The Coffee Fairy

A sudden pain in my leg jolts me awake. I shift and open my eyes to look around, and out of habit I feel the space next to me. “It's funny Samantha, but no matter how long it's been, it still takes a few moments to register that it's empty.” Massaging my thigh and trying to work the dull feeling out, I push the button on the alarm clock next to me and its soft light reveals 4:17.

“Ugh, that only means being able to sleep for another hour or so before I need to wake up for work. Should I toss and turn for a while, trying to get back to sleep?”

Even though I work from home these days, I always make sure to log in to the VPN at 7:30 on the dot. My coworkers and boss keep telling me that I can take more time off. That I can take my time coming in. “I know it’s only been a few months since you left darling, but working again really helps me.” Sighing, I lift the cover gently, and gingerly get out of the bed.

No reason to try and sleep when I know I will keep checking the clock to make sure I’m not late. Grabbing my cane next to the bed, I shuffle to the dresser and pick up my wedding band from the small cushioned box, right where I left it.

As I put the ring on my finger, I whispered to the picture next to it, “Good morning, Honey, I missed you again last night.”

Moving through the house, I stumble my way in the dark to the kitchen. Doing all of the usual things: stretching my back and arms, failing to stifle a long drawn out yawn, cleaning the edges of my eyes, and wondering if I remembered to set up the automatic timer on the coffee machine. I’ve noticed that ever since I turned fifty last year, I’ve been occasionally forgetting to do some of my premorning rituals the night before. Going through the open archway to the kitchen and turning the lights on, I hear a startled high pitched squeak.

Immediately, my eyes frantically scan and look for the source and…and there is a 6 inch woman with wings wearing a white flowing dress, next to the coffee machine. Several tins and their lids scattered around her, holding a half buried scoop in the hazelnut coffee blend and looking at me with a steadily growing, awkward smile.

“You’re awake early.”

I blink a few times. “Uh, yes?”

She lets go of the scoop and straightens up with her tiny hands on her hips. “Well that’s no good. You should go back to bed Mister! There’s only a couple more hours before you need to go to work. Getting a good night’s sleep is important for your health, you know!”

“Ex…excuse me?”

I see annoyance spread on her little face. She had such striking features. A tiny nose ending in a sharp point. Short blonde hair and orange tinted eyes with spiraled pupils. Orange lips hiding pointed teeth.

Shooing me back towards the door, she broke me from my reverie. “Back to bed with you. Go. Go!”

Instinctively I reach to turn the light off. “Sorry-wait a second! Who are you and what are you doing in my kitchen?!”

With a sigh longer than you would think possible from her petite frame, “I was hoping that you wouldn’t find out, but no helping it, I guess! Do you remember a couple of months ago when you freed the prettiest little monarch butterfly from the clutches of a voracious spider and its web?”

“Samantha, how long has it been since I last stepped into your garden? Two months? Three?”

Her little eyes stare at me in wonder as she awaits my response. I weakly reply with, “No?”

“As expected from a true hero, rescuing damsels with nary a glance back,” she whispers and grins. “Well Magnilgan, or Maggie as I liked to call her, was my best friend,” I noticed that bright smile dim for a moment, before perkily bouncing back, “and before she passed, she made me promise that I’d repay her debt to her savior.”

A few moments of silence passed between us, before she excitedly jumped up in the air and flew in front of my face, “So Annalise is here to stay! I’m going to take care of you and watch over you. Pleased to meet you, Mister Hero!”

“This is just the weirdest dream,” I put my hands to my cheek and pinch them. “How much of this should I try to make sense of or just let it play out?”

“Well little Annalise,” I see the tiny fairy clasp her hands in front of her, “I’m no hero. I’m not sure what any of that means or what's going on here. But from what I understood, you really don’t have to bother yourself with any of this and you can go back from wherever you came.”

“It’s not a bother and you don’t have to do anything! Just keep doing what you’re doing and you won’t even notice I’m here. After all, I’ve already been here for a couple of days now.”

I raised my hand and started to ask questions before she flew behind me and grabbed the collar of my pajamas. “Now go sit yourself on the couch Mister Hero and Annalise will make your coffee just the way you like it.”

