Edna Ratliff’s entry “A Sorceress, Turtle and Dwarf” won the prize for the November Byliner’s Writers Challenge. Here’s the piece:
A Sorceress, Turtle, and Dwarf
On Halloween eve, I was sitting on the bench in my backyard drinking from my coffee cup. When the autumn breeze ruffled my hair, I pulled my sweater tighter to stay warm. The gray clouds gave off a gloomy cast, while the wind ripped the dried leaves from the trees sending them into a swirl around my feet. A box turtle made a crunching sound in the leaves as the turtle crawled toward me.
“Mr. Turtle, why haven’t you found a place to get in out of the cold?” I asked for my own amusement.
“I haven’t been a turtle very long. So I really don’t know what a turtle does.” The turtle was holding his head high with one eye cocked up at me.
I stepped back, “You can talk.”
“Of course, I can talk. Why shouldn’t I be able to talk?” he asked.
“But turtles don’t talk to people. At least, I never thought they could.”
The turtle crawled closer, “But I’m not a real turtle.”
“Oh, of course, you’re not. You must be a handsome prince waiting for a kiss from a fair lady to change you back.” I giggled.
“No, I’m Flea Fly the Dwarf. I was born before man thought of time. But I wish I was a handsome prince. I’m just a plain ugly dwarf by man’s standards. I’m waiting for forgiveness from the Sorceress Elsie, who lives in the invisible castle.” The turtle smiled.
“A sorceress changed you into a turtle, but why?” I asked.
“Well, did you ever have one of those days when no matter what you did nothing went right?” asked the turtle.
“Yes.”
“Sorceress Elsie, I call her Big E, after Halloween her powers grow less as each month goes by until she is almost powerless, but on Halloween her powers are renewed. In July, Big E’s powers dropped big time. She was on the rampage trying to find a spell that would change the calendar to Halloween. When Big E found a super spell that would renew her powers to full strength she asked me to bring her some shiny red apples. But I couldn’t find any, all I could find was Yellow Delicious apples. So I carefully painted them a shiny red, but when Big E put them into her brew the cauldron blew up. She couldn’t understand why the cauldron exploded until she looked carefully at the apples discovering I had painted them. Big E really became hostile for some reason and changed me into a turtle and told me to leave, so I did.” The turtle looked at me with his sad eyes.
“Is there anything I can do to help you?” I asked.
“No, because Big E is the only one who can change me back into me when Halloween get’s here.” The turtle winked.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Because so far, she has changed me into a snake, rat, mouse, fly, and many other things through the years, and every Halloween Big E changes me back into myself, Flea Fly. So I think I’ll start back to the castles so when Big E does change me back I won’t have so far to walk.” The turtle waved with his front foot, “Good bye,” and crawled away.
I took another sip of my coffee feeling happy inside, there is magic in the air.
