“Take note of the things the Scribe is writing, and then it will make more substance,” explained Hanny.
“You want me to make note of the notes produced by the Scribe?” asked Ksteve.
“I suppose that is what I am inferring,” smiled Hanny.
“Take notes of notes!” laughed Ksteve.
“It would make a lovely song,” said Eoghan. “With all those notes we might even get a chorus!”
“Trust you to make a song and dance of things!” teased Dennis.
Again, to no one’s surprise, Eoghan was confused.
“I get how I make the song from all those notes, but I haven’t mentioned dancing,” said a very puzzled Eoghan.
Father Nick, who was still part of the entourage, gave an audible sigh.
“Making a song and dance of things means whinging about something in an excessive way!” explained Dennis.
“I wasn’t complaining! I just thought that with Ksteve and the Scribe making lots of notes we could put it all together and make a lovely new song to perform on the hit parade!” said a befuddled Eoghan.
“And what sort of song could you make up about a Chariot with Two horse, a Pony and Trap, and a hoarse horse?!” asked Ksteve.
Eoghan sat still for a while, and the others could see the effort he was putting into concentrating on the lyrics of a suitable song.
He began to hum, probably due to not washing his clothes on a regular basis.
Then Eoghan began;
“Oh if I had a little hoarse horse,
I’d send it on a course,
And it would learn to do a lap,
In a pony and trap!”
“Tra la!” sang Hanny.
“What?”
“All songs have to end with Tra La!” explained Hanny.
“That’s daft,” said Dennis. “What if we were singing a funeral dirge? Or the Lacrimosa?”
“You lost me there,” said Hanny.
“Ok then, as an example. I know a few funeral dirges and stuff like that,” said Dennis.
“And?”
“Well I can’t imagine singing a line like Rises from the ashes, a guilty man to be judged, Tra La!” said Dennis.
“Or what about I that in health was in gladness, Am troubled now with great sadness, Tra La!” laughed Bryan.
Hanny felt a hint of anger arising. Fairies only ever sing happy songs, and so it makes sense to end them with Tra la!. She didn’t get the idea of singing sad songs and dirges. What was the point? Singing is a jolly pastime! Why sing about the sadness of a love gone wrong, when so many loves are strong, and others just go on and on and on?
“I can’t imagine singing Darling I can’t live without you, Tra La!” said Ksteve, as ever willing to keep in the story.
Mad Tom decided to take Hanny to one side. He sensed it was Time to explain to Hanny the realities of different realities.
“Look Hanny, you’re a Fairy of some renown, and in Setebos, your home town, no-one ever sees you frown. You even sing happy songs when you washing the Kings soiled undercrackers. And let’s face it, that’s not something any normal person would actually sing about!” explained Tom.
“Why not?” asked Hanny.
Tom gave her a seriously perplexed look.
“You could make up a happy song about cleaning the skid marks from badly soiled undies?” posed Tom.
“Of course!” laughed Hanny.
“Let’s get these undies,
Nice and white,
As we clear away,
All of that mess,
Tra La!”
She sang in her beautiful high-pitched voice.
Tom looked confused.
“I see your confusion,” said Hanny. “I’m still working on that one. At the moment I can’t think of a word that rhymes with white and encompasses all of the cleaning we have to do!”
Turenn and his Sons, Ksteve, Father Nick and the Scribe looked to Hanny with a new sense of understanding. There is definitely a fine line between naivete and common sense. Somewhere in Hanny’s head that line shifted about. She was clearly aware of her attractiveness to the whole world, though she was also unaware of the everyday realities of most people’s lives.
“Hanny! For most of the beings you will come across in your travels, heartache and death are everyday occurrences, and so they write songs about their sadness. Even the Trolls and Ogres write sad songs,” explained Mad Tom of Bedlam.
“But I never said anything about a song and dance!” Eoghan decided to remind everyone.
Fairy Hanny 