the fairy hitchhiker; patty cake

Originally posted by asakiyume at the fairy hitchhiker; patty cake

It was after midnight when my headlights caught her, waving to me from the center of the road. I stopped and rolled down the window, but she'd already gone round to the passenger's side and opened the door and hopped in.

She was dressed in 1920s flapper-girl costume, with a lacy shawl. "Just take me up there a ways," she said, without so much as a please or thank you. But all right, why not?



"This is brilliant!" She slipped off her shawl and leaned forward to rest her elbows on the dashboard. "I've always wanted to ride in one of these. So fast and smooth!"

We passed under the railroad bridge and came up to the hill the kids like to sled on in the winter.

"Here will be fine." She had the door open before I'd even had a chance to slow down.

"Don't forget your shawl!" I called, but she had already hopped out and was disappearing up the hill, a bobbing bit of brightness in the shadows. What to do? In the end, I took a couple of steps into the long, wet grass by the side of the road and laid the shawl over a clump of goldenrod.

In the morning, however, I found the shawl was draped over my mailbox, with a note in dew along the edge: Thanks for the ride. You keep the shawl; it never suited me.




What do you think--shall I wear it?

ETA Interestingly, I see the encounter is remembered differently elsewhere.

( but that's not all )