A winter tale.
Big EH, as opposed to little EH, had spent the night in the bar. As a result, when he went to bed, he was slightly discombobulated. EH was also probably suffering from mid winter doldrums, solstice solitude, news overload and political pandering. He was a little disgruntled with the North and life in general. EH mumbled “Cursed be this frozen wasteland and all who live here. Including all the little people.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t specify whether he meant little in stature or little in mental capacity.
An hour or two later EH was sort of forced from his slumber by a horde of little people jumping up and down on his pillow and tugging at his hair. One was even tickling his nose with a feather, so he let out a mighty ACHOO and blew some of the little people clear off the bed. But they scrambled back. The people pestering EH, were indeed little — only a couple of centimetres tall.
EH was dumbfounded and asked, “What is going on. Am I still asleep?”
One of the little people answered “Of course you are. But never mind that. We came because of the curse and now we have some things to show you. You’re coming with us”. EH mumbled, “Do I have a choice.”
Apparently, the answer was no because EH felt himself shrinking in size, until they all flew through the air and out to the frozen lake. Then as if by magic they sank through the snow. They sank through the ice. They sank into the lake’s waters beneath. They glided around the lake amongst all the fishes that lived there. There were pike, lake trout, whitefish, inconnu, cisco and more. Then they watched a muskrat gathering reeds and building a winter home. It was on top of a hole in the ice. Above the ice but below the snow.
Then they rose out of the lake and went into the forest and slipped down a hole in the snow into a maze of tunnels beneath. Tunnels used by squirrels, mice, and voles. There were sleeping chambers, food storage areas, and runways between trees, bushes and shrubs where they foraged for seeds, berries, fungi and lichen.
People see the surface of the snow but not what is below. For six months of the year on the forest floor beneath the snow little fury critters scurry about. Foxes, wolves, lynx and even owls know. They sit perfectly still and listen and then pounce on unsuspecting critters.
After exploring the tunnels for a while, they all left the forest floor and went to stand on top of the tallest hill around. The little folks gave Big EH a set of glasses that let him see and identify every creature within a 10-kilometre radius. There were porcupine, snowshoe hares, marten, mink, spruce hens ptarmigan, moose, a pack of wolves, ravens, whisky jacks, hawks and owls. There were a whole lot of different birds and animals spread out across the land. Big EH was amazed. Because of the snow and the glasses, he could see all their tracks.
The leader of the little people said, “You see it may be frozen but it’s not a wasteland. Most people just don’t take the time to see it as it really is. There are lots of birds, fish and animals out here doing their thing.
EH was amazed because he had never seen the winter landscape that way before. But he was curious, “But who are you guys? Are you a figment of my imagination or a product of my slightly addled dreams.”
“Not at all. Cultures around the world talk about us, the little people, in their myths and folklore. We exist, but we live in a different time phase then humans. Most of the time we are a step ahead or a step behind, so we aren’t seen. Unless of course a person curses us or dreams about us. Then we materialize. It’s physics.”
In closing, here is something to think about: Albert Einstein, who was a pretty smart dude, said, “Time is relative. Its only worth depends upon what we do as it is passing.”
So don’t curse the little people — they might come for a visit.