Jylli-07

Are you certain you want to hear of this?  My people love to tell their stories.  We are called the Dalurinn.  Visitors tell us we sound like countries in the North, I can’t remember what you call them now…

Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Russia, Canada…

I’m not sure  I think maybe one of those.  They said it is an island country.  

Iceland then.  That may explain your name.  How is your English iso good?

There have been visitors  I think it was one from England who started education maybe two hundred years ago.  Our language wasn’t as rich so use English with some old mixed in.  Jack had a radio box with a little wheel that would spin for power.  He left it with me and I listened to a station called BBC Radio Service.  He could change the station, but the knob for that was too small for me. I worried I’d break it and I finally did.  I could spin the little wheel and it would still glow orange inside and its little green light came on. I could never repair it and neither could my parents.  I think I may have broken its wire.  It had a very thin wire about as long as my arm.  I could barely see it, but Jack said it was important.  He would move it depending on which station he listened to.

Do you have big villages?

No. There aren’t many of us.  We learned about some of your machines, but we have very few of our own.  We don’t know how to make them. It is very frustrating to me that you can do so much with them.  My village is very small.  Maybe eighty?  The others are  long walks.  The next town is almost a half day away and that is with me running when the road is good.

What about your animals and plants?  Are they gigantic too?

I don’t like that word much, but I must seem that to you.  I don’t know.  The trees and plants look the same. Also the birds and animals. I saw animals on the farms. We don’t raise them.  All of ours are wild.  

Is that why you don’t eat them?  

It bothered me when I heard your people ate animals.  We would have to kill many to make much of a meal.  We are very peaceful.  The worst thing for us is killing.  Jack was always wishing for meat.  That bothered me, but it is probably how he was raised.

Don’t you have wars, murders?

That is unthinkable. I know you do, but for us no one can even imagine.  My teacher said maybe that is because there aren’t many of us and there aren’t many children…

Not many children?

Dalurinn woman can only be pregnant once.  There are a few have twins but I’ve never seen one.  It amazes me that yur women can have more than one.  

Just one?  How old are you when can have a child?

I think we’re not that far off.  I could have a child at nineteen or twenty, but most wait.  You have up until about sixty.  

Sixty?! How long do you live?

Two hundred and twenty or thirty if you keep your health. A few make to two fifty.  I think people here age quickly.  I don’t know how old you are, but if you were Dalurinn I would guess one hundred and fifty or sixty.  

Amazing.  I’m fifty two.  We live to about seventy.  

My mother turns sixty four this year.  She doesn’t look that much older than me. People tell us apart by our hair style and height.  She comes up to my chin, which is about average for a woman.  

That's so amazing that you live so long.

Maybe it's like animals.  Don’t the bigger ones live longer than the tiny ones?

hmmm…  Do you believe in God?  What is your religion?

We had gods for everything.  We still talk about them, but it is only for storytelling.   No one believes.  Everyone knows it is myth.  

Don’t you believe in a single God?  Most of us do.  It is where morality comes from?  Where did the Earth come from.

Oh.  I think I know what you mean.  Some the visitors talked and talked and talked about this to convince us there is a special place in the clouds where you go when you die.  Maybe it is true for you, but when we die it is over.  That is why we can’t kill and why we must try to be good. We have less than two hundred years here which is no time at all.  It means we have to be our best to each other.   Morality comes from us.  We may not know where we came from, but maybe that is because we are not wise and don’t know the right questions to ask.  We believe you can only believe in something if you can prove it to yourself.

Did you know that a religious person started the effort to help you?

Reverend Halverson? Yes.  I need so much to thank him and everyone else.  He must be a very kind person.  But it is you and Mrs H who are helping directly and I am thankful beyond words.   I am happy that your religious person is good and happy that you are too! We hug and kiss.  I would do that but it might embarrass you.   Jack didn’t like it much. 

Are all Dalurinn your size?  

I’ll  a little tall for a girl. A little taller than most of our men, but not as much as the tallest.  Men are usually a head more than women.  I’m a little over seventeen and a half bredde …

Jylli remembered that it was maybe a little more than the length of Jack’s legs, but since saying that might be impolite she shifted her glance to her left hand and spread her thumb and index finger the distance before looking back down at Carl.  

about this much…

Mum is about fifteen like most women.  Papa is a little less than me, but the tallest I have seen must be nineteen.  People think height should make me a good farm hand. I’m not that strong.  Strong is beautiful so most boys don’t like me.  Maybe I can be strong here.  

