“But Mom, look! The Fire Department and the Police are here! There’s nothing to be worried about! And you can come meet my new friend, Marco! He’s really sweet, and his father is the Chief, so he comes along sometimes.”
She hollered out the window, craning her long, thin neck out, so that I could even see her eyes, that were every bit as round as mine were, and her pug nose, that was just like mine. We were pretty similar, in some ways- except that she didn’t understand how important it was to find out why had happened to Hyacinth and Aster. Fairies were normally so secure- how had someone kidnapped them, when they could fly, and use Fairy Dust.
“Livi, I can meet Marco later. But come inside, now. It isn’t safe, if there’s a kidnapper on the loose. Just because he kidnapped fairies doesn’t mean that he won’t kidnap a girl like you! We are locking our doors!” She commanded.
I huffed, taking one glance at Barbie and Clive. They were so bereft, and I would be the same way, if I lost a good fairy like they had. It was like a piece of them was just gone, in just one day. Obviously, their fairies had meant the world to them. They needed support- but I respected my Mom, and returned to the house, going back inside as the Police and the Fire Department pulled up to the curb. Wow, they were quick, when it came to a case of Fairy Kidnapping.
Whoever had done the crime had to be found, and fast, after all. Otherwise, they’d be gone in a heartbeat.
Once I was inside, I went back up up my window, with Goldenrod, to watch the spectacle.
I watched as the Chief slid out of the Fire Truck, and I noticed that he had changed his brogues, and now they were in a hideous shade of red. It was ludicrous that that particular shade even existed, but I shuddered to know that it did. It was almost as dark as black, yet was speckled with light spots. It was ghastly, but not as bad as how he treated Clive and Barbie. He didn’t even offer his condolences to them.
“Is this a false alarm?” He said, suspiciously.
He held up a hand, telling the Police Officers behind him to stay back until he made sure that Barbie wasn’t making a false claim, which she so obviously wasn’t.
Barbie stared at him, incredulous that he could be so ignorant. The Chief wasn’t even a Police Officer, he had no right to question her like that!
“No.” She replied, “does it look like a false alarm to you? Our precious fairies have just been stolen! Won’t you please look for the person who took them from us?”
“I’m not sure if I believe a story like that, Barbie. See, you haven’t lived here, all that long-“
“I’ve been in this house for three years!”
“- but we don’t have fairies kidnapped around here. It just doesn’t happen. Maybe they ran away? Have you been feeding them? Treating them nice? I think you’ve been mistreating your fairies, and they finally left you!”
She waved the perfectly clear ransom note in his big egg- face, and he didn’t even flinch. Instead, he made a loud tutting sound, that I could hear all the way from my window. How obnoxious could he get?
“Excuse me, but someone left a ransom note, here, and Hyacinth and Aster are so very close to us! They would never run away, not when they’re part of our little family! Ever since my Ceremony, Hyacinth and I have been the best of friends! And when I met Clive, oh, Aster fit right in!” She cried, “And as far as I know, you’re a Fire Chief . Why are you questioning me when that isn’t your job?”
Barbie made a great point, and I wanted to clap for her. The Chief had to stop being so in-your-face, and he had to start looking out for his own Department! Not even his own son liked him!
Speaking of which, I caught a glance of Marco, walking out of the Fire Truck, his black hair, and fair features easily visible. He apologized to Barbie and Clive, and tried to reason with his father. He told him that he was being totally irrational, and that he shouldn’t be so cruel when the couple had just been robbed. But when the Chief wouldn’t budge an inch, Marco began to walk away, defeated. And he was coming through the garden, stumbling over the lilies! That meant he was coming to my house! I couldn’t wait for him to see it!
“Hey, Marco!” I called down from my window, my voice cracking awkwardly.
He turned around, and jumped back when he saw me above him.
“Hey, Livi. What light from yonder window breaks?”
“What?” I said, bewildered.
“It was just a reference. Since you’re in a window, and we just had to read this old play in school. I don’t know. That stuff gets to you after a while, doesn’t it? All that mushy junk?”
“Yeah,” I said, relieved.
“ But, the ending’s pretty sick. My Dad told me to come to your house and interrogate you, whatever that means. Can I come in?”
Suddenly, my Mom poked her head out of her window, curious to see who Marco was. I couldn’t blame her. I had been talking about him for a while. I just hoped that she didn’t embarrass me too much- but that was probably asking a lot from Mom. Moms did that all the time; it’s just how they find out what they need to know.
“Oh, hello, Marco! Livi’s been telling me a lot about you. Even though you two have only met today, it’s nice to see her making friends.” She said.
I sighed. That hadn’t been too bad, after all.
“Would you like to come in for lemonade? I accidentally made two jars, and it’s too much. My other daughter, River, is on a diet. Heavens, she doesn’t need it. But you know teens. They’ve so insecure!”
Marco grinned up at her, and I hoped that he didn’t think that my family was totally insane (although that would be correct). Mom was always making things awkward, around school, around the mall, and even with my teachers. It was normal, for us. Wasn’t it normal for everyone to have an embarrassing family member?
“Lemonade sounds great!” He exclaimed, walking in.
