still thought it was a good idea to go against you? It didn't seem… I don't know, suicidal to them…?"
Merida only laughed so I added. "Not to mention abducting your brothers who used to be bears. I hate to say this but… A lot of your subjects must have a serious death wish."
"That's why I need to return home as soon as possible. Someone needs to keep an eye on them…"
I nodded. She was pretty justified to be in a hurry to get out of town.
"Subjects?" said Maleficent, surprising us all. "Aren't you a little young to be a queen…?"
"Oh, not you too," said Merida, making a face. She's been hearing comments like that her whole life, I was certain – and they didn't always remarked on her age, either.
"Age doesn't really enter into it. Some people were born to lead. Some people were born to creep everyone out," I said nodding my head in the direction of our weirdo of a doctor. "And everyone has the power to rewrite their story. Though why would they – such an awful chore…"
"Are you fine with your story?" asked Merida.
"Are you kidding? I'm living the dream…" I said gesturing at the bar filled with fairy tale characters.
"You have some strange dreams," said Merida shaking her head.
I let that without comment, since it had a lot to do with cultural differences. Besides, she wasn't wrong. It felt as a dream that I now owned both of my lives – the one that was mine and the one that was a sad shadow of it, 28 years long nightmare devoid of magic. I kept the job that was once upon a curse meant to drive me mad with the boredom of it, just to prove myself it really couldn't. And it didn't.
The boredom was long gone now and people still needed to drink their troubles away, especially since we had more trouble than ever. And here I was, feeling very much myself despite the weirdness of my circumstances.
But then, my circumstances certainly weren't the weirdest around. "I know why you're really here, you know," I said returning my attention to the more dangerous of my customers.
"Do you now…" said Maleficent, her expression expressing some serious doubts.
"You want to know if I'm a bad influence. I know the story, you know. Lily told me. Darkness follows her no matter what she does… And you want to know if I'm it," I said keeping my voice low. Strange feeling since I couldn't really remember last time I did that.
"A bad influence? You? You seem such a ray of sunshine," she said. And she probably wanted to make it sarcastic but didn't quite deliver. Well it was hard to say it without meaning it – I was after all.
"I'm exactly what I seem."
"Nosy and incredibly optimistic for someone who's been living in this town for so long…?" she said.
"Curious. Not in a curioser and curioser kind of way… Sooner or later we all need to tell our stories. There should be someone who'll listen – but I really listen. That's why people tell me," I shrugged. She studied me for a long moment, unblinking.
"I don't feel like telling you anything," she said then, very quietly.
"Not yet. That's part of it too. You'll know when the time comes. And now you'll also know where to find me."
She only shook her head at my confidence. Except it wasn't, not really – more of an awareness of my track record. She'll get talkative one day. Not today, that was clear. But then I had others to turn my attention on.
"So you were telling me – before you went completely incomprehensible – that someone got turned into a bear at your coronation," I said to Merida.
"Oh no. There was a witch and she did threaten to turn all my subjects into bears, but…" she said a little confused by how quickly this turned to another question about her kingdom even though I was completely focused at Maleficent just a second ago.
"But," I said, raising my hand to stop her, "you saved the day."
She only grinned and handed me her glass for a refill. "Right. Let's hear all about. Wonderland rules – begin at the beginning."
"What's… Wonderland?" frowned Merida.
"Oh you lucky, lucky girl…" I said, for a moment genuinely envious that she never even heard of that madhouse.
"I heard that," said Maleficent, surprising me.
"Heard what?" I asked. She gave me a smile as she paid for her drink.
"There's a story there…" she said as she got up and walked off.
And with that insight, she was gone. Exit that wouldn't be more impressive if she did her usual disappearing in a puff of smoke thing. I shook my head and wondered if she heard something or only guessed…
But then I remembered there was a story I was meant to be getting out of Merida and besides, that conversation wasn't exactly over. Oh no, this was only the beginning.