They were always like that. Annie found it amusing, and just a little confusing, how much her parents liked to argue. They never, ever shouted, but sometimes her mother seemed to think her father was, well, a flake; and sometimes her father seemed to think her mother was, as he said, a worrywarthog.
After several minutes of back and forth, they hadn’t reached a decision on whether to allow Annie to go back to the Haunted Woods. Her mother stopped arguing and simply asked Annie to promise not to go back.
Annie had no choice. She lied.
* * *
“What’s going on?” June said when they got off the bus.
“Wait,” Annie said. “Are you coming, Otto?”
Otto watched his own feet as he shuffled them. Then he stopped and looked up at the girls.
“My mom said not to go,” he said. “But I have to.”
“Okay,” Annie said. “Let’s meet at the end of the street.”
They were all together on their bikes ten minutes later, heading up toward the hill. Annie led the way into the woods. There were no strange noises, no sign at all of Jazzberry and Fidget. They walked past their usual meeting place to their favorite meadow without seeing any winged things other than birds and insects.
“Where are they?” June said.
“I guess they got in trouble,” Annie said.
“What are you talking about?”
Annie told them everything. The fairies and dragons were not magic, they were aliens who had been around for ages. Their spaceship was under the ground beneath them, guarded by a giant dragon. Dragons had two kinds of boys but only one kind of girl. And if Uncle Dennis’s partners insisted on digging up the hill, everyone in America could die.
Otto and June sat quietly for a minute. The first thing Otto could think of to say was, “If this hill is their spaceship, it must be huge! Like a mother ship!”
Annie and June frowned at him and he ducked his head sheepishly.
“What can we do?” June said.
“Uncle Dennis is going to try to talk his partners out of building the houses,” Annie said. “But if he can’t, we have to find some other way of saving the fairies.”
“And us, too,” Otto said.
“Yes, us too.”
“Maybe if we told them it was dangerous, they’d stop,” June said.
“If that would work, no one would smoke cigarettes,” Annie said.
“Oh, yeah.”
“We should show them the dragons,” Otto said. “The dragons are cool. Then they’d stop.”
“No, then they’d try to catch all the dragons for pets or zoos or something.”
Otto nodded and scowled at the idea of someone putting Fidget in a zoo.
“Uncle Dennis said they’re going to make a lot of money. We have to convince them that they won’t.”
“How are we going to do that?” June said.
“I don’t know,” Annie said. “Let’s think about it.”
They thought and talked and lay in the meadow grass looking up at the sky until the sun started getting low. But they didn’t think of anything—not even how to explain to their parents where they’d been all afternoon.
* * *
Mrs. Longsnout asked Annie to stay behind at the recess. When the other kids had left the classroom, her teacher sat on her desk and pointed to a chair in the front row. Annie obeyed silently, wondering what she’d done wrong.
“Annie, I’ve graded the quiz you took the other day.” She reached behind her and picked up a sheet of paper.
“You’re not going to flunk me, are you Mrs. Longsnout?” Annie said.
“That depends on how you do on your final test next week. If you do as well as you did on this quiz, you’ll be fine.”
That was the first time anyone had praised her schoolwork except in English or math. Annie was confused.
“I passed the quiz?”
“You got a perfect score. Let me ask you a question, Annie. What’s the capital of Illinois?”
“Springfield.”
“What year did Illinois enter the Union?”
“1818.”
“What states are its neighbors?”
“Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, Indiana, and Michigan, across Lake Michigan.”
Mrs. Longsnout thought for a second. “You listed them in counter-clockwise order.”
“Should I have done it alphabetically?”
Her teacher shook her head. “Let’s try something else. What’s the capital of Romania?”
“Bucharest.”
“What body of water lies on Romania’s eastern border?”
“The Black Sea.”
“What’s the latitude of Bucharest?”
Annie closed her eyes briefly. “It’s about halfway between forty-four and forty-five.”
“Have you been having any headaches lately, dear?”
“Huh?”
“Spots in front of your eyes, ringing in your ears, anything like that?” Annie just stared at her. “Okay, dear, run along outside.”
Annie did run. What was that all about?
June was waiting just outside the door. “What did she want?”
“She wanted to know the capital of Romania.”
“Where’s Romania?” June said.
* * *
Annie walked into the woods alone that afternoon. June had a piano lesson. Otto’s mother had somehow found out where he’d been yesterday, and he was grounded for a month. Annie just hoped her parents wouldn’t hear about it, or she might be grounded, too.
Once again no one met her at the usual spot. She walked past it, through several meadows and into the dark, trackless part of the Haunted Woods, where she’d only been with Uncle Dennis, following the fairy council. She walked until she was completely lost, then she sat down under a thick hickory tree and waited.
It took a long time, but she was stubborn. She wasn’t going home again until her friends came out and told her what was going on.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, Jazzberry and Fidget appeared. It was the first time she’d ever seen them flying side by side. Usually Fidget fell out of the sky like a fruit pit dropped by a monkey.
They landed on the ground beside her and made themselves comfortable—or Jazzberry did. Fidget immediately started trying to scratch an itch in the middle of his back, using an arm, a wing, a tree, until he finally reached it with his tail.
