A Place Beside Fira

Fira marked her chair with a green ribbon.

It stood between Nubo's chair and Orumi's place, right beside the window. She meant to sit there as soon as the guests arrived. She could not wait to see Nubo's reaction to her new warm fruit drink, and to hear Orumi's whole story about a cloud that looked like a potato.

For now, she straightened the tablecloth.

Then a neighbour knocked at the door with a bowl of mushrooms. Two residents of the old tree arrived behind her. Someone brought bread, someone brought a frost-covered bunch of rowan berries, and someone had so much snow on their coat that a small mound began melting in the hall.

Fira greeted everyone with hugs and showed them to the table. She knew every guest and remembered who liked to sit closer to the stove.

Nubo pulled out an extra section of the table. Orumi thought up some chairs and then, just for the pleasure of doing it himself, tied bows to them. One of the bows ended up caught on the hem of his waistcoat.

Fira set the fruit drink beside her place.

“I'm just coming to sit down.”

“Fira, where should I put the bread?”

She pointed out a platter. When she came back, someone needed a dry cloth. Then it turned out that two bowls were still in the pantry. Once she had fetched them, someone asked her to show them the way to the bathroom.

At the table, the conversation turned to the cloud.

All Fira heard was:

“...and then it turned out it wasn't a potato at all.”

Everyone laughed.

Her chair was still empty. So she sat on a step in the hall, with the bowls on her lap. She wanted to put them down, but for a moment she did not feel like getting up.

Nubo went into the kitchen for more fruit drink. Through the half-open door, he spotted her.

“Is there another table out here?”

“No.”

He sat on the step beside her. The bowls clinked softly.

“Don't you like the supper?” he asked.

“I haven't tried it yet.”

Nubo tilted his head.

Fira smoothed the edge of a petal.

“I love having everyone here. I'd just like to be at the table with you as well.”

Orumi peered out of the dining room.

“I'm starting the story again. The potato was only the beginning.”

He noticed the bowls on her lap and came closer.

“Are those full?”

“No.”

“Then I'll take them in.”

Fira handed Orumi the bowls and stood up.

“Come on. I'm sitting down now. Who can pass round the bread?”

“I can,” said Nubo.

In the dining room, he stopped beside the table and looked at all the place settings.

“We need to arrange things a little differently.”

He moved the platters into the middle and set up a little board beside the stove so everyone could put down their own dishes. The neighbour with the mushrooms fetched a ladle straight away. The residents of the old tree began pouring the fruit drink.

Orumi checked that everyone had a chair. Then he pulled out the one with the green ribbon.

Fira stopped beside her chair.

“You don't need to make a special place just for me.”

“You've already made one,” Orumi replied.

She sat down. Nubo slid her plate closer, and the neighbour passed her the bread. For a little while, Fira ate in silence.

“Do you like it?” Nubo asked.

“Very much.”

Orumi rested his elbows on the table.

“So there I was, floating along on a cloud. From a distance, it looked like a potato...”

Fira burst out laughing before he even reached the part she had heard earlier.

Later, when someone asked where the sugar was, the neighbour got up first.

Fira's petals stirred instinctively.

Nubo rested a hand on her chair.

“Stay. We still haven't found out what that cloud really was.”

Fira settled back in her chair. Beneath the table, the green ribbon brushed her feet, and on either side sat her friends, who were not going anywhere else that evening.