Domestic appliance, it’s a kind of magic…

A rainy Sunday afternoon when Jim crashes on the settee with his book, ‘Beyond Nab End’ and getting comfy with a fresh mug of tea and twenty Bensons. He’s been good today so far, the household well, okay, the flat hold chores have been done and from the spare room, the sound of the tumble drier that makes it’s odd noises as it goes about it’s business.
He has a want in that he’d like to finish this book and get onto something else. As he finishes another chapter, a cigarette and his mug of tea, the tumble drier clunks off and there’s relative quiet in his flat.
There’s a slight noise from his laptop and then there’s something else.
There it is again.
Jim gets off the settee, throwing the book to one side. It’s a gentle tapping sound, like knuckles on glass. Jim checks the back doors and nothing out there.
He turns and checks the oven, er…no.
The washing machine is empty and that knocking sound is still there.
He stands still listening. The soft tapping continues.
It’s coming from the spare room. Pushing the door open and all that’s in here is the small telly, a bed and a load of books, a chair and the tumble drier. He pulls the vent hose in from the window and as he bends down, the knocking starts again, but it’s a lot louder. Jim drops the hose and looks around the room again and now he looks puzzled.
Just as he takes a step, there’s a tap and a cough.
It’s a polite little cough and he steps back and looks down at the tumble drier door.
Looking up at him is a figure, smaller than a Barbie, just as curvy mind and she’s smiling at him.
Jim scratches his head and his customary, ’What the..?’
She’s still smiling, ’I say, hello. Would you mind?’
Jim kneels down and opens the door.
The little lady flutters her wings and flies towards him, then she turns and sits on the top of the tumble drier, ’Thank you for that. I really thought I was going to get stuck in there.’
‘What were you doing in there?’
She giggles, ‘Don’t you know what I am?
Jim doesn’t like trick questions, he needs a lot more tea to handle things like this, ‘No.’
‘You must know, surely?’
The thing she shouldn’t do is upset him. Jim has a bit of a short temper.
‘Well, I’m going to guess that you’re a fairy, and that you’ve been nicking my socks.’
‘Yes, I have been because it‘s what I do.’
Jim gets up, he needs more tea, ’So you’re a sock fairy?’
“Yes.’ She sighs.
‘Do you want tea?’ Jim asks, it seems the polite thing to do.
She smiles at him and flies up onto his shoulder, ’Yes, that would be nice.’
‘Do you smoke?’
‘No and nor should you!’
Jim could get upset, she sounds like his mum…

Jim stands at the worktop, waiting on the kettle. The sock fairy has flown off his shoulder and is sitting on the hood above the cooker.
Everything ready and she quietly watches him.
‘Hey, do you have a name?’ Jim asks.
The sock fairy nods, ‘Yes, but I don’t think you’ll guess what it is.’
‘How many guesses do I get?’
The sock fairy’s head bobbles slightly, ‘Well, there were eight pairs of socks in the drier, so I’ll let you have…four.’
Jim smiles at her, ‘Why four?’
‘That’s how many socks I took.’
The kettle boils and Jim fills two mugs. He makes two very nice looking mugs of tea, which the sock fairy looks quite impressed with.
‘Am I in any danger of getting those socks back?’
She giggles, shaking her head.
Jim shrugs, ’Yeah, thought so.’
‘I need them. I can’t just hand them back.’
Jim picks up his mug, ’Oh, and why’s that?’
‘I can do magic. Apart from take your socks.’
‘You can do magic and yet you get stuck in my drier. That’s not very clever.’
The sock fairy sighs, quite loudly, ’I got caught because you didn’t clean the filter. I got stuck on a piece of fluff!’
‘Well, nobody asked you to go in there.’ Jim says, enjoying his nice tea.
‘But,’ the sock fairy insists, ’it’s what I do.’
‘Yeah, so you said.’
The other mug of tea begins to shrink, Jim stands quite still and watches as the mug gets smaller and smaller. Then, when it appears small enough, it floats to where the sock fairy waits and lands straight in her hand.
She takes a small drink and then a loud ’aahh’ from her and a big smile at Jim, who’s just lighting a cigarette,
‘So, your name.’ He says.
The sock fairy crosses her legs, looking very relaxed.
‘Belinda.’
She laughs and a no.
‘Alright…Zelda.’
She smiles, no.
‘Bloody hell…Esmerelda?’
She laughs, ’You’re not very good at this are you?’
Jim has another drink and a smoke, one last guess and as odd as it may seem, having tea with a sock fairy, is quite good fun, another name though.
His last chance and as he puts his mug down, looks at her, ’I know, it’s Carmen!’
The sock fairy laughs very loudly, slapping her legs, almost spilling her tea, ’No! Oh dear, I suppose I’ll have to tell you.’
Jim stubs out his cigarette and waits for her.
Up to now, he’s been quite nice about all of this, but it could all change in a moment.
The mug leaves her hand and gently lands back on the worktop, then grows back to its normal size again.
‘My name is Angelica.’
‘That’s a lovely name.’ Jim says.
Angelica looks a little embarrassed, blushing, ’Why thank you.’
Jim turns away from her and sits on his couch. He opens his laptop, Angelica watching him from the extractor.
‘What are you doing?’
Jim’s slight glance up at her as his fingers tap at the keypad, ’Google.’
Angelica flutters down and lands on his shoulder again, ’Ah, is this what you do?’
‘What do you mean?’
The screen on the laptop turns white and a big ’Google’ logo appears.
‘Is this your job?’
Jim laughs, ’No, I’m unemployed at the moment, I use this to keep in touch.’
Angelica seems very interested in the movements on screen, lots of words and colours that she can see.
She then yawns and flies down to the small cupboard next to him. Jim pauses from Google and looks at her,
‘Tired?’
She softly yawns again and nods.
‘Just a minute…’ Jim pushes the table away and gets up and goes to his bedroom. He comes back holding a dark blue jumper, one of his favourites, because it’s nice and soft and cosy. He folds the jumper out flat and places it on the cupboard. Angelica moves and lies down on it and curling up, falls asleep.
Jim carefully folds the sleeve of the jumper over her, and quietly, sits down again and starts getting in touch.

