Fairies Taste Like Walnuts

The fairy beast hiding out among the walnuts in my lunch.

I still remember the way my heart broke when the adults in my life told me the fairies I was deadly sure lived in the swamp down the road were fantasy creatures that never existed--not even during the time of the dinosaurs. Though I wasn't allowed to go into the swampy areas of the neighborhood, I searched those swamps for proof until the day I slipped off a log and got my jeans totally algae covered and panicked--no hiding where I'd been now. So as an adult in Ireland four years ago, the kid in me that still wants to believe perked up when our tour guide pointed out fairy rings in the middle of actively farmed fields--apparently farmers won't tear down trees in a ring or stones in a circle for fear of angering the fairies.

"What do you mean, angering the fairies?" I asked him, thinking vindictiveness didn't fit the two images of fairies I'd flitted between as a kid. "Aren't fairies either fireflies on steroids or pint-sized Gilda*-the-good-witches-from-Oz?" 

Not so, I learned.

Some fairies are kind, but far too many of them are mischievous little beasties who steal--STEAL!--the very kids who defend their honor. The jerks. Is it any wonder they don't show their faces very often?

But today at lunch I made a discovery that adds a new chapter to existing fairy lore: The fairies are not hiding out in the round groves of Irish farms or the the swamps of my youth--fairy folk are hiding out in plain sight ingeniously disguised as raw walnuts.

And boy are they delicious.

*Of course I meant Glinda--thanks AGAIN to Noah Tobin for his eagle eye editing skill. Wanna copyedit my novel?