THE WAND AND THE CROWN

THE WAND AND THE CROWN

AN EPIC TALE OF FANTASY AND MAGIC

Starring

Samantha Parkington as Queen Cassandra

Julia Gotz as Princess Elsbeth

Gila Gali as Judith

Liesel Eizabeth Ott as Lady Anor

 This is an illustrated novella, in which I have tried to push the envelope of what a doll photo story can be.  It was created over eight summer vacations in and around Ellison Bay, Door County, Wisconsin.

Queen Cassandra and Princess Elsbeth are bosom companions . . .

Until jealousy begins to gnaw at the Queens heart . . . 

And Elspeth is banished.

But the Queen will not be satisfied until Elspeth is utterly destroyed!

THE WAND AND THE CROWN

The Thanksgiving Guest

THE THANKSGIVING GUEST

            It was the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day, the girls were dining in shifts, and Bailey had invited her cousin to join her shift for dinner.

            “Leah, this is my cousin, Kelly Ann.  She’s come all the way from Montreal to spend Thanksgiving with us.”

            “I’m please to meet you Kelly Ann.”

            “You may call me simply Kelly . . . and I’ll bet you were about to say ‘I’m pleased to meet you, Simply Kelly!’”

            Leah laughed, “Right you are!  Come in, and make yourself at home.  You are Bailey’s cousin?”

            

        “Second cousin, we share a common set of Great-Grandparents.”

            “Our family has been in Montreal for many generations,” added Bailey.

            “Do you speak French?” asked Leah, “You could help Savannah teach French in the school room.”

            “I speak a smattering of Canadian French, it would probably only confuse things,” Kelly said, “I am looking forward to sharing this holiday with you all.  In Canada, we had Thanksgiving last month, so I get to have two Thanksgivings this year!”

            Julia came into the dining room and greeted Kelly.

            “Welcome!  Bailey has told us so much about you.”

            “Julia,” said Bailey, “what is this costume?  I thought you were going to be the Thanksgiving Pilgrim Girl this year.”

            “Blame Leah for this,” said Julia.

            “I was doing some research in Katherine Alyse’s history of fashion book, and realized that real Pilgrim girls would have dressed something like this.”

            “I like it,” said Kelly.

            

        “I showed it to Jane,” Julia went on, “and hoped she’d be impressed, since she’s such a stickler for historical accuracy.  But she was rather sarcastic; she said, ‘Nifty!  Now you are accurately dressed as the daughter of a mean-spirited religious fanatic.’  I forgot that she’d met Puritans.”

            They brought the food in and sat down to give thanks together.

            “I’m thankful for extended family,” said Bailey, taking Kelly’s hand, “I remember how much fun we had together on holidays when we were little.”

            “I do too,” said Kelly, “and would love to have fun times like that again.”

            
        “Well,” said Julia, “I can see how you and Bailey could be the best of friends.  Would you like to live with us here in the Big House?”

            “Could I?  You are all so nice, and this house is beautiful, and I’d love to be Bailey’s best friend!  I’d love to stay!”

            “But is there room?” asked Leah, “We are already doubled- and tripled-up in all the bedrooms.  The only space left is the maid’s room on the third floor.”

            

         “I’ll take it!” said Kelly.

            
         “No!” protested Bailey, “There’s room for another bed in Jane’s and my room.  It will be nice and cozy!”

            
        “Then that’s settled,” declared Julia, “We’ll set up a cot for you tonight, and send Nellie out tomorrow to hunt up a new bed for you.  It’s amazing the things she finds!”

            Later, as they were digesting, Leah had a sudden thought, “You realize that Kelly now makes thirteen of us living here.  Isn’t that supposed to be unlucky?”

            “Not at all,” said Julia, “We now have enough girls to start our own Witches’ Coven.”

            

        “Jane would never go for it,” said Bailey, “she still thinks witchcraft is a felony.”

            “Gila wouldn’t do it,” added Leah, “since Witches’ Brew is certainly not kosher.”

            “Hmm,” put in Julia, “Katherine Alyse and Mia Bella wouldn’t take part unless The Delineator said that ceremonial robes were the latest thing in evening wear.”

             
        “That leaves nine,” said Kelly, “Nine is a magic number, surely we can do something with just nine of us.”  She turned to Bailey, “Remember when on holiday one year we drew magic circles in the dirt and tried to summon up demons?”

            “It didn’t work very well, as I recall,” said Bailey.

            “I don’t know,” replied Kelly, “The mean old woman next door came out at yelled at us.  That should count for something.” 

She turned to Julia.  “Bailey tells me most of the girls here are Theosophists.  Do you think you could be open to a little ceremonial magic?”

            “You mean like the Order of the Golden Dawn?”

            “Yes!  I have an uncle who is a member of a splinter group of a splinter group of the Golden Dawn in England.  We could start our own sub-sub-splinter group: The Hermetic Society of the Big House – Societas Hermeticus Domus Magnus, or something, my Latin is worse than my French.”