I walk over to the couch in silence, being repeatedly shooed away from my own kitchen. Falling onto the cushion, I close my eyes and think, “There are several rational explanations for what’s going on: being stuck in a very, very, vivid dream, brain aneurysm and actually being at a hospital with several drugs pumping through my system, could be a gas leak?”

The sounds of the coffee machine brewing a few moments later derail my train of thoughts.

“I’m still waking up and that’s just the automatic feature I set last night going off. Wait five minutes then get up and go get your coffee.”

I turn on the television then realize that I left my phone on the night stand. Purposely avoiding the kitchen, I limp back to the bedroom. I grab my work phone and look at Samantha’s picture on the dresser. She had just come back from a work trip and I had somehow killed her rosemary. Samantha's silly smile, the one she used when teasing me, as she handed me a plastic flower captured forever in that frame. I could hear her playfully-mocking voice, stating that I could probably find a way to kill it as I inherited my lack of a green thumb from my mother. Even though she hated that picture, saying she looked like a mess from tending outside, she still surprised me with a framed copy on my birthday. Pulling myself away, I head back to the living room, checking the time.

“Okay, that’s three minutes. Just a little longer before the machine beeps. Check the news, nothing good. Emails? Only a few to review and I’ll have zero unread messages.”

Tapping my fingers against the arm of the couch, the machine beeped loudly, indicating that it was ready. I slowly get up from the couch and hear the unmistakable sound of a cabinet door opening.

“No.”

Dragging myself into the kitchen, I see the little fairy straining to drag a coffee mug from the top shelf. Muttering under her breath, she plants her feet against the edge of the cabinet and drags a coffee mug towards her. As it gets to the edge, Annalise stoutly grunts and begins to fly out. Gravity takes over and for one moment it looks like the mug is going to smash onto the counter. Struggling against the weight with the aggressive flapping of her wings, she slows its descent and instead it bangs softly against the marble. Annalise lets out a long satisfied sigh, but when her eyes meet mine, she exasperatedly, frantically shooing me away, shouts, “Go wait on the couch!”

Dumbfounded, I nod and return to the couch, plopping myself down and staring at the television. After what seemed like an eternity, I hear the sounds of her wings rapidly flapping. Glancing over in that direction, Annalise is holding the mug with both arms wrapped around the handle and just spilling coffee everywhere. Onto the tile…the carpet…the coffee table now…

Grunting loudly, she lands the mug on the coffee table with an audible thump. Wiping her forehead, she looks up to me with her flushed face and a huge smile. “Here you go, one hot cup of coffee! Don’t worry about the mess, Annalise’s got it!”

I watch as she flies away and grabs a dish towel far too big for her and zooms to the puddle of liquid on the floor. Wrapping her whole body in the towel, she dives towards the puddle. Dashing forwards and backwards and not giving the time for the towel to absorb, she spreads the coffee even further on the tile. Her movements are erratic and it constantly looks like she is going to crash into something.

Looking back to the coffee table, the tiny sliver of coffee at the bottom of the mug calls to me. Grabbing the handle of the coffee cup, I can still feel her perspiration and warmth. Drinking a tiny sip, I walk over to the disaster Annalise is leaving me in the kitchen. Looking around, it's going to take a while to clean and a headache starts to kick in. The kitchen has coffee grounds spilled all over and the scoop is lying next to multiple open tins. A silver spoon, wet from coffee, used to stir the sugar is resting on the counter. The cabinet door is wide open with little foot prints on the edge. For the life of me, I can’t understand why she grabbed one up there instead of the one I placed next to the machine. I place my mug by the sink and walk over to her.

“Annalise, could you please stop? I’ll handle this.”

“But I caused this mess! I should be the one to clean it!” She shouts back at me with determined defiance on her face. Silently, I go over to the pantry and take out some cleaning supplies.

“Hey! Quit it! I can do this!”

“I really don’t have time for whatever this is. It’s already 4:30, I need to clean all of this and then go to work. Can you go away?”

