Annie shrugged and leaned back against the tree behind her. They lapsed into silence, which was shattered suddenly by a loud, gasping cry: “Aah aah aah!”
Fidget leaped into the air with his claws extended and his mouth gaping wide. Jazzberry fluttered off Annie’s knee, and both girls scrambled to their feet.
Otto staggered out from behind a tree, his eyes bugged out, pointing at Fidget.
“Aah aah,” he cried again. His arm wavered, his knees buckled, and he ended up kneeling on the ground, still pointing at the dragon. “Dinosaur!” Otto said.
“I am not a dinosaur,” Fidget said.
“Talking dinosaur!” Otto screamed.
“I’m not a dinosaur. But my mother knew a dinosaur once.”
“Oh, Fidget,” Jazzberry said, “she did not.”
“Fairy!” Otto yelled.
“She did so. His name was Ulfenharber, and he was a dromaeosaur.”
“Velociraptor?” Otto said, suddenly intrigued.
“No, Deinonychus antirrhopus.”
“Fidget,” Jazzberry said, “there haven’t been any dinosaurs on this planet for millions of years, and we’ve only been here for a few thousand.”
“I didn’t say it was on this planet,” he retorted smugly.
“Otto,” Annie said, “what are you doing here?”
“Dragons and fairies,” Otto replied, as if this explained it.
“Yes, I know. What are you doing here?”
“I... I thought maybe you and June had a secret club. You come here every day after school. So I...” His voice ran out and he just stared at Fidget, who was hanging upside down from a tree branch by his tail, scratching his back by raising and lowering his body against the trunk.
“You wanted to join?” June prompted.
“Yes.”
“Well, you were right,” Annie told him. “There is a secret club, and these are our secrets. This is Jazzberry,” she pointed to the fairy, who performed a mid-air curtsy, “and Fidget.”
“Why do they call you Fidget?” Otto said.
“I don’t know,” the dragon said as he rubbed his snout with a hind foot.
“Otto,” June said, “you have to promise not to tell anyone.”
“Okay.”
“No, I mean you have to swear it.”
“I swear.”
Annie stepped right in front of Otto. She was a foot taller than he was, and he seemed to shrink even more under her furious glare. “If you tell anyone about Jazzberry and Fidget,” she said, “not only will I knock your head off, but they will probably die. Do you understand?”
Otto shook his head no, then nodded it yes.
“Don’t tell anyone about this, don’t bring anyone here, don’t even talk in your sleep. Okay?”
“Okay,” Otto whispered. He looked around Annie at Fidget. “Can I touch your skin?” he quavered.
* * *
Max didn’t finish his research that day, or the next day either. When they asked him what was taking so long, he just smiled, shrugged, and patted Annie on the head. She hated being patted on the head.
On Saturday, and every day after school the next week, Annie, June, and Otto would ride their bikes out of town, up the gravel road, and walk up the hill until Fidget jumped out at them. After a few days, Otto stopped squealing when Fidget did this, and started laughing. Fidget looked disappointed: he liked people to think he was fierce, even though he was smaller than some house cats.
One day Otto wasn’t waiting for them outside his house, and though Annie and June waited for him by the trail, he never came. He missed the next day, too, and the next.
Annie found it impossible to care about her schoolwork. She was getting better at sketching Jazzberry and Fidget, and she spent the time when she should have been studying and doing homework drawing pictures and daydreaming about living with fairies.
Jazzberry wouldn’t talk about how they lived. Did they have fairy rings, did they ride on the backs of birds, did they steal human children, and would they please steal Annie? “We’re not supposed to talk about that,” was all the fairy would say.
Finally one evening, June called Annie during dinner and said that Max was ready to tell them what he’d learned. Annie asked her parents if she could go over to June’s to study after they ate, and they said yes.
“I don’t know if it’s much of a story,” Max said when Annie and June had settled themselves on the floor of his room. “I can’t find anything shady or illegal. But it’s sad that they’re going to bulldoze that hill just to build houses.”