            
         Julia remarked to Leah, “I think she’ll fit right in.”

Modern Medicine

MODERN MEDICINE

One problem with twelve little girls all living together in one house is that when one gets sick, others may catch it, too.  So it was no surprise that Jane and Nellie found themselves sharing a cold.  They were stopped up, and sneezing was giving way to coughing.

            “My head is quite phlegmatic,” complained Jane, blowing her nose, “I am not at all sanguine about a speedy recovery, and I am very melancholy; for which I considered taking a glass of prune juice.  Bailey fixed me a pot of chamomile tea, but all it is doing is making me pass yellow bile, so at least I am not choleric.”

 

            “Modern medicine has come a long way since you were back home, Jane,” said Nellie, “Doctors no longer think in terms of balancing the four humors.  So I’ve been to the druggist’s and picked up a bottle of patent medicine recommended for colds - tincture of cannabis, the strongest I could find; forty percent cannabis oil, and only sixty per cent alcohol.  It’s a cough suppressant, pain reliever, appetite stimulant, and mood elevator.”

            “What is it made from?”

            “It’s extracted from hemp flowers.”

            “Oh!  Our household physician recommended smoking dried hemp flowers as physic for just such complaints!  It is cheaper than tobacco, and even more effective.  It dispels melancholy and choler like nobody’s business, and it makes the spirit sanguine, but the body phlegmatic.  I am feeling sluggish enough as it is.”

        “We have not been feeling very energetic, true,” replied Nellie, “so I had the druggist make up a bottle of this at the soda fountain – Coca-Cola.  It’s an invigorating tonic, made from the leaves of a Peruvian shrub and some African nuts.  This will get you moving!”

 

            They filled tea cups with a half-and-half mixture from the bottles, and drank them off quickly.

            “La!” cried Jane, “It flies suddenly over the whole body and into the veins, and strengthens exceedingly!”

            

 

They sat and vibrated quietly for a number of minutes.   

            “I’m hungry all of a sudden!”  Nellie exclaimed.

            “There is a plate of cookies in the kitchen,” said Jane, “I will just step an’ fetch ‘em!”

 

            They polished off the cookies in no time, and finished the Coca-Cola. 

 

Jane suddenly burst out laughing, and then burst into song.  It was a four-part madrigal, and she did her best to sing all four parts at once.

            “Oh, metaphysical tobacco!

Fetch’d as far as from Morocco!

Thy searching fume exhales the rhume!

Oh, metaphysical tobacco!  Hahahahahahahahaha”

 

Metaphysical Tobacco

       “If you want to sing, Jane,” said Nellie, “let’s play the phonograph!  There is a song here you’ll like. It’s right up your alley!”

            “I do not have a back lane, and why would that have anything to do with what I like? (Snort! Giggle!)”

            “A modern song about a modern invention, played on another modern invention – ‘Come Take a Trip in My Airship’.”

            

They played the record several times, whistling and singing along with the chorus, rather loudly: 

“Come take a trip in my airship.
Come take a sail 'mong the stars.
Come have a ride around Venus.
Come have a spin around Mars.
No one to watch while we're kissing.
No one to see while we spoon.
Come take a trip in my airship,
And we'll visit the man in the moon.”

 

Come Take a Trip in My Airship 

“If you want modern music, Jane,” said Nellie, “try this on for size.”

            “I do not think it will fit! (Snicker!  Snort!)  My head will not fit through that little hole!  Hahahahaha!”

            “It’s called the Swipesy Cakewalk, a rag-time two-step.”

        The room was soon filled with a lively syncopated rhythm, and the two girls started dancing, neither a cakewalk nor a two-step. 

 

Swipsey Cakewalk 

        “Yippee!” yelled Nellie.

            “England and Saint George!” shouted Jane.

            “Hahahahahahaha!  That was great!  Let’s play it again!”

So they did.  And again.  And again.  And again.

 

            Suddenly, there was Samantha in their midst.

            “WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU GIRLS DOING?  IT’S PAST MIDNIGHT!  DANCING TO THAT AWFUL RAG-TIME!  AND YOU’VE EATEN ALL THE COOKIES, TOO!”

            

 

The two girls looked at each other and nodded.

            “Choleric!” they said in unison.         

 

“Now, Samantha,” said Jane, “Twist not your knickers.  You seem to be suffering from an excess of choler.  You need to either purge it or balance it.”

“Jane is right,” said Nellie, “She and I will be sleeping soundly very soon, I’m sure.  But you are all worked up.  You’ll never get back to sleep unless you calm down, relax.  And we have here . . . (Giggle! Snicker!) an excellent physic for a choleric humor.”  And she poured a healthy dose from the patent medicine bottle into a tea cup.

            

        “Just knock that back, Samantha,” said Jane, “and you will be as right as rain in a jiffy. (Giggle! Giggle! Snort!)”

 

            A short time later, Samantha was in a more balanced humor.

            “Did you ever look at your hand? . . . I mean really LOOK at it???”