En Plein Air

Photo by Denise Johnson on Unsplash

Gasping, Bella began to wonder if she really needed to drag the table outside. It had seemed like such an easy thing to do… But that had been thirty minutes ago, after staring out her window at the spring, instead of painting. Then - such a clever idea! - she’d decided to simply take her watercolors outside and paint what she was looking at. And now here she was. 

Gritting her teeth, she pushed at the table again. She’d gotten this far, she may as well keep going. With several more grunts Bella tugged the table forward and smacked into the doorframe. Swallowing frustration, she took a deep breath. Almost there. A bee buzzed through the open door and she ignored it. So long as it stayed away from her, she’d let it be. Carefully, she maneuvered the table out the door and onto her lawn.

She collapsed into the grass and gulped for air. Why did she have such a heavy table? How was she going to get it back in now that it was out? Bella firmly banished such thoughts from her mind. The table was out, she was going to paint in the spring, and she wasn’t going to think anything beyond that. Of course, now she needed her brushes and paint, paper, clipboard… With a groan, she pulled herself up and headed back into the house, passing the bee on its way out. 

Bella caught a glimpse of herself in the hall mirror and had to laugh. Her hair had come undone and was flying out every which way and her short stint in the grass had already put stains on her jeans. Oh well. The idea was for people to look at the painting - when it was done - not at her. Shaking her head, she rounded up various art supplies and headed back to the table. She had to take another trip back into the house for water, and then another one for a chair. And once she got herself settled, she went in again for a paper towel roll to prop up her clipboard. With a sigh she finally reached for her brush. 

An apple-blossom breeze tried to rearrange her hair. Somewhere, a mockingbird called out. Smiling, she dipped her brush into the water. Was it even possible to capture such perfection? She began to paint the scene before her. The tire swing swaying gently from the tree. Several bees courting daffodils. Chickadees and goldfinches splashing in the birdbath. The neighbor’s terrier running by with a struggling fairy in its mouth…

Bella dropped her paintbrush and stared. “Hey!” she yelled, then realizing that was stupid, tried a different tactic. “Here, Rocky, come here boy.”

Obediently, the dog trotted over, clearly pleased with himself. The fairy was yelling things she couldn’t understand, but assumed weren’t very nice. Bella grabbed the dog’s collar. “Let go, Rocky.” Rocky wagged his tail at her. She tried to gently pry his jaws apart, which was difficult both because she could only use one hand and because she was trying no to hurt the fairy more. “Come on, drop it.” Rocky reluctantly relinquished his hold on the fairy and then immediately tried to pick it up again. “Shoo! Go home!” Bella pushed the dog away. Rocky didn’t want to go. In the end she had to scoop up her paintbrush and throw it before he lost interest in the fairy.

Finally she was able to turn her attention to the fairy. The fairy had picked herself up and was shaking out her wings that resembled something closer to bat wings in shades of yellow and green. “Are you alright?” asked Bella.

“No,” snapped the fairy. “I’m alive, and no longer under that revolting creature’s control, but I’m certainly not alright.”

“Can I get you something?”

“There is nothing you can do,” said the fairy grandly, sweeping her wings behind her like a cape. “But you have saved my life and I must reward you. What boon can I do for you?”

Bella blinked, “Um… I don’t really need anything…”

The fairy crossed her arms, “I didn’t ask what you needed. I asked what I can do for you. Most humans have a list of things they want.”

Bella looked around. There was the tire swing, the daffodils, the birdbath, her painting table with everything askew, the house. “Can you get my table back into my art room once I’m done out here?”

The fairy stared at her in disbelief, “You have the opportunity to ask for untold riches and you want me to move your table?”

Bella didn’t point out that in most stories asking for untold riches seemed to get people in trouble. “It’d be a help. But if you can’t do that…”

The fairy rolled her eyes, “Of course I can do it! But you humans… there’s no understanding you.” With that, the fairy disappeared behind the daffodils.

The table was still standing in the grass. Bella shrugged, and started straightening things out. She was missing her favorite brush now that she had thrown it for Rocky, but she could make do with the others. Maybe she should have asked for a new brush. She spent the rest of the afternoon painting. Some bees buzzed by her water, but soon lost interest. Rocky ran across her yard again, but this time with no fairies. He was soaking wet though. Bella shook her head. She had no idea what that dog was up to. Finally, she cleaned up her supplies and started lugging the table back inside. It was incredibly light, and took no effort at all. Bella grinned. This was much better than dragging it out. In no time she had everything put away and was thinking about dinner.

About a week later, when she sat down to paint again, she opened a drawer in the table, looking for a sketchpad and gasped. The drawer was filled with gold and diamonds. Stunned, she gaped at it for a moment. Then she hunted up her laptop and started googling how to do taxes on fairy gold.