So we’ll keep Amie, Madison’s little sister, surrounded by people at all times, throughout the night. Our plan is simple - my friends on the outside, Madison’s friends on the inside, and animals loose in the house. Madison invited all the Laurels from church over for a sleepover. They’re all coming – Jessica Boxer and Sarah Holmes, Marie Vasquez, and Natalie Landers and Tosha Abby. With Madison that makes six to stand guard inside. Also Ms. Weaverspell, their church advisor, our chemistry teacher, who has seen Bonnie, will be coming along, to make it seem like an official YW church sponsored activity to Madison’s parents. Ms. Weaverspell has actually seen Bonnie, so she knows what we’re facing and she wants to help. The other Laurels will be kept in the dark, as far as they’re concerned it’s just another social activity, but just having so many people in the house with Amie will make it impossible for any hostile fairies to get even remotely close to the little toddler. Madison’s parents won’t be much help, they’ll be in their bedroom blissfully sleeping, totally unaware of the drama going on within and without their home. We talked them into putting all Madison’s younger sisters together in the largest bedroom for the night, to make room for guests. So Amie will have four older sisters sleeping right in the room with her – Ashley, Lisa, Hannah, and Nicole – and also the six Laurels downstairs keeping watch through the night with Madison and Ms. Weaverspell.
That should be enough, but just to be sure, I’ll be on guard outside with my friends from church. By best buddy Westley French, and also Tim Morrison and Ramiro Vasquez, and the three Samoans, Leigalo and Kanake Tulafona and their cousin Hemana Mapu. That should deter the fairies, no doubt, seeing us all up and keeping watch outside the house. The Renard pets will be running loose also. The dog Hunter outside, the cat Shadow inside, and the snake and parrot in the bedroom with Amie and her sisters. Best of all, as if all these people and animals surrounding Amie wasn’t enough, Bonnie, my own loyal fairy, will be helping too. She knows how the other fairies think and what they might try and is advising us on our defense.
I don’t think there’s any way the fairy prince and his warriors, even with the gnomes helping, and any rat or crow allies, can get past all of us. Bonnie has assured Madison and me that the fairies won’t even try. They dare not draw blood, so there’s no need to fear they’ll shoot us with arrows from the sky or cut at us with their swords and daggers and try to fight their way through to Amie.
Bonnie sees it playing out this way. Once the fairies get that magical portal to the realm of fairies open, pixies will be sent to scout out Madison’s house. They’ll find tons of humans awake and alert and all around Amie and see it would be impossible to get her out unobserved. They’ll report back to Bricius and the fairy prince. Bricius will realize there’s no chance of reaching the toddler tonight. They have to actually coax the little girl out to the fairy meadow and get her to willingly crawl into a hole in the ground and through the portal between realms. No way. Not with us all around. Then Bricius will abort their plans to take Amie and they’ll leave for home without the little girl.
It makes me shudder to think how close they did get that first night. If not for loyal Hunter waking up and delaying them, and then me coming around the house at just the right moment, I just happened to be there with my friends TPing Madison’s house, and fortunately I saw Amie outside alone, the fairies might have gotten away with Amie. They were so close. They had her out of the house and were enticing her into the woods. No one would ever have known what happened to the little girl. She would have been lost forever. Vanished. Well, not tonight. We have it all planned out. We’ll be waiting.
So I spent the day today with Bonnie, my fairy, who is now as large as a full-sized human girl. She gave me a start when I woke this morning. I opened my eyes and there she was, not three feet away, sitting cross legged in the middle of the bedroom floor, staring at me, waiting for me to wake, those large brown eyes watching me intently. She was already dressed for the day in jeans, t-shirt, and sandals. I had slept later than usual and she’d been patient and not disturbed me. Once my eyes popped open, her face lit up with glee and she clapped her hands and jumped to her feet. “Michael!” she squealed.
“Shhhh,” I hushed her. Trying to get my bearings, I sat up quickly and rubbed by forehead. “How long have you been sitting there?”
“Since the sun came up,” she glanced about and stretched. “What are we doing today?”
‘Not going to the mall again, or anywhere else with people,’ I thought. I got out of bed and located some jeans and a shirt, then disappeared into the bathroom to change out of my pajamas. When I came out, Bonnie had her wings uncurled, and it never ceases to amaze me how they seemed to fill the whole room. The sun made her totally translucent wings sparkle and glow it seemed. “Hey, going somewhere?” I joked.
