a break from Chaucer

Now Playing: James Galway, "Annie's Song". A CD recorded from one of my parents' old LPs. One of my earliest memories is listening to this LP and deciding that someday I wanted to be able to play the flute, too....

I just heard a familiar sound outside my window. When I looked out into the rainy street, I saw a dapple grey horse going clip-clop down the asphalt.

Hitched to the horse with a leather collar and wooden traces was a wooden cart painted bright red and yellow.

On the cart was a carriage.

And in the carriage was a princess.

The princess had on a yellow dress.

The princess looked out her window through the rain and saw me standing in my window, watching her.

She waved at me, so I opened my window and shouted down, "Hello!"

The footman walking at the horse's head turned round and said, "Who's that? Be quiet!"

But the princess opened her window and said to the footman, "Stop here, please." The footman drew the horse up, and the princess stepped out of her carriage. The street was very wet, so the footman had to carry her across.

A few moments later, I heard the doorbell buzz. There wasn't anyone else in the house, so I went downstairs to open it. "Hello, princess," I said to the princess, who was still being held by the footman so that she wouldn't get her feet wet.

"Hello," she said, "You're not from around here, are you?"

"Nope," I told her.

"That's good. I want an outside opinion. Will you come for a drive in my carriage?"

"Well, I have a paper I ought to be working on...."

"Oh, please?" she asked. She must have been a very young princess because she was still good at making bambi eyes and hadn't yet gotten down the trick of saying, "Off with their head!" when anyone displeased her.

"I suppose I could spare the time," I said finally, and followed her outside into the street. "Sorry I can't carry you both," said the footman. "That's quite alright," I replied, "it's not necessary," and jumped into the carriage. The seats inside were nice and springy, so I bounced up and hit my head on the roof. "Ow," I said. The princess giggled.

The footman jumped up onto the seat at the front of the carriage and cracked his whip over the horse's back, and soon instead of clopping along listlessly we were hurrying through the wet streets. Cars honked at us, and some rude young people walking along the side of the road whistled and made cat-calls when they saw the pretty princess inside the carriage. I pulled nasty faces at them and showed the princess how to pull a fish-face. She thought it was funny.

We turned left up University Street and drove right into the Botanic Gardens. The thick overhanging branches of the spruce and fir trees made deep shadows over the path. The horse cantered quickly along. The princess opened her window, and the spicy smells of the evergreens drifted in, and as we went past the rose garden, all the roses turned round to look at the princess. They had been busy playing chess, but when they saw the princess, they all bowed.

I thought we were soon going to come to the other side of the gardens, but instead, the gardens turned out to be as big as they looked on GoogleEarth (which made them look far more sprawling than they actually are). There seemed to be no end to them: On and on we raced, through groves of fir and spruce, past green lawns surrounded by oak trees turning umber and orange, past thickets of chestnut trees shedding their long yellow and bronze leaves. Silver maple trees shivered as we went past them. "That's my kind of tree from home," I said, pointing them out to the princess.

Pretty soon I started to get bored and wonder if I was ever going to get back to Renwick. "So, what can I do to help you?" I asked the princess at last.

The princess smoothed down her yellow satin dress and pulled hard on one of her brown curls. "Well, I have a problem," she said. "Most people do," I replied. The princess wrinkled her nose at me. "You see," she said, "I own this country, and it's being invaded by something that is making all the trees turn yellow. I simply don't understand it. I've made sure that they're all well-watered, but they're going yellow anyway. I've heard reports of some strange creatures flying in and out of the trees, so I was wondeirng if you have any idea for a way to get rid of these creatures."

"Well, you could pour water on them. It worked in Signs at least," I muttered. "What's that? I've never heard of more than one sign before." "Oh." I coughed delicately. "I guess you already tried watering them, didn't you?" I said in a louder voice. "Yes," she sighed, and fluttered her eyelashes.

"Has this ever happened before?" I asked, beginning to be suspicious. The princess was obviously "dippy", as Anna would say. "Oh, I don't know," she said. "I only started to rule this country last spring, and all my people came with me from my home, so they don't know either." "Ah."

I sat and thought hard for a minute.

"Where are the strange creatures?" I asked finally. The princess peered cautiously out of her window. "There's one of them up there!" she exclaimed. "It's watching us." I looked out the window, too, and saw, perched in the top of an oak tree, a big hawk. It was swivelling its head round and round and fluttering its wings. "Oh, that's just a hawk," I said, "they migrate at this time of year."

"Migrate? What's that?" asked the princess.

And suddenly it all became plain to me.

"Do you know what season it is?" I asked. "Season?" the princess faltered.

"Ahha," I shouted. "I know what your problem is. You've never seen a season before." "What's a season? Can I get my army to destroy it?"

"No, no, no," I said, and started to laugh at her. The princess scowled at me and stamped her foot on the floor of the carriage. "Stop, footman!" she shouted. The footman brought the horse up abruptly. "Out! Get out!" the princess screamed.

"Hold on," I said, "Let me explain." The princess tried to push me out of the carriage, but I braced myself, and anyway, I was bigger than she was. "A season is the time of year when the weather changes and the animals change, too," I said. "This is the season of fall. In the fall, all the trees turn colors and drop their leaves. The birds that were living here gather in big flocks and fly south because after fall comes winter." "What's that?" the princess whispered, terrified. "Winter is when everything gets very cold. The birds all go away because they don't have houses where they can get warm, so they have to move to a country where it's warm." "Oh. Why do the trees go colors?" the princess asked. I groaned. "I can't give you a first-year biology lesson, but they just do. The days get shorter and colder, so the trees let their leaves fall so that when winter comes, their branches won't break with the weight of snow. Instead of catching in their leaves, the snow will just slide off," I explained, fudging a bit.

"So you mean I don't get to throw water at anyone?" the princess asked timidly. "Nope," I said, "unless you'd like to have a waterballoon fight some time. I'm sure my sister would love that." "Where does she live?" "Oh, she lives on the other side of the ocean, down south. Maybe you should move over there so that you don't get too cold during the winter."

"That's a great idea," said the princess. She shouted to her footman, "Pack us up and get ready to go." "Yes, your highness," said the footman.

"Thank you very much," said the princess. "You're quite welcome," I said, "Have a fun trip." I hopped out of the carriage and walked back to Renwick. At least, I tried to walk back to Renwick. I kind of got lost along the way...

... but that's another story for another time.