“When will they start?” Annie said.
“They’re waiting on the civil engineering,” Max said. The two girls stared at him blankly. “The developers have agreed to make improvements to the roads and sewer systems and to install underground utilities,” he explained. “The engineers are finalizing the plans for those projects. When that’s done, they’ll know the total cost of the project and then they can proceed.”
“When?” Annie said.
“About three weeks.”
Annie had been hoping that Jazzberry and Fidget had been wrong about the start date, and they would have more time. She fought down a feeling of panic. Surely Max could tell them something they could use.
“Who’s doing it?” June said.
“The Enchanted Woods Development Group is three partners. One is named Dennis Rust. Is he a relative of yours, Annie?”
“He’s my uncle.”
“Huh. Well, he’s kind of out of his league.”
“What do you mean?”
“The other two are heavy hitters. There’s a real estate developer, Mannie Yanny. He’s a big shot rich guy who’s built things all over town. Not a very nice person, I’ve heard. The third partner is the president of the bank that’s going to make the construction loan, Jonas Miller. I’d call that a conflict of interest, but it’s not illegal. And he’s no sweetheart, either.”
He told them a lot of other details, but most of it made no sense to Annie, and the rest was useless. They thanked Max and he said no problem and turned his stereo up. They went to June’s room.
“Three more weeks,” Annie said glumly.
“I wrote down the names,” June said. “Mannie Yanny and Jonas Miller. What do you think?”
“Do you know those people?”
“No.”
“Max said Mannie is mean, and the other one owns the bank and is even meaner.”
“He’s president of the bank. It’s not the same thing.”
“He still won’t talk to us. And they won’t listen if we just ask them not to cut down the woods.”
“Maybe we can tell them why,” June said.
“Oh, right. Dear Mr. Rich Bad Man, please don’t kill our friends the fairies. Signed, Annie and June.”
They sat on June’s bed and looked at each other for a long time without saying anything.
“I have to go home,” Annie said at last.
“See you in school tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
Annie lay in her bed that night, staring at the ceiling. It wasn’t fair. How could Jazzberry and Fidget expect her to do this? If it were just Uncle Dennis, maybe she could convince him. But he had rich and powerful partners, and there was nothing she could do to even get their attention, let alone get them to stop construction. For all she knew, if they found out about the dragons and fairies, they might start even sooner, just to be nasty.
She spent half the night awake, restless and tossing under her covers, wishing that Jazzberry would fly through the window and tell her that everything was okay—or that the fairy had never flown through her window in the first place.
Chapter 5: Schoolyard
The nightmare continued the next morning when Mrs. Longsnout gave them a surprise history and geography quiz. Annie spent the entire half hour going over the list of questions again and again, trying to find even one she knew the answer to. In the end she handed in a sheet that was blank except for he
r name.
June turned around and raised her eyebrows, asking how she’d done. Annie sunk her head onto her arms and wished she could melt away like a snowman in the spring sunshine. Not even correctly answering a hard question in math later in the day made her feel better.
“What do I care about Africa and Asia and Antparkata?” she complained to Jazzberry that afternoon.
“Why wouldn’t you be curious about your world?” Fidget said. “Don’t you want to know everything about the place where you were born?”
“I wasn’t born in Egypt,” Annie said. “I was born here, in Leftover.”
“But it’s all the same place,” Fidget persisted. “The Nile isn’t that far away. Look.”
He clapped his hands and a large globe of the Earth hung between them in the warm daylight. It was like no globe Annie had ever seen. About a quarter of the planet was covered with brilliant white clouds, and there were no labels or colors on the continents. The oceans were deep blue, the land brown or green with small patches of gray here and there.
The globe rotated so the familiar shape of North America hung before them. A brilliant point of light appeared almost halfway from top to bottom, about a third of the way in from the right, and it started blinking on and off.
“Here’s where we are,” the dragon said.
