PART 2
The fairy looked up at her and said in a tiny fairy voice, ‘Help me, I’ve got my foot stuck.’
Sally knelt down to get a little closer and Ronnie did the same. She could see that the fairy had tiny wings that were so thin you could see right through them and on its feet were tiny boots with very tiny laces. It wore a short dress that looked like it was made from the finest silk. The fairy had pointed ears and a rather large nose, although Sally would never say this to the fairy as that would be rude when they’d only just met. Instead she reached down and took hold of the tiny root that the fairy’s foot was stuck beneath and gave it a mighty pull. As she did, the fairy’s foot came free and the fairy fell back and started immediately to rub the foot that had been stuck.
‘Oh that’s better, I’ve been stuck here for almost 3 years.’
‘3 years!’ Sally said in amazement.
‘Well not quite 3 years, 1014 days to be exact. I thought I was going to be here forever. I lost my voice twice trying to make people hear. It was SO frustrating.’ She held one hand to her head to show the two children how frustrating it had been.
‘Well we are happy that we could help you, aren’t we Ronnie?’
Ronnie was staring at the fairy with his mouth hanging open. He didn’t speak but just nodded his head in agreement.
‘Perhaps you could help us?’ said Sally. We don’t seem to be able to find our way home. There are six paths and they all look so alike.’
‘The fairy smiled at the two children. ‘This is your lucky day my friends, you have just rescued a good fairy.’
‘You mean there are bad fairies’ blurted Ronnie who was still amazed that he was kneeling in front of a real live fairy.
‘Oh yes’ said the fairy, ‘they cause all sorts of trouble.’
‘Really?’ said Ronnie who sounding like he didn’t believe it.
‘Have you ever lost your favorite toy?’ The fairy saw them both nod their heads, ‘Bad fairy work!’
The children looked at each other.
‘Ever found black marks on your clothes even though you hadn’t played with anything remotely like the colour black?’
‘Bad fairies?’ said Sally and the fairy nodded her head.
‘What about finding you are wearing odd socks?’
‘Not bad fairies??’
‘You bet!’ said the fairy. ‘They cause all sorts of trouble.’
‘But we’ve never seen one,’ said Ronnie.
‘Of course you haven’t, humans can’t see them, but have you ever felt something tickle your leg, but when you look there is nothing there?’
‘Bad fairies?’ Ronnie said (he was getting the hang of this)
‘Got it in one!’ said the fairy standing up and taking a few practice steps on her stiff foot that had been trapped under the root for the past 1014 days.
Sally looked a little puzzled, ‘Couldn’t you have used magic to get your foot out from the root?’
‘If it were only that easy’ sighed the fairy shaking her head from side to side. ‘I can make it rain but I can’t move a root. How silly is that?’
‘You can make it rain!’
‘Well, perhaps not rain but I could certainly make it spit a little.’ She could see that the children didn’t understand so she explained a little more. ‘We fairies of the wood can do all sorts of magic,’ she waved her hands around to emphasise the point, ‘but we cannot hurt the forest or any of the creatures in it. Yanking on a root is counted as hurting the tree, so I couldn’t do it.’
As the children watched the fairy started to flap its wings and slowly rose off the ground but very quickly dropped back down. ‘I’m a bit out of practice’ said the fairy who looked a little embarrassed.
‘What other magic can you do’ said Ronnie who had quite forgotten that he was talking to a fairy because he desperately wanted to know all about magic.
The fairy flapped its wings again and gentle rose above the ground as she spoke, ‘Oh let me see’ and as she spoke she waved her hand at Ronnie and suddenly his trousers were on back to front!
‘That’s amazing! said Sally, ‘Show us something else.
The fairy was now floating above the ground so the two children stood up as the fairy rose to be level with their faces. She turned to face Sally and waved her hand again.
Ronnie looked his sister up and down but couldn’t see any of her clothes on back to front. ‘It hasn’t worked.’ he said looking at the fairy in an understanding way as he had a lot of experience of magic never working.
The fairy spoke to Sally, ‘How do you feel?’
Sally felt completely normal and said to the fairy, ‘Je me sens tres bien.’ (I feel very well)
‘Oh my God, you’re speaking a foreign language’ said Ronnie who was VERY impressed in deed (with the fairy’s magic not Sally’s language skills)
‘It’s french’ said the fairy, ‘would you like me to change it?’
‘Je prefere ma propre langue, si ce n’est grave’ (I prefer my own language if that’s okay) said Sally feeling quite strange speaking in a language that she didn’t understand. The fairy waved her hand again. ‘Am I back to English?’ said Sally and realised that she was, as soon as she heard herself.
‘Well’ said the fairy, ‘I need to get back to fairy work. I have a lot to catch up on and my family will be wondering where I have got too.’
As the two children watched her she kept moving very quickly between them much like a dragonfly darts about.
‘As a good fairy, I can grant you both a wish, if you are interested.’
‘A wish?’
‘Yes, anything you like I can make happen but be careful, you can only have one wish so you must choose carefully.’
Ronnie didn’t have to think very long before shouting out, ‘I want superpowers!’ When Sally heard this she shook her head, trust her brother to want something ridiculous.
‘What are superpowers? said the fairy looking slightly confused.
‘You know, able to lift heavy things like buses and cars, able to fly...’ he thought a bit more, ‘able to see through things...err super hearing obviously...’
