The Rider by the River, Essay Example

The dirty clothes were plunged into the water, then twisted and wrenched with a force that contradicted the character of the tiny hands which performed the act. Aibreann had always washed the family’s clothes at this precise inlet on the River Fane. The selected location was a combination of practical reasons and Aibreann’s imagination. The stones upon which she lay the clothes after washing them were incredibly smooth; it was as though they had been sliced in half by the pure blade of a faerie, who cut rocks in two for whatever reason.

The texture of the stones and the faerie-origin they produced in Aibreann’s mind infused her quotidian task with a romance; as she worked she made up little narratives of the stone-cutting ephemeral being who had set about his task on behest of a local wizard. “Inside the stone”, said the wizard to the faerie, “you will find your true love. She was captured and placed there by her mother, who feared that the daughter would leave her; she was already a widow, her husband having died years ago, and all she had was this daughter her spouse had left: she could not bear the thought of being alone, and of losing the last memory of him. When her daughter grew up, she turned into the most sublime faerie in this part of Ireland; suitors came to her all the time. The mother, distraught of being alone, thought it was better to conceal her daughter then have her depart with a lover; she invited her to the riverside one day, and sealed her in stone. It would be better for her to be hidden here than to have her taken; and the mother would come and visit the daughter everyday and talk to her through the stones.” The faerie, upon hearing the story from the wizard went to the stone in question, and spoke to it:  “I am here, I will free you my love.” “Be careful”, the faerie daughter answered, “Make sure your cut is straight and not without discipline, as my life will be lost.” The faerie brandished his blade and made a brilliant clean slash across the stone face, freeing his love.

Aibreann’s labor proceeded slowly, as she filled her head with such stories. It was not merely a case of passing the time; rather, she fell into the worlds she created as she worked by the river. The particular developments of the tale had on this day intrigued her to the extent that her work was slower than usual; she had been lost in time, and understood only by the darkening of light that she had taken far too long. Aibreann finished her work in a hurry, some clothes still being wet, and rushed home.

“Where have you been?” shouted Aibreann’s mother, as she entered the door with the cleaned clothes and washtub. The mother, knowing her daughter well, knew the reason for her tardiness.

“You will never be a good worker if you waste your time in such dreams.”

Aibreann’s mother forcefully took the clothes from her, and motioned towards the dinner table.

“There is your supper, it has already gotten cold.”

“Thank you, Mama.”

Aibreann sat at the table and ate the sparsely constituted stew.

One day, Aibreann was at the river, washing clothes, lost in her imagination. This time the story revolved around her favorite faerie lovers’ troubles with a local land owner, who objected to their presence on his estate. The land owner chased the faerie couple with both torches and dogs deliberately starved to madness. The reverie was interrupted by a voice.

“Good day, my lady”, said a man, sitting upon a magnificent white steed.

“Good day, sir,” answered Aibreann.

The man was handsomely dressed, crowned by a top hat that resembled an ancient steeple in its transcendent effect. He wore a carefully trimmed mustache.

“And such a fair lass as you must wear her little self out by the river waters, performing such tasks?”

“All labor is honorable”, answered the little girl.

“Let me help you then; for if what you say is true, then I shall become an honorable man by laboring alongside you.” The gentleman dismounted from his horse and helped Aibreann clean the dirty clothes in the river.

When Aibreann washed the clothes on the river in the next weeks, the gentleman always arrived on horseback. He helped Aibreann with her work, and instead of passing time by dreaming up faerie-stories, she now chatted with the stranger.

One day the gentlemen said to Aibreann:

“I would like to take you as my wife, my lass.”

Aibreann hid a smile that came directly from her heart.

“But my mother, she will be all alone. I am all that she has in the world.”

“Your mother is old, and she has already gone through life; why should you waste your life on a life that has already passed?” he answered.

Aibreann smiled only with her eyes, said nothing, and continued to work, as the gentleman helped her.

One day Aibreann washed the clothes by the riverside, the sun pouring out searing white light from above. The gentleman soon arrived and they conversed, as he helped her.