Bonnie giggled and curled the wings back onto her back, then came forward and gave me a hug. She’s an affectionate creature by nature. She reminds me so much of a little child in the way she craves attention. I put my arms on her sides and lifted her up and set her away a foot. She is so light. I looked into her face and she smiled and looked down at the ground.
We needed to go somewhere or my Mom might hear us. Also I needed something to do so I wouldn’t worry about tonight, when we were going to have to defend Amie from the other fairies. “It’s going to be a sunny day. Want to go with me to the park?” I asked.
“Oh, that would be fun,” Bonnie responded, and rocked forward on balls of her feet.
I tossed Bonnie the shiny black leather jacket Madison bought her at the mall yesterday. “Great, let’s go,” I said.
By the time we got to the park it was already ten, the sun was up, and it was starting to get hot outside. One of my favorite features of the park near my house is a loop trail that circles a small lake. We started down the trail and Bonnie held my hand. I enjoyed watching her as she stared with wonder at all the sights I’ve grown to take for granted. She is so much like a little kid. She told me again how different the colors are here - deeper, richer, darker. I picture her home as being all bright and maybe pastel colored like in a fairyland coloring book. Probably not like that really. Bonnie says everything here seems so large to her, especially the trees. She was fascinated by the large number of birds in the park, and was totally amazed by the Canadian Geese floating on the lake, claiming she had never imagined such a large bird and would not believe they could fly. I told her geese most assured could fly, but there were larger birds, a big as a man, called Ostriches, that could not fly but could run very fast. She was dumbstruck and I made a mental not to take her to the zoo one day. Then we saw some rabbits. Bonnie was delighted and tried to sneak up on them. She got pretty close before they noticed her and took off scampering for the nearest brush. She chased after them and then came back to me laughing with delight.
Our time together was interrupted by a buzzing on my cell phone. I had a text, from Madison of course. I flipped open the phone. “Where are you? Why aren’t you at church?”
I shook my head and texted back. “Are you my mom?”
“WHERE R U???”
“At the park.”
“With the fairy?”
“Yes!”
“Is that wise??”
“I’ll see you tonight as planned.” I switched the phone off.
Bonnie had been watching patiently, and when she saw me put the phone back in my pocket, she bounded ahead of me down the trail. “I wish to fly,” she exclaimed exuberantly.
I was curious as to whether or not she would be able too also, now that she was as large as a human. Her wings were proportionately larger too, but she was a lot heavier now. We searched out some of the side trails until we found a clearing that was a ways off the main trail, and not visible from the lake because of trees. I held Bonnie’s jacket and she uncurled her wings. She flapped them a few times to limber up, and moved to the far side of the clearing. Then she sprang forward and ran across the meadow, with all her might, picking up speed quickly. About mid-way through the meadow she dove forward with what seemed to me wild abandon, arms in front of her, grasping her wings at a joint. I thought it quite brave and held my breath, for if she didn’t make it airborne she would crash into the ground face first. She flapped her wings with great confidence and much exertion and strain, and smoothly she begin to gain over the forces of air and gravity and rise up away from the ground. I clapped as she gained the victory and she smiled at me and climbed all the higher. She circled upwards until near the tops of the trees, and then she swooped down in a big arc, circling towards me until she came to a hovering maneuver directly ahead of me, her feet dangling a few yards above the height of my head. “Oh Michael,” she exclaimed. “It is so good to fly again.” She hovered a little closer. “Hold up your hands.”
I raised my hands in the air and she came and took them and tried to lift me up off the ground. Her grip is incredibly strong, but I’m probably close to three times her weight. She lifted me up onto my tip toes, but flap those wings as hard as she could, the fairy couldn’t get me all the way in the air. She tried so hard and flapped her wings so furiously, an exuberant attempt; then collapsed and let herself fall into my arms, laughing and laughing at the fun of it.
I caught Bonnie as she fell, she knew I would, and I carried her across the clearing, careful not to bend or put pressure on her wings. They look extremely delicate, but are actually quite strong and flexible. Back on the trail I set her upon her feet once more, and she curled her wings up neatly onto her back. “You are so strong, Michael, you carry me so easily.”
“You were even easier to carry around when you were small,” I said.
“Do you want me small again?” she asked. “I will revert back to my normal size in time, but I could ask Feidlimid for a powder, to hasten it, if you want me too?”
I shook my head, “No, let’s just let nature take its course.”
She took my arm again and snuggled her head on my shoulder. “You like me large.”
“Sure.”
