O. Fairy Wings - Part 5

Wallace was on his back, on the floor, underneath the weight
compensation panel, trying to wrestle an adjustable spanner around a
particularly awkwardly placed nut. He grunted, and, with his hand
wedged well up within the bowels of the machine, finally slipped the
aperture of the spanner over its hexagonal target.

"Gotcha!"

With his chubby indexed finger extended along the length of the tool
he tightened up the claws to produce a good snug fit, took a moment to
work out his clockwise from anticlockwise and tried to loosen the
screw. He gritted his teeth and strained but nothing happened. He let
go his grip and shifted himself into a slightly superior position and
pushed again, without hint of a warning the obstinate nut suddenly
relinquished its purchase causing Wallace to skin his knuckles on the
high tension coil housing.

"Fuck!"

He leapt out from beneath the console and examined his hand, crimson
blood mixing with black, oily residue. Behind him the spanner fell from
its perch with a vanadium clatter.

"Buggering thing!"

"Are you OK garden gnome?" The nymph was still squatting on the dead
log in the corner of the room where she had remained absolutely
motionless for the entire time he had been working on the panel,
Wallace could have sworn that she had spoken without moving her
lips.

"I'll be fine."

She didn't acknowledge his response.

Wallace examined the state of his hand, he sucked up some of the
spreading blood and noticed two distinct flaps of skin raised in a
moist, vertical salute. He took them each in turn and bit them off.
Gingerly he prodded at the sore wound and swore again under his breath.
The day was not getting any better. He lay on his back and, with
difficulty, pulled himself back under the console, retrieved the
spanner which was now laying beneath his shoulder blades and, mindfully
careful of his knuckles, set about removing the troublesome nut.

"You seem distracted garden gnome."

Wallace paused.

"What do you mean?" He shouted back.

"You seem a little unfocused on your job, is your mind on
something?"

"Yes." He replied abruptly, "Lots of things. None of which are any
business of yours."

"Suit yourself." The Nymph replied, "I was just asking."

Wallace turned his attention back to the nut, which, now
sufficiently loosened, allowed itself to be undone by his fingers. With
a little persuasion a large lump of machinery followed it down exposing
the offending button, it would require a bigger spanner.

Awkwardly he shuffled his way forward and out from under the panel
and, to his surprise, found the nymph standing astride his prone form.
He hadn't heard her move from her perch.

"Can I help you?" He asked regaining his composure with admirable
speed.

Adrielle simply cocked her head to one side and stared back at him
with large hollow eyes.

Wallace gestured towards his toolbox. "Excuse me."

"Of course." she said and stepped leisurely over him, finally
pulling away her gaze.

Wallace sat up on his knees, turning his back to the nymph, and
rummaged in the metal box for the large adjustable. "Do I unnerve you
garden gnome?"

"Only when you're in the way."

"Ha."

Avoiding Adrielle's eyes like the plague Wallace pulled himself back
underneath the panel and realised that the bloody nymph was unnerving
him. He wished he knew where she was and what she was doing out there,
he didn't know where to put his legs.

"Are you sure there isn't something on your mind, you don't seem at
all focused?"

"I'm wondering where the fuck you are if that's what you mean." He
replied pulling one foot towards him so that his knee crooked upwards
as he tried to wriggle the large spanner into position.

"I do bother you don't I garden gnome?"

"I have a name you know." Said Wallace, struggling to fit the
oversized spanner into the cramped mechanism.

"So do I."

"I figured."

"Why do I unnerve you?"

"Because you won't shut up."

"What unusually pithy answers for a gnome." Adrielle commented.

Wallace said nothing, if he could just get the spanner behind the
coil housing then he could get it over the nut with enough freedom to
turn.

"But no more it seems."

Perhaps if he forced the coil housing to one side.

"Is that it, are we not talking anymore?"

There was no movement in the housing, maybe he could just work the
spanner back sideways and then twist it round.

"Hello, can you still hear me?"

Wallace braced his shoulders against the floor and tried to push the
spanner back using brute force, it wasn't budging.

The nymph gave him a light kick in the calf. "Are you OK garden
gnome?"

"FUCK!" He sprang back out into the room brandishing the spanner
like a club. The nymph was nowhere to be seen. "Is there anything
wrong?" Without a sound she had perched herself on the control panel
and was staring down at him from behind.

Wallace gave her a cursory glance, tossed the spanner back into his
toolbox and talked to the empty air. "I'm going to need to remove the
whole sodding high tension coil housing."

"Is that difficult?"

"No it isn't difficult, it's just going to take ages."

"So it's not a problem?"

"It's a bloody irritation, is what it is."

"There's no way around it."

Wallace turned to her and said "No there isn't any way around it,
otherwise I wouldn't have to fucking do it." Adrielle crouched down so
her head was almost level with his, "Perhaps you should break for lunch
first?"

"That," said Wallace, "is the smartest thing you've said all
day."

"Well I'm going to have mine." Said the nymph and she hopped off the
panel and moved across the room to her perch. "You're welcome to stay
here if you want." She retrieved a small Tupperware box and gave it a
shake. It rattled back. "I've got grasshoppers."

"I think I'll go to the canteen." Said Wallace kneeling down and
packing up his toolbox.

"Oops."

From the corner of his eye Wallace saw an insect hop across the
floor and the nymph chase after it as fast as lightning. He threw his
hands up and headed straight for the door.

"Goodbye." Said Adrielle, a solitary leg still kicking at the corner
of her mouth.

*****

Adrielle moved cautiously along the corridor following Wallace's
clear scent. She had tried her best to get the Gnome talking but
everything she had said had just annoyed it. Normally she would have
taken pleasure in irritating the creature (in fact she had) but this
one had a curious smell to it that she just could not put her finger
on. It was a smell that triggered long buried memories of her previous
life in the forest, of hunting before the dawn, stalking prey in the
dew wet grass, of sleeping beneath the stars in the safe folds of trees
and, most of all, of the wonderful, livid, vivacious company of other
Dryads. She just had to know what the scent was and, since the gnome
was not going to tell her, she was forced into following it, hoping for
clues.

The trail led inside the gents cloakroom and Adrielle hovered
outside, affecting an interest in the notice boards there. Suddenly the
smell hit her far more powerfully than before and she remembered
instantly what it was.

Christ! It must be keeping it in its locker.

Where in hell did it get one of those?