Aibreann’s mother never went down to the riverside while she worked; but this day, because of the heat she had stopped her work at home early, and departed to the river to see her daughter. From afar she saw Aibreann with the gentleman, talking and working together. A terror flashed across her face.

“What is this Aibreann? And who is this man, your companion?” she cried.

Aibreann was without words, shocked by her mother’s sudden presence; it was the gentleman who responded.

“I am merely helping the young lass with her work, my lady”, answered the gentleman. “Such a fair young girl such as this needs assistance in performing such duties.”

“Do not think that I am so naïve, sir, as to not know what it means when a young man comes to see a young lady. My daughter is not to be married, especially to a man of your station; she is needed here, with me, for we are simple people and have a hard life. I am all alone, and without her we will not survive.”

“But she is young,” answered the gentleman, “and life should not only be labor – “

ibreann’s mother interrupted:

“I swear, my good sir, if I see you again around my Aibreann, only the devil will be able to help you.”

The gentleman, not wishing to cause any further disruption, nodded to both Aiberann and her mother, mounted his horse and rode off.

The young are, of course, not terribly inclined to obeying the words of their elders. One day, Aibreann washed the clothes by the river, and the gentleman re-appeared. She tried to hide the smile that arose; but the constriction of her mouth meant that her happiness had to show itself in another way, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

“Good day, my lady”, said the gentleman. “Do you need some assistance?”

Aibreann did not say anything, but only nodded delicately.

After first seeing Aibreann with the gentleman, her mother had decided that she would check on her daughter every day as she worked. Weeks had passed since she had first conveyed her warning to the gentleman, and it appeared he had adhered to her request; as she went to the riverbank this day, however, she was stunned to see the gentleman, by Aibreann’s side, cleaning the clothes in the waters of the Fane.

She reached into the apron that dangled around her neck, and pulled out a butcher’s knife, which she had brought with her everyday in anticipation of the gentleman’s return. She slowly walked up behind the young man and slit his throat as cleanly as one would slit the throat of a lamb.

Aibreann did not move, nor did she scream. All her body could do was produce yet another tear, but now for an entirely different reason.

Aibreann continued to wash the clothes by the river everyday. Her face had grown paler; her body more emaciated. She would no longer think of faerie stories when she washed the clothes by the riverside. Her mind was blank.

One day by the River Fane, Aibreann worked and the emptiness of her thoughts was interrupted by the clanging of horse hooves. She turned around and it was the gentleman.

“But sir, I saw you die – -“

“You saw correctly, my dear girl. You also saw correctly when your mother threw my body, its throat cut, into the Fane. But do you remember what your mother said to me, when she warned me about seeing you? She said ‘only the devil will help you.’ And your mother was right, for only the devil did help me. He took my lifeless body from the waters of the Fane, and said to me, ‘what do you wish, sir?’ ‘I wish to take my Aibreann with me,’ I answered. ‘And what will this cost you, sir, if I oblige your request?’ ‘I know what it will cost, for I have heard stories about you; and I am prepared to pay the cost,’ I answered.”

“Now Aibreann it is time for you to come with me.”

The figure upon the horse was the same gentleman who had visited her everyday; but he appeared to her in a different manner, as though something was missing.

“Aibreann, this is not for you to decide or not, you will go with me.”

The gentleman seized Aibreann and rode off.

As they rode along the banks of the River Fane, Aibreann sobbed: her life was empty without her gentleman, and she had thought about death a thousand times. And now her gentleman had come back to her, but in the very form of death itself.

As the horse stormed forward, they caught a glimpse of a figure on the road: it was Aibreann’s mother. She cried out a scream as she noticed her daughter with the man whose throat she had cut. The gentleman rode towards her.

“Only a devil will help me”, he said, “and you were correct, Madame.”

The dead gentleman struck his horse in the sides, firmly grasping Aibreann,  as she looked for the last time at the only sites she had ever known, her blood rushing to her head from the furious tempo of their flight.