The Fairy Trail

by Catherine Ras

  Startled, she fought to keep her voice from shaking. She wanted to say they better or she’d sue them all. Instead she said, “I believe they can. They are so smart, and there are so many different treatments and medications. I know they’ll find one that works.”

  “Well, they seem to be the only ones that might be able to.”

  Maggie began to pick up their garbage and place it on the tray, “Well, of course, the doctors are the ones that can help you. Who else would there be?”

  “Jacob at school said miracles can happen. He said God performs miracles.” He sipped on his straw. “You believe in the fairies, so do you believe in God too?”

  Maggie crumpled up a hamburger wrapper and set it on the tray. This required a heavy sigh followed by a hard swallow. “You think I believe in fairies.”

  “You said you do.”

  “Oh, honey, those were only fairy tales.”

  “But you said….”

  She interrupted quickly. “I know what I said. I was just trying to make you feel happy, so you wouldn’t worry. I should have never told you that those stories were about me.”

  “Why not? They were about you. I went to the woods. I saw them.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I saw the houses, the fairies, and I spoke to them.”

  As a parent, Maggie struggled to either stop his line of thinking or to explain what she could.

  “Even if the fairies existed, they can’t cure you.”

  “I know they can’t, but they have powers. So if they exist and have powers to do things, maybe Jacob is right. There is a God, and he can perform miracles. He could cure me.”

  “I suppose there could be, but we know the doctors are real and so is their medicine. Let’s put our trust in that for now, okay?”

  Maggie’s heart was breaking. She never really was faced with the probability of a God because her family didn’t go to any church. She once heard her mother say it was useless because no God ever helped her. However, her son was right. If she believed in fairies, couldn’t there be a God? Then her heart sank when she remembered the white fairy telling her they couldn’t heal her son. What made her think God could?

  She stood up and picked up the tray. “Come on, Tyler, let’s go get some ice cream.”

  When they got home, Charlie was in the living room, pacing back and forth. As soon as she heard the door open she ran to them.

  “Where have you been? The hospital called.”

  Maggie immediately panicked. Tyler was going to die sooner than they thought. The tumor had grown too large; there was nothing they could do.

  She pulled Tyler close to her. “What did they say?”

  “They need him to come back—now. They think someone messed up the scans.”

  “What do you mean someone messed up the scans. I’m going to sue their asses for making him have to go through that again. We can go tomorrow. I promised Tyler we’d take him shopping for hats.” Maggie’s was adamant. She thought she’d lose it at any moment. How much more could she take? There was no way she was taking Tyler back tonight to the hospital instead of to the store to buy hats.

  Charlie put her hand on Maggie’s arm. “The scans they have don’t show any tumor. It’s gone.”

  Maggie dropped her arm from around Tyler as she stumbled back against the wall. “How could they make a mistake like this? How could they say that—put hope where there isn’t any?” She started to cry.

  Charlie pulled Maggie into a comforting hug, leaving Tyler to stand and watch his mother suffer because of him, but there was a small piece of his mind that wondered if the fairies had done something. Even though his mother didn’t believe anymore, he did, and even though the fairies said they couldn’t cure him, maybe…just maybe they did.

  Tyler reached up to touch his mothers. “It’s okay. We can go back and redo the scans. Then you can take me out for pizza and a new hat.”

  Their moment of grief was interrupted by their dying ten year old boy who was trying to ease their pain. At that moment, Maggie felt smaller than her son.

  Chapter Forty-nine

  They sat in the doctor’s office flanking their son. Maggie felt guilty over the day she told him he didn’t have a choice in his illness. She wouldn’t do that to him anymore, so when the doctor called them to come in to discuss the second set of scans, she told him Tyler would also be coming.

  Dr. Orchard walked into the room, carrying a large envelope. He walked over to a wall that had light boxes attached to it in a row from the door to the corner. He pulled x-rays out, and one by one snapped them onto the box. When he was done, he turned around. His expression was one of perplexity.

  He waved his arm in the air, indicating the negatives. “It’s gone. The tumor is gone. We took every precaution to make sure these scans weren’t mixed up. These are Tyler’s scans. There is no doubt…” He turned and looked at the scans in disbelief. There is no doubt the tumor is gone—no sign of it what-so-ever.

  Maggie and Charlie’s mouths dropped open. Tyler smiled. They did it, he thought to himself. They did it.

  “Are…are you sure?” Maggie stammered.

  The doctor picked up another envelope from his desk. He took out a few more x-rays and popped them on the light boxes so they were below the others. Each one was a duplicate image of the section of the brain above with one exception. The area of the brain where the doctors had pointed out the tumor to them before looked different. The lower negatives had a large dense spot covering what the doctor had said was his brain stem. The top image was clean. Tyler’s brain looked perfect.

  “I’m sure,” he smiled.

  “But how?” Charlie asked stunned at the news.

  “I’m sorry, but we have no idea. I’m a doctor of medicine…of science. I believe in what I can see and touch, but this…” he turned and looked at the scans then back at them, “I can’t explain.”

  The doctor took a seat at his desk. “We want to continue to monitor him. We’ll have Tyler come in next month for another set of scans, but they won’t be as extensive. We’ll do this for a few months, and then we’ll go to every six months, then every year. Eventually, if everything remains as it is today, he won’t have to have any more scans.”

  Tyler couldn’t help the grin plastered on his face. “So this means no radiation, chemo or surgery?”

  “That’s right young man. As of right now, you’re cancer free.”

  After the hugging and tears of joy, they were walking down the hospital hall with Tyler in between them, holding each of their hands. Charlie and Maggie were talking over him in excited voices baffled by the events that just took place and beyond excited that Tyler was cured.

  He looked up at them and asked, “Does this mean I can’t get a new baseball hat?”

