Diana of the Dunes

This story was inspired by a real lifemystery/legend/story as reported in Haunted Heartland by Beth Scott and MichaelNorman   However, any resemblance toactual people, places or events is unintentional.  This is a work of fiction.

Alice was not like other girls.  She was a wild, fey little thing, even as a small child, and thebane of her parents.  Born to a well offand dignified family, she seemed a sport, a throwback to some strange ancestorno one would acknowledge.

There is a streak of fairy that runs through certain humanfamilies.  Some of them accept it,embrace it, and wear it with pride. Others deny it, turn their backs on it, and when a child like Alice isborn do everything in their power to stomp that wildness out and force thechild into a conventional role. Sometimes it works.  Sometimes itdoesn't.

Her father was a hard, cold, and very conventional man.  He would never believe that the "hunches"that made him such a savvy and successful man of business might be from thatfey streak in him, that bit of magic that could foresee the future or nudge himin the right direction when a decision was to be made.  Maybe that secret knowledge of himself, thatvery tiny self-doubt, is what made him try so hard to eradicate it in hisdaughter, Alice.

Her mother was simply shocked.  From one of the best New England families, properly and primlyraised, married to a "good catch" and dedicated to a life of proper parties,charity work, and fine needlepoint, her little brown child quite caught her offguard.  She had no idea how to controlher, or what to do with this little wild thing.  In desperation, she fobbed Alice off on a succession ofnursemaids and governesses, and as soon as it was possibly appropriate, tovarious finishing and boarding schools.

Alice grew where she was planted.  She found love in the servants, who admired her spirit andspoiled her when they were quite sure no one was watching.  Nursemaids told her stories of fairies andgiants and knights that she adored.  Thegrooms in her father's stables showed her bird nests in the rafters of thebarns and newborn foals by their dams in cool misty mornings. 

No living thing had any fear of Alice.  Birds would allow her almost near enough totouch before fluttering away. Butterflies would land on her shoulder for a visit.  She spoke to all things as if theyunderstood her, and indeed, they seemed to do so.  Many a time the old head groom laughed as she had a"conversation" with an old gelding or mare. She would turn to him and report, all seriousness, "He really likes you,but that new young man you hired hits him when you aren't watching." And later,the old head groom would find out it was true.

It was things like that which caused Alice to get areputation for being "spooky" and many who did not know her well were quiteturned off by it.  It wasn't quiteproper anyway.  But Alice kept her openheart, treating everyone as her trusted friend, no matter how they treatedher.  She danced through life with asmile on her lips and a song in her heart that no one could quell.

Although both her parents were tall, she remained petite andslender.  Even after she matured, shewas boyish looking – which certainly did not attract the "right sort" of manwho was looking for the currently trendy hourglass figure.  The slightest touch of sun turned her nutbrown, and that, too, was considered unattractive in those days.  A "real lady" should be as white as fineporcelain, it was said – a sign she spent her days inside while her servantsattended to any work that had to be done.

Alice couldn't have cared less about any of this.  She sailed through life as a dove sails onthe breeze, landing here and there and cooing a gentle song of love. 

When she graduated from the penultimate finishing school,she was in France.  And there shestayed, a generous stipend from her parents to support her.  It was both acknowledgment that however oddshe was, she was their own and they loved her in a distant sort of way, butalso a payment to please, please stay away. They had other children, of more proper sort, and it wouldn't do to havethe wayward sister there to spoil their prospects.  They put it about that she was in Paris, studying art, which wasmarginally acceptable and not exactly untrue.

Alice's bright spirit drew her to those artistic sorts ofpeople.  They worshipped at her sun;lapping up the joy she cast around her as chickens snatch up the grain theirkeeper tosses to the ground.  Elusive asshe was happy, Alice seemed to simply have no interest in romance, or at leastnone in a lasting relationship.  Herlove was available to all and exclusive to none.

For every night she spent in smoky coffee houses listeningto poetry or some actor's latest woes she spent days in the sunshine, walkingthe countryside and making friends with the sheep and Shepard's, country folkand tradesmen.  Everyone was herfriend.  And if they thought her alittle odd, at least they wished her no harm. 

