'All right, girls, here's the outfits for you tonight."' Ms. Boyle put a box on the table.  'They're all about the same size, so just take one and have it on tonight.  Remember, they must be next to your skin so don't wear anything underneath them.'

Carol picked a dress out of the box and regarded it dubiously.  It was a plain white shift made of what appeared to be silk.  The cloth was a very coarse weave, however, so the effect was almost that of gauze.  Certainly, this sort of garment would be extremely revealing, especially with no underwear.  Cold, too, for wearing outdoors at night. 'Uh, gee, Ms. Boyle, these don't look too warm.'

'Linda, call me Linda from now on.  No, they're not warm but you can wear anything you want over them.  And I know you're thinking about how they'll look but don't worry.  There won't be any men present for this.  Just me and the six of you.  You've all been out there at least once so you know where to meet me.   I'll be there all night but you can all come whenever you want, although I wouldn't mind some company.  Just be there by 4 a.m. at least.  And remember,' she looked significantly at Jill and Alison, 'no drinking tonight.  I don't want any of you messed up for this.'  She left the box behind and climbed the stairs to her room.

'Is she serious?' Jill was a tall blonde from Ohio who wasn't very enthusiastic about tonight's project.  She had signed up, as had Carol and Alison, for this Celtic Studies overseas course merely as an excuse to take a trip to Ireland.  Since she was getting credits, her parents were willing to spring for it.   Mostly, though, she and her cousin Alison had taken the opportunity to party hearty several nights a week.  They had visited a few sites, listened to a couple of lectures, but nothing like this had been demanded of them so far.

'Yah, she is.  We do this every year at Bealtaine.'  Deidre and the other two girls in the group were local assistants.  They actually were interested in the subject and, more importantly, were on the payroll.  Ms. Boyle was their boss.  'We stand on the hill for a few hours before sunrise and she runs through some old rituals.  Says it's to help you understand the feeling of it, of the old ways.'

'Anything ever happen?'  Jill queried.

'Not for me, anyways,  we just stand there until the sun comes up, then we go home.  I don't know what she thinks is going to happen, she won't say, but she looks disappointed after.  Anyway, let's go.'  She rolled up her shift and headed out the door to go home for the evening.  The other two local girls silently followed her.  The three Americans took their shifts up to their rooms.
 

Even with the flashlight, Carol couldn't see the path through the scrub very well.  She stumbled a couple of times as she clambered to the top of the hill.  The moon was just past full  and should have been bright but the sky was mostly cloudy so it was no help. Once at the top, though, she could see a little better.  The first glow of dawn was just appearing in the east.  Ms. Boyle, no, make that Linda, was sitting in a little hollow just below the hilltop, chanting softly to herself.

She rose to her feet as Carol approached.  'You're a bit early.  Are the others here too?'

'No, but they were getting into their cars when I drove off.  They should be here in a few minutes.  I just wanted to see what it was like up here.'

'Not much to see in the dark,' Linda ventured, 'and not much out of the ordinary in the day either.  But this is a special place.  Carol, do you mind if I tell you why we're here?  Promise you won't laugh or tell the others?'

'Of course not.'  Unlike Jill and Alison, Linda actually wanted to learn about the old Celtic history and folk customs.  She spent her nights reading and talking to the local people around here rather than with the young men in the pubs.

Linda sighed and began.  'It's like this.  The Other Folk still exist, they're still here.  I've met them, I've talked with them a bit.  No, now you said you wouldn't laugh, just hear me out.'

'So I come back over here every year and teach my courses and try to learn what I can from the Other Folk.  Sometimes they'll talk to me for a bit, but usually not.  But they have told me if I really want to learn more, I could visit them for a while.  It would be all right with them, if I can cross over.  So every year I come to this hilltop the night before Bealtaine and I do what they tell me to do.  And every year nothing comes of it and the girls up here with me go away thinking I'm crazy.  But I'm not crazy and I want at least one other person to know that.'

'I don't...' Carol started.

'...think that I'm crazy.'  Linda finished.  'But of course you do.  Who wouldn't?  But try to keep an open mind about this, at least.  Listen!  Hear the cars coming?  The others will be here in a few minutes.'

