WHISPERS

She used to come here with her daughter. She laid a blanket on the grass and played with the girl. The little one often fell asleep; the woman nestled around her and whispered words of love.
A young woman sits now at my feet.
She comes here every now and then; she closes her eyes and listens to those whispers again.

(The Olive Tree Tales)

CURSED POET

His fingers on the guitar´ strings moved like the brush of a painter.
He used to come here to write his songs.
He had very long hair and a beard. His voice was as warm as the summer´ sun rays.
Many were his fans and I, one of them.
He died young and in trouble.
A modern poet was he and a cursed one.

(The Olive Tree Tales)

UNFORGIVABLE INFIBULATION

She was three years old and happy when they came here.
With a dirty razor an old lady cut away her clitoris and more; then she sewed her tight.
Her mother was holding her and I still don´t know how she could stand her own daughter shouts of pain. A brutal, useless pain that changed a healty little girl into a forever suffering woman.
She was three years old and devastated when they went away.
Blood was everywhere and they justified it with the name of Allah.
But Allah created the woman like she is and Allah doesn´t make mistakes.
Allah is infallible.
For sure the terrible pain and scars on that poor girl´s body and soul will not be forgiven.

(The Olive Tree Tales)

17th May - Full Moon

The three fairies I met at the lake are my mother´s sisters. I could finally see them and I realized that one of them was always at my side. Since I was born they were taking care of me without me noticing it.
I learnt that they have powers on the elements and that Water, Fire, Air and Earth are their servants. My mother has control on Water.
When I was born the four sisters gave me a part of their powers to protect me. I could control the four elements alone. I just have to learn how. And they are willing to teach me.
The sisters of my mum - I just started to call them aunts - took me, on the night of 30th April, to the Beltane Fairy feast. We spent all night dancing to welcome spring and its renewing of the nature and life.
Many other fairies were there and one of them literally took my breath away. When he looked at me the first time his eyes were so piercing that I nearly felt pain: I had to stop breathing for a few seconds. He then smiled walking towards me, and the four elements I tried to dominate started to beat my soul, all at once. When he touched my hand I thought my heart would explode. He gently pulled me and we danced. We danced the all night without speaking. It was not necessary. We both knew that our souls would have been bound forever.
- Mum - I said when my mother came out of the rear mirror of the car - I think I am in love.
- I know - she said sitting on the passenger seat - but I am not sure it is good for you.
I didn´t answer. My eyes filled with tears.
- He is the son of the most powerful fairy that turned to the dark side, Dunkel. He has been grown up by his father. He is not the fruit of love as you are; his mother, a human, was given to Dunkel as the seal of a pact. A terrible exchange to get success and money. The poor girl was eighteen years old and for ten years she was Dunkel´s personal slave. Then, with the help of her son, that was only nine, she suceeded to find a way out. Since that very day, he protects her from his father and this is good. But he is very strong, and so is his dark side.
- Who could make such a terrible pact?!
- Your boss.
I had to stop the car. If I had looked at me in the mirror I would have seen a stranger. I was so upset.
- He comes to me every third day - I said after a few minutes - We are getting to know each other even if I have the feeling I know him since ever. I am sure he is not as dangerous as you say.
- Did you look at him also in the mirror I gave you?
- No, I didn´t.
- You should. And now drive to the river. You have to learn how to control water.

(Tales from the Mirror - Fifth Moon)

18th April - Full Moon

In my mother´s arms I dreamt about a little girl.

She was fighting alone against a huge dragon. Sometimes she seemed to be able to tame the dragon to her will, sometimes she was on the point of being eaten by him and I didn´t know what to do. I was feeling so helpless that tears started streaming down my face. They transformed into crystals. Crystals that contained little beings. They were my fairy powers and I gave them to the girl. She smiled and the dragon was tamed.

When I woke up my mother was gone.

I spent this last month learning about myself.

