A Visit From the Leprechauns

March 17th. The day when everyone goes around wearing green, wishing (or pretending) they’re Irish.

(I don’t have to wish or pretend, since I have an Irish background myself. But I do go around wearing green. Then again, I do that most of the time anyway . . .)

I love Irish things and Irish music, and my plan was to share some of my favorite songs and tunes. But the sheer enormity of such a task — narrowing it to a FEW favorites — daunted me. So, here. In honor of the occasion, have some Irish-ish pictures. (I usually say “Celtic” in these circumstances, but Irish-ish goes today. My spell-checker is informing me that it’s not a word. You don’t say…?)

I’d been thinking for awhile that I might post a snippet or two of writing on my blog to give an idea of what I’m writing these days . . .

Since my latest NaNoWriMo novel, Underground Rainbow, happens to have leprechauns in it, I figured what better time than St. Patrick’s Day to share a snippet from it?

There was no sign of the little men. Jancsi nearly wailed. “But . . . the leprechauns,” he managed to say. Over in the doorway, Natalie and Matt traded wordless glances and came into the room, closing the door behind them.

“What . . . did you say?” Natalie asked.

“Leprechauns,” Jancsi said.

Matt’s face twitched.

“You know, the little Irish fairy fellows,” Jancsi said, waving a hand in the air expressively. “They were on my desk a minute ago.”

The Sheldon cousins blinked again and once more traded glances. Natalie chewed her lip thoughtfully.

“Um . . .” Matt said cautiously. “Don’t you think you should go to bed?”

Jancsi threw up his hands. “Of course. I might have known nobody in their right mind would believe me. I was having the most fascinating talk with them, and they up and vanished right when you came in. What did you want, anyway?”

“When I passed your door a minute ago I thought I heard voices,” Natalie said. “So I thought Matt had come back and was talking with you, but he was still in his room, and we knew Mr. Gummer had gone to bed, so we just thought we’d poke our heads in.”

“You think I’m crazy,” Jancsi said without bitterness.

“No-oo . . .” Natalie began.

“We just think . . .” Matt said with a slight hint of guilt, “. . . that maybe you should get some sleep?”

“Well I can show you the gnome I found in one of my pictures anyway,” Jancsi said, pulling his netbook over to him, suddenly desperate to show them something.

They both looked uneasy, like they didn’t think Jancsi was totally okay but were his friends and didn’t want to doubt him.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” an Irish accent said wearily from the back of the bed. All eyes turned in that direction, and there was Donal standing on the bed, leaning against the pillows. “We’re here, all right? You can come down now, Liam me boy. They may as well all see us.”

“As you say,” said a voice above them, and the other leprechaun came sliding nonchalantly down one of the corner posts of the canopied bed, like a fireman down a fire-pole. Far from looking comic or ridiculous, it looked like the most natural—not to mention coolest—thing for a leprechaun to do. Liam landed on the edge of the bed and took off his cap briefly in what might have been a polite gesture, or else just so he could fluff his hand through his hair, before replacing it on his head.

Matt had frozen with his mouth hanging open. Natalie clutched the other corner post at the end of the bed, and her brown eyes were very wide.

Enjoying this display of a repeat of what he had felt like earlier, Jancsi grinned. “Natalie and Matt, I would like you to meet Liam and Donal,” he said, gesturing at each of the leprechauns.

Donal, still leaning against the pillows as though they were a pile of very large grain sacks, touched his forehead as though taking hold of an invisible hat, in an old sailor-like salute. “At your service,” he said charmingly.

“Which you don’t really mean,” Liam put in cheerfully.

“Well . . . no. But it sounded like the thing to say.” Donal shrugged.

“They’re . . . leprechauns?” Matt managed to gasp out.

“But they’re not wearing green,” Natalie whispered with a little frown.

“And they don’t have top hats or buckle shoes,” Matt added, putting his head to one side as though thinking. He pulled over one of the chairs and sat down in it.

Natalie grabbed another and did the same, still looking at the little men. “How are they here?” she squeaked.

“I didn’t count this time,” Donal said pointedly to Jancsi. “But you see how it is. Always the same questions. It quite tires a fellow out.”

–Snippet from Underground Rainbow by Deborah O’Carroll, work-in-progress, NaNo 2013

There you are. Hope you enjoyed!

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!