Twenty Miles Outside Wyatt City, California, 1852
J.J. Willott rode his palomino in the direction of “away”. Away from the little gold-mining town, away from the lovely but lethal Miss Betty, away from his life. He didn’t know where he was going; he just knew he couldn’t stay in Wyatt City.
He rode until his back and seat ached, then he slid down from his horse Firebird and led her in the direction of water. She put her muzzle into the crystal clear water and began to drink.
It was hard for J.J. to think about his life back in Wyatt City. He’d started out there because his brother Ben had needed his help. Corruption had the town in its iron grip, thanks to a man named Dick Bryant. Ben had needed J.J.’s help to see off this scourge. After that particularly nasty job was done, J.J. had fallen into a life of comfort and habits. That’s what usually happened when you could gamble and win with ease. Miss Betty… Well, the less said about Miss Betty the better.
J.J. wondered if he’d made a mistake in leaving. Miss Betty had set her suckers deep into his heart. After everything, he still wanted to go home to her. Home. What a word! J.J. had spent his life on the move. He’d never had a home. Could it be that he’d found one with that beautiful, ivory-skinned dove?
He laughed to himself. There wasn’t anyone else to laugh with. He was in a land of barren earth. Perhaps a ground squirrel on the hillside might laugh with him, there was no one else.
He eased himself down onto a flat rock. He dug his boots down deep into the dry dirt. This was his home. This was his home as much as anywhere.
J.J. began to build a fire. He’d need it once the cold night drew in. And it gave him something to occupy himself with. Something other than his damned thoughts. Thoughts of ivory skin and silky red hair, thoughts of searching hands running down his back. Damnit.
He was almost relieved when he heard a voice:
‘Can I have a little of your water?’
It was a feminine voice. Not one J.J. had expected to find out here in these parts. He twisted around to see a tall, slender woman with corn-gold hair. The golden hair ran in thick rivulets down to the woman’s waist. J.J. had seen nothing like it. Even in the dim twilight, the hair glowed.
‘There’s plenty of water,’ J.J. said. Still, he held out his bottle.
Their gazes locked as she drank deep from the bottle. She had pale, gray eyes like moonstones. Strange how that image came so perfectly to J.J.’s mind. When had he last seen moonstones? Still, he watched her with the faint idea in his mind that he should be wary. Wary of this slight thing? Yes, there was something about her. A current.
‘How did you get so far out here, so ill prepared?’ he asked. ‘You from Wyatt City?’
She shook her head, no. Then, lowering the bottle from her lips, she spoke:
‘I’m from a little place not so far from here, if you’d like to see it…’
There was something about her voice. It was certain and melodious, like a lost song.
There J.J. went again. What was a ‘lost song’? He couldn’t help but feel the woman was putting these bizarre thoughts in his mind. He knew the last thing he should do was follow her.
*
When the mysterious woman had said her home was nearby, she had lied. J.J. had mounted his palomino and allowed himself to be led on a long journey down through the hills. He thought, for a moment, they were going in the direction of Wyatt City. His whole body clenched at the thought. He breathed a sigh of relief when they turned down into a nook, a place J.J. had never seen before. The hills here were luscious with greenery. None of that dry dirt that gets into your boots. Plumes of purple flowers grew, their heads as big as cabbages. The sky overhead was yellow and pink, like they were living through sunset all over again.
‘What is this place?’ J.J. called out.
The woman didn’t listen. At least, she didn’t respond. She walked down into a hole in the ground. Something about the size of a mineshaft, but this looked naturally hewn. It did not look like a man-made structure. J.J. jumped down from his horse and followed on foot, leading Firebird by her reins.
The world they walked into was unlike anything J.J. had ever seen before. It was filled with a fine, silvery light. It didn’t feel as if they were underground at all. There were people here. Men and women and children. They all looked like the mysterious woman who’d led J.J. down this way. They were dressed in fine silver silk and had shimmering shimmering gray eyes. Like moonstones.
The woman turned to J.J. and took his hands in hers. J.J. felt filthy. He felt like a wretch compared to this beautiful goddess.
‘I am not a goddess,’ she said. She spoke without speaking. Her thoughts seemed to implant themselves in J.J.’s mind. ‘I am the queen of the fairy. This is Elfland. I have brought you here because you showed me kindness when you didn’t have to. I am offering you the chance to stay here for seven years, here in my kingdom.’
J.J. believed her. How could he not believe her, with everything he had seen? He had no doubt this beautiful woman was a queen. The question was whether he wanted to stay here for seven years? He had nowhere to go in the surface world, the real world. Maybe he was getting too old for his wandering life.
*
After seven years, J.J. didn’t know if he wanted to leave. This was the longest he’d ever stayed in any one place since childhood. He knew the people of Elfland; he loved them. He loved the fairy queen. He only left because she told him to go.
Holding Firebird by the reins, he walked back up the way he had come all those years ago. Up through the earth, up to the green, luscious hills with their flames of purple flowers.
He turned back to see the entrance to Elfland, only to see that it had sealed shut. That didn’t surprise him. The fairy knew how to keep out those who weren’t wanted. It just stung to know he wasn’t wanted anymore.
J.J. mounted his horse and began the slow trek in the direction of Wyatt City. There was nowhere else for him to go. No other place where he had people who claimed him. His brother Ben would be there, he hoped. The thought of Miss Betty flitted into his mind for the first time in seven years. Maybe she would still be there, too.
The first thing he saw, once he’d left the luscious green hills, was a road. A wide road made of stuff J.J. had never seen before. He guessed that things would be different after a seven-year absence, but not this different. In the direction of Wyatt City, he saw a true city. Big as San Francisco. Not a simple main drag with false fronts, but buildings that rose high into the sky. Glass windows glinted in the sun.
‘What on earth?’
A great white beast hammered down the road, bigger and faster than any train. In fact, it looked like a train without the tracks. The ungodly noise of it filled the air. The whole world vibrated with the sound of it.
J.J. would not admit this later, but he fell off his horse. He scrambled in the dust at the roadside, trying to find cover, trying to find protection.
‘What is this place?’ he murmured, his voice unsteady.
It took less than a day to ride into Wyatt City. For, Wyatt City was bigger now. It sprawled out in all directions. There were more trackless trains. More horseless carriages. It stunned J.J. that so much of the world could change in just seven years.
A newspaper sat folded on a bench. J.J. picked it up.
The Wyatt City Gazette
His eyes tracked to the date: Monday, May 18th 1998.
He thought about Miss Betty, her ivory white skin and vivid red hair. He could picture her so clearly in his mind. Those sweet pink lips. The dazzle of her brown eyes. She would be gone now. Faded to dust.