The car was spinning out of control, in the rain, and on the highway, too. The rain beat down, and the thick trees on the side of the road congealed into one, green blob as the rain as the tires became liquid, as well, floating in the rain.
“This isn’t me! All I do is park, but I park well,” Goldenrod said, “actually, I’m the premier Parking Fairy in the country. Well...I’m the only Parking Fairy in the country. But who cares?”
“ We care,” I screeched, as I began to make out a shape, down the road, where we were heading.
A triangular shape, which I figured was probably iscocoles (not that I cared), was curving over the road, and poked into the asphalt. It was suspending the road over a river, or at least, what looked like one. It could simply be the rain, distorting my vision. But... I didn’t think so. Yet, I was too petrified to open my mouth, and warn the others. I would simply pretend that it didn’t even exist.
“I’m probably wrong,” Annette said, cheerfully, “but aren’t we on a bridge? And won’t we break past the side of the bridge if we keep on going at this trajectory? I’m probably wrong, though- I have glasses! I could be seeing the situation from a totally incorrect paradigm-“
“Annette, don’t be stupid! We’re going to fall into the river, and die, if the dumb parking fairy doesn’t use her dumb powers,” Elise snapped, her thin face contorting to make an appalled expression.
“Can you stop calling me dumb?” Goldenrod said, “you aren’t convincing me to save you very well!”
“Well, I know survival techniques.
Everyone else will die, but I’ll probably just go to the hospital, dumb fairy.” Elise said.
“Thanks,” I said.
“It’s true.”
I wanted to toss Elise out of the car in that moment, but I resisted the urge. If Goldenrod didn’t save us now, then we were all going to die, and I doubted that any of her “survival techniques” would make a diddly darn difference. Especially not if I opened the door and gave her a tiny little push into the pouring rain. If she didn’t stop insulting the one person- or fairy- who could rescue us, then Goldenrod wasn’t going to help. Couldn’t Elise just say a few, gentle words? Of course, I was a bit of a hypocrite- but never when it came to life and death situations, not when it came down go the wire.
“Goldenrod! I believe in you! You can save us, all you have to do is use your amazing powers!” Annette begged.
Well, amazing powers was a stretch- but Annette was pretty sweet. Sweet enough to convince Goldenrod to use those powers. I shot a grateful look at Annette as my seatbelt jolted me back into place. It seemed as if we were swerving away from the bridge, now, but I wasn’t taking any chances. We could very well crash into a moving food truck if we kept in moving into the other lanes. Food trucks were growing in popularity- and if I was going to go out at all, I didn’t want to go out in a blaze of Pad Thai noodles.
“Well...” Goldenrod drifted off.
But the river was approaching, and I couldn’t afford to waste any more time on formalities. It was time to take our survival technique into high gear.
“Oh, for Fairie’s sake! Goldenrod...if you don’t save us, I’ll be force feeding you sugar for hours on end! In the...afterlife, I guess. But who cares? I’ve never tried cotton candy, you know- if I don’t try it in this life, you’ll be gulping it in the next one!” I theatened.
She gasped, and air began to come out of her windpipe at an alarming rate.
“Anything but that...that... Sadist Food ! I’ll do it...but can we stop, just before we reach the bridge, to make the whole thing epic and dramatic? We have time, right? Can’t we all just relax, and hug it out? Anyways, we’re so far away-“
“ No, we aren’t! “ I cried.
Maybe it was just my skewed view, but we had gone right back towards the bridge. The car was accelerating at a frightening rate, and Marco was oddly silent, not saying a single word. His knuckles were a deathly white as he clutched onto his muscular arm, and I could see the half moons left by his nails when he let go. I wondered if he was going to be alright. However, the engine certainly wasn’t. It was beginning to burn out, sputtering like a dying mule, and we were just on the tip of the bridge, about to plunge into the dark, deep depths of the algae- infested lake.
“I don’t want to die! I’ve never been able to hand out cupcakes to the world!” Annette cried, “they were supposed to be chocolate! And now, people will never taste the goodness of a hand baked confection like that!”
Marco closed his eyes, and Elise opened hers as wide as she possibly could, in complete and utter panic. She had probably started to realize that her survival measures weren’t going to help her at all, and I felt terrible for feeling so smug.
Maybe, I felt so obnoxious because I was confident that Goldenrod wasn’t going to forsake us, after all. She was my fairy, after all- and even if she had stopped caring about my safety, she cared deeply about her own health. And fairies didn’t reincarate into different forms, after they died, unlike elves, as she knew full well. She would save us, to guarantee her own life. It was selfish, yet I couldn’t bring myself to care as we began to dip.
And we weren’t doing any tango.
I was almost able to tell the exact moment when the car jolted to a halt, right before the lake swelled beneath my feet. I turned around to see Goldenrod, holding out her hands, parking the car. And I grinned.
The eight of us sighed a collective sigh of total relief- and Goldenrod’s was the loudest. We were safe- and I couldn’t wait to tell Elise “I told you so”. Or maybe, I wouldn’t, since she didn’t actually sacrifice us to save ourselves.
It was an amazing, perfect moment, that we shared. It was the one time since the Ceremony that I actually broke into a full- fledged grin. I was rather furious at Goldenrod for not stopping the car, sooner- but she didn’t owe me any makeup, anymore. And I’d let her be George Washington, anytime. All she had to do was start another Revolution, and I’d hand her the curtains with the needles.
“Hey, there isn’t even a scratch on this baby!” Marco exclaimed.
