Saginaw Elves 2

Hot tears rolled down Maiela’s face, and she clenched her hands even tighter. Phaendar’s words comforted her, but only slightly. It had been two weeks since buildings had set on fire in Saginaw above the citizens, and it wasn’t getting any better. The residents of the city were still protesting, and the virus was not giving up, either.

“And Lord, we would wish that you help the people of Saginaw above us and us through this. These times are the worst that anyone has ever gone through, and we hope that things can get better with your help. Thank you. Amen.” Maiela heard several sniffles as they all repeated Phaendar’s last word, and she wiped her tears away the moment her hands were free.

“Thank you, Phaendar, for those beautiful words. Now, everyone, go home to your families. Nothing is needed for you to do tonight. I will see you all tomorrow.” Her fellow members got up and left the room silent. Maiela stayed sitting and stayed there for another hour. After finally getting tired of sitting there alone, she got up and went home.

---

Sasha came rushing up to Maiela the second she walked in the door. She started talking about how her day was since it was her first day staying at home alone.

“Sasha, honey. I’m exhausted. I’m going to take a nap, and then you can tell me about all of the things that you did today when I wake up. Okay?” Giving her a reassuring smile, Sasha gave Maiela a half-hearted smile back. Maiela walked into her bedroom and flopped onto her bed. Her head barely hit the pillow before she was asleep.

---

“Mother? Wake up, please. Father still isn’t home from work, and it’s already time for dinner. Mother!” Sasha shook Maiela, and she groggily opened my eyes.

“What time is it?” Rolling her eyes, Sasha checked her watch.

“Seven. You were sleeping for pretty much three hours.” Maiela ignored her daughter’s sass and rolled out of bed. As she sauntered out of the room, Maiela heard Sasha sigh while she followed. “What are you hungry for?” The pair walked into the kitchen, and Maiela went to the pantry. Sasha leaned up against the counter.

“Pasta sounds good. Do we have the stuff to make chicken alfredo?” Now Sasha finally walked over to help Maiela look for dinner.

“There’s a jar of alfredo right there, and we have chicken in the fridge. We’ll have to run to the store on the corner to pick up noodles, though. If you walk down and go get it, I’ll start the chicken.” Without saying anything, Sasha hugged her mother before walking out the door and setting off to the store. Maiela sighed. Sasha had been more mouthy and had more attitude ever since the Saginaw above them were set on fire.

I can’t say anything, though, because I was the same way when I was young. Maiela shook her head and pulled the chicken out of the fridge. After grabbing the scissors, Maiela sliced the chicken package open. Just as she was about to put the pan on the stove, Maiela hard the front door open. Sasha couldn’t already be back, could she?

“I’m home! Sorry, I know I’m late! Oh, hey, Maiela. Where’s Say?” Akkar walked into the kitchen, his briefcase still in his hand, and looked around.

“Sasha ran down to the store on the corner to pick up some noodles for dinner. How was work?” Maiela pulled out a pan and set it down on the stove. The knob on the stove made a satisfying click as Maiela turned the burner on.

“Awful. I’ve been swamped with things to do for the new buildings that are going up in Lodenville. I still have to finalize the blueprints and make sure that every single little measurement is correct. And there are about a million other things that I

have to do. It’s just tiring.” Akkar sighed and Maiela sat down next to him after putting the chicken on the pan.

“I know where you’re coming from. It’s just as stressful at the council meetings and all of that stuff. I mean, we still have to figure out a plan to make things better with the protests and see what we can do to prevent the spread of the virus even more. Then there’s all of the paperwork for the permits for the buildings that you’re working on, and it’s just awful.” For the second time that day, tears rolled down Maiela’s face. Akkar reached over and wrapped her in a hug.

“I can’t handle it anymore, Akkar! I just can’t.” Maiela’s body shook with each sob. She only stopped when she heard a gasp that came from the doorway. Both Akkar and Maiela turned their heads, and Sasha stood there with both of her hands over her mouth.

---

“Sasha, can I come in?” Akkar knocked lightly on his daughter’s bedroom door.

“Give me a second.” He could hear Sasha move around her bedroom, and after a moment she opened the door.

“Come on in.” Sasha motioned for her father to walk in, and he did. “What do you need?” Walking over to Sasha’s desk and sitting down on the swivel chair, Akkar sighed. Sasha ambled to her bed and sat down on the end.

“How much did you hear earlier?” The tension in the room weighed both father and daughter down.

“Let’s just say that I know both you and Mother are having a really bad time at work and Mother might quit her job.” Sasha crossed her arms and stared into Akkar’s eyes.