How … why did you come?

Jylli  blushed and looked at her foot to avoid eye contact.

Jack - it was Jack.  I thought he might be waiting for me.  The life he described sounds so much more interesting than what I will ever have.  You have cities, dancing, music, fashion, art and more. Most of us farm.   We don’t have your electricity and it gets so dark at night.   It isn’t  bad, but when I learned how much there was …   It seemed like magic. We talked so much and it seemed so real and I think I had fallen in love with him and he was probably just entertaining a teenager.  My emotion was stronger than what I knew.

 How did Jack find you? 

He said he was traveling through the mountains and saw an open path that looked different from anything he had seen..  It lead to the woods near our fields and Papa found him.  He tried to go back, but the path wasn’t there.  Papa gave him to me to take care of.  Papa built him a little house in my room and he was with us for almost a year.

How did he leave?

We searched every day for it and finally I saw it and he went through.

You didn’t follow?

I thought Jack and I were going to be lovers but I was only fourteen. I was very curious about him.  Sometimes seeing him made me feel like kiss him and pulling his clothes off, but he said anything like that would have to wait until I was nineteen.  

I kept looking for the path.  Twice in one year and then just after I turned nineteen.  As soon as I saw it I ran into it without thinking.  The path looks like a nice path with branches on top as big trees on either side - almost a green tunnel.  I went through, but when  I turned around the opening had shrunk to your size with very small bushes holding up branches on top.  It didn’t come to my knee so there was no way I could fit.  I reached into it, but it just faded as if nothing was ever there. It is the strangest thing I have ever seen.  I think it is your size here and my size where I am from.

If a big path appeared would you go back? 

Mum  knows I was thinking about it.  My hope for work and finding a man were bad unless I traveled.  Nineteen is when you go and find work and start courting.  I left a note saying I was taking a trip to find work.  That is good for our family.  Our land was just enough for three in good seasons.  A poor harvest and it is only good for two.  I shouldn’t have come, but I had a fantasy of Colorado and adventure.

Her eyes began to well up with tears.   Carl was at a loss.  His instinct said this  was a little girl needing a hug, but  this sobbing little girl was a fifty foot young woman.  He wasn’t much with words so he moved close and tried to hug what he could reach - her forearm  near the wrist.  Now it was all tears He felt her fingers closing around him around him.  It was so gentle, but impossible to leave.  Just like that he was rising through the air.   She held him to her sobbing chest with tears streaming from her eyes. .  He could only respond by awkwardly hugging back trying to reassure her..  

There there …  It’ll be alright.  You’re safe Jylli…  Jylli?!

He felt a sudden shake and then he was being set on the ground.  She looked completely shocked

Oh I’m so sorry!  What got in me.  You’re so small and I… I ..   Oh no! I’m so sorry…  I’m so frightened.

sobbing and biting her lip

Don’t worry.  You startled me, but I’m never been hugged quite that way.  You can hold me if that makes you feel better. If that’s how it works with you.

The sobbing was stopping and the shocked look faced, but her face was completely red.

Well, at least I have an idea of how strong you are.  You’ll make a swell farmer.  And it could have been worse.  You didn’t wipe your eyes with me.  I’d be soaking.  And I’m glad I sold off the cattle two years ago.  If they were still around it would be more than our shoes and your pants with manure problems.  Neither of us need that kind of adventure, right?

Finally a nod and a little laugh…

We’ll make sure of that.  We’ll try and get you home if that’s what you need and if you need us we’re behind you. Well, maybe below you but maybe your going to be family.

a little somewhat embarrassed smile…

I hear a truck.  Get up and tell me what you see.  We can talk more and Mrs H will want to hear it anyway.  She’s a right fine dancer too.  Ask nice she’ll teach you some steps.

Let’s see who came and then you can help me in the fields.  And I’ve got some work on top of the grain silo - that big tall column behind you.  I hate that damn ladder.  Maybe you’re tall enough to do it for me.  I almost forgot. You need to meet Mrs H and have some girl talk.

Jylli got to her feet and stretched.  Maybe she had made a good friend.  She couldn’t wait to work and to meet Mrs H.