Perhaps ten minutes later, Alison, the last of the lot, staggered over the ridge top.  Carol didn't think she'd had that much to drink but she just wasn't used to walking up brushy hillsides.  The others waited for her to catch her breath.

They all clumped together as Linda began her speech.  'Tonight, or rather this morning, we're going to recreate an old ceremony that's been performed on this hill for at least two thousand years, maybe longer than that.  It's a women's ceremony, for the start of this half of the year, and it needs seven to perform, which is why I made all of you come up here.  I'm the only one who is supposed to be affected but you are here for support.'  Carol thought she could hear a smile in her voice at that.  'Anyway, as Deidre, Ciara and Mollie know by now, you six don't have to do anything but stand in the circle.  When I tell you to, take off your coats, shoes and whatever else you have on over the garments I gave you this afternoon.  You don't move after that but it's only for a few minutes and it's not cold tonight so you should be able to handle the chill.'

She pointed with her flashlight at several small cleared plots forming a rough oval.  'Everybody pick one of these spots to stand in, it doesn't matter which, except I get this one at the brow of the hill.'  Since Linda was already standing in hers, the others milled around until they each had one.  The three local girls, having been through this before, preferred the positions nearer the hill top, since they were slightly protected from the breeze that was gathering.  Jill wound up in the downhill spot nearest Linda, with Alison and Carol behind her.

'You can all sit down and be comfortable for a while.  I'll let you know when to stand up and take off your things.  After that, stand still.'  Linda faced away from them and began muttering, apparently a continuation of the chant.  Occasionally she would stop and look up, searching for the moon.  The clouds were breaking up and occasionally the moon could be seen for a few moments in the breaks.  The hill commanded a wide view and Carol noticed she could see the patches of moonlight approaching them across the fields below.  It was really a very dramatic setting and Carol was glad she was there to see it.

Finally, Linda stopped her quiet chant and threw off her overcoat.  'Okay, everybody stand and get rid of your outer clothes.  Then face inward.'

They all did, amid some minor grumbling.  Surprisingly, even in the breeze, it wasn't uncomfortably cold.  Carol kicked off her shoes, dropped her coat and wriggled out of her sweater and sweatpants.  She saw the others do much the same until the seven of them stood facing each others like a ring of pale white candles.

Linda scanned the sky.  'I hope the moon comes out for a moment soon.'  Carol twisted her head to look behind her and saw a small patch of light moving over the brush towards them.

'Here comes a break, if it gets to us.' she announced.  The bit of moonlight was briskly moving their way but it was so small she wasn't sure whether it would come to them or miss them.  As it came nearer, though, it seemed to slow, almost halting as it crept toward the top of the hill.  Carol thought it might miss them altogether; it looked like it would pass on the hillside below but she turned back to face the others in the circle.

Linda looked up, hoping to see the moon break through the moving clouds, but it merely tantalized her, hanging on the very edge of a cloud and not quite shining through.  She looked aside to see if the patch of light was passing closer and was disappointed to find that it was barely grazing the downhill side of their circle.  It might touch Carol or Alison briefly  but clearly it would never shine on the entire group as she needed.

Even as she watched, though, the light broke on both Carol and Alison and suddenly intensified and came to a halt.  The  unexpected effect startled Linda and she took an involuntary half-step forward.  She couldn't complete the step though, for it was as if the air around her had thickened around her, resisting her movement.  She could see that the others were having the same experience for they all stood stock-still, straining against the air.

Carol and Alison looked as though they had spotlights trained on them from above.  Although their bodies were motionless, the wind was whipping Alison's long blond hair to the side while Carol's shorter red hair tangled about her face.  Their white shifts fit too tightly to be much windblown and the widely spaced threads glowed brightly against their skin.

As Carol stood frozen, all the others were in her field of view, but as the moonlight hit her, Jill and Linda and the local girls all seemed to fade into the greyness,  leaving only Ali clearly illuminated at the edge of her vision.  She wasn't paying much attention to that, however, for it seemed to her that the cloth of her dress was crawling on her skin.  It wasn't slipping off or getting tighter but somehow it was moving.  She looked at the fabric of her sleeve and saw that what was happening was that the threads were drawing together, forming a tighter weave without changing the dress's size and shape.  She looked up and it seemed to her that the others were all slowly moving away, expanding the circle.  But none of them were moving their feet and she couldn't understand their increasing distance from her.

