Books are a uniquely portable magic. ~ Stephen King

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

If You Dream of Fairies

If You Dream of Fairies is a story I wrote for my daughters and niece last summer. I will present it here in serialized form. It was my first foray into fiction.

In case you missed something:
If You Dream of Fairies - I
If You Dream of Fairies - II
If You Dream of Fairies - III
If You Dream of Fairies - IV
If You Dream of Fairies - V
If You Dream of Fairies - VI
If You Dream of Fairies - VII
If You Dream of Fairies - VIII
If You Dream of Fairies - IX
If You Dream of Fairies - X
If You Dream of Fairies - XI
If You Dream of Fairies - XII
If You Dream of Fairies - XIII
If You Dream of Fairies - XIV

Liz and Maria spent time together the rest of the summer; reading, playing and dreaming in the garden. They never spoke about the fairies, although each glanced furtively at the fairy door from time to time, particularly when Keebler drew their attention to it.

When the time came to go back to school, they did it as they did everything: together.

Liz got a little more attention than she was used to, having grown up in Maria’s shadow. People kept telling her she was beautiful, which she thought was, quite frankly, really weird. She hadn’t had much practice with accepting compliments. Girls kept asking what she did to make her hair so shiny. She figured no one would be calling her Frizzy Lizzie (when Maria wasn’t around, of course) anymore. Boys were looking at her then looking away when she caught them. She’d seen boys look at Maria that way before and it had always made her roll her eyes. Maria always denied it. Now that it was happening to her, she found it oddly flattering.

Her mother kept telling her she was “growing into herself”.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One afternoon shortly after school started the girls were doing their homework at the table in the garden. Maria looked up and said, “I think Justin Maples likes me.”

“Everyone likes you, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“I might like him, too.”

Liz put her book down, never losing eye contact with Maria. “For real?”

“For real.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Nothing. Wait. See. I don’t know. I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s dumb.”

“He’s cute, though.”

“Way cute!” Maria said, dissolving into a fit of self conscious giggles.

They hugged, squealed, and attempted to return to their homework.

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