He patted the sides of his trusty car, our passage to safety. He was right- there were no dents or dinks on the solid paint job. It was incredible.
Suddenly, a disgusted driver, in a furor over the spin out, and the stop that had inconvenienced him so much, forced him to drive forward. He bumped lightly into the car, and I grimaced as I heard a shattering.
“Not the tail light ,” Marco moaned.
“Hey, idiots- get moving, already!” The guilty driver shouted.
“Don’t talk to George Washington like that! I am your president! We are behind an iron curtain-“ Goldenrod protested, until another fairy covered her mouth.
It didn’t matter, that she was completely insane. We were alright, and we had Goldenrod to thank for that- if she hadn’t done anything else right.
“So...should we head over to the crime scene?” I asked.
Marco gave me a terse nod, and we drove, on.
I wasn’t under the sea, and that was what mattered.
It was what mattered in the grand scheme of things.
After ten more, silent minutes of driving, we finally arrived at the crime scene, driving up to the house. It was a tiny cottage, with a thatched roof, ivy coating the wall, and a door that was hardly more than a screen door. It was probably half the size of my home, which was average, at best, and I couldn’t believe that five people, and five, high maintenance fairies, would want to be cranmed in such a small living space. We couldn’t fit into the one car driveway (more like half car driveway), and none of the police cars had that ability, either.
However, with my Ability, we were able to park perfectly in a space, far too small for the car to physically fit in. We jumped out, and walked over to the wailing police sirens.
As I headed towards the police, they waved at us. I waved back. It was so friendly of them to say hello. Unfortunately, I subsequently realized that they weren’t giving us a friendly greeting- they were gesturing for us to go away.
“Hey, kids, get out of here! This area is sanctioned off,” a man in a royal blue uniform cried.
Marco turned to him, and the officers face paled in recognition.
“You- you’re the Chief’s son! P- please don’t tell him about my grievous mistake! You see, he’ll tell my superiors, and they fea- respect him a great deal. Please, kid, jobs are on the line!” He begged.
“I won’t tell my father, on one condition. Let me talk to the witnesses- the Chief has specifically asked me to do so. And I don’t want to disregard his orders. You see, he has a habit of placing the blame on innocent parties,” Marco said.
“Oh, question them all you want! And...can you put a good word in for us? The force needs a little aid, affording to keep some of its men,” The man slicked back his comb over.
“Sure,” Marco said, walking past the car.
We headed towards the box, where the witnesses were held, five people in a tearful family. Three, nearly grown children clutched onto their parents arms, bemoaning the loss of their beloved fairies.
Then, two more people exited the house, speaking to two officers, who seemed to be offering sincere condolences. And I recognized those two people- and I couldn’t believe that they had come to the crime scene, when they had just been part of a terrible one.
“Barbie! Clive!” I called, “what are you doing here?”
Barbie ran towards me, her arms open, and I braced myself for a hug. She embraced me, and I felt the shoulder of my grey shirt get wet. Clive hung back a little bit, standing in the corner. It was probably because the police were jotting down their notes on lined paper, which he had a serious aversion to.
“Oh, Livi ,” she screamed, “I- I can’t believe that this keeps on happening to innocent families, what did they do to deserve this? And why is the kidnapper going so far to kidnap fairies that belong to middle class families? We needed out fairies- and the Idershams can hardly get along without them!”
Annette’s eyes suddenly lit up like candle wicks.
“Well, I have one theory! Have you ever heard of the Tale of the Wretched Prince?” She said, excitedly.
I shook my head, as did everyone else. No one had ever heard of such an obscure story.
“Well, it was an old story from a couple hundred years ago- and it’s really interesting! Here’s what happened,” she said, clearing her throat, “once, there was a young Prince, who had an average fairy. He was abhorred by the fact that he didn’t have a skill that was better than his three brothers. And he decided to change that fact, by doing an act against the laws of nature.”
I whistled.
“So,” she continued, “he did what seemed impossible- he got another fairy. He had stolen it from a servant, and chanted a special spell, and decided that he wanted to try out his new powers. So, he called his new Tree Fairy to him, and demanded it to do his bidding. Yet, when he did...something curious happened. All the Tree Fairies in the entire Kingdom raced over to him, wishing to do his bidding. And that was how he realized that when he got an additional fairy, he controlled all the fairies with that same Ability, which was why having more than one fairy was strictly forbidden.”
I could see where that was going to go. Barbie was too consumed with tears to stay and listen to the story, so she jogged away, along with Clive, to cry somewhere in private.
“So, he stole more, and more fairies, and everytime he did, he was able to control every fairy with that Ability. Eventually, he was able to form the largest army in the entire world- and they had Abilities. The places he conquered with his army had no way to defend themselves- they had no Abilities, since their fairies had been stolen from them. Eventually, when he died of old age, his fairies were let free- but during his life, he had a reign of terror. He was called the Wretched Prince as soon as he was dead,” Annette ended, darkly.
That was a pretty cool story that she knew- but none of that could be true! You couldn’t get an Ability just by stealing a fairy and chanting a spell that no one knew. If such a spell existed, no one would be safe!
Annette sighed, “so, that’s just one theory on the kidnapping- no one has ever confirmed if it’s true, or not, though. Pretty awesome, though!”
Suddenly, a police officer burst through the tape, holding his illuminated phone in the air, like he was about to hold the best concert of the year.
“This...this news report!” He panted, “there’s been another kidnapping! And it’s two houses away! The kidnappers were able to slip by us, somehow!”
The crowd burst into chaos.
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