Ms Peppersauce Bottom

Ms. Peppersauce Bottom and her band of Fairy Grandmothers

  Out of the top of the Rocky Mountains near the Continental Divide there babbles a brook of icy cold, clear water that flows into deep valleys winding down into a river known as the Arkansa. Down through the town of Leadville, Buena Vista and Salida, past Cotopaxi and Canyon City, out on to the southern plains of Pueblo and Rocky Ford to Lamar. Then the river flows on into Kansas, eventually into the Missouri River, and the Mississippi out into the Gulf of Mexico.

  Just outside of the small town of Florence, before the river runs into the city of Pueblo there is a grassy knoll where large Pine trees and Scrub Oak and Aspen trees reach down to the edge of the Arkansas River. Rocks of red and smokey crystals line pockets of bubbling swirling water. Flecks of gold sparkle in the sun, reflections of real nuggets of gold, down on the bottom of the rushing creek waters. If you sit down on those rocks at the edge of the water you can hear the very small wee happy sounds of the Grandmothers, singing, whistling and making music while they busy themselves with chores. Decorating, gardening and preparing foods, some to be stored for the winter months, this is how they live, along with other various magical things they do. I cannot speak about the mystical stuff until I know you better!

  Ms. Peppersauce Bottom is a Fairy Grandmother, the Grandmothers are sometimes hard to spot because they blend in so easy in the rays of Sun, one minuet you see them and the next they are gone. Ms. Peppersauce Bottom is always dressed in brightly colored swatches of glistening fabrics and floral arrangements, she puts together herself. Stripes and polka-dots, laces, beads, feathers with scarfs, bows and ruffles and of course Peppers! Peppers are every where. How those little wings hold her up above the ground and let her dart from place to place faster than a hunnybird, I’ll never know.

  Today is one of those sunny days when it is particularly difficult to watch her work, She flits from the rocking chair on her front porch to the garden out in the grassy knoll and back to her kitchen, then to the porch where she grabs her fishing poll quickly to snag the trout as it jumps to get away. Now mind you, she is very obese and she loves her biscuits and gravy but those little wings just flutter so fast when she dashes around you that all you see is a spark of light but you feel her warmth as the air stirs around your cheeks. Old Fairy Grandmothers do things like that down where Ms Peppersauce Bottom lives.

  The Fairy Grandmothers live very simply, and very green. They love the Pine Forest and the scrub oak trees and the glittering golden Aspens. And their village is notched out of the red rock and the clay and if you climb up in the apple tree beside the bank and look down between the branches, you can see the leaves rustling and little puffs of smoke from the big black caldron where the Grandmothers cook. They all gather to cook and sing and tell jokes and stories and make a meal. Each one has a special place where she sits by the fire to laugh and chat.
  They live in smallish coaches painted in incredibly bright colors with glittering stones embedded on the sides. All the coaches are linked close together by the rocky river bank path and old stone front porches The back ends open up to the big caldron cooking pot, as you look past the forest into the southern Colorado prairie. Their little casitas blend in to the woodland and the riverbank so well they are pert’near invisible. Each home incases a Fairy Grandmother’s own kind of magical specialness. The little wagons resemble a gypsy wagon, which makes it easy for the fairy grandmothers to travel together on adventures. Ms Peppersauce Bottom lives and travels with her big spotted tom cat Cosmo and her old milking goat Spicy.

  Pussy willows and cattails grow along the water and the smell of wild rose, lavender and lilacs, sweet peas and wild raspberries are all mellowing together with the roasting chili peppers, garlic and homegrown tomatoes. Wonderful, delicious smells drifting up your nose as you watch from high in the branches of the old apple tree.

  Ms Peppersauce Bottom has lived by the river and the mountains for many, many years but she loves to travel with the band of Fairy Grandmothers. They have so many adventures. They look for adventures that include a special affair, an affair where someone is in need of a special wish. You see the Fairy Grandmothers’ purpose on this earth is to make wishes come true. A very big job for chubby, little, old Fairy Grandmothers with tiny wings! (Of course not all of the Grandmothers are chubby, but they all do have little wings!) Ms Peppersauce Bottom is a bit chubby and clumsy and some days she requires a nap but that is not a disability for making wishes come true. When a Fairy Grandmother whispers in your ear and you feel that warm breeze blow past your cheek you have been granted a wish.

  It’s always a good thing to have wishes stored up in case the opportunity arises for a granting. You must be ready with the perfect wish. The best way to make a wish is to get in a quiet place, raise your head to the stars and the moon, close your eyes and be grateful for what you have. Grateful for your family, (yes, even your brother or sister,) your friends, your home and the food you eat, That is how I start a wish. Let your mind wonder for a short while. Think about what is most important, far more important than anything else. Make your most important wish have a special ending!  With your eyes still closed see your vision clearly. Now let it go, let your idea go drifting to the heavens. That is how I make my best wish! Some days I make several, it doesn’t matter how many you make, you just have to make them in advance so when Ms Peppersauce Bottom or one of the band of Grandmothers comes flittering by you’ll know you are ready, one of your wishes is going to come true.

  I always like to make my best wish at night before I go to sleep because after I make my wish and I let my mind wonder my dreams play with my wish as I sleep. Dreams and wishes and prayers get all twisted up together and when I wake up I am waking from an adventure, Much like the Grandmothers’ adventures! Even though I have been asleep I feel my wish so much stronger and when it comes true it sometimes turns out even better than I have wished! Then I open my eyes and wiggle my toes to a new day and I’m very grateful for that, too!

  This is just the beginning of my stories of Ms.Peppersauce Bottom and the Fairy Grandmothers. I hear whispers as I lay in the branches of the Apple tree. The little voices tell me to write down their stories and I must oblige them!

Please leave a comment about my story Ms Peppersauce loves to here your thoughts!