The Storytellers

In the small town of Coventry in New England, families rushed around the Saturday morning farmer’s market not knowing what lay in the woods beyond the city limits. This particular Saturday, Emerine and her husband Niko were exhausted after a long week of testing and therapy sessions for their son Everett. So exhausted in fact, they did not seem to notice when Everett wandered away from the vegetable stand overflowing with people bagging the seasonal food and started following wisps of light into the woods at the edge of the field. From the naked eye, one may not even see these wisps of light as they traveled further into the wood, but Everett was special and therefore could see things that others had not. He continued to follow the wisps and their fluttering wings deeper and deeper until he was lost in circles of mushrooms in the middle of the forest floor.

Beyond the branches and the trees in the forest, creatures hid taking in the sight of a boy in their midst. No human had ever entered their cove and they did not understand how this tiny human creature had found his way in. The dwarfs that hid behind the tallest tree let out a familiar tune to let Walter know that there was a visitor in their midst. When Walter heard the sound, he was just awakening in the hills nearby and spread his scaled wings and flew overhead to see what was going on. He then saw a little boy sitting on a rock in the middle of a fairy circle holding something in his lap.

Walter immediately flew to the caves beyond the trees to find Madremonte, the forest mother in charge of protecting the flower and fauna, the mother of all who inhabited their land. Walter landed outside the cave when Madremonte came out from the darkness to talk with him. When Madremonte came outside and saw Walter, she approached him and told him that she already knew why he had come to see her. Walter bowed his head to the mother of their land.

“Who is this human that has entered our forest Mother?” Walter, in all his years, had never seen such a young human enter their land.

“He is one of the special ones. His name is Everett, and like the others like him, he can see us. He followed the wisps into the forest.” Madremonte lifted Walter’s head and motioned for him to follow her as she led him back to the rock where the boy sat. When they arrived, they saw Everett sitting silently on the rock, swaying back and forth as he took in everything around him. Madremonte placed her hand on his shoulder gently to calm him.

“Everett, is that your name, little one?”

The boy looked up at Madremonte and nodded in understanding.

“Why can the boy not speak, Mother?” Walter asked, watching as the boy still continued to sway back and forth on the rock.

“He is nonverbal Walter. Everett is Autistic. Autistic children are special and see things in the world that others miss right before their eyes. That is why he can see us.” Madremonte held her hand out to Everett for him to take. Everett hesitated but then put his hand in hers and came down from the rock.

“How will he communicate? How will we be able to return him home?” Walter had so many questions to ask. He had heard stories of special humans who were able to see the creatures in his land but he had never laid his eyes on one himself.

“As he grows in his own land, he will find his own way to communicate. Walter, you know yourself that there are so many ways one can communicate without words.” Madremonte started leading Everett through the woods and brought him over to the fairy’s cove. “Everett, do you remember where your family is?”

Everett nodded and pointed back out of the woods. Everett was still clutching to the paper and pens that he had been holding in his lap. He let go of Madremonte’s hand and sat down and started to draw the fairies that were before him. He drew Walter flying above them and Madremonte as well.

“What is he doing?” Walter asked, watching as this small child drew their world down on paper. “He cannot take those drawings back; he will tell the world our secrets. What will happen when they come looking for us?”

“Walter, humans like Everett are the ones that keep our stories alive. They tell our stories through drawings and stories, communicating in the only way that they can. The others see us as fiction, they are not the true believers. Without ones like Everett here, no one would ever know our stories. Without those who believe in us, we would cease to exist.”

“What if they believe him, Mother? What if he leads them back to us?”

“That is the thing about the humans Walter, the older they get the less they believe.”

Madremonte looked down at Everett as he drew the fairies. Putting her hand on his shoulder, she nodded to him in sweet acceptance and approval that he may never truly find in the world he had been born into. Everett closed the small sketchbook he had been drawing in and started to look back outside of the woods again.

“It is time to go home Everett?” Madremonte asked even already knowing the answer.

Everett nodded and walked over to Walter. Walter lowered himself down to Everett’s level and Everett came closer to him leaning his head on Walter’s as if assuring him that the secrets of this place would always be safe with him. Madremonte, Walter, and all the creatures of the forest watched as Everett made his way out of the woods and back to the farmer’s market where his parents were still unshakingly just standing by the vegetable stand.

Everett tugged on his mother's jacket and handed her the drawing of the fairies that he had made. She knelt down and smiled, the first smile she had given in a week that was not forced. She hugged her boy and as they left to go home Everett looked back to the woods, to the place he would often grow to visit, to document. The story would continue.