Annie reached out to touch the globe, but her hand passed through it without feeling anything. Where her fingers reached inside the planet, they were invisible.
“Now look,” Fidget said, and he twirled a finger. The globe rotated slowly to the left and a red line arced out from the blinking point and traveled across the Atlantic Ocean as the world turned. Just before Leftover vanished around the left edge of the globe, the line stopped and another light began blinking in the upper corner of Africa, near the right edge.
“Leftover and Cairo are separated by about a third of the circumference of the Earth,” Fidget said. “An astronaut on the Moon could see you both at the same time. They’re your neighbors.”
“But I’ve never met them.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Jazzberry said. “You breathe the same air, drink the same water, and you share the same ancestors. They may be strangers, but they’re not just neighbors. They’re your family.”
Fidget let the globe turn again. When the spark that was Leftover came into view once more, he waved a hand and the Earth vanished.
“How did you do that?” June said.
“That’s my secret,” Fidget said slyly.
“Was it magic?” Annie said.
“Annie,” Jazzberry scolded, “I told you we don’t do magic.”
“Right,” Fidget said. “It was coherent projection using an imbedded neuron-triggered graviton-powered coercer and ambient photons resulting in a virtual hologram.”
“It was magic,” June said firmly.
“Also a hundred years of practice,” Fidget said.
“Would you like to see Egypt?” Jazzberry said.
“We just did.”
“No, I don’t mean a projection. Would you like to see it?”
“Maybe someday,” Annie said doubtfully. Her parents didn’t even let her take the city bus alone. Would they let her go to Africa?
“Why not today?” Fidget said.
Annie stared at the dragon. What did he mean, get on a plane and go? What would she tell her parents?
“How?” she said.
Fidget leaped into the air and hovered, his wings flapping slowly and loudly. “I can fly,” he said.
“You can’t carry me,” Annie said.
Fidget swooped down and grabbed Annie from behind with all four paws. His claws were extended just a tiny bit, enough to get a grip, but not enough to hurt her. Annie squealed in surprise as they fell up into the sky. When they were hovering just above the treetops, Fidget swiveled slowly, showing her the town, the fields, and the hills and rivers surrounding her home. She had never been in a plane before, so she had never seen how beautiful Leftover was from the air. They settled slowly to the ground.
“I told you I was strong,” the dragon said proudly.
“Do you want to go see Egypt?” Jazzberry asked Annie. She could only nod happily, her eyes wide with delight. The fairy turned to June. “I’m going to help, but Fidget will be doing most of the work. He’s strong, but he won’t be able to take all four of us. So your turn is going to have to wait for another day.”
“I understand,” June said sadly. She was disappointed but trying to be generous. “Annie needs it more than I do. She’s the one flunking out of school.”
Annie stuck her tongue out at her friend.
“Think about where you want to go when it’s your turn,” Fidget said. “Wherever you’ve most wanted to go in your life.”
“I will.” June took one step back. “When will you be back?”
“In about two hours,” Jazzberry said. “Ready, Annie?”
“I’m ready.”
“Let’s go, Fidget.”
Jazzberry flew up and sat on Fidget’s head, between his tall ears. Fidget hopped up, grabbed Annie from behind like before, and they shot up into the air.
June watched them flash into the afternoon light above the trees and then vanish into the blue sky. She started down the hill toward her bike.
* * *
They flew through the air with the sun at their backs. The ground whipped by a long way below, but Annie felt nothing but a gentle breeze on her face. She thought she should be cold, but she was very comfortable.
“How are you doing this?” she said.
“If we stood still,” Fidget said in his lecturing voice, “and let the Earth turn beneath us, it would take eight hours to get there. Not very efficient. So I’ve put us in a very low, powered orbit. We should be there in half an hour or so.”
“I mean, why can’t I feel the wind?”
“Well, I made an inertial shield bubble, of course. It helps reduce friction, too.”
“A what?”
“A windshield,” Jazzberry said. “Fidget, stop showing off.”
