The Loom

By

IrishCreme

Karin stared blankly at the tapestry before her. It wasn’t really a
tapestry…yet. A basket of a myriad of threads sat by her feet, taunting
her. For the past three days, Karin had sat before her loom without
inspiration. She only had four more days to finish the weaving for the
market. Sean and Karin needed that money desperately. Sean’s crops
were poor this year, and there was a baby on the way. She buried her
face in her hands and prayed silently. She felt a warm hand on her
shoulder and turned to look.

Sean smiled at her warmly. "Come to bed, Karin. Tis late and the babe
needs rest as well. You can start fresh in the morn."

Karin shook her head. "I can’t. I’ll only toss and turn and keep you
up. Give me another hour or so and I’ll come to bed." She patted his
hand. "You go on and keep the bed warm for me."

Sean leaned down and kissed his wife’s forehead. "Don’t be too long,"
he called as he retreated down the hallway.

Karin placed both her hands on her small, round belly and looked to the
heavens. "Dana help me," she prayed. "I’d give anything to weave a
great tapestry." She lowered her head and rested her forehead in the
palm of her hand. Karin was so tired and frustrated. Only a miracle
could save her now.

Karin’s eyes slowly blinked open trying to adjust to the bright sunlight
flooding into the small living room of the cottage. She rubbed her eyes
and stretched. Sean would be so furious that she had fallen asleep at
the loom. She reached down to pick some thread for the weaving, but the
basket was empty. Karin’s eyes darted quickly to the loom, and before
her was the most exquisite tapestry she had ever seen!

Set against a black backdrop was a depiction of the faerie ring. In the
center of the tapestry, a large fire glowed gold and red and almost
seemed to really burn. Around this bonfire was a circle or faeries
joining hands and singing, dancing. Each faerie had a personality right
on the weaving, as if special loving care had been paid to each and
every one. The colors brought everything to life on the tapestry, from
the fire and faeries to the rocks and trees.

"Praise to Dana," she thanked quietly. "Sean! Sean! Come here
quickly!" Karin rose from her chair and stood a few feet away. Sean,
his face half-covered with shaving foam, rushed into the living room,
thinking the worst.

"What’s wrong?" His hazel eyes were full of worry.

Karin laughed lightly, tousling her husband’s short, curly brown hair.
"Nothing, dear. Look at the loom."

Sean turned his gaze to the tapestry and his mouth fell open. "You did
that last night?"

She shook her head. "No. I fell asleep. But before I did, I said a
prayer to Dana and she answered it!"

"You’re saying faeries wove this tapestry for you…while you were
sleeping?"

Karin nodded, her blue eyes glowing beneath her mane of thick, blonde
hair. "There’s no other explanation, Sean. I’ve never woven this well
before. I could not have done this."

Sean could not dispute Karin’s words for she had never woven anything as
beautiful as this. But Dana sending faeries to weave a tapestry so that
they would have money? This he had a hard time believing. A knock at
the door derailed his train of thought. "I’ll get it."

"Top of the morning!" greeted David Doogan boisterously. He was the
market organizer. "Just stopped by to see how Karin was progressing—"
His words were cut short as he caught a glimpse of the tapestry. "By
Heavens, Karin. That is a gorgeous piece of work! Is it ready to go?"

"I suppose." Karin smiled meekly. "You really like it, David?"

""Child, I should fetch a fortune for this tapestry. Will you be able
to do another one?"

"Oh, I don’t know—"

"Oh, of course, you can!" David answered for her. "With talent like
that, you could whip up a hundred or so in a month probably. I never
knew you were so good. Shame on you for keeping your gift hidden…"
David continued to ramble on about nothing at all really as he carefully
removed the tapestry from the loom. "I’ll bring back your share
tonight. I’m sure I’ll sell this today!" And he was gone.

"Oh, what have I gotten myself into?" Karin whined as she leaned against
Sean, her hair getting caught in the shaving foam. "Now he’s going to
expect more tapestry like that one!" She sighed heavily and began
wiping the white cream out of her hair. "Well, I’d better get
started." Sean coughed, and Karin smiled coyly at him. "After
breakfast, of course."