“No! I made a promise and I’m not breaking it!” She said flying straight to my face.

“You don’t have to do anything for me! I’m fine on my own and I don’t need you to repay any debt. Please leave!”

Her face scrunches up and her little eyes glare at me. “Since I’ve been here, you haven’t looked fine. Getting up, going to work, doing nothing, and then repeating.”

I close my eyes and walk away.

Whatever this is, I’m not dealing with it.

“Just go to your office and start work early. There are always reports that need to be worked on or emails to respond to.”

I firmly shut the office door and sit at my computer. Slowly, the clicking of the keyboard fills the office, the ebb and flow of the sound lulling me away. Nothing but figures and solving other people’s problems keeping my attention. That’s all I need to focus on. Once she realizes all the chaos she is causing me, I’m sure she’ll leave and I can finally be alone again.

Before I knew it, the growling of my stomach informed me it was lunch time. Looking at the clock it was 11:52.

I get up and move to the kitchen. As expected, there was a stain on the carpet where the coffee was spilled. What wasn’t expected though, was little Annalise hunched over, straining to clean with a ripped off part of her dress. She got some of the cleaning supplies I pulled out and spilled their contents onto the carpet; however, it was clear from her frustrated grunts that it wasn’t working. Looking up to me, I see her smile, but she couldn’t hide the glistening of her cheeks as tears began to roll down.

She dropped her makeshift rag and touched her cheeks, shocked. Quickly, she hunched her head and turned away from me. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Mister Hero. I just keep making it worse no matter what I do.” Her little shoulders shaking, she tells me in a quivering, barely audible, voice, “I wasn’t even going to do all of this, but once I saw that you didn’t set the machine like you usually do I figured I would help. When you walked in, I got all caught up in my feelings. Even though humans are scary, you’re the one who gave me more time with her.”

I could feel a burning sensation start in my gut. It threatened to engulf me in its fire as the sounds of her frustrated cries became louder.

Annalise rested her forehead against her knees. “I know you don’t understand. ‘She’s a butterfly, she only lives a few months at most.’” With barely a whisper, “It just meant that the days she chose to spend with me meant even more.”

“What am I supposed to do, Samantha? She looks so tiny now…like she will sink into the carpet and disappear.”

“Maggie didn’t go to the Great Migration; she stayed with me. But it means now that no one else will carry her name.” With her head buried in her arms and legs, voice cracking as she yelled,“I’m sorry to ask this, but please let me try again! I just want to help you like you helped her.”

Swallowing the bile that had risen in my throat, I ease myself down next to Annalise. Delicately, I extend my hand near her so she can back away if she wants. An unknown amount of time passed us by as we sat there.

“You’re right. I don’t understand your feelings,” I told her after her soft sobs started to recede, lifting her head up from her knees to look at me.“However, I can tell that they’re important to you. You don’t have to try so hard for me, Annalise.”

“But…”

“It’s okay, I can see how hard you are trying. For now though, let’s simply be.” She leaned against the palm of my hand and I used my thumb to softly rub her back.“ There will be times where you don’t understand me, either. I’m not sure how all of this is going to work, but I’m willing to figure it out with you. All I ask is that you don’t push yourself and that you let me help you too.”

Her little face lit up and she used the back of her arm to wipe her face. From my angle, she was beaming so bright and it quenched the fire burning my insides.

“Then what can Annalise do for you, Mister Hero?”

I felt the first smile I’ve had in a long time spread on my face. “My name’s Daniel. How about you make the coffee and I’ll handle the rest? What little I had this morning tasted good and I could use some more.”

She sprung up from the ground and jumped into the air. “I can do that Mister Daniel!” As I heard her moving quickly to the kitchen humming softly to herself, I couldn’t help but feel like there was a disaster brewing instead of the coffee.

“Whatever, messes can always be cleaned up.”

Suddenly, the banging of a metal tin crashing on the floor and little cries of alarm leaked out from the kitchen.

“But maybe I should still go in there and help anyway.”

Getting up from the ground, I stride over to the once again lively kitchen. “It's funny Samantha, but for some reason, I’m still smiling.”