Story Night
Written for Celeste.
We sat in the dry grass
In a little ring
In the dried grass
With the fire flickering out within a second ring
Of stones
And no one was brave enough
We were none of us brave enough
Not one in twelve was brave enough
To
Speak
We sat in the dry grass
With the wind blowing fireflies into our faces
And some of us remembered
That T�u's hair
Was glowing with them. Yes, T�u
Was alight with fireflies
But she didn't dare
Speak
And when the wind blew the broken-off ends
Of dead reeds
Skittering into our stone-ringed fire
Fj�rir coughed his dry old cough
And some of us remembered
That we all
Shivered
But no one
Spoke
Einn and Ellefu held their hands together
And those of us who remembered
Knew
That Ellefu was always cold
Always said his hands were cold
Always complained that his fingers were cold
Always whined that he was cold
But Einn
Einn was patient
And she wore sealskin mittens that someone had given her
Great-grandmother
And those of us who remembered
Knew that Einn
Held Ellefu's hands in her sealskin mittens
Until he smiled
But they didn't
Speak
They looked at our quiet little fire
Ringed with stones
But no one would
Speak
And when there was a crack and the fire blazed up
Showered sparks all around us
Sj� growled
And pulled the big fur hood of his coat over his face
But he didn't
Speak
So all of us, as the ones with memories recall
Sat around the fire. We sat
From
Einn to T�lf,
With her elven eyes and her short white hair,
And no one said a
Word
And then, as those of us who remembered
Remember
There was a footstep in the dry grass
Hissing and rustling
And brushing the dead reeds aside
A footstep
--Only one, of course
--A footstep,
We remember
Soft and loud
A footstep that shook the earth without moving us
A footstep that ground on rock and splashed in a hot spring
A footstep that wouldn't slip on a glacier
And wouldn't falter in the mountains
A footstep came
--Only one
--And everyone knew it was
Fjall
Children
A dry voice,
Dry like the grass
A thin voice,
Like weathered paper, like N�u's hands
A voice that went around us like the wind
We who remember
Remember Fjall's voice
Children
And in our silence
Someone had at last
Spoken
Fjall whispered the word that cracked it
Children
And the silence died
Fimm
(Fimm was the youngest of us, and we knew
She had never heard Fjall)
Fimm
Stood on her feet
With her soft leather boots planted
Firmly
In the dry grass
She dared to ask who was it spoke
And eleven pairs of hands reached out to hush her
Dry, weathered hands
Hands with sealskin mittens
Cold hands
Tveir's slender white hands
Everyone said, all together
s h h h h h h h h . . .
And Fimm sat back down
Children
You were so quiet
You let the grass whisper louder than you
Children
I have stories to tell you
I have come from the north with stories to tell you
But
Children
You must remember from before
I know you do
There is only one night in which to tell you
All the stories
And they are so long,
Children,
That you will only hear one
Are you listening,
Children?
Are you listening to me?
Einn took off one of her sealskin mittens
And laid it on a fire-rock
She took Ellefu's hands back in hers
And the few who remember
Know she was promising to listen
And when Einn promised
We all did
Then Fjall told the story
Which all of us remembered
Children...
In the fall the mountains changed their colours
In the fall the trees turned the colour of fire
Beneath the mountains the lake turned to a mirror
And the sand changed from golden to brown
The air turned cold and sometimes hot
And the trees all trembled at the smell
Of all the leaves burning in the towns
All the bonfires making the sky change too
And in the fall with the world all changed
With Fjall all changed; with the Children changed
Someone somewhere suddenly noticed
That the lake was covered with footprints
There were tiny toemarks all around the islands
There were tiny heelprints by the shore
There were marks where the runner had fallen down
And marks where the runner had gotten back up
For weeks they all searched for the one who ran
For the one who left the marks on the mirror
But the trees were tired and couldn't keep watch
And the rocks were angry and wouldn't keep watch
The runner kept running and the fall grew old
And the trees lost their fire and instead turned brown
The lake complained and the rocks cried out
But no one would stay up all through the night
So it fell to Fjall to look for the runner
And Fjall watched all day and watched all night
And on the third day with the lake like glass
The runner came back to run again
She was tall, she was fair, she had dark blue eyes
She was dressed in brown to match the wood
She danced while she ran and she spun while she ran
And she left her marks all over the lake
She ran so fast she put the wind to shame
She came down so hard that the rain was afraid
She leapt so high she surpassed the waves
But Fjall can catch anyone
For a moment,
Fjall was silent
And we were silent
Waiting for the rest
There would be
More
There was always
More
Children
Fjall caught her
Children...
This is �rett�n
�tta held out his arms
Those were the rules
We all knew
We all remembered
�tta was the one Fjall brought five years ago
Just as Fimm had been brought last year
�tta had danced on the moon
�tta had tightrope-walked over the moon
And �rett�n the dancer
Who danced on the lake
�rett�n the dancer
Would be his child
As she sat by his side and the fire burnt low
We heard a footstep
A single footstep
A footstep soft and loud
A footstep that shook the earth without moving us
A footstep that ground on rock and splashed in a hot spring
A footstep that wouldn't slip on a glacier
And wouldn't falter in the mountains
A footstep left
And again we were silent
As the wind brushed through the dry grass
And the fire burnt low
And the reeds rustled and blew in our faces
No one spoke
Those of us who remembered
Remember
That Einn put her mitten back on
And T�u shook the fireflies from her hair
And Sj� shifted within his big fur coat
And �tta wrapped �rett�n in
His extra blanket
And we knew we would sleep
We few who remember
Know
That every morning after Fjall comes
We must begin early
Because we must go around the world and be back
In time for Fjall's next story
So we curled up by the fire
And closed our eyes in the dry grass
And once again
No one cared to
Speak
Story Night
Was over
Back to the Index.