After her household chores were completed, Karin sat before the loom,
staring blankly again. She reached down for some thread to begin and
grabbed at an empty basket. "Curses!" Karin shouted. "No thread. How
am I supposed to weave with no thread? And there’s no money to buy
some." She shook her head dismally. "I’ll have to wait until David
brings the money tonight."

Karin rose and sulked about the house for a while, but then felt the
intense urge to go pick wildflowers from the meadow across the way.
Shrugging it off as a prenatal desire, she slipped on her sandals,
grabbed the thread basket and headed outside. It was a glorious day
indeed. Ideal for picking flowers. She spent a few hours outdoors and
stopped her expedition when she spotted Sean meandering up the path from
the fields. Karin joined him and brightened his spirits with her pretty
wildflowers and her uplifting mood.

"What has you so joyous this afternoon, Karin?" Sean brushed stray
strands of her hair from her smiling face.

"I don’t know really," she answered, skipping to the front door of their
cottage. "I just feel blessed."

Karin pushed the door open and entered the living room, dropping her
basket of wildflowers onto the stone floor. Upon the loom was another
tapestry even more magnificent than the one before. Upon a powder-blue
background was a meadow full of colorful blooms. A barely visible line
trailed through the meadow, indicating a faerie path, and was bordered
by the most brilliant of the flowers. Even as she looked upon it, Karin
thought she saw the flowers swaying gently in a light breeze.

"You were busy today, dearest. How did you finish it so quickly?" Sean
stroked her hair.

"I didn’t do this, Sean," Karin returned, almost inaudible. "There was
no thread for me to weave with, so I took the thread basket to collect
flowers." Noticing she had dropped the basket, Karin stopped to pick up
what she had spilled.

Sean knelt to help her. "You didn’t weave this?" Karin shook her
head. "You truly are blessed, Karin. Dana is continuing to smile upon
you."

She stood and placed the basket and its contents on the table. "Sean, I
didn’t ask for this. I was sitting at the loom when I realized I had no
thread. I was disappointed and moped around for a while, but then I
felt I just had to go outside and pick flowers. So I did. I thought is
might just be a pregnant woman’s whim, but it was a means to get me out
of the cottage."

Sean took his wife’s hands in his. "You have done something to please
the goddess of the faeries, and this is how Dana is repaying you."

"But what did I do? Or what am I suppose to do?"

The rest of the day was spent admiring the tapestry and its
lifelikeness. As dusk fell, David arrived with a hefty amount of money
for Karin and Sean. He was astounded by the piece Karin already had for
him.

"I thought what I sold today was a masterpiece," he remarked. "But this
one is even better. I almost feel as if I could pick a flower from the
tapestry. It’s so real. How do you do it, Karin?"

She only smiled shyly. "Only Dana knows, David."

He gratefully took the weaving, promising more money the next evening.
Karin went to bed and slept soundly, pleased with the amount of money
she had received for the first tapestry. Waking the next morning, no
tapestry awaited her, but the thread basket that once held wildflowers
was sitting on the chair before the loom. After feeding Sean and
sending him off to the fields, Karin went into the village and purchased
a surplus of threads in a multitude of hues. She returned home quickly
and placed the thread basket, now full to the brim, in its rightful
spot. Karin found an empty chest and placed the remaining money in it
for safe keeping, then she earnestly set out to begin a tapestry.
Trying to pull motivation from the memories of all the quaint little
weavings she had done before marrying Sean, Karin was still left
fruitless. Nothing.

"No new weaving?" Sean inquired as he entered the cottage.

Karin shook her head and continued to set the table for dinner. "And I
really tried to start one myself. I just have no inspiration."

"I don’t think you need to worry about that, Karin. Someone higher up
seems to be looking out for you."

Karin smiled wanly. "I suppose."

Sean and Karin ate in silence. After cleaning up, David arrived bearing
more money.

"You wouldn’t believe the fight over your tapestry," he boasted proudly,
handing her a large bag of money. "Your work is already beginning to
attract customers from further out." David then noticed that she had
not finished another weaving. "You do need a rest, Karin. That wee
babe of yours can’t enjoy your late nights and long hours at the loom."