She looked at me strangely. “You like me small.”
“Sure.”
She got a puzzled look on her face. “Bonnie not understand.”
Actually I much preferred her small fairy-sized state, but one should never tell a girl you don’t like something about them. And I was enjoying her company. So I didn’t answer.
We were nearing the completion of the loop trail around the lake and I saw my Mustang up ahead in the parking lot. “Hey Bonnie, you hungry.” I knew she would be, she’s always hungry.
She bounced on the balls of her heels a little. “Yes, Bonnie hungry.”
“We can go to MacDonald’s,” I said. “Probably the most popular place to eat in America.”
“Can we get french fries?”
“Sure can, and I’m going to introduce you to milk shakes too.”
“Milk shakes?”
“They’re the greatest. But you’ll have to choose between strawberry, vanilla, or chocolate.”
“Ohh, I see,” she responded, but I knew she didn’t. As she pondered this important decision about the flavor of her shake, her brow furrowing in concentration, and the hair on her neck standing just a little stiff, I led her to the car and opened the door for her. She thanked me most gracefully and got right in and settled into her seat. She even put on the seat belt. She’s been learning.
We did the drive-through so she could listen to Taylor Swift and then came back to the park with our lunch – hamburgers, french fries, and shakes – what could be more appropriate to buy for a girl from another realm. We found a nice sunny hillside and I laid out a blanket so we could enjoy our feast, watching the people walk by and the geese and ducks out on the lake and the squirrels at play. Some crows showed up at one point, eyeing us suspiciously, which alarmed me, but Bonnie said they were not related to the ones out by Madison’s house and were friendly and just scrounging for food. She fed them some french fries and they took off with their salty prizes in their beaks.
It was so nice in the sun, and after eating a super-sized lunch, I couldn’t help laying back and putting my hands behind my head and closing my eyes to enjoy the heat on my face.
“Michael?” Bonnie questioned softly.
I opened my eyes and looked at her. She was on her stomach, arms bent at the elbow and chin in her hands propping up her elfish shaped head. She had that mischievous look in her eyes. “Yes Bonnie?” I answered.
She seemed to struggle for words, then she said softly, “Can I kiss you?”
That caught my attention. I looked at her questioningly. “Why?”
She shook her head. “Just to see, while I’m still big, just to see what it’s like. I’ve seen humans do it on TV with people they like.”
I felt the hair on the back of my head go stiff. She was a fairy. She wasn’t human. I wanted to say no, but when I looked into her eyes, she had that imploring gaze. She looked so innocent, so child-like. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. I didn’t ever want to do anything that would hurt my fairy. “Okay,” I said. I closed my eyes and let my head drop back onto the grass.
I felt the fairy’s breath on my face then, sweet, rapid, cool. Then her lips touched mine and then she kissed me. It was not like being kissed by a girl, not like any girl I’ve ever kissed. There was something magical in the act. I felt a tingling in her breath, a strong taste of sweetness, like maybe key lime pie, and then a warmth spread down my throat and out into my chest and then throughout my body. I felt myself growing dizzy. I felt our breathing synchronizing, and a sense of overwhelming charity and well-being seemed to envelope me.
Then, the strangest thing of all, I fell asleep. I must of anyway, for it was several hours later when I woke up. I was still lying in the grass, but the sun was near the horizon. I glanced at my watch and saw more than four hours had passed. Bonnie was down the hill a little ways playing with a rabbit. I don’t know how she caught it, or got it to come out, but it was in her lap and she was petting it. She smiled at me contentedly and pushed it off her lap. It scampered off into the bushes.
We needed to get home, it was getting late. The park closes at dusk and there weren’t many people still about. It seemed eerie and unusually quiet at the moment. I saw a group of crows harrying a hawk and felt uneasy. I was also feeling groggy, from sleeping so much in the middle of the day and just waking up. Bonnie was looking at me questioningly, as if something was wrong. We were due at Madison’s soon. I called to Bonnie and she stood quickly and came running up the hill to me. I hurried her back to the car and we drove straight home to wait for the appointed time to go to Madison’s.
I need to get off the computer now. In an hour we’ll be going over to Madison’s house to protect Amie from the fairy prince and his warriors. I’ll put up a post describing what happens. I don’t expect they’ll try anything, not with all the protections we’ve put in place around Amie. Not with all of Madison’s friends coming to help and all my buddies. We’ll be ready for them. We’re ready. Bonnie has assured us there’s nothing to worry about.
January 28, 2013
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