Prompt # 9: And you thought fairies weren’t real __________ (finish the story.)

“And you thought fairies weren’t real?” said my little sister as she bounced on her bed excitedly, waving her arm enthusiastically in the direction of her window. I smiled from her doorway as I watched her bouncing. “What are you talking about?” I asked as I looked out the window. Rosie stopped bouncing but continued to wave her arms animated as she babbled about seeing fairies outside her window in the night. “They were so pretty when they were flying around and I saw them dancing around over by that pretty bush with the blue flowers, but all of a sudden they just disappeared”, she exclaimed starting to bounce again in her excitement. “Come on, I’ll show you, maybe they left something behind.” Jumping off the bed and dashing through the door dragging me with her.

Stepping out onto the grass I could feel the dampness and slight chill immediately which was reinforced by the tiny droplets of morning dew I could see sparkling in cobwebs and on leaf tips of plants all around us. It must have been a cold night for the fairies party last night” I said to Rosie, humoring her enthusiasm as she continued to pull me across the garden. She suddenly dropped down onto the grass a short distance from the bush she had pointed out earlier, searching around like a bloodhound. I watched Rosie carefully as she crawled around in the damp grass pointing out things I couldn’t really see. “Look” she said, pointing to a flattened area of grass, “that’s where I saw them dancing around. And look, here are the little mushrooms, they used them for seats.” I started shaking my head and getting ready to persuade her that we should go back inside, realizing we had both run outside in our pajamas and slippers. Something suddenly had caught my eye, a slight twinkling under one of the leaves, I peered closer, it definitely wasn’t just light reflecting off the dew. This was something giving off its own light. I crouched down next to Rosie as we looked at it together, both captivated by this beautiful little creation hanging from the leaf. It was the tiniest, most intricate lantern I had ever seen.

Rosie reached out and took it very gently between her fingers. Laying it on her palm it was about the size of a baby pea. “Maybe we should take it inside so no one else sees it” she whispered. “We can leave it out for the fairies tonight; I’m sure they will have missed it and come to get it.” Very carefully Rosie stood up, moving as though what she held in her hand could break at the slightest jolt, which I supposed was possible. I followed her quickly inside, realizing again how cold it was.

Returning to her room we quickly found a little box to hide it away in. “Remember, we don’t want mum or dad or anyone else to find out”, I stated seriously, “It could cause all sorts of problems so we have to be cautious today. You can’t go playing with it today or anything, it needs to stay in the box till tonight.” After that we both went off to warm up by the fire with warm drinks, while we waited for the rest of the family to wake.

Throughout the day I made all sorts of excuses to mum to be able to be around Rosie or to pass by her room. I told myself it was to make sure she didn’t take the fairy light out of its hiding place, but really it was the feeling of excitement of sharing a secret about something so magical. Later in the afternoon I was passing by her room and I felt myself being drawn to that little box we had hidden it in. I tiptoed into the room, looking around cautiously. I took down the box, opened it and looked again in wonder at this tiny glowing sphere. Suddenly Rosie came through the door and looked at me crossly. She stood with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face, looking like a miniature of mum before she would launch into a tirade. “What are you doing?” she hissed, “You told me not to play with it today. If I cant you definitely shouldn’t. You are supposed to be the big sister”. I looked down at the box, feeling guilty. I was starting to feel like the naughty child caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

“You’re right”, I said closing the box carefully I got up and tucked it back on the shelf in amongst all her other bits and pieces. We left the room and the rest of the afternoon passed with me being able to resist going back to look in the box. That night before bed I whispered to Rosie that I would come to her room at 10pm so we could sneak it out to the garden.

I lay in bed that night listening to the clock ticking through the quarter hour, half hour and hour chimes. It was just starting to get hard to keep my eyes open when I finally heard the 10 o’clock chime. I quickly shoved on some clothes over my pajamas and crept down to my little sister’s room. I knelt by her bed and gave her shoulder a gentle shake. She grumbled and turned over blinking at me sleepily. “Come on, do you want to return the fairies light or what?” She rubbed her eyes and sat up slowly before throwing back the covers. I noticed she was already wearing clothes. She grabbed her coat that was sitting on the chair and stuffed her feet into shoes. “Hurry up” she whispered as she picked up the box and headed out the door. ‘How had the tables turned again?’ I thought to myself, I shook my head, in disbelief as I hurried to catch up to Rosie as she disappeared down the dark hallway.

The click of the kitchen door lock sounded as though it echoed throughout the house, we held our breaths in panic. When there was no movement in the rest of the house we crept out and darted across the lawn, making our way to the bush by the faint glow of the moon. Rosie carefully put the box down on the ground and opened the lid before daintily picking up the tiny lantern and hanging it from a leaf. We both stepped back carefully and looked at the twinkling little orb for a moment, before I nudged my little sister and gestured back toward the house. We crept back into the house and retraced our steps to Rosie’s bedroom. Curling up together under the covers to warm up we both peeked out the window and saw the tiny pin prick of light standing out against the dark of the bush. We started a whispered conversation as we imagined what the fairies were really like, where they went when they weren’t partying in our garden and all sorts of other things. Eventually Rosie became quieter and less responsive and I realized she had fallen asleep. I decided I would keep watch and wake her if I saw anything.

All of a sudden I jerked awake. I blinked my eyes rapidly to try and clear them and looked out into the garden. I heard the noise that had woken me repeat again. It was the faintest tinkling of a bell. I squinted in the direction of the bush and realized the light was no longer there. I heard the tinkling again but more furious, so I slipped out of bed and hurried down the hall and fled across the lawn in my bare feet. I realized the box was still on the ground at the base of the bush, but it was no longer open. So I crouched down and gently opened the lid to reveal a tiny little person with wings. As soon as the lid was drawn right back the fairy zoomed up into my face and blew a handful of shimmer dust at me before zipping off into the dark. I rubbed my nose and sneezed when the fairy powder tickled as I tried to peer into the darkness where the fairy had gone. It obviously hadn’t hung around so I took the box back with me and went to bed thinking how there was no way now that I could tease my sister about believing in fairies.