In this aimless way, Alice passed into middle age with nevera thought or worry that she wasn't married with children about her feet.  Oh, she loved children.  Other people's children were drawn to herlike iron filings to a magnet.  Whatgames they played!  The children adoredher.  It seemed her gift, however, wouldbe to pass through life shedding joy on all she knew without ever feeling theneed or desire to "settle down" any more than a butterfly feels she must"settle down" on a particular flower forever.

It was bound to happen.

Some deliciously handsome Romeo of the stage met our feyAlice and was charmed by her grace and exotic beauty.  He asked after her among his friends and learned that she wasodd, but joyful and beloved of many, though she had never settled on aone.  Sadly, I have to tell you, he alsolearned of the generous stipend.

The stage had not been as kind to our Romeo as he thought itought to be.  He was always striving,always grasping, always sure that if only he had this or that or these lessonsor the right voice coach, or just the proper attire, that the casting directorsand multitudes of theatre goers would fall at his feet.  He thought, perhaps if he had a rich patron– or patroness – who would pay for all of his needs success would finally behis. 

And even if not – well, a rich wife would do him just fine.

There was the challenge, too.  Though she had shared her favors with this beau or that, beforeand again, never had she settled on one. Perhaps only because no one man had ever thought he could tame her, orthat it might be worth the effort if he did. She was, after all, a bit odd. Who knew what sort of wife she would make?

A rich one, our Romeo thought.

And so he set his cap for her.  She led him a merry dance, all unaware, our Alice, that someonewas actually in serious pursuit.  Hepersisted.  She granted him favor, drankat his fountain for a day, flitted away. He pursued. 

"Oh ho!  A game!"thought our Alice.  She ran, sheflirted, she stopped and let him get close, then dashed to the arms of another,just to toss her heels at him and move on again.  The more she resisted, the more he desired and soon he nearlyforgot he was only after her for her – no, that wasn't it – he loved her.  He was sure.  This elfin creature had captured his heart by the simple act ofrefusing it.

At last, tired and curious, Alice stopped and let him catchher.  Oh, he was proud of himself then,cock of the walk, the winner at the game, and he gloated and preened andamused, as she watched and laughed.  Themore she laughed, the more he pranced and so somehow it came that he was livingin her house and taking up all her days and nights with his antics. 

First he wanted this or that and Alice saw no reason not toindulge him.  Money was of no matter toher, when she had it she shared and if she didn't, well, she waited formore.  But the more she bought for him,the more she spent, the more he seemed to want.  She'd forgotten quite how it came about that now she should havehim to provide for.  Like a baby bird,he sat in her nest, mouth gaping wide in plaint and she couldn't bear not tofeed him. 

More, more, more he claimed, he begged, he wheedled and ifthere was no more he pouted and shouted and turned his back against her withharmful words.  She was sucked into hiswhirlpool of want without ever quite knowing how it happened.

The stipend was not endless.  When at last Alice called her parents and requested more theyasked her why.  The whole sordid tale(to them) poured from her as she begged their understanding.  They understood all right. 

The parents cut off the funds until such time as Aliceshould "come to her senses" – that is, inform them that Romeo was gone.

Alice was lost and torn and confused in a way that had neverhappened before.  Her parents remainedadamant.  Romeo ranted and raved andthrew things and stomped and even raised his hand to our little fey – leaving ared imprint of his hand stamped on her cheek and carved much deeper into hersoft heart. 

Oh, that I can only take a few words to tell you what tookso long to happen.  And longer, itseemed, at the time – as only torment can make time stretch and twist until itseems it must have stopped, or you wish it would stop so that the pain andanger and ugly words would stop as well. 

When he finally saw that no amount of ire or begging wouldsqueeze from Alice money her parents would not send, Romeo went away.  He simply slipped away one night as she laysleeping, exhausted from their fighting. She had not been in the sun and wind, or even to a smoky café in weeks.  Weak from emotional storm, and fading fromlack of the joy and freedom she needed to survive (for that is more necessaryto fey than even food or water), Alice woke to an echoing emptiness.  Alone.

