A Priest that Listens
Father Alstair W. Muggins looked out the window of his new home.
From there he could see the fine old church of which he was now the rector.
And beyond that the cemetery.
From the window on the other side he could see the Greek temple like edifice built by some past king and now part of the public park system.
Everything seemed so ideal that he had no idea why he was here. His job was to help troubled parishes. This one had gone through three priests in two years, one had left the priesthood and two were receiving psychiatric treatment.But everything seemed fine. He had met with the Vestry and they were fine reasonable people except for the question of night meetings and night services. They told him that once the sun sets nobody will come anywhere near the Church. It seems there is some kind of monster under the old stone bridge that that leads over the creek and into the cemetery and it comes out at night.
So he did what any rational priest would do he went and sat on the bridge as it got dark. Soon there was an odd noise and then a little three foot creature stood before him.
But instead of running away or screaming he said to the creature " What are you? You aren't a Troll, a Gremlin, a Fairy, an Elf, A Leprechaun , or even a Drow. So why are you running around scaring my people?"The little being answered , " My father was a fairy and my mother was a troll. I suppose that makes me a faool or a trairy. I got lonely after a hundred years of living alone under the bridge. I just want somebody to talk to."
Father Alstair smiled for he was a very good listener. He made a deal with Durban , that was the name of the faool . He would sit down to tea with him in the rectory every Tuesday and Saturday night if he would cease all other apperances. With great joy Durban accepted.
Father then invited the congregation to an exercism on the old bridge and promised there would be no more monsters.
He was indeed the right man for the job thanks to his mother reading him all those fairy stories when he was young and teaching him about the little folk.
Someday he would have to invite some of his fairy friends from his last parish to meet Durban.
Of course the troublesome dragons were busy today you can see them HERE.
5 comments:
"faool or a trairy" I love those names. How nice of Father Alstair. I do hope to read soon about Durban. I think he just needs some company. And I note, that someone that is thinking of slaying dragons, well maybe not slaying, but kicking them off the computer or something it's funny that you, my dear friend, promote their stories...just me talking to myself now LOL. Great story :)
What a last line! LOL That's fantastic; I enjoyed this a lot.
So that's a bridge? To me the water looked like a wet road, and I made it a gate. A broken bridge would have been more fun!
What a perfect match of priest to parish! I just LOVE it when it works like that!
I do find it interesting that you chose Alstair for your main characters name, and Susan (points UP) chose Alastair! Must be SOMETHING about these pictures!
Oh clever father Alstair! I love people who can see fairies and little folk. :)
I joined in too today Dr. John.
Loved the story, sounds strangely familiar :-)
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