It is my birthday today. But what a birthday it is! Far away from the Shire and far away from my Adrean I sit here, glad to have at least my diary to hold on to, and I do not know whether to laugh or to cry. Maybe it would have been better had I never overheared this conversation in the Dragon? Had I never gone to Barmy to ask him about it? But then, maybe not... The tale about those strange hobbits living far away from the Shire seduced me to come here and see them for myself - despite the very long journey through unpleasant lands. Instead, I could have had a grand birthday party with Adrean and my friends back home in Bramblebury, drinking blueberry ale and eating loads of pie and catfish cakes. But nay, Miss Akelay had to be adventerous. And finally I know exactly where that comes from.
All these strange hobbits living here far from the Shire, wearing boots - Dear me! - and talking in funny ways were a sensation already. And how close I had passed by on my last travel and still not found them. I was excited to meet them, although I am still not used to the peculiar looks and wry smiles they have for my feet. They started to send me around to do stuff for them - as all the other inhabitants of these lands had done, too. 'Please, collect these little stinking flowers for me, I have no time. I have to stand here and look at my garden...' or 'Please, go and fight against these pesty little goblins, I... erm... have to paint this door in another shade of red in the meantime...' But what then happened really and literally made me faint. I was talking to a farmer who tried to make me collect some manure for him (boar-droppings, eek!) when an elderly hobbit came around the corner that looked slightly familiar. When he saw me he turned pale, stood there rooted to the spot, staring at me with wide eyes, and after a while his lips formed one word that he uttered almost without voice: 'Akelay'.
As I said already, I fainted. When I came around again I was lying on a soft bed in a hobbit hole, and he was sitting next to me on a chair, with swollen red eyes. My pa.
I was struggeling for my voice. 'Pa... how...' I whispered. Ma had been so sure he was dead!
We were talking for hours almost without breaks. I told him about how I grew up, about my friends, about the Bramblebury band with no name, except for Bullroarer Took Day when we become the Greenbrambles, about meeting Adrean, about how he proposed to me only a few days later...
And about Ma, of course, and we sat there together and cried. And he told me things I had not known before. For instance about how Ma and he had met when he had played the drums in a band called Stormy Staddlers and Ma being a huge fan of them; about his sister, my unknown aunt Lara Shrubland, who had married a Boffin and moved to Buckland - wanting to have nothing to do with that crazy, dissolute bandsman of a brother. At that moment I still thought she was wrong with her judgement. I listened to his adventures, learning what he had done in all those last years and how he had come here to Enedwaith, how he had been in dangerous and hopeless situations, how once he had to trade the book he loved so much for food to a traveller. Imagine his surprise when I took the very same book out of my bag! Happy moments. He really was the funny and loving pa that he had been in my mind for all those years when I only had that small painting of him; and I enjoyed being with him so very much. Until this morning, when the heavy confession followed.
He remembered perfectly well that it was my birthday and told me his own birthday was only four days later. He had flowers prepared and a lovely cake with candles... I was soooo touched! But while I was overwhelmed with joy, he stood there and fiddled with his shirt, looking quite uncomfortable. And finally he told me the whole truth. That he had not cared at all if the Needlehole hobbits, including Auntie Iris, liked him or not. There was a completely different reason why he had left Needlehole and never came back or was heard of again.
I admit I had noticed yesterday evening that he really likes to flirt with all female hobbits around, young lasses and old gammers alike. So I had no trouble believing him when he was confessing that back then in the Shire, he had been on very, very, very friendly terms with a young hobbit lass of the Lightfoot family in Frogmorton, another huge fan of the Stormy Staddlers. And by chance, at the very same day I was born, just a few months after the marriage of my parents, in Frogmorton a little hobbit lad came into Middle-earth and was given the name Holibin. When Pa got wind of it he packed his things, put some gold into Ma's chest and thought of a false pretence for leaving Needlehole forever. And on his way out of the Shire, he visited the mother of his son secretly - My half-brother! Dear me! - and left some gold there for them, too, before running away from us all.
And now that I think about it, I even know a hobbit lad called Holibin! He is a musician, like me and - of course - Pa. Next time I meet him, I have to ask him for his birthday and if he is from Frogmorton and about his family... Could this be? Could Holibin be my half-brother? Half-twin even, since we were born on the very same day, right today, some years ago.
Pa concluded his confession, saying how sorry he was for being such a coward and that he wanted to come back to the Shire with me now that the truth was out, and meet Adrean, too. Well, maybe the true reason is that Ma is not there anymore to be angry or sad about it. I really don't know if I want him to come with me and how long I will be angry with him for leaving us alone because of his cowardice. When I think that I could have had a father all that time instead of only a picture of him, had he been a bit braver... But then, he probably won't stick around in Bramblebury for very long. He is a restless spirit, running around all the time, entertaining everyone with music and flirting with the lasses - and everyone likes him since he is a cheerful and funny guy. Well, I guess some of the fathers or brothers might not. I am sure I won't see that much of him in the Shire anyway, so I'll probably agree to take him back with me. He is my pa after all. And with his birthday coming up... And he could have chosen to not tell me - we would still be a very merry pa-daughter couple then... So he is not a complete coward... Maybe I should go and tell him right now before I get second thoughts.
The thought of having a twin brother on the other hand is a very nice one. A nice birthday present actually. Holibin is a friendly lad and I like his music. Why, once we even met in Bree in the Prancing Pony and had a nice conversation there, being the only two hobbits around at that time, inbetween all the lankyshanks. I played him my Rushock Bog song and my Shire Apple Tree song, and he liked them, too. And after that I met him in the Dragon sometimes on Fridays... I guess back in the Shire I will not wait for a coincidental meeting at all. I will go and look for him right away.
As for now, wherever you are, Holibin: Happy birthday to us!
