My Elf Returns

Yesterday there were tornado and violent thunderstorm warnings and watches. Golf ball sized hail was predicted. But that did not stop me from driving for four hours, sometimes in heavy rain. to find my elf again.

You may recall my elf-loving daughter got a summer job as a ranger in the north. She worked brushing (clearing the area around trails), digging ditches, and painting all sorts of signs and buildings. Well her tenure was finally up, and she rode the bus 18 hours to Toronto, Canada’s largest city, where I was to meet her and bring her home.

I have not been to Toronto for a very long time. I don’t like cities much, and other people scare me. I lived there when my daughter was a baby; we left just after I was holding her up to an open window to look outside and we saw a man being shot in our driveway. It’s a huge city- it goes on and on and has over six million people.

I’m from a small town where everyone knows everyone. I live in a small city now, but you know what they say- you can’t take the country out of the hick.

Driving in, on a highway that sometimes had eight lanes going my way, with two over passes overhead, sandwiched by transport trucks- I felt like a rat running in a tunnel. I finally found my exit and parked at a mall, where I could easily catch public transit.

I’ve forgotten how many people there are in the world. There’s a lot. One of the amazing things is that they all have pieces of other people I know in their faces. Walking through the mall it seemed almost everyone was familiar somehow but I knew none of them. How could there be so many people? Where were they all going? It boggles my little mind to think of them all having homes and beds and sofas and five pairs of shoes. How is it possible?

I was forgetting too, how to act in a big city- the shields and armour that you wear so that no one can see inside you. I know I looked very out of place because everyone stared at me. And then I did the unthinkable- without thinking I held a door open for some people. Their jaws dropped and they gaped at me suspiciously. “Obviously I’m not from here.” I idiotically proclaimed.

And then it became a game. As I made my way to the subway I opened the door for everyone I could find. People began to smile and thank me. I felt a little like a performing monkey, but it was fun.

The subway was packed and I quickly realized that I was “too big” for the small car. I tried to rein in myself and just look like a bored commuter but I couldn’t do it. It seemed impossible to be so dull on the outside while secretly alive on the inside. And yet I used to do it. People looked at me like I was a mental patient. I grinned stupidly back.

The subway has a particular scent too, and I never realized that before. I think it’s from the wheels on the track or something, but it’s a very specific odour.

I had considered stopping in at the Hairy Tarantula or some other store but I’d gotten caught in traffic and I wasn’t even certain I was going to get to the bus station on time.

I got off at the right subway station but when I reached the street I was dumbfounded. It was some kind of public square, overflowing with people; the sidewalks were packed and the buildings so tall and all covered with those big electronic bill boards. It was overwhelming. I tried not to look out of place because I didn’t want to get robbed but I looked really out of place. And I got lost. For about fifteen minutes I wandered back and forth, trying to figure out how to get to the bus station. Finally I saw a guy in a uniform with body armour- it turned out he was a parking ticket guy- and he disgustedly told me I was just a block away.

I was twenty minutes early, but there she was, sitting patiently with her pile of gear, looking straight ahead like a good city girl. She didn’t see me as I sat directly behind her. Our chairs were back to back. I leaned back and felt the back of my chair touch the back of her chair.
“The only thing worse than elves and trees are cities.” I exclaimed loudly.
I felt her tense behind me. But she did not react any other way. The people around me began to slowly distance themselves.
“Elves, cities and trees!” I said even louder. “I despise all three!”
I felt her chair move and then she was hugging the back of my head.

I suppose it would have been beautiful to see each other from a distance and run into each other’s arms. I know she missed me a lot, and I certainly missed her. But my connection to her is so strong it was like she had just stepped away for a moment. Speaking to her was like resuming a conversation that had lapsed for only a breath. To me, it was like we had never been parted.

Together, dragging her gear, we opened doors for other people and laughed, joyed just to be in one another’s company. We rode the subway and found our car in the pouring rain, lit now and then by thick streaks of white lightning. She told me tales of the things she had seen and done. We were relaxed, happy and together- just the way it should be. Maybe elves and dwarves can coexist peacefully after all...