  His mothers stopped talking and burst out laughing.

  “You can have ten hats!” Maggie exclaimed.

  ***

  The next day, Maggie slipped out of the house before Charlie and Tyler woke. She ran as fast as she could to the woods, and when she got to the trail, she sank to the ground. She looked everywhere. The trees, stumps and roots were void of fairy houses, but she didn’t care. They didn’t have to show themselves to her for her to say what she had to say.

  With tears in her eyes, she looked up to the sky. “You told me you couldn’t cure him, but you did. I don’t know why, but thank you. I don’t know what else to say or do to show my gratitude, but if there is anything…anything at all.

  Suddenly the white fairy appeared floating directly in front of her. Her tiny wings fluttered with great speed, but it took no effort for her to stay suspended above Maggie.

  “We didn’t do it for you, my dear.”

  Maggie looked at the fairy, confusion in her eyes. “Of course you did. I asked you to.”

  “And we told you we wouldn’t.”

  “You said you couldn’t.”

  “Oh, my, couldn’t, wouldn’t, no difference to us. We didn’t do it for y
ou.”

  “Then why? Why did you cure him?”

  “We merely helped your son to cure himself. We did it for him.”

  “What? How? When?”

  “Didn’t he tell you he was here the other day?”

  “Well, yes, but he told me you said you couldn’t cure him, so he didn’t even ask. I don’t understand.”

  “My dear, Maggie, all these years and you still don’t see.”

  She started to cry harder. “See what? All I care about is that you cured my son. I will have my son with me, and he will live a long life. I won’t lose him. That’s why you cured him.”

  The white fairy floated effortlessly to the ground. Within seconds, all the fairies were circling around Maggie. She turned her head to see The Blue Fairy, Nissa and Bhaskara. Then she spotted Nymph sitting on a root nearby.

  “Tyler didn’t come here to ask to ask for something for himself. The young boy came to ask us to take care of you when he died. He didn’t want you to suffer.”

  Maggie was stunned. For a moment she thought perhaps Tyler wasn’t really her son. Her parents were cruel and selfish, and at this moment, Maggie realized she wasn’t cruel, but she had been selfish most of her life. Tyler was nothing like her. He was kind, selfless and happy all the time, no matter what. He never asked for help no matter how bad things got for him. This fact was never more evident than at this moment. Her son didn’t ask the fairies to cure him. He asked them to help his mother.

  Her mind twisted with the revelation she failed to learn until now—did God send Tyler to her to teach her the real meaning of life because without him, she never would have seen it? The fairies had tried so many times to teach her, although their methods were strange, to say the least…but she never quite got what they were trying to teach her.

  She stood up. She would need to sort all this out someday, but for now, she had just been taught the most important lesson of her life by the fairies and her son, and because of it, she had been blessed with the greatest gift of all—her son’s life.

  Back home, Charlie and Tyler were cuddling on the couch, watching a video. While standing just inside the door peering into the living room, Maggie’s heart swelled at the sound of Tyler’s laughter as Charlie tickled him in all his sensitive places.

  When they heard the door close, they both looked up.

  “Where did you go? We’ve been waiting for you to have breakfast.”

  “I just went for a walk,” she smiled warmly. “It was such a lovely day outside, and you were both sleeping so sweetly.”

  Charlie got up off the couch, “Well, then, let me get breakfast started. Tyler has put in an order for heart-shaped pancakes and bacon.”

  “Sounds delightful. Can I help?”

  Charlie paused for a minute, clearly surprised at the offer. “Thank you, sweetie, but pancakes, even heart-shaped ones are pretty easy. But I could always use help for dinner tonight.”

  “Absolutely. Anytime.” Maggie took Charlie in her arms and gave her a very long, seductive kiss.

  Tyler slammed a pillow over his face and they could hear his groan, “Eewww,” muffled from behind it.

  When the kiss was over, Charlie held her at arm’s length studying her face and asked, “Is everything okay?”

  She touched Charlie’s cheek. “Everything is wonderful. I have you. How could it not be?”

  Charlie looked at Tyler who had removed his pillow. He smiled and shrugged. “Okay then. I’ll call when it’s ready.

  Maggie sat down next to her son. “What are we watching?”

  “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”

  She snuggled next to him. “Oh, I love this one.”

  After a few minutes, Tyler said, “So, did you see them?”

  She didn’t look at him when she responded. “Yes, I did.”

  “Did they do it? Did they cure me?”

  She turned to her son. He had such light within him that she knew came from his huge capacity for love and kindness. She always knew she was blessed to have him in her life, but what she had come to realize was that she was even more so to have Charlie—someone who wrapped her and Tyler in unconditional love and made them the family Maggie always wished she had.

  She drew him in and hugged him fiercely. “They cured us both, sweetheart. They cured us both.”

  The story for The Fairy Trail came to me after hiking a trail in a local park. Fairy houses began to mysteriously appear on trees, in roots, and on logs. For five years children and adults were able to live a little magic as they walked through the woods. The pictures in the book are of the actual fairy houses on this trail.

  Unfortunately, vandalism made the park officials request the fairy houses be taken down. They were removed and waited for another forest to welcome them. They have since been re-located to a new home on the Birdsong Trail/Fairy Trail in Mendon Ponds Park in Pittsford, New York.

  I have walked that trail and more fairies have moved in to the new neighborhood adding their own style of architecture. There’s even a fairy playground with swings and a bridge that gaps fairy homes between two trees. Their magic is still alive.

  You can find out more at these sites.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV2w0F9_bww

  https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2019/06/03/fairy-house-trail-mendon-ponds-park-birdsong-pittsford-ny/1326831001/

  Thank you for reading

  The Fairy Trail

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