“Did you get in a lot of trouble?” Annie said.
“We’ll survive,” Jazzberry said.
“They didn’t quite take our skins off,” Fidget said.
“Your parents spanked you?”
“I was being metaphorical,” the dragon said. “What they do is worse than spanking.”
“What? What do they do?”
“Guilt and homework,” Jazzberry said.
“Lots of homework,” Fidget added. “And we had to sit still for long speeches—really still, and really long speeches—about our shortcomings.”
“That must have been the worst part for you,” Annie said. “Sitting still.”
“Impossible. Excruciating. Cruel and unusual punishment.”
“It’s not that unusual,” Jazzberry said. “Remember when we tried to teach that piglet how to fly?”
“Ouch. I forgot about that one.”
“What did you do to me?” Annie said.
Jazzberry and Fidget looked at each other silently. Annie waited.
“We felt responsible,” Jazzberry said at last, “because you were ignoring your schoolwork to help us. I was afraid you’d have to do third grade again. So I asked my mother to give you what you need to know.”
“Your mother?”
“Willowleaf, my mother. She taught you everything you’ll need for the next two years of school.”
“Willowleaf is your mother?” That was the blue-haired fairy from the other night. “She was nice to me.”
“She is nice,” Fidget said. “But she can be a really tough old— Oo
f.” Jazzberry had punched him just below the wing. “Sorry.”
“What did she do to me?”
“She induced new long-term memory patterns in your cortical hologram,” Fidget said.
“What?”
“A long time ago,” the fairy said, “we figured out how human brains record memories. It was part of our initial survey of this world. Now we can rearrange the patterns in your... in your memory so you can know new things without having to work to learn them.”
Annie thought about this. She imagined the north coast of Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt. She could see the shapes of the countries and how they fit together. She knew their capitals, how many people lived there, what religions they practiced, what the land was like. She was a geography expert.
“Are you sure she only gave me two years?” she said. “I think she goofed and gave me two hundred. It feels like I know everything about everyplace in the world.”
“Oops,” Fidget said.
They sat quietly for a while.
“What are we going to do about our problem?” Annie said.
“I think we need to see what Dennis comes up with,” Jazzberry said.
“Uncle Dennis,” Annie said. She leaned her head back against the tree and closed her eyes. She had a sudden and powerful urge to cry.
* * *
“I don’t think I can stop them,” Uncle Dennis said on the phone. When he called just after dinner and asked to speak to Annie, her mother had handed her the phone with a strange expression on her face.
“What happened?” Annie said.
“I talked to both of my partners today. I told them I’ve decided it would be better to try to preserve the woods.”
“You didn’t tell them about...” Annie was aware of her mother hovering in the living room, probably listening. “About you know who, did you?”
“No, of course not. Mannie laughed, but he was pretty nice about it. He was willing to sell out for seventy-five percent of his share of the expected profit.”
“How much is that?” Annie said, trying to remember how much she had in her Miss Piggy bank.
“About five million dollars.”
Annie felt her dinner turn over in her stomach. “What about the other man?”
“Jonas didn’t laugh. He refused to even consider it. Then he threatened to sue me if I tried to obstruct the project. Then he had the security guards escort me out of the bank.”
“So there’s no chance?”
“I didn’t say that, Annie. I’ll keep trying. There are other things I can do, I think. And there’s always eco-terrorism.”
She had no idea what that meant, but not understanding him was normal. “Okay. Thanks, Uncle Dennis.”
She went into the living room and sat on the couch. Her father was reading a book, but her mother was standing looking out the window. She turned to Annie.
“What did your uncle want?”
“Probably wants to go hiking again,” her father said without looking up.
Annie didn’t want to say anything, but her mother was waiting for an answer and obviously wouldn’t just let it go. She thought back, trying to remember exactly what she’d said on the phone.
“Uncle Dennis lost his electronic calendar thingie when we were up in the woods. It must have fallen out of his pocket. He thought maybe he’d left it somewhere before we went hiking, but no one can find it. He’s going to have to buy another one.”
Her mother was giving her that look again. “He called you to tell you he’s going to have to buy another calendar?”
“I helped him look for it in the bushes, so I guess he thought I was worried. He was just letting me know what happened.”
“Uh huh.” She didn’t look convinced. “Well, are you going to do your homework now?”
“No homework tonight.”
That made her father look up from his book. “Mrs. Longsnout didn’t give you any homework? Is she sick?”
She always gave them homework. “I meant that I did it already.”
He squinted at her, nodded, and went back to his book. Her mother watched her for several minutes as Annie looked through the TV Guide.
“Can I watch a program about penguins?” Annie asked her mother. She nodded and finally turned away, looking back out the window. Annie was worried, because her mother looked worried.
The next day, Annie and June went up to the Haunted Woods after school. This time Jazzberry and Fidget met them at their usual place. They still acted subdued, but at least they weren’t invisible any more.
“Uncle Dennis may not be able to help us.”
“Then why did you bother bringing him up here?” Fidget said crossly. “I have a year’s worth of reports to write because of him.”