I often looked in the little fairy mirror that my mother gave me but this time not to discover about the others. I wanted to know more about myself. I wanted to explore every feeling, every mood, every thought I have to finally understand what it was that made me so unhappy. All my life I looked for something whithout exactly knowing what it was. And now it was there, in front of me. It was the missing part of my soul.

I think it will take my life time to be completely aware of my double nature but it doesn´t scare me anymore. I am what I am and my powers come from my deepest place. If I can´t control myself I´ll never be able to use them properly.

I was completely buried in this thoughts when my mother came out of the reflecting surface of the lake. The full moon was like a lamp switched on and the waters were mirroring it in a million little wavering lights. It really looked like in a fairy tale. And maybe it was.

-Mum – I said after a few moments – I want to know more about the fairy world. I want to go there. I need to know more about my magic side.

- The fairy world is everywhere – said she – Fairies prefer to live far away from the cities, in woods and forests but it is not uncommon to find them around humans, in their garden or in their fireplaces. It is just that, normally, humans can´t see us.

- Normally? Are there people that can see fairies?

- Yes. Little children for example, before they forget how to watch things, or very sensitive persons like...

- Like my father.

- Yes, like your father – she whispered blushing.

She was so beautiful, my mother. Impossible to resiste her if only one was able to see her.

-We met in front of a wild rosegarden – she continued after a while – White roses they were, and your father saw me. His eyes on me were a caress softer than the roses´ petals. I will never forget it. Never.

A gentle breese moved our hair and souls: it brought with the scent of the roses. And suddenly I could see the three fairies sitting near us. They seemed to know my mother and they looked a bit alike.

I was not afraid. They were smiling and I smiled back.

(Tales from the Mirror - Forth Moon)

19th March - Full Moon

My mother came out from the mirroring surface of the table just in time to stop me.
It is full moon tonight and I was supposed to meet her. But I didn’t think it would have been in that way.
He is on me. He is lifting my skirt.
I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him but he is my boss.
And I was stupid.
With an excuse he made me work till late, than he called me in his office. Everything was dark in the room and he grabbed me putting one of his big fat hands on my breast.
Nobody is in the office any more, it is nearly midnight.
At the beginning everything was so fast and I was so shocked that I paralysed. But it lasted the time he took to throw me on his table. The cold surface made me regain my lucidity and I flew him against the wall behind us just with a glance.
His hands are off me and now I can serve him his punishment. He was laying on the floor bleeding from his head and – I got to know it later – with a broken shoulder. I walked in his direction like a wolf ready to dismember him.
He was lucky and so was I.
Midnight came and my mother stopped me.
She puts one of her hands on my eyes and whispers something. My internal fire cools and I calm down. I didn´t even see her appearing but I am happy she did. I would have become a murder under the tonight bigger moon and I would have been forever. I know that if she had not been there I would have killed him. I could not control myself anymore and I would have done it.
She is taking my hand. We disappear in the old mirror hanging on the wall and get out in my room.
- You spent the last month observing how in reality people are in the little mirror I gave you – softly said my mother driving me to bed – I think is now time for you to learn about yourself. In your eyes sits your power. And the eyes mirror your soul. I will make you sleep now and you will dream. It will be a fairy dream that, if you are willing to learn, will tell you more than you expect.
She starts singing.
It is a beautiful melody that I think I know. I am not sure... I am tired... I am falling asleep.

(Tales from the Mirror - Third Moon)

MIMOSA

Running holding her baby in a tight embrace she fled from a bad husband and even worse father.
Unlike many other she made it.
Like the baby she had the hair of the colour of the big Mimosa blooming in front of me; I had the feeling that the spring was for them.