Marco disappeared from my sightline, and I used the opportunity to dart across my room, grab my metal hairbrush, and detangle my ragged mop of almost short, blonde hair that sat across my shoulder blades. I swabbed on some light lip gloss, but that was all I had time for. I hadn’t been expecting to see anyone, today after school. But I had to at least look presentable to meet him!
“You’re crazy,” Goldenrod cried, “there’s no way that you can meet him looking like that! At least put on some eyeshadow! Come on, where am I living, under a rock with you?”
“Fine,” I grumbled, “where is my eyeshadow, than?”
Suddenly, I realized that my floor was caked in a light layer of creme coloured dust, and that Goldenrods vibrant hair had something white and chalky in it. An empty eye makeup case sat, laying open, next to my bed. I turned to face her, feeling the powder between my fingers, as I heard Marco come through the door.
“What exactly did you do to my eyeshadow!”
“Well, it’s a long story, and it involves George Washington, your sneakers, and some very bad Halloween ideas!”
“ What did you do to my sneakers? I need those to run! I need those to run away from you , actually! You’re not getting away with this!”
She shrugged, and gesticulated towards the downstairs level of my house. I realised that I couldn’t keep Marco waiting forever, or he’d just drink lemonade with my Mom, and they’d end up bonding, and swapping baby stories about me! That would never happen in my lifetime.
“If you stay here to punish me, you’ll miss your boyfriend .”
My face turned red, and I began to feel a headache coming on.
“He isn’t my boyfriend!” I shouted at her, as I walked down to greet him.
“Oh, really? Then why do you want to look pretty just to see his face? His handsome, handsome face!”
“Be quiet,” I growled to her.
And I ran off, to get some fresh lemonade.
Downstairs, I sat at the table in silence, sipping at a glass of lemonade, while Marco finished off his third. He was really dehydrated, wasn’t he? How could anyone want
that much lemonade in one sitting! But that wasn’t really a great conversation topic.
The problem was, I just didn’t know what to say, when it came down to it. It wasn’t that I was shy, it was that I couldn’t stop focusing on the kidnapping! If anything else had dwelled in the recesses of my mind, the bullying, the cafeteria- it had all been pushed to the side.
There was simply nothing to take my mind off of it.
“Hey, did they find the kidnapper, yet?” I blurted out.
For a long moment, he took a drawn out slurp from his frosty lemonade before meeting my hazel brown eyes. I wondered what he had been thinking in that minute.
“I wish they had,” he said, “it’s kind of scary, isn’t it?”
“What’s scary? The kidnapper?”
“Yes...but it’s also scary to consider what would happen if everyone’s fairy was stolen. What would society be without fairies? It would crumble and burn, within a year.” He said.
“The Genies could take over!” Goldenrod cried, from my room, “and they have awful feet!”
I had to admit that there was a point to be found. Even if I didn’t have a good fairy, our society still needed them. Fairies gave people their livlihoods, their talents, and their entire careers! And fairies needed humans, too- to work for them, and to run their companies. If too many humans or fairies disappeared, the whole system would fall into chaos. It used to be that neither of us believed or needed the other- but times had long since changed. Now, we were no longer an island of a species- we had an ally, and we were better together than we were as separate entities.
I looked over at Goldenrod. Well, we
usually were better working together. There was always the exception to every rule- and Goldenrod was that exception.
“Don’t worry,” I reassured him, “this was a one- time thing. Nothing like this happens around here, and it won’t happen again. All the fairies are totally safe!”
He shook his head, and his eyebrows creased together, forming a line on his brow.
“That’s the thing I’m worried about. I think another fairy will be kidnapped, by the same person- or people- that took Hyacinth and Aster.”
“What? Why? Who’d be crazy enough to do that, when they’d get a massive prison sentence? They wouldn’t!”
It was true- if you kidnapped or hurt a fairy in a huge way, you got fifty years in prison. That’s why no one even dared to try it- nothing was worth a punishment like that. There were only a few incidents per year throughout the entire world.
But Marco seemed convinced that the kidnappers would strike again, so I decided to let him speak his mind. It couldn’t hurt, and I didn’t want him to think that I wasn’t open to thinking about new ideas. Maybe he’d prove his point in the process, although I doubted that could happen.
“Here’s my question,” Marco said, “why would they take two, mundane and boring fairies, when just down the street, one person has a Heat Fairy, and lives in a mansion? So, when there’s wealthy people nearby, why try and get the ransom money from the Middle class family, when there are many, easier and better targets to get money from? Why would anyone do that? They wouldn’t! The only reason they’d take a faith would be for their powers. The ransom money is just a front. It isn’t what they’re after.”
I whistled. That was pretty impressive, I had to say.
“So, what does that mean, if they wanted the abilities, not the money?” I asked.
“All it means is that this is the first time they’re doing this. And it’s only a stepping stone to more. This isn’t going to be the only kidnapping there is. The culprits are probably already planning something- and maybe they’ve began to take another fairy already.”
All of a sudden, the Chief started calling for Marco, and telling him to get out of the house, and to start surveying the area around Barbie and Clive’s house. He obliged, washing out his cup, and reluctantly starting towards the door. Then, he looked back, just once.
“See you, Livi.”
I watched him leave, and hoped that he was incorrect.
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