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Germaine Street - Chapter Seven

A Sequential Novel

By Nick RowleyPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Gudrun opened her eyes, pale and aquamarine as the walls of the Vatnajökull caves, and yawned. To her left PhinFlam stirred slightly and mumbled something about thorns and furrows in Gaeilge Ársa. Itsuki had joined them around 2 am and had chosen the form of a young man with flowing green locks and silvery skin for the rest of their conscious time.

Gudrun smiled, surveying her beloveds, kissed them both and extricated herself from the tangle of their limbs and slid from their bed.

🐾🐾🐾🐾

“Breakfast then” Gudrun murmured to herself as she wandered into the kitchen. Standing in the middle of the space she thought of the table in the nook that adjoined it and pictured the plates and silverware set up for three. This morning she decided upon triangular plates the colour of a Sligo sunrise and square cups that had been fired in Jingdezhen when the Guangxu Emperor was in the 23rd year of his reign, along with delicate golden chopsticks and spoons for desserts and tea that she had seen in a catalog of estate sales she had read three nights previously.

In the centre of each triangle Gudrun placed a bowl of skyr, sprinkling it with a combination of Sato Nishik, Hazelnuts and Snow cured Sloes. To complement this Gudrun added a medley of rice and salt cod plus a couple of slices of melon.

Lastly Gudrun placed a small brazier and tripod in the middle of the table to support the little kettle she selected from the collection she kept in a cupboard. This last task she did minus any of the abilities inherent to her kind and instead by the entirely quotidian process of carrying it, filling it with water and gently placing it, as well as a small jug of goat's milk and a pot of honey.

Regarding the table fully arrayed, Gudrun suppressed the urge to applaud her own gifts for display and turned towards the kitchen door. Placing two fingers in her mouth she gave a whistle that she knew would bring PhinFlam and Itsuki from their shared bed.

🐾🐾🐾🐾

Breakfast competed, the three fae had relocated to their studio. While PhinFlam spun clay on his ancient treadle wheel, Gudrun monitored the kiln and then selected the pieces she had painted and fired the previous week.

Taking each one she casually dropped it into the box the three of them had dubbed “The Chambre of Destruction”, as the sound of breaking poetry reached her ears Gudrun smiled then pulled out the draw at the bottom of the structure. Replacing the little rush basket with an identical but empty copy.

In short succession a tray of various cup shards was full on the bench and this Gudrun carried over to Itsuki who had adopted a form that was mostly delicately and femininely human if one didn’t count the three additional pairs of arms.

As Gudrun began to paint a new set of cups with a series of moss greens and Danube and Shannon blues, Itsuki selected a basket, took out the two largest shards and contemplated them. With one of their other hands they stirred a pot of lacquer and with a fourth stirred in a small scoop of gold powder, then another and finally one of silver. Taking care to strike a balance between blending and homogenization so that the precious metals appeared to dance within the sticky semi-liquidity.

For that was the secret, the appeal of the Kintsugiware produced by the Glitrandi Nendo Workshop; people loved how the cups and plates looked and could never quite explain how they stood out from their near rivals. With two of their free hands Itsuki switched the record playing on the turntable and the opening notes of Hiroshi Suzuki’s Shrimp Dance filled the workshop.

🐾🐾🐾🐾

Around the halfway point in Cat, there was a knock on the window to the workshop that caused all three fairy folk to look up from their endeavours. Tobias Rirsen stood grinning in the garden. He waved and indicated for someone to open the window. Dipping his fingers in the splash pan then wiping them free of clay, PhinFlam obliged.

“Tobias, what can I do you for?”

“Morning PhinFlam, have you seen my youngest?”

“I have indeed, she’s about this tall, with reddish hair, adorable and generally interested in talking to others…”

“Funny. This morning, has she paid you a visit?”

“Can’t say that she has, it would seem to me that maybe she would be visiting our new neighbours though, she’s always curious about new things”

“Yeah that was my next stop. I should say hello to them in any case, personally and professionally”

“Oh, how are things down at the city hall by the way”

“You know Una; she’s generally chill.”

“Thankfully” Itsuki didn’t say quiet enough to not be heard, Tobias nodded, a wry smile twitching his lips, “I told her she should come over for a cookout next time we do one”

“Well, you know meat, I’ll give you that…”

“You’re a funny guy PhinFlam. I’ll see the three of you later”

“Mind how you go Tobias”

monster
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About the Creator

Nick Rowley

Nick is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of The Ibis Theatre Company (shadowoftheibis.com) as well as a general Theatre Artist, Graphic Designer and Sculptor.

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