(The Olive Tree Tales)

18th February - Full Moon

It was full moon again. And midnight.
When she came out of the mirror she was even more beautiful of the first time I saw her.
We were in my bedroom. We sat on the bed and started to chat.
She told me she could see how hard I tried to keep away from my dark side; she was proud of me. But I needed to first go deep into it before being able to really control it.
I am half a fairy. And fairies have two sides. A dark and a bright one. They follow one or the other depending on what charms them most and how strong they are.
But I am half human as well. Also human have a dark and a bright side. Humans as well decide which side to follow depending on their nature.
But no one is just shadow. No one is just light.
When my human feelings are evil my fairy bad side grows so strong in me that I nearly can´t control it. I know I could kill with a glance. And it is fascinating, I have to admit.
- I want to give you something – said my mother while a little round shining box appeared in her hands – Take it always with you and look into it every time you feel you can´t control yourself.
It was a little compact mirror with a sparkling white rose on the top of the box. It was my mother first present.
- It shows what people really are in the moment their image is reflected into it. It is how I see people. And it will help to know better your real you.
- Mum – I said taking the mirror carefully in my hands – what about Dad? I told him I met you. I wanted him to be here as well tonight but he said it was not possible. He was crying when he said it.
- We are not allowed to meet. He knows I can see him in every mirror he looks into. You know this little and shining piece of silver he never forgets to take? It´s his way to take me always with. But if we meet again, I would die. I only wish his last day will be on a full moon so that I could embrace him a very last time and then close my eyes forever. Together with him. We love each other so much!
- Isn´t anything that can be done to set you free?
- Maybe, but it is too dangerous. Failure would mean death for a human or neverending confinement in the tear of a tree for a fairy.
- The tear of a tree?
- Yes. A drop of amber.
- What can be so dangerous? – I asked clenching my fist around the compact mirror.
- To get the key. Loving your father I broke one of the oldest oath of the fairies: “Time doesn´t touch us, old age stays far away, true love can´t die: the mortal will. I swear, in front of mother nature and you, sisters and brothers in magic, never to love a mortal”. Giving birth to you I created a door in between our two worlds. The only way to rescue me is to to get the key and lock that door again.
- Where is the key?
- I don´t know. The spell says: “Deep in the mirror, see but not seen, loving reflections that seem on a screen. Forever but if the key is met and the two worlds´ kiss set”.
There was a way to rescue my mother. I couldn´t think of anything else.
I looked in the mirror she gave me. The image was changing so quick that I hardly recognized myself. It was going as fast as my thoughts and some of it weren´t so positive. A dark lady looked from the mirror. I was scared but she smiled charming.

(Tales from the Mirror - Second Moon)

TRICOLOUR

I saw them passing by, 150 years ago.
A sea of red jackets marching on lushly green fields.
In the background the shining white of the salt-works.

(The Olive Tree Tales)

SHEEP

A teacher once sat at my feet with some of his students.
They didn´t look very different from the many others I saw, they didn´t seem more stupid or obtuser but they sounded like an ignorant manipulatable group of sheep.
He was repeating them the same lie in many different ways. I was shocked to see that they blindly believed him.
No one probably ever taught them to think with their own brain. Unfortunately.
It reminded me of the one that once said that "a lie repeated often enough will eventually be accepted as truth".

(The Olive Tree Tales)

COURTESANS

It was a couple of hundreds years ago when he arrived here with three of his courtesans.
They called him the Duke but nacked into their arms he just looked like and old man.
He payed his few minutes of pleasure, they struggled for existence.
They were impetuous like young mares: he was wise enough not to make them senators.

(The Olive Tree Tales)

19th January - Full Moon

It was not yet midnight when I arrived home.

The full moon was shining in a dark sky that seemed to promise nothing but coldness. It was with anger that I threw the car keys on the table; the bag and the coat I left on the floor near the entrance door. I never did it before. I am normally so tidy!

Sitting on a fulfilling bathtub I observed my clothes lying all along the corridor like many empty bags.

Finally I entered the so-thought relaxing bath. Few minutes and my heart nearly stopped.

Absent mindedly I was watching my reflection in the big mirror in front of me: I saw someone else in it.