Jill was stuck in place like the rest of them but she had a good view of Alison and Carol, with Deidre beyond them.  The brilliant glow from the two Americans reflected off the Irish girl, showing a little of the astonishment on her face.  For she could see as well as Jill that Carol and Alison were beginning to shrink, becoming slowly smaller as they stood in the moonlight glare.  Jill tried to reach out for her cousin standing next to her but found her arms were pinned.  She managed a muffled cry.  'Ali, what's happening to you?'

Alison didn't know what was happening and neither did Carol;  they could each see the ground slowly growing closer, they could feel the fabric of their dresses creeping on their skin but they didn't understand the cause as they dwindled in size, frozen upright in their places, hair swirling about their heads.

Finally, as the others saw they were now less than waist-high to them, it became obvious to Carol what was happening.  'Sh, shr, shrinking, I'm shrinking.  Why?   Ms. Boyle!  What did you do to me?'  She was bewildered and a little shocked as the realization struck her but she felt no fear.  Truth to tell, she felt an involuntary thrill as she was swept down from her old size.

Alison heard her neighbors calling out but even though she was seeing the ground rise to her and watching the others grow, she couldn't believe this could happen to her.  She had always been in control of her life, control usually granted by her own strong will and good looks, or at times by her family's money.  Not until she and Carol were less than knee high and she could hardly see the dim shapes of the others through the brush around her, did she accept what her new reality was.  To her annoyance, she had been shrunken and was shrinking further.

Linda Boyle was filled with a mixture of triumph and despair.  She had been proven right, she had  witnesses to swear this was possible, the old ceremonies still worked their effect, but still...  For the effect had been worked on the wrong ones.  She was the one who should be dwindling, going to the Other Side, learning what could be learned and done there.  Instead, the moon had accidentally illuminated only part of the circle, the wrong part, and now two innocents were shrinking, leaving their old lives behind for a while, on their way to a different sort of existence.

She nervously watched as the two glowing figures shrank below the level of the brush, catching glimpses of the ever-smaller figures glowing in the moonlight until they were gone.  With a start she realized the patch of moonlight had moved on and she could move again.  She called to the four others.  'Stay where you are.  Don't go near them.  We can't risk...'  She left the thought unfinished.  We can't risk hurting them in our clumsiness.  They're too small now to safely be around us.

They all remained in place a moment and realized that it had suddenly gotten light.  Night had ended and the sun was about to rise.  Linda took a tentative step to where the two girls had been and peered to where their shrunken forms should still be.  She saw movement in Alison's patch, a flash of white and waved the others over.  'There they are.  Look there.  You only have a minute to see them.'

Carol had seen the world grow larger and larger.  She could see no signs of the others now, only increasingly huge shadows of bushes and grass, further and further from her at the edge of the cleared plot she was standing in.  Finally the shadows quit growing and her white shift quit changing.  She could move again and lifted her arm to see her sleeve again to see that now the fabric looked like perfectly normal silk.  That looked normal to her but nothing else did.  Now she could clearly see what had been small bushes and blades of grass towering over her.  She was tiny now.  Tiny and alone.  She thought of how Alison alone had been affected like her and turned to where she should be.  'Ali!  You there?'  But Ali was in her own plot, separated by what was now a jungle to them.

Deidre had heard stories about things like this since she was a child but always claimed they were just stories, tales told to amuse and frighten the young and credulous.  There had always been a lingering doubt about that deep in her heart though, and now the doubt was replaced by wonder and fear.  The old tales were true.  She stepped out of her plot to where she could see both tiny girls,  Carol standing in the center of her plot,  Alison rushing to the edge of hers.

She could hear Ms. Boyle speak as she joined her staring at the two.  Then the shrunken American girls were suddenly gone, vanished from her sight.  Deirdre rubbed her eyes is astonishment and looked up to see the Sun coming over the horizon.

GO TO DAY IN A YEAR PART 2
 

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