"Oh, the babe doesn’t seem to mind too much. Stop by tomorrow
sometime. There might be something for you to take."

David smiled and nodded as he left. "You and Sean are going to be very
rich if you keep this up, Karin. Very rich."

Karin took the bag of money and deposited it into the chest. Sean took
his seat by the fireplace where he read, and Karin sat beside him,
knitting clothing for her coming child. After a few hours, husband and
wife went to bed, hoping dearly that the enchanted loom would work its
magic over night. And it did, leaving a wondrous tapestry that exceeded
the previous. David stopped by mid-morning and took the weaving to sell
at the market. He returned that evening with more money than he had the
night before. This cycle continued for many months: a tapestry would be
created overnight, David would pick it up the next morning, sell it that
day, and return in the evening with an increasing amount of money.
Karin’s chest quickly filled with money and she had to purchase a larger
container in which to store her savings. Sean and Karin indeed were
very wealthy now.

The day came finally when the baby would arrive. Sean and Karin were
very excited. A mid-wife arrived early in the afternoon, a woman
neither recognized, but Dana (as she called herself) had such a presence
that Sean and Karin trusted her completely. The labor was painful, but
not all that long. By late evening, Karin had given birth to a healthy
baby girl.

"You need your rest, ma’am," Dana said to Karin as she smiled
appreciatively at the baby. She then turned to Sean. "Why don’t you
take your wife to bed and care for her. I’ll tend to the baby." Dana
noticed the anxiety in both Sean and Karin’s face. "Don’t worry.
You’ll see your wee babe’s beautiful face in the morn."

Karin awoke early the next morning, anxious to see her daughter. She
nudged Sean from his sleep. "Let’s go see our child." Husband and wife
rose and went to the living room, expecting to find Dana cradling their
newborn. Instead they found, on the loom that had been barren the past
week, the most glorious tapestry that had graced it yet. Against a
background of brilliant red was a portrait of a the mid-wife Dana,
golden wings majestically arched behind her, holding a newborn girl,
Sean and Karin’s daughter. Inscribed at the bottom in white were the
words: "The gift of a first child is the greatest gift to the goddess
Dana."

Karin fell to the floor, her face in her hands, crying without abandon.
"She’s taken my child!"

Sean knelt beside her, holding his wife close, on the verge of tears
himself. "There’s nothing we can do, Karin."

"I would rather be poor and desolate than without my baby!" she wailed,
rocking herself in her husband’s arms. "Damn those tapestries! Damn
that loom!"

"Shhh!" Sean patted Karin’s head. "Don’t say such things." His head
was spinning, but he tried to rationalize to make the best of their
situation. "We are wealthy beyond belief because of those tapestries.
Without them, we’d be dead by now from starvation or sickness. We can
have another child, Karin, and I know it won’t be the same, but now we
can provide a better life for our children than we had ourselves."

Karin calmed herself, drying her eyes with the back of her hand. "The
tapestry does say ‘first child,’ doesn’t it? Dana wouldn’t take
another." Sean nodded his head, not completely sure of the validity of
her statement, but praying that it was so.

Knocking at the door broke a long silence. Sean answered to find David
Doogan carrying a bouquet of fresh flowers. "For the new mother—" His
words broke off as he gazed upon the magnificent tapestry. "Karin!
Working up until the end? That is by far the greatest tapestry I have
ever seen, better than all those before. Is it for market?"

Karin shook her head and leaned it on Sean’s shoulder. "No, David.
This one is not for sale."

The baby’s disappearance was never truly explained, just that the
mid-wife had stolen her in the night. The riches Sean and Karin had
accumulated over that period of months bought a better life for them and
their many children to follow, but no amount of money could erase the
memory and pain of losing their daughter to the faerie goddess. The
tapestry of Dana and the first born remains in the family to this day, a
reminder to be careful for what you wish and the consequences it may
bring. And what of the enchanted loom? Although it too remains in the
family, it has never since woven a tapestry, by human or fae hands.

*please email any comments or questions to IrishCreme tatertot@neosoft.com