Momma and little Josie and I lived in a small house a few miles outside of town. The house was in the middle of an old forest. The forest had some of the biggest trees you ever saw. They were wonderful trees for playing tree-house and pirate in. Josie and I did a lot of that, because there weren't many other kids around.
Folks in town often shook their heads at Momma. They didn't like her living out in the woods, alone with two children. They told her that she should move into town, now that Dad was gone. I guess people would disapprove of a single woman living alone anywhere, but Kaylon was particularly scandalized that Momma lived alone in The Forest. They always called it that,"The Forest," with capital letters. Little kids and old grandmas liked to scare themselves with ghost stories about The Forest. That was okay, except that deep down the townspeople all believed the stories.
Momma just smiled when the people suggested she move. Then all the disapproving old ladies would go sour around the mouth and start shaking their heads again. They figured Momma was just plain crazy to be raising her children in a haunted forest. As for me, I'd lived in The Forest all my life, and I'd never seen ghosts or pixies or Bigfoot. I figured the townspeople were all just plain crazy to believe in such things.
That is, I thought they were crazy until the day I saw my first fairy. It seems kind of ironic how it happened. I should have seen my first fairy at a clear-as-glass rainbow-smothered pool, or in some star-lit moss-covered glen. Fairies are beautiful creatures; they'd fit in places like that. I saw my first fairy in our yard. I had just set a jug of milk in the truck beside the eggs, butter, wool and embroidery Momma was taking to be sold in town. I turned around and leaned against the truck door, feeling relieved that I hadn't spilled any milk. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I discovered the fairy hovering just inches away from my face. Blinking my eyes and squinting didn't make the fairy go away, though.
It was incredibly small, two inches from head to foot. Its body was almost perfectly human in shape, just in miniature. Four pair of transparent pink wings sprouted from its back. The clothing it had on was made of tree leaves stuck together. They didn't look very comfortable, but the fairy didn't seem to mind. It hovered in front of me for a minute or more, its tiny dark eyes starring at me.
Suddenly it zoomed past me and into the back of truck. I turned around to follow its flight. It paused over the butter. Slowly it descended until finally its feet touched the butter's wax-paper cover. It walked around, making small crinkle sounds as it went. Then it flew again to hover over the milk. As it started descending towards the middle of the milk jar, though, I decided things had gone far enough. Momma would not be pleased to find a drowned fairy at the bottom of her milk. "Hey!" I said loudly, waving my hands at it. "Get out of here!"
The fairy uttered a shrill squeak and zipped out into the open air. It paused several feet above my head in an unsteady hover. I looked at it and wondered what it would do. Suddenly it dive-bombed me! With a yelp I ducked down, covering my head. Something grabbed hold of my hair and began yanking. "Ouch!" I yelled and flapped my hands. Abruptly the fairy let go of my hair and flew off. I sat there in the mud, rubbing my head, until Momma came out to scold me.
I didn't expect that I'd ever see that troublesome little fairy again. By dinner time I'd pretty much convinced myself that it hadn't even been a fairy. The next day, though, the fairy was back. This time it brought a bunch of friends with it. There they were at my window when I woke up, six or seven of them. At first I was pretty scared that the milk fairy was still mad at me. I watched it real close, though, and it just seemed to want to come in.
I looked around my room, and there wasn't much they could mess up. So, I got a blanket over my head to cover my hair, and opened the window. In came the milk fairy with all its friends. They didn't attack me like I half thought they would. They were all just like the milk fairy was before it got mad at me. They flew around everywhere and into everything. One of them got into my bug collection. I got really mad about that, but I didn't do anything because I didn't want to get my hair pulled again. I figured it was part my fault anyway, for letting them in.
I knew that Josie would want to see the fairies, so I tried to sneak out and get her. As soon as I opened my door, though, three fairies flew right out into the hall. I turned around quick and shut the door, but still two more had got through. I knew then that I was in trouble. Momma doesn't even let me bring little river frogs into the house, and here I'd let a whole swarm of fairies in.
I didn't know how to get the fairies out by myself, so there was nothing I could do but get Momma. I could hear her in the kitchen, so I snuck down the hall to the kitchen door, dragging the ends of my blanket behind me. When the fairies were all at the other end of the hall, and I slipped through the door as quick as I could. I still wasn't quick enough, though. One little blue winged fairy came through with me.
Momma was at the table kneading bread dough. "Momma," I said. She looked up at me, and I pointed to the fairy. "They were at my window this morning, and I let them in. I'm sorry." Momma stared at the fairy with big eyes, and her mouth opened and closed a few times. The fairy flew over to Momma and landed on the bread dough. The dough bounced a bit, and the fairy immediately began bouncing it more. Then it bounced too much, and its legs sank down. It waved its arms around and beat its wings until it finally got itself out. It flew up again, dough still sticking to its legs.
Just then there was a crash in the hall. I winced and said, "Sounds like they got into your sewing box, Momma. They're awfully curious." That got Momma going. She jumped up out of her chair and flew to the hall. She left the kitchen door open, so of course a bunch more fairies came in. More fairies than I'd let into my room, in fact. I remembered all of a sudden that I'd forgot to shut my window. I ran out into the hall. I didn't see Momma, but I did see that my door was open, and fairies were coming through it. There must have been twenty fairies in the hall! It was a mess.
Momma came out from my room, wearing one of my blankets over her head. "I've shut the window. Go wake up your sister while I find the butterfly nets." I smiled, feeling relieved. Of course Momma would know what to do.
I went into Josie's room and shook her awake. It was much easier than usual, because she came right alert as soon as I pointed out the fairies that had followed me in. "Put a blanket over your head like this, so the fairies don't get your hair." I demonstrated with my blanket. "Come on now. We're going on a fairy hunt!" Josie looked a bit scared, but I grabbed her hand and we went out into the hall.
Momma gave us each a butterfly net, and we went around catching fairies. I was surprised to see that most the fairies didn't get mad about it when we caught them. They seemed to think it was some interesting new game. I could tell when Momma caught my milk fairy, though, because he buzzed around like an angry hornet. We tried putting the caught fairies outside, but we just ended up letting more in that way. So, we started putting them in the terrarium with my turtle, Herbert. Herbert pulled into his shell pretty quick, and didn't come out the rest the day.
We spent nearly half the day catching fairies. Finally only the really sneaky ones were left, and we eventually gave up trying to catch them. They couldn't do too much mischief if they were just hiding in corners, anyway. It took the rest of the day to clean up the fairies' messes. Momma was pretty cross by the end of it.
All of Herbert's fairies went to sleep promptly at sundown. It seemed likely that the outside fairies were asleep to, so we took the terrarium outside and left it with the lid open. We got rid of all the sneaky inside fairies, too, now that they were asleep.
That night Momma tucked me in, like she used to when I was really little. She turned off the light, and pulled up the covers. Then she kissed my forehead and whispered in my ear, "Don't let any fairies in tomorrow."
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