January 6, 2021: Posssession
Song: “Possession” by McLachlan, Sarah from Possession
(Irish Times)
“Answer my riddles three!” the troll bellowed.
“No,” came the reply.
“No?”
“Don’t like riddles,” Fiona, age 8, stated.
“No one may leave here without answering my riddles!”
“Oh. Why?”
“What?”
“What can’t anyone leave here until they answer your three riddles.”
“Riddles three.”
“That’s not right.”
“It is the rule.”
“No. Three comes before riddles, not after. Ms. Marques says so.”
“Who…is Ms. Margues your queen?”
“No dummy! She’s my teacher!”
“Well…she’s wrong.”
“No she’s not! She’s so much smarter than you!”
“Answer my riddles!”
“NO! I HATE RIDDLES!”
The troll flinched a bit.
“Well, you have to,” he insisted.
“No I don’t. You’re a stranger and I don’t have to listen to strangers.”
“I’m in charge!”
“Not of me!”
“You can’t leave until you answer my riddles.”
“Riddles are dumb. Can we do a puzzle instead?”
“What? No. Riddles.”
“Or tell jokes? Like why did the dolphin get sad?”
“I…don’t know?”
“He lost his porpoise!” she smiled gap toothed.
“That’s…that’s very bad. I don’t like it.”
“You’re wrong! Daddy says I’m very funny!”
“Your father isn’t here!”
“He’s at work. He’ll be here at 5:30. Otherwise he has to pay 50 dollars and he hates that. And mommy hates it even more.”
“That’s…we aren’t…this is a different plane of existence.”
“Daddy doesn’t know that. He’ll still be worried about paying extra.”
“No. You…he can’t get here.”
“Oh he has a phone app. It’s very good. Once, for awhile, it talked like Batman. And cookie monster before that. Now dad says it has ‘Jane’s’ voice but I don’t know who that is. I liked Batman more.”
“Bat…man? And a monster of cookies? You know these beings.”
“Oh yeah! You’d like Batman, he answers riddles all the time. Even if they’re dumb. I hope the next voice daddy can get is Twilight Sparkle. She’s a pegacorn.”
The troll’s eyes widened. “Wings. A horn.”
“Uh-huh! She’s not my favorite but I like her!”
“You’re friends?”
“I like to think all the ponies are,” Fiona shrugged, retying her shoelaces.
“There are more.”
“Oh lots! Ponies and unicorns and pegasuses. A dragon. A couple other pegacorns.”
“And you know them all?”
“Pretty much!”
The troll began to pace.
“And you won’t answer my riddles?”
“No! I told you. I hate riddles!”
“But it’s the rule!”
“I don’t think so. I never saw that rule on the chart on the fridge.”
“Fridge?”
Fiona giggled. “Yes, silly. It keeps our food cold.”
“By magic?”
“Electricity. And other stuff. I don’t know. Daddy says it is interesting but I couldn’t pay attention because I was playing two dots. Oh! We could play Two Dots instead of riddles.”
“I only do riddles!”
“Ms. Marques says the only games that are fun are the ones everyone agrees to play.”
“Ms. Marques doesn’t get to decide things for me.”
“Ok grumpy. I’m gonna go.”
“What?!”
“I’m bored and you’re starting to sound mean.”
“The riddles…”
“No! I don’t like them!”
“You…I…”
Fiona picked up her backpack and began to walk.
“Can you…” the troll called after her, “Can you show me Two Dots?”
“No. You were being mean. Maybe tomorrow if you are nicer.”
“oh…ok.”
Fiona walked back through the mist leaving the troll to kick rocks and pretend he didn’t care if he knew what Two Dots was or not.