About an hour later, Angelica wakes up, warm and covered by the jumper. Jim is at the cooker, making something.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t realise I was so tired.’
Jim turns and smiles at her, ’Oh that’s okay. I’m just doing some lunch. Would you like some?’
Angelica gets up and flies up to his shoulder, a look down then into his saucepan, ’What are you making?’
‘Spam and beans. it’s nice.’
‘Just a little. Thank you.’
Jim gets a large plate and a small one from a cupboard, putting them on the table, ’Spoon or fork?’ He asks.
Angelica giggles, ’Oh a spoon please.’
The concoction in the saucepan bubbles and Jim quickly turns the cooker off, lifting the saucepan clear. Angelica sits on the table, next to the small plate. He carefully puts a small amount on the plate for her and then, making the spoon small enough to fit into her hand, starts eating. Jim loads his plate, dropping the empty saucepan in the sink. He sits with her, watching Angelica eat.
‘Actually,’ she says, quickly swallowing, ’that’s not bad. What is it again?’
‘Spam and beans.’
‘Do you have this everyday?’
‘No, just sometimes. During the week I rarely eat lunch.’
Angelica looks at him, ‘Yes, I know. You should though, that’s naughty.’
Jim stops eating and smiles at her, ‘Naughty? You nick my socks and because I don’t eat lunch you say that’s naughty?’
‘Well, nicking socks isn’t naughty.’ Angelica says, smiling back.
‘So what is it then?’
Angelica giggles, ’Fun! Could I have a little more do you think..?’
Jim shakes his head and puts a little more on her plate.