“I didn’t know his partners would be so mean,” Annie said. “The bank man threw him out of the bank.”
“Then we’re finished,” Jazzberry said gloomily, settling to the ground. June sat down next to her, looking ready to cry.
“Not yet,” Annie said. “I can’t convince them, and maybe Uncle Dennis can’t either, but maybe you can.”
“We’re not going to reveal ourselves to any more humans, especially adult humans,” Jazzberry said. “We can’t do it. We promised.”
“You won’t have to. But you do need to reveal something.”
Jazzberry fluttered off the ground. “Annie,” she said sternly. “What are you thinking?”
“I want to see your spaceship,” Annie said.
Chapter 9: The Ship
It was another long slog through the woods. Annie almost asked why they didn’t build trails before she realized the obvious: they could fly, and they didn’t want humans back here.
They’d had to wait until Saturday. Jazzberry said it was impossible to get to the ship, see anything, and get back before dinnertime, and anyway she had to ask the council for permission. They told Annie to bring Uncle Dennis, so she called him from a pay phone at school the next day. Annie, June, and Dennis met at the foot of the hill and walked into the Haunted Woods together.
The day was warm and sunny, but little light filtered down through the high trees. Annie was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, but June’s sleeveless blouse didn’t protect her; her arms were already webbed with scratches.
Jazzberry stopped at the foot of a massive oak, the biggest tree Annie had ever seen. Even its rough, grayish bark looked ancient. She gave them a few minutes to catch their breath.
“This is the entrance,” the fairy said. “Once we’re inside, don’t touch anything. Don’t sing, don’t touch the walls, and keep close to us.”
“Why?” Annie said.
“Because if the guardian thinks you’re endangering the ship,” Fidget said, “or trying to steal something, he’ll eat you.”
“Eat me?”
“That would be very difficult to explain to your parents,” Jazzberry said. “And we’d miss you. So be good, okay? June? Dennis?”
Everyone agreed to follow the rules. Without warning, part of the ground near the base of the tree sank down, revealing a steeply sloping tunnel that was tall enough for even Dennis to stand in. Jazzberry flew down and Fidget ushered the humans into the hole. They had gone only a few steps when the opening behind them closed again, leaving them in total darkness that lasted for just a second before a strong, steady light sprang up. It was Jazzberry glowing, her skin putting out enough light, even through her gown, to read by.
The floor was dirt that was occasionally loose, so those without wings had to steady each other. The constant slipping was exhausting, but each time one of them started to fall, the others managed to catch her. They came at last to a level section and Annie was amazed that no one had sprained an ankle, or worse.
The tunnel ran smooth and flat for a short while and ended in a rock wall. Jazzberry waited for everyone to group together before she spoke. In a high, clear voice she sang something that didn’t sound like words, just pure music. The rock before them fell back someh
ow, and they followed the fairy into a smooth, well-lit, coral-colored corridor that smelled like lavender.
* * *
The hallway was a tube, perfectly round and smooth, about ten feet in diameter, with no visible seams or openings. It was difficult to walk on the curved, rubbery surface. Obviously it was not designed for walking on, but flying through.
As they went farther in, the color shifted subtly, until the original coral had turned to a pink that deepened slowly toward red. They had gone what felt like a mile, past a long section where the corridor curved continuously to the right, when the tube stopped.
Jazzberry sang again, causing a doorway to iris open. They walked and flew into an enormous bubble, bigger even than the stadium in St. Louis where Annie’s father had taken her to a baseball game. The roof stretched far above them, its bluish tinge making it impossible to tell how high. The entire gigantic space was filled with a jungle, so the far side was invisible.
The plants looked normal at first, but after a moment Annie realized that the colors were all wrong. They seemed to come in two types. Some of the leaves were shades of bluish-green, but just as many were dark plum. There were plants that looked a little like palm trees, maple trees, blueberry shrubs, and tall grasses. Some had flowers of white, blue, yellow, red, green, or rusty brown. Many of the plants were very short, many more were no taller than Annie, but a few trees brushed the ceiling high overhead.
“This is our conservatory,” Jazzberry said.
“A botanical garden?” Dennis asked.
“Yes. Plants from our home worlds. There are separate, smaller gardens with plants from other worlds we’ve visited. We have four rooms of Earth plants, a desert, a tropical rain forest, a temperate forest and prairie, and a tundra.”
“Are they all as big as this?”
Jazzberry laughed. “No, they’re quite small, only a few acres each. But we have over four hundred small gardens, so we can’t give them a lot of room.”
“How big is this garden?” June said.
“About four square miles.”
“And how big is the ship?” Dennis said.
“What do mean, its volume? It’s bigger than the hill under the Haunted Woods. We dug down pretty far when we settled here.”
“But how big?”
“It’s an ellipsoid,” Fidget said. “Like a flattened egg. About three miles long, two and a half wide, and a mile high.”
“I thought it would be small,” Annie said. “Like a school bus. Or the space shuttle.”
“Well, it was designed to be home to two thousand of us for a mission lasting fifty thousand years. So it couldn’t be small.”