Finding Never Land
4.
Oh the indignity of it all. When the man, whose name was Onus McShay, arrived home he put Vidia inside a birdcage.
"Now I know how Tinker Bell felt," she mused, recalling seeing the little tinker fairy get tossed into one of these things when they first met Lizzy. Onus took her to the kitchen. On the way Vidia noticed that his home was a tiny, dilapidated apartment consisting of a small parlor, a bedroom and the kitchen which doubled as a dining room.
Decorating the walls were a plethora of religious iconography. Many were of Mary with a supernatural glow, or Mary holding the Christ child. There were also several crucifixes on the walls. What made these different from the ones she had seen in London is that each had a small sculpture of the Christ as an adult with nails in his hands and feet and a crown of thorns laying on his head.
"Yikes! Who are these people?" she asked herself worriedly.
"Oh, ye be a pretty little thing," he said. "But ye ain't going to be puttin' no spells on Onus McShay. I caught ye fair and square an' now ye owe me me three wishes. Now then, let's see what I want for me first wish."
"Onus!?" came a woman's voice from elsewhere in the house.
"Oh, that be me wife Katy." Onus tossed a towel over the cage to hide Vidia's presence. "Now be good. None o' yer tricks."
Be good? What am I a dog? Vidia grumbled in her thoughts.
"Onus! I know ye were at the pub," she said angrily. "How much of our hard earned money did you squander on that cursed drink?"
The woman opened the door to the kitchen and found him standing in front of the table.
"How is me lovely wife today?" Onus asked in a tone so fake Katy knew he was up to something.
"Don't lovely wife me, ye lush," she bellowed. "I know ye were at the pub today drinkin' when ye should have been workin'. That's our rent money. And what about the baby? She needs milk and we need food in our bellies. Can ye think of no one but yerself?"
"Oh now today I'll make you proud of me," he said trying to mitigate her anger.
"HA! I ain't never been proud of ye since the day we was married," she answered him bitterly.
Good one, Vidia thought.
"Ye promised me a good life and all we got to show for it is this tiny apartment that ain't fit for man nor beast," she added scornfully. "Three rooms too small for the likes of us and a water closet that's shared by twenty neighbors."
"Well today, that's all going to change, me darlin'," he said. Onus picked up the birdcage and announced, "What's in here is going to change our lives forever."
Uh oh!
He drew back the towel and showed Vidia to his wife.
"Mother o' Mercy, that's one of the fairy folk," she exclaimed, moving her hand from her forehead to her chest and then from her left shoulder to the right. "Onus, ye get that thing out of the house this instant."
"Awe, but love, she's one of the little people," he tried to explain. "I caught her fair and square and now she's going to grant me three wishes."
"That's not one of the little people, ye thick headed lummox," she answered him. "That be one of the faerie folk."
"No, me darlin', tis using magic so it looks like a faerie folk. It's one of the little people from back home. Now all our troubles will be over."
"Onus, that there is a creature of Satan himself, come to steal away our baby and make it a servant unto the darkness."
The woman grabbed a crucifix from off the wall and shoved it against the cage wall. "We're a good Catholic family and I want no part of ye or yer lyin' ways," she yelled at Vidia. "Now back to the devil with ya."
Vidia just crossed her arms and grumbled, "Oh please. I'm not evil, just highly irritable."
"It's not workin'," Onus told her.
In response Katy dropped to her knees and began to recite The Lord's Prayer followed by several Hail Mary's and an Apostle's Creed. She had to reach up and yank Onus to his knees to make him pray alongside her.
When the two looked up again the fairy had not disappeared, though it did yawn.
"She's still here!" Katy shrieked in horror.
"Y'know, maybe it's a Protestant fairy," Onus suggested.
"Don't be daft," Katy insisted. "No fairy in the history of mankind has ever been beholden to the Lord. Now take this creature of pure evil out of me house and get rid of it. And don't you come back till ye do."
"Oh, but Katy, she'll grant us all the gold we could want," Onus said trying to persuade his wife otherwise. "We'll be rich beyond our wildest dreams."
"Aye, rich in this world and poor in the next. I ain't spoilin' this family with the devil's gold. Now get rid of that thing anyway ye can. And don't stop for a drink at the pub, neither," she added. "All that time you spend bending a glass to yer mouth ye could be bendin' a knee to the Lord. I can't fathom why ye drink so much."
"Well of course I drink," Onus countered angrily, "Look who I'm married to."
Vidia was surprised. When Onus was pushed far enough he actually showed some backbone. Unfortunately Katy wasn't one to take any of his lip. Instead she hurled a ladle at his head and screamed for him to get out and not come back till the deed was done.
Onus sighed and covered the bird cage to hide his prize as he hustled out the door. "Come along. Now I got find some way to make a little money of a' ya. Maybe then Katy won't be so mad at me."
Yes, I'm using Hollywood stereotypes of the Irish from around 1901 for comedic affect. I don't mean to offend. I live in Texas. The only Irish I ever see is in Hollywood movies and college football (The Notre Dame Fighting Irish.)
I hope you are enjoying this story so far. A little feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.