The Red King and the Witch

N 2 Deep

The sky is so blue, light blue, baby blue.

And the clouds are humongous.

Pink, white, and fluffy.

They look so real.

"Did your Da ever tell you about the Selkies lass?"

I know this voice.

"No."

"Do you want to hear 'bout them?"

"No."

"How about the fairies, eh? You always loved hearing stories about them."

"No."

How do I know this voice?

"So you won't eat breakfast and you don't wish to speak except to say 'no',..do ya plan on lying about hiding in this grass forever then?"

It's so nosy, patient, and familiar.

"No."

"Lass, I'm sorry for what's happened while you were far and away but I canna change the past and neither can you. Milo was a good and sweet dag, but he was past his prime and well on his way to heaven, even before you were just a wee bairn."

Milo died, I was hiding in the grass because Milo died.

"But Milo was my dag."

"Yes sweet girl, he'll always be your dag, but even dag's go away sometimes, they don't live forever."

Nothing ever does.

"Yes they do, Auntie Fiona says everything lives forever in Ireland."

She lied.

Daft cow, Uncle Liam always called her a lying daft cow.

"Auntie Fiona is a lyin daft cow! I've told you a hundred times, cailin , don't listen to her, she knows not what she says."

"So Auntie Fiona lied?"

"Unfortunately mo ghra beag, she did and I'm sorry for it."

My little love, he always called me that.

"Uncle Liam?"

"Yes , cailin alainn ?"

"Does this mean I still have to go to church?"

"Is that why you've hidden yourself up here? Cos your tryin' ta bunk off church?"

He always lets me skip.

"No."

"The lass is all but five and already bunkin' off church, too much like your Da you are cailin, alright up we go lass."

But I don't want to get up, the sky is so blue, it's like an ocean, high and far away.

The grass is as warm as the sun, hard and steady beneath me.

"Amanda,"

The sky isn't moving, it's stopped, because it's a ceiling now.

"Amanda,"

Uhh no, please, no, not this, I don't want to dream of this.

"Amanda, I've called you more than fifty times now. Get up."

Ugh he's so dramatic, it was never fifty times.

"Amanda Cathleen James O'Connor, it's time to get up, come on girl!"