The fairy waited patiently as Ronnie continued to list all the superpowers that he could remember from the comics that he’d read and the movies that he’d seen. When he ran out of ideas the fairy spoke. ‘I think your list is much more than just one wish so I’ll grant you only one. I’ll give you great strength.’ The fairy waved her hands and then turned to Sally. ‘What would you wish for?’
Sally had been thinking very hard and just as she began to think that she couldn’t decide, she thought of something she’d often dreamed of. ‘I would like to be able to talk to animals.’
The fairy waved her hands and then spoke to both of them. ‘I have given you something quite special but there are a couple of rules that you must understand before I leave.’
‘I knew there would be rules’ moaned Ronnie as he looked around for something heavy to pick up.
The fairy ignored him and said, ‘There are only two rules, firstly you can only use these powers to do good things and secondly, you must not show or tell anyone that you have these powers. Do you understand?’
Both together they said, ‘Yes, we understand.’
‘I hope you do, because if you break either of these rules your powers will disappear instantly, never to return.’
Sally and her brother looked at each other and then at the fairy that continued to hover in front of them.
‘Thank you again for setting me free from the tree root. Don’t worry about getting home, follow your heart and you won’t get lost.’
‘Can we come and see you again? said Sally.
The fairy hesitated for a moment, ‘Well, it is unusual to meet with humans but I’ll tell you what, if you ever get into big trouble and you need my help, all you need to do is to come back to this circle and call my name.’
‘What is your name?’
‘It is a name that you mus
t keep secret, you must never tell another person otherwise I won’t answer the call.’ The fairy came close to Sally’s ear and whispered her name before zipping to Ronnie’s ear and doing the same. ‘Now I must be gone.’ Suddenly the fairy disappeared and Sally and Ronnie were left alone in the grass circle.
Sally looked around and the circle appeared just the same as when they had arrived. Had it really happened? Had they really just been talking to a fairy? As these thoughts entered her head she realised that they had been gone for ages and their parents would be very worried. She turned to Ronnie.
‘We need to get going, Mummy and Daddy will be looking for us. They’ll be worried sick we’ve been away so long.’
Ronnie ignored his sister and raced over to the BIGGEST rock in the circle. Sally watched him as he put his arms around one side of it (it was far to big to put his arms all the way around) and lifted it off the ground!!
‘It’s REAL, I have super strength!!’ and he danced around the circle holding the huge rock above his head with only one hand. ‘I can’t wait to show the kids at school!’
‘Ronnie’ Sally shouted to him, ‘put the rock back where it was.’
‘Don’t be such a sissy’ he said but he did as Sally asked.
She smiled at him and put her arm around him. ‘Now remember what the fairy said, you cannot tell anyone otherwise you won’t be strong any more AND you can only use your strength to do good things.’
‘I will, Superheros always do only good things.’
‘Ronnie, you are not a Superhero and you need to be very careful. What if you had dropped that rock and hurt a tree. That would not have been a good thing would it?’
Ronnie considered what she had said and realised that he could have so easily hurt a tree and his great strength would have vanished in a flash! ‘I see what you mean, but what good is it having all this strength if you can’t show anyone?’
‘You’ll just have to figure that out won’t you? Now, lets get going before it gets dark.’
She lifted her backpack with the mushrooms onto her back and then took his hand. She remembered what the fairy had said about the way back. ‘Follow your heart’ the fairy had said so Sally looked at the six paths and then walked towards the one she felt sure was the right one. ‘This way’ she said and Ronnie, holding her hand very carefully (he didn’t want to crush her hand with his super strength) went with her down the dark path.
It wasn’t long before they found the place where they’d come through the bushes onto the track. Sally went first and Ronnie followed her. When she found their fence and the missing boards she squeezed through and waited for Ronnie.
They stood behind the shed and Sally helped Ronnie remove all the leaves and stuff from his hair and clothes before taking a deep breath. ‘Let me do the talking okay?’ Ronnie nodded in agreement, ‘And remember, we can’t tell anyone what has happened.’
They entered the garden together and found Mummy still weeding the garden. Sally led Ronnie up to her mother and said, ‘Mummy, we’re really sorry we were gone for so long. We just forgot the time.’
Their mother looked up, ‘What do you mean darling, you haven’t been gone for long.’
Sally was relieved her Mummy wasn’t cross, ‘We thought you’d be worried.’
Her Mummy smiled at the both of them, ‘Darlings, why would I be worried? I watched you step behind the garden shed and I was about to come and see what you were doing when you stepped back into the garden. You were gone for less than a moment!’
Sally was a little puzzled, maybe her mother had been in the sun for too long she was going a bit crazy. She remembered the mushrooms. Lifting her Barbie backpack from her shoulders she said, ‘We’ve bought you a surprise Mummy,’ and she opened the bag and tipped it towards her mother. Both Sally and Ronnie looked very pleased with themselves as their Mummy leaned over and looked into the bag.
‘Oh that’s nice of you dear, I just fancied an apple,’ and as she spoke she reached into the bag and took the apple and began to polish it on her shirt.
Both Sally and Ronnie’s jaw dropped in surprise as they looked into the now EMPTY bag! Not a single mushroom in sight!
They looked at each other in astonishment as a voice said, ‘Have you got anything for me?’
Sally looked to where the voice was coming from and saw Rufus looking at her with a little grin on his face. ‘No I’m sorry we don’t,’ she said.
‘Oh bother’ said Rufus and wandered closer and began to rub himself against her leg. ‘Doesn’t he know he’s wearing his trousers back to front?’ said the cat looking at Ronnie’s pants.
Sally quickly realised that only she could understand what the cat was saying as her Mummy returned to weeding the garden.