A/N: This song is called Anatevka from Fiddler on the Roof. It’s a very sad song, which I’m teaching myself to play on the piano, and I’m doing fairly well seeing as I quit lessons three years ago. Anyway, enough of the rambling, it got me thinking about what it must have been like for the People to have to go underground.

What do we leave

Nothing much

Only Anatevka.

Ten thousand years ago. 

    “Why do we have to leave father?” Anna asked, looking up at her father.

    “Because the mud men have left us no other option. If we had continued to wage war against them, many more would die, and we could quite possibly become extinct.” He told her, a dead, sorrowful look in his eyes.

    “How could they have defeated us? We have magic.” She asked, a look of confusion on her small, heart-shaped face.

    “There were too many of them. Even with our magic and superior technology, they beat us with numbers alone. No more questions now Anna, go find your mother.” he told her.

Anatevka, Anatevka

Underfed overworked Anatevka

Where else could Sabbath be so sweet

    “I don’t want to go. I want to stay in Adjud. Where would we live underground? Why can’t the mud men just make peace with us? Why can’t they go and live underground? After all, they do live in huts made with mud. Why-” Anna began, and was cut off by her father.

    “Enough, Anna. Humans are a strange people, it’s no use trying to make peace. Now stop complaining.” He chatsised her. And they were off. Where, they weren’t sure on the details, all they knew was they were going somewhere out of humanity’s grasp.

Anatevka, Anatevka

Intimate, obstinate Anatevka

Where I know everyone I meet.

Present day.

    “Wow, would you look at all this. When was the last time you cleaned the attic mom?” Holly asked, amazed by all the junk in her mom’s attic.

    “I don’t remember. But, that’s why you’re here. Your going to help me clean it.” Holly’s mom told her.

    “What?!? I’m going to spend my saturday night helping you clean the attic when I could be on a date with Trouble?” Holly asked.

    “Yes, can you start with those old boxes?” Her mom told her, ignoring Holly’s grumbling.

Soon I’ll be a stranger in a strange new place

Searching for an old familar face

From Anatevka.

    At last Holly reached the last item in the last box. A diary. Flipping through it Holly stopped on a page covered in teardrops, which read:

Dear Diary,

The war has been going on much too long. Uncle Jonathan was killed yesterday in this bloody battle against the mud men. I pray that this war will stop. Father says that we’re losing, and he’s lucky to have come home alive.

Yours Truly, Anna.

    Shocked Holly flipped to the next page which was also covered in teardrops, it read:

Dear Diary,

Father says we have to leave Adjud, and flee underground like all the other fairies in order to escape the mud men. Adjud is such a small town that I probably will never see my friends again after we move. Why? Why can’t the mud men live in peace with us? Why do we have to flee for our lives? It doesn’t make sense. All I want is everything to go back to the way it was. Father says not to hold my breath, because if it ever does, it won’t happen in my life time.

Yours Truly, Anna.

    Tears in her eyes, Holly asked, “Mom, do you know who’s this is?”

    Coming over to see what Holly was talking about she answered. “That’s Anna Short’s, she’s your many times great grandmother. She lived thourgh the war with the humans ten thousand years ago. She never wanted to leave the surface.”

I belong in Anatevka

Tumble down, workaday Anatevka

Dear little village little town of mine.

Some other stories by Lydia Tall:

• My Updates!
• They Pushed Her
• When Things Fall Apart
• The ReSurface
• Technological Curse