At first I thought it was a kind of mirage created by the steam but then she came out of the mirror.

- I saw the wildness growing in you – she said with a entchanted voice – It will overwhelm you if you don´t learn how to control it.

I didn´t know what to say, what to do; I was nacked in front of her hoping that she wasn´t real.

She had beautiful long platinum blond hair and an ivory skin; she was wearing a transparent sparkling veil and she was bare foot. She smiled and touched my left nipple.

I saw her suddenly trasforming in a woman that could have been me but with such a horrible look that I moved back.

- Who are you? – I finally babbled.

- My name is Rhoslyn – she answered regaining her gorgeous aspect – and I am your mother.

I stared at her incredulous.

They always told me that my mother died while bringing me to the world.

They always told me she was beautiful. I had no picture of her. I never saw her face but in the loving eyes of my father.

My anger was becoming fury. I always wanted my mother to come back; I wanted her to be there for me, with me, when I was little and also when I grew up. But I knew she wasn´t in this world anymore and it was such a pain!

I looked for her in each corner of my face, asking my father if I looked like her, if I had her eyes or her nose, if it was her smile that answered me every time I looked into a mirror. I missed her so much.

And now this, this... illusion was telling me that she was my mother! I was not afraid anymore, I just wanted to kick her away.

But she didn't let me time and my rage magically disappeared the moment she caressed my cheek. This very single touch gave me the caresses of a mother. All at once. I couldn´t buy cry.

My mum was there. Finally.

I always thought I had some kind of power. I can hear and see things that the others don´t. I can cook in such a way that my food seem to enchant those that eat it. I have a scary dark side inside me, and it is so strong that if I am upset I can move things with a glance. It terrifies me. I spoke with my father about it. He didn´t seem surprised but he forbade me to tell it to anybody. Now I know I am not fool nor psychic.

My mother is a fairy.

- I was condemned for loving a mortal – she said sitting on the edge of the bathtab – After your birth I was imprisoned into a mirror. I can go in whathever surfaces reflects but no where else. I see the truth mirroring itself and I can tell you that things are not always as they look like. I can´t be seen but if I wish it and, in any case, only at midnight of a full moon day. Like tonight. We have only one hour, then I´ll be sucked into the mirror again.

I wanted to ask her so many things that no words reached my lips. I could just sink my head into her embrace and let her rock me.

- When someone looks into a mirror – she started after a few of the most beautiful moments of my life – I can see his real image, guess his feelings, touch his thoughts. When I took your form I showed you what I saw. The time has come. Half of you belongs to a world you are not aware of and that you now have to be acquainted with or it will destroy you. You have a huge power and you have to learn not to let your dark side to use it.

It was true. That very evening I had to dig the nails deep into my flesh to be able to control myself. I knew that if I had looked at him once again I would have literally driven the pen in front of me into his left eye. I knew I could do it. I know I would have done it.

But I didn´t want to think, I didn´t want to speak. Not in that moment at least. And she knew.

It was the first time I could touch my mother, smell her wonderful parfum of fresh roses and enjoy her caresses and kisses. We simply cuddled like if nothing else had any importance.

When she disappeard I held back the tears. Now I knew that every time I look into a mirror it is her smile to smile me back.

I went to bed.

I dreamed the next full moon.

(Tales from the Mirror - First Moon)

MISERY

Sitting at my feet, smoking a fat cigar a writer was listenig to the radio.
They said they had to amend Huckleberry Finn.
It sounded to me very much like censure, or stupidity.
I saw him writing something down in is moleskine. Then, in a whisper, he read it out loud.
"What's in a name? That which we call a nigger
By any other name would forget the misery his people had to suffer?"

(The Olive Tree Tales)

New Year´s resolution

Caressing my old trunk he whispered his New Year´s resolution.
He would tell her about his love every day, as if it was the last one.

(The Olive Tree Tales)