“The first part is correct, yes. But your mother never said anything about quitting her job. Being the head of the city council is a lot of pressure for her, but she loves helping out the community and all of our small neighborhoods. And it’s good-paying. She would never leave.” Knowing that Sasha wouldn’t be able to take anything more tonight, Akkar got up out of his chair and walked out of the room.

Sasha shook her head and closed her eyes to prevent more tears to fall. After quickly changing into her pajamas, Sasha slid under her sheets in bed and fell asleep.

---

Maiela sat up in her bed and yawned while stretching her arms. She rubbed her eyes and slid off the edge of the bed. Akkar was already at work, which meant that he had also already taken Sasha to school. And that meant that Maiela was able to blast her music as loud as she wanted to.

As she blowdried her hair after showering and changing into her work clothes, Maiela sang along with her favorite mortal country singer.

“And if the house just keeps on winning, I got a wild card up my sleeve! And if love keeps givin’ me lemons, just mix ‘em in my drink!” The song was Bluebird, by Miranda Lambert. It was a good song to help the anger and frustration-and sadness-from the night before. In Maiela’s eyes, she was a failure as a mother. She had let her daughter here about her problems when Maiela was supposed to listen to Sasha’s problems and fix them. Not the other way around. 

Without realizing it, a half-hour had passed as Maiela thought about this. She only had fifteen minutes left until she had to get to work!

No breakfast today. Sighing, Maiela ran around the house getting everything she had to get done done.

---

The phone made a loud bang! as Maiela slammed it back on the receiver. She had just gotten off of the phone, with her rival on the other end. His name was Ninder. Maiela had worked with him long ago when she was still just a volunteer at the city council. Ninder was a volunteer at the time as well, and they worked well together. Until that one day.

Maiela was telling Ninder about her application to become a real member of the council. She was elated, and Ninder smiled along with her. But inside, he felt a twang of jealousy. And that little feeling of jealousy started to overwhelm him. Ninder got angry that Maiela would most likely get the job, while he was still stuck as a stupid volunteer. He came with Maiela when she went to the front office to turn her application in. The secretary wasn’t there, so Maiela dropped it on the desk. The second Maiela turned her back, Ninder swiped the paper off of the desk and into the trash.

When the head of the council announced that Ninder had taken that position, Maiela was hurt. Ninder knew how much getting that position meant to her, and he had gone and beat her to it. They’d hated each other ever since.

Now Ninder was coming to the council later that day to propose an idea he had on how to control all of Saginaw’s problems. Maiela knew he couldn’t do it, and she knew that everyone else on the council would agree. He’d be gone five minutes after he got there.

---

“Come in.” Maiela’s office door slowly opened, and Ninder came in with a suitcase that seemed to be over-packed.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Woodwing.” He nodded at Maiela and she nodded back.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Goldmoon.” Maiela watched as Ninder moved to the center of the room and started to set up a presentation board and a projector. After only a few moments, Ninder was standing in his midnight blue suit next to the projector screen with a remote in his hand.

“Excuse me for a moment, please. I have a few other members of the council that I would like to see this.” She got up out of her chair and walked out of the room while he stared. Ninder wiped his sweaty hands off on his pants while his mind raced. Was it a good idea to do this? It was Maiela, after all. That’s what Ninder said to himself over and over until Maiela came back in with a few people he didn’t recognize.

“Mr. Goldmoon, this is Mr. Phaendar Dustwood and Ms. Sheaira Farlight. And this is Mr. Iriel Wildgleam. Everyone take a seat. You may begin.” Maiela’s eyes drilled into Ninder’s, and he took a shaky breath before beginning.

“Hello and good afternoon. I am Ninder Goldmoon, and I hope that my plan to help both the virus and protest situations will work.” Ninder pressed a button on the remote. A photo of the ‘curve’ in the COVID-19 cases appeared. “As you can see, this is the data of the virus cases. And this-” He pressed another button. “-is how much they have gone up since the protests started. They have gone up. For this reason, I believe that we need to work on the protest problem first before closing things down or opening them back up.” Ninder took a deep breath and continued. His audience was silent throughout the entire proposal, but he noticed all four of them taking notes.

“Thank you.” He shut the projector off and looked intently at the council. 

“That was a good presentation, and we will definitely consider your plans. Have a good day.” Maiela nodded and Ninder packed up his things and left. Once he was gone, Maiela looked around at her co-workers.

“All in favor of recruiting him?” No one raised their hand.

“All in favor of rejecting him?” No one raised their hand.