She had not the heart or energy to dash about desperatelyseeking him.  No.  She waited a few days and then stepped outinto the sun.  Wandering aimlessly shefound herself visiting the sheep and Shepard's, the country folk and thetradesmen.  All commented on how wan,how quiet, how sad she had become.  Theirown hearts were a little sadder to see it. 

They fed her what she would take, which was very little, andsaw to it that she was under a roof with one of them as every night fell.  She would rise early and wander awayagain.  None knew her full name, or howto contact her people.  She was lost andalone and more fey than ever.

So it came that in her wanderings she began to see thefairies of the old country.  They, too,nursed her and cared for her and protected her as best they could.  Fairy can always sense when someone is oneof them, however small that bit may be. The least drop of fairy blood carries a scent they cannot miss and onesuch as Alice, well – we always knew, didn't' we?

At last a kindly farmer asked Alice what she wanted, and shewhispered she only wanted to go home. What she meant and what he thought she meant, may not have been thesame, but he did his best to comply.  Hebought her a ticket, he put her on a boat and in due time, Alice came to herfamily home.

Her mother was shocked, her father nonplussed when thisghost of their girl drifted through their door.  She was put to bed, locked in her room, the doctor was called andcame to stab her with needles and pour noxious potions down her throat.  The house was thrown into a quiet uproar,hidden from the neighbors, of course. 

The servants, perhaps, were the ones who were mostdistressed for Alice herself – not just for the problems her presence mightcreate.  So, when Alice begged her oldmaid to set her free – well, that's just what the old girl did.  Hoping she did no wrong.

Alice rose early and drifted away like the mist.  She walked and walked and came to the edgeof a large lake.  Around she followed itas it curved and swooped and lapped at sandy shores in the way that lakesdo.  When it became dark, she curled upat the foot of a great old tree and slept in safety, watched over by the littlepeople of the woods who wondered at seeing her there.

In the morning, Alice woke with the sun shining on herface.  She felt old, and worn, andfilthy.  Casting her dress aside, shewalked into the lake.  The water nixiessurrounded her, they tickled as they scrubbed her clean of misery and Alicelaughed.

Alice laughed.

She had forgotten what laughter felt like, how it sounded,what fun it all was.  Suddenly, she wasswimming, diving, cavorting in the water, as the nixies played around her,splashing and flashing in the sun. 

The sun!  It was asif she had forgotten the sun!  She swamand waded to the sandy dunes and ran and ran and ran as the sun poured hisgolden rays down upon her naked body, his honeyed goodness soaking through herbrown skin. 

Dry and warm, Alice walked into the woods and met the littlefolk there. They showed her where to find nuts and berries and she feasted, asshe had not in months.  She walked on inthe dunes and woods and beside the lake, sleeping, swimming, and feasting fordays unending. 

She found a little fishing shack, more falling down than upand with her own hands and the help of the little folk, she repaired it.  Alice built her a little bed of driftwoodand dune grass and slept in perfect comfort. She lived in happy nakedness until the day a fisherman saw her runningon the dunes and shouted out to her. 

At first she shouted and waved back – but then she saw hislust filled face as he quickly brought his boat to the shore and ran and hid infear.  After that, she searched for herold dress and fashioned a few things to cover herself.  Walking a long ways to a town, she soldberries and nuts from the woods for a little money and bought loose pants andshirts that were comfortable to her, and some big boots for when she had towalk on the hard road to town. 

Alice bought a few books, too.  Fairy tales.

One man told another and another and people came to askAlice who she was and why she was there and how she lived all alone on thedunes.  She was polite but she neverforgot that people don't understand the fey. She was careful what she told them and most of all told them to pleaseleave her alone. 

At last, people grew tired of "Diana of the Dunes" story andthe men realized that her nakedness was no invitation as they might wish andmaybe…just maybe they decided she was a little odd and scary, too. 

Her story became "legend" and no one really believed itanymore.  And Alice swam, and ran, andwalked in the woods naked, and feasted and read fairy tales to the little folkwho found them quite hilarious.  When thetime came, they took her away to their land where time is different and she wasnever seen running on the dunes or walking to town for a book and oddly enough,no one ever looked for her either.

She simply drifted away like the morning mist…