After lunch, Jim sits at his laptop again, Angelica flies back to the cupboard beside him, pulling the sleeve of his jumper over her again.
‘Are you still keeping in touch?’ She asks.
‘No, I’ve done all that. I was going to do some writing.’
‘Perhaps you’d like to read something of yours for me.’
Jim stops and looks at her. Some of his writing is a little, er… well, rude maybe.
Angelica smiles though, ’You can read the domestic appliance piece, that’s quite good. I like that one.’
‘How do you know about that one?’
She looks up at him, ’Because that’s the one where you and I meet. The tumble drier, remember?’
Jim opens his documents folder and scrolls down until he finds ’SJ’s mini challenge’. He clicks on it as Angelica gets comfortable.
‘Okay, ready?’
Angelica nods, ’Yes, I like this one.’
Jim looks at the screen and clearing his throat begins, ’…A rainy Sunday afternoon when Jim crashes on the settee with his book, “Beyond Nab End” and getting comfy…’
It doesn’t take long to read the story as it’s one that’s very short and as Angelica had said, it’s quite good.
Jim clicks on the ’X’ button and exits from the story.
Angelica sits, waiting for him, ’So what now?’
‘Tea?’
‘We could, but why don’t we go for a walk. You haven’t been out today yet.’
Jim groans, ’That’s because it’s raining.’
‘Not now it isn’t.’ She says, so matter of fact.
Jim gets up and grabs his jacket from the back of the chair. Angelica flies up and sits on his shoulder again, ‘Are you going to be okay up there?’
Angelica nods.
He then reaches for his cigarettes and lighter from the settee.
Angelica politely coughs, ‘You don’t need those.’ Then her little smile again.
Jim smiles. She’s right. He doesn’t need them.
Checking that he has his keys, they head out, down to the centre of town. Before they get there, he stops off in the little park. Something Jim wants to show her. There are a few boats tied up here, but the boats aren’t what interests him. Behind these, just above the waterline, there are five swan’s. They moved in a couple of weeks ago and seem quite happy to be here.
Angelica sits up on his shoulder very quietly and Jim’s sure he heard her gasp.

The swan’s, initially, don’t seem to mind him being there, but two of them start spreading their rather large wings and Jim decides that it’s best to leave them alone. He starts walking again, along the quay and down to the railing by the rowing club. This is where, during the week, he’d come for another of his walks and watched two dogs swimming and by all accounts, having a right old laugh. The weather was different then, it was a lovely bright day but now, it’s getting darker and those grey skies look threatening.
Angelica seems happy, asking all sorts of questions and listening quietly as Jim answers her, keeping his voice soft and quite content to sit up on his shoulder as the first drops of rain hit her and she doesn’t mind at all.
Jim almost runs to the shop, if he had to run, he’d probably hurt himself, but they just miss the heavy rain and he buys a few things, the basics mostly and Angelica asks for a packet of salt and vinegar crisps.
The slow easy walk back up the hill to the flat, getting wet and all the way back, Angelica just giggles as if this is the best fun in the world.
Jim doesn’t say much. One of the things that’s developed from being on his own so long, that lack of a need to talk.
Jim takes his wet clothes off as Angelica settles on his jumper once again, folding the sleeve over her and then watching him as he makes tea. She’s taken a fancy to his jumper, she knows it’s one of his favourites.
He places a mug of tea next to her and then her packet of crisps. The mug and the crisps then shrink to the required size, Angelica opening the pack and taking a deep breath of that wonderful aroma. Jim wouldn’t think anything like that, he doesn’t eat crisps. He sits beside her, drinking his fresh, hot tea, ’So, what do you want to do?’
‘Could we watch a film? I haven’t seen one in ages.’
Jim gets up, moving to the shelves in the corner of the room, ’Okay, what about Taxi? It’s the original French version, with subtitles.’
Angelica shakes her head with a mouthful of crisps.
‘Umm, Dracula has risen from the grave? Frankenstein must be destroyed? Countess Dracula?’
Angelica just giggles. Jim looks up at the ceiling, but there aren’t any DVD’s up there.
‘What about the two towers? That’s a really good one.’
Jim nods in agreement, ’Yeah it is and a bit long.’
‘That’s okay, I don’t have to be anywhere.’
‘Oh, no more nicking socks then?’
‘No thank you. You don’t have any more clean ones.’
So, The Two Towers it is then. He loads the disc, Angelica finishing her crisps and then, moving slightly closer, finishing her tea and watching the film.
As the film gets to about halfway, Angelica notices that Jim is slumped on the settee. Moving closer, she can hear his soft breathing, his eyes are closed and he’s fast asleep. Looking at her hands and she’s starting to fade, Jim is dreaming, but not about her. Quickly, she flutters up, so close to him and plants such a soft kiss to his cheek, and her so soft whisper, ’Goodbye my Prince. Thank you for sharing with me.’
In a twinkling of stars, Angelica is gone.

Jim wakes with a start. Almost a rude awakening and looking around and no sign of her. He gets up and his jumper is on the little cupboard, then he sees the mug and the empty packet. He goes into the spare room and by the tumble drier, looks down and cries.
As days turn into weeks that turn into months, Jim knows he’ll never see Angelica again. What he does is to tell his kids, they will tell their kids of the day that crazy grand-dad spent a few hours with a sock fairy called Angelica.
Then, when it’s Jim’s turn to go, he’ll close his eyes and dream forever…

The End…