The sun had vanished below the horizon behind them and the sky was getting dark above. Annie was going to ask why night was falling so rapidly, but then she remembered something from school: night and day are caused by the Earth turning beneath the sun. So if they flew toward the setting sun—west—the day would last longer and if they flew away from it—east—the day would be shorter. But eventually they would fly toward the rising sun, so the night would be shorter, too.
“Will it be night when we get to Africa?” she said.
“Yes,” Jazzberry answered.
“How will I see anything?”
“We’ll help you.”
They swept through thick clouds and suddenly they were over the ocean. A sliver of moon rose before them, but it was enough to show the waves squishing around far below. Annie craned back to see the receding land and noticed that Fidget’s wings were barely moving.
“You’re not flapping your wings!” she said. He wasn’t flying, it was some kind of trick.
“I can’t fly like a bird fast enough to get us there in a reasonable period of time,” the dragon said. “So I’m flying us there like an airplane. Well, more like a rocket ship, really.”
“Where’s the rocket?” she said suspiciously.
“I said like a rocket ship. We’re actually falling toward an artificial attractor that I’m shifting with my coercer.”
“You’re bragging again,” Jazzberry said.
“Sorry. Okay, Annie, do you know why you fall back to the ground when you jump up?”
“Gravity?”
“Right. And what is gravity?”
“Um...” He gave her a minute but she couldn’t come up with anything. She just knew the name.
“It’s a force that draws matter together. Matter is very friendly stuff. It wants to stick together, something like magnets but not as strong. So I made a heavy thing that’s flying just ahead of us, and we’re falling in
to it. I keep pushing it away, and it drags us after it. Understand?”
“No.”
“Okay,” Fidget said. “Pretend it’s magic.”
“Fidget!” Jazzberry scolded.
“Sorry.”
They flew on and suddenly there was land underneath them again. The waves of water far beneath them were now replaced by waves of sand. The sculpted dunes of the Sahara spread out in the moonlight like the fingerprints of a god. Far to the left Annie could just make out the edge of a sea. The sand went on and on, until suddenly below them a silvery ribbon wiggled through the desert. They stopped and hung above it.
“Let’s go up a bit,” Jazzberry said. They rose swiftly until the ribbon was a thread.
It was hard to see much in the dim light from the moon. Annie peered in one direction, then another, but all she saw was endless desert with a thin line of quicksilver running through it.
Then her eyes must have got used to the darkness, or Fidget did something, because she could see as well as in day. Far away, straight ahead, was a large body of water, and the sea that had been just visible to the north was now easily seen. Below, for miles and miles, was nothing but sand.
Jazzberry and Fidget began to tell her what she was looking at: the sea to the north was the Mediterranean, the one to the east was the Red Sea, the river below them was the Nile. Fidget flew them north along the river. Jazzberry pointed out a sort of trench that ran northeast until it reached the sea: that was the East Africa Rift Valley, a four thousand mile long tear in the earth that continued through the Dead Sea and the Jordan River.
“The eastern edge of Africa is pulling away from the rest of the continent,” she said. “Someday that will be a sea like the Mediterranean.”
“Did you know that the Mediterranean Sea used to be dry land?” Fidget said. Annie shook her head. “Long ago, you could walk from Libya to Sicily to Italy. There was a natural dam at Gibraltar that broke open and flooded the whole thing.”
“The Earth is like a living thing,” Jazzberry said. “It changes all the time. Some people think that things have always been the way they are, but the truth is that nothing stays the same for very long. Not even the seas.”
They spent an hour swooping over Cairo, buzzing the pyramids, following the Nile River upstream past a huge dam. By the time Fidget said they should start back, Annie was exhausted and exhilarated.
The flight back was quiet and uneventful. She was already used to flying in the clutches of a dragon. Fidget set her down gently in the dusky woods. She said goodbye and ran down the trail to her bike. When she walked inside her house, everything seemed brighter and clearer than usual.