The Interlude of Jenny Everywhere (novel)
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The Interlude of Jenny Everywhere was story by Aristide Twain, a prequel to Close Encounter of the Bird Kind written just a few days earlier by Scott Sanford.
Contents
Plot
Chapter One: The Meadow
Jenny Everywhere appears out of thin air in a meadow in Ireland, “a few miles out from the city of Thurles, in the county of Tipperary”. Met with a thirteen-year-old boy who believes her to be a faerie, she inquires after a local Leprechaun known as the Lurigadawne; she explains that she saved his life in 1876 and wants to call in a favor. But the boy says the Lurigadawne hasn't been seen lately, so Jenny thanks him and asks him to run along so she can try to look for the secret entrance, whose location he wouldn't want a local human to discover. When the boy finds the courage to asks for a boon, Jenny happily shifts directly into his backpack a portion of the gold she'd brought to sweeten the deal for the Lurigadawne, and the two part ways.
Looking around on her own, in a few hours she finds the Lurigadawne's underground home through its glamour and discovers that the Lurigadawne is not there, and neither is his sword; his home is being watched over by a Scottish Brownie who admits to not knowing where he has gone, and explains that she is only watching his house because the Lurigadawne called in “an old favour with [her] clan” before leaving. Jenny thanks the Brownie, tipping her with a gold coin, and departs. Increasingly inconvenienced by the wetness of the grass on her bare feet, but still refusing to settle for anything less than Leprechaun-shoes, she compromises and shifts a pair of thick woolen socks onto her feet before she heads to her next destination.
Chapter Two: The Mad Marquess
Jenny makes her way to the city where the Creator built the first Clockwork Cherubs, a place resembling her own New Flaversham, to hire the services of the Company of Free Genies.
The Mad Marquess, Marin Mausdorf, is already there but is not engaging their professional services just then. Jenny introduces herself, offers payment of one of a large collection of odd items accessible via her coat pockets, and wishes to know where the Lirigadawne has gone and to join him.
The genie grants this wish, opening a portal to a room full of orange bearded gnomes and other small magical creatures; they are not pleased to see Jenny but she finds herself unable to close the portal before it deposits her right in the middle of their meeting.
Distressed by her sudden appearance, the gnomes petrify her clothing to hold her in place. The meeting disintegrates into gnomes screaming at Jenny and gnomes screaming at other gnomes. Jenny recognizes one as King Roquat of the Nomes of Oz, which completely fails to calm him down.
Roquat loudly predicts that she will call in allies from other worlds, monsters such as metal men, and scarecrows, and chickens. Jenny protests that she is not going to call in allies from other worlds. Just then, due to unwise wording when talking to a genie, a portal from another world appears and ejects a screaming Mad Marquess into the middle of their meeting hall.
Chapter Three: The Mage and the Monarch
Dinner at Caerlon is disrupted when Jenny Everywhere appears out of thin air and lands in the middle of the Round Table itself, wearing only her goggles. She apologies for the interruption and asks for the loan of a scarf – and other clothes as may be convenient; the knights of the Round Table quickly dress her. She introduces herself and explains that she has come to see Merlin, who bursts in and welcomes Jenny, who he has seen before although she doesn’t know him. After some awkward talk in both directions Merlin proclaims that he knew this day would come and he has prepared the chicken coops.
Shifting back to the hall of the Orange-Bearded Gnomes, Jenny finds all is in chaos and the Mad Marquess is locked in combat with none other than the elusive Lurigadawne of Tipperary. Jenny calls for them to stop fighting – but in the confusion the Lurigadawne falls. The Nome King tries to take advantage of their confusion only for Jenny to warn them that she is armed with a fine egg-laying hen! The lesser gnomes scatter instantly, the Nome King only moments behind them. Once they are gone Jenny checks on the Lurigadawne, who is annoyed but alive and being fussed over by the Mad Marquess.
Jenny shifts the Marquess home and explains her quest for shoes to the Luridadawne, who explains that he cannot give the same gift twice and so cannot actually replace her Leprechaun made shoes. Disappointed, Jenny accepts that bizarre magical footwear may be beyond her for the moment – but wherever she ends up next, there will be a shoe store.
Worldbuilding
Jenny Everywhere
- This story features the incarnation of Jenny usually seen in The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, revealed to also be the one who appeared in Scott Sanford's Close Encounter of the Bird Kind. When called out on not sounding Irish despite currently posing as a presumably-local member of the Fair Folk, she states that “this isn't one of [her] Irish bodies”.
Universe
- The story opens in Dimension 77. It is outwardly a norma, realistic modern-day Earth, but Jenny Everywhere describes it as a place where the “old tales” are true, as evidenced by the existence of Leprechauns and Brownies.
Other
- Jenny explains a custom of the Fae: “if one of the Fair Folk owes you a debt when they die, you’ve gotta be at their funeral. You’re invited, automatically. So you can meet the heirs, if there are any — work things out”.
- Leprechauns are considered Fae, as are Brownies — specifically, members of the Little People. Leprechauns are famous for disappearing if a human takes their eyes off them.
Continuity
- The story acts as a sequel to PROSE: Family Business, following on from Jenny's decision at the end of the tale to track down “that wily old leprechaun [she] met in Dimension 77” to replace the pair of shoes she lost while swimming out to Nowhere Island. She recounts to the boy how she lost her original shoes “in the sea. In my sister’s realm”.
- In Chapter Three, the story is revealed as a prequel to the then merely-days-old PROSE: Close Encounter of the Bird Kind, one of Scott Sanford's Jenny Everywhere stories, which featured an ambiguous Jenny. It reveals why Jenny had to borrow a chicken from the older Merlin. Both stories also opened with Jenny materialising in front of a young boy in a meadow and being mistaken for a member of the Fair Folk.
Behind the scenes
Read online
The story can be read online here.
