Cordelia And The Magical, Mysterious, Links Episode 2

If you haven't read the first installment, please consider checking it out and enjoy Cordelia and the Magical, Mysterious, Links. Can you find your link?

I woke up at home, scratching my head, and wondering what kind of a stroke I must have suffered to have imagined such an unbelievable tale. A fairy named Cordelia. It was laughable. The time was a little after two in the afternoon. It was Saturday still, and I needed to get some errands run and mow the yard.

"Ugh," I said, my head pounding. I went into my bathroom to get some aspirin from the medicine cabinet. As I looked in the mirror, I noticed that my eyes were red and puffy and my sinuses were acting up. Living in a house with central air, I wondered to myself, why would my hayfever act up in early September.

Stumbling through my home, I made my way to the kitchen and found my refrigerator door standing open. I must have been drunk last night. That explains it all. It wasn't the first time I tied one on and forgot about it, but after a visit from the fairy princess, Cordelia, maybe I would go and get some help. I reached into the refrigerator, finding that things were still chilled. Grabbing some orange juice and drinking it right from the container, I about blew the acidic juice out my nose.

Cordelia was there, sitting on my refrigerator, her legs crossed, her right leg bobbing up and down, looking down on me with that fairy little smile I remembered from my dream. But, it wasn't a dream. If she was there then this was real. I would have rather been going crazy, I think. That just wasn't the case. Maybe, even then, my mental health wasn't the best but I wasn't crazy.

"How do you get so big, eating food so sour?" she asked as she hopped down from the refrigerator and onto the juice container.

If fairies didn't enjoy orange juice, considering they were small enough they could tap an orange like a keg, it came to my mind, "What do you drink when you're thirsty?"

"Water, you silly," she giggled, flying up in the air and turning in circles like an ice skater or ballerina doing several pirouettes in a row.

I explained oranges to Cordelia, so she would find them less confounding than she did, and offered her a taste. I didn't have a cup that small, obviously, but I put a spoonful down on the counter for her to taste. She found it sour but sweet, like most of us find oranges to taste. Her little nose wrinkled up, this being the first encounter she had with human food or drink. It couldn't be too bad, however, as she knelt down next to the spoon and used her hands to drink in more of the orange nectar.

"I'm glad you like it," I told her, leaving her in the kitchen as I wandered back into my home, plopping myself on my sofa, confused by the sight of a three-inch, winged, fairy in my kitchen.

It didn't take long before Cordelia flew into the living room, her tiny little wings buzzing, trailing glitter across the room as she flew closer. She landed on my chest, much to my dismay, and sat with her legs crossed. I wondered where she learned such behavior. For a slightly more than diminutive little thing she certainly had a fairly aggressive attitude and personality. There she was, as I opened my eyes, sitting in the center of my chest, her wings spread behind her, her legs crossed, and her elbows on her knees.

"What is it, Cordelia?"

"You have rested enough, Mr. Jason. We should go now," she told me.

"Go," I sighed. "Go where?"

"I still have to show you the world, and the things you don't believe are there," she explained. "Your life is so dark, I'm here to change that."

Great, my own little fairy princess, determined, on a mission, and relentlessly wanting to show me a world that's good and decent. If only I knew others that were as committed, maybe I wouldn't be single at my age. Admittedly, this was the most interesting thing to happen to me in, forever. So, I relented to the idea.

"Alright, but humans have to shower occasionally. Give me a little bit," I told her.

If I'm going crazy, I thought while showering, at least it's because of something as adorable as a tiny little thing like Cordelia and not the heinous, grievous, things that I've seen. I always wondered what the breaking point for men was, especially men that lived with more than one hat. Now, I was finding out, it was right about yesterday and the result was three-inch tall creatures from mythology. I just hoped that I didn't get myself pulled over talking to someone that only I could see.

Getting out of the shower I swore I heard voices. I feared the worst, that there were more of her kind coming to visit me. Maybe I would have one for each part of my fractured psyche. Would they come like the ghosts of Christmas past or one for each of my sins? I walked into the living room, pulling my tee-shirt over my shoulders, to find it was even funnier than more members of the little people squad. Cordelia was watching television, most specifically, she was watching reruns of Friends.

"Why is that Rachel so mad at that boring guy, they were on a break?" she laughed as she asked me the question.

I really didn't know what to say to her, or how to explain the intricate writing that is television sitcoms. I promised we could talk about Ross and Rachel on our way to wherever it was that she was taking me.

It was nearly six when we started to get to where she was taking me and honestly, in the entire time I've lived in the area, I never knew there was a park named so aptly, Waterfall Park.

I only followed my magical guide through this journey, I really didn't pay too much attention to the destination. Honestly, even though I was in the drivers' seat, she had taken control of my Challenger and we were lost in conversation the entire time. Hiking the trail behind her, I was following what must have looked to others as a lightning bug. She illuminated the path, in the low light conditions beneath the heavy vegetation. Then we got to the clearing and I heard her exclaim we were there.

"Tada!" she sang.

Amazing, simply amazing that such a place was here and I had never seen it before. Hell, I've never even heard someone mention this place. It's so magnificent that I was shocked it wasn't advertised as a tourist attraction. The local business leaders were either keeping it a secret to preserve its' natural beauty, or complete fools for not taking advantage of such an obvious resource.

Cordelia dived into the pool in front of us, shooting into the water at the speed of a bullet fired into the ground. As she hit the water, her light changed. The strange, glowing light she gave off changed from yellow, morphing into a bright, green light. As she came flying back up, stopping right in front of me, she shook her wings dry as a dog does after taking a swim. It was just my face that got wet, fortunately.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Don't you like water. The pools feel so wonderful, and they will make you feel young again, and as alive as a man much younger than yourself. They'll even help with your pain," she explained.

I knew she wouldn't stop unless I tried, and as bright as that light of hers could get, I really didn't want her sleeping on my chest, glowing brightly in any color. Looking around, making sure there weren't any stragglers or hikers within earshot, I told Cordelia to turn around.

"And no peeking," I insisted.

As I slipt out of clothes, I caught the little nymph peeking. I covered myself and hurried much quicker into the cool, bubbling waters of the pool. They were being fed by a waterfall that fed a stream working into this tiny pool. It did feel incredible, almost tingly even.

"Alright, you got me here, now tell me something," I demanded. "How is it that sometimes you glow with a green light, and sometimes it's yellow."

Cordelia landed on the stone ledge next to where I sat. She walked back and forth, pacing a minute or two, before answering my question. The fairy princess explained that when she was excited she would glow green, determined and she would glow yellow, if she were sad she would glow blue, and if she were upset or angry she would glow red.

"No purple," I said out loud, washing the tingly waters over my face.

Cordelia chuckled, "No, we have purple glows. That means we are in love with another."

Nightfall came before I knew it and we were trying to find our way back to where we parked. Cordelia's light helped me keep on the path but even the light of a three-inch tall princess wasn't going to get us through the thick, lush, vegetation that was these woods. I asked her if she could do anything about the lighting and she laughed at me, of course. It seemed that if I could think of it, this miniature little friend of mine could accomplish it without trying. Before I knew it, not only were the trees more visible, but the light she gave off was beautiful, bright, and brilliant. This day was something remarkable, even though I still didn't understand, why me?