“This queen doesn’t sound very nice.” Jenny asked. “What is this place?”
Papy looked at Mamy.
Mamy looked back at Papy, “Well, we might as well tell her what be goin’ on, as we’ve done gone this far.”
Papy carefully extracted a wish out of his basket and held it out to Jenny in cupped hands. “Ya should make yarself somethin’ ta eat. This is goin’ ta take a bit of explainin’ an’ you be hungry. Now, ah can’t tell ya what ta wish fer, as then it would be me thinkin’ instead of yar thinkin’, but ah might be tellin’ ya ta be smart about yar words - if ya be gettin’ me drift. This bein’ a magic place and all...” He looked at her knowingly and held her eyes.
Papy carefully deposited the living wish into Jenny’s outstretched hands. It looked up at her. Close up, she could see it was nothing like a real moth – it was shimmering and golden with beautiful veins and patterns in its wings. It didn’t seem to be truly solid. It was like a dream in that it was hard to focus on. It shifted and changed too much. It crawled across her hand and looked up at her almost friendly-like.
“I don’t want to hurt it.” Jenny worried.
“Oh, no dearie. They be waiting ta become somethin’ else. They sorta exist for the sole purpose o’ changin’!”
Jenny had heard her share of faerie tales at bedtime and even more in Jack and Finn’s tree-house, so she thought a bit before she whispered her wish. “I wish I had a magic bowl – that I could travel with – that has always got food in it when I’m hungry! With a spoon.”
There was a tinkling sound. The glowing moth disappeared and was replaced by a beautiful silver bowl with a lid and a silver spoon which attached to the side when not in use. It seemed to know that she was hungry as it was filled with buttery scrambled eggs.
“I almost forgot to ask for a spoon!” Jenny confessed.
“But ya got it in time! See Papy, she’s a smart one. Now she needs one more wish so she’s got somethin’ ta drink too.”
Papy reluctantly offered up a second wish.
Jenny’s mouth was still a little full with her second bite of eggs, but she said, “I wish I had a bottle with good stuff to drink whenever I’m thirsty.”
Again the glittering wish disappeared from her palm and in its place was a crystal bottle with some sort of liquid in it.
She took a sip. It tasted a little bit like orange juice mixed with something like chocolate, but it was perfect for breakfast. Which was Jenny’s favorite meal.
So while Pirate Jenny ate from her endless bowl of scrambled eggs, Papy told her a story. “Ya be in the kingdom o’ Frey. It used ta be a peaceable sort of place fer a faerie kingdom, all things bein’ considered.”
“Frey. Have my parents have ever been here? My dad goes somewhere every day. He says it’s to the office.”
“Well, we don’t see no big humans here, except the one a long time back. He was all right.” said Papy. “But, uh we do see young ‘uns come through every once in a while.” Papy winced.
Mamy pursed her lips and didn’t say anything.
“Are there many faerie places like this?” Jenny asked with a mouthful of breakfast. She figured pirates don’t have to be perfectly polite.
“Loads! Er, so ah’m told by the nixies. Ah couldn’t reckon how many. Though not all like Frey. Not that ah’ve ever been t’ another. But, ah be thinkin’ thar be places hidden all over. Wherever thar be doors that are unused an’ places ta make folks curious, all it takes is a ‘what if’ in a dreamy git’s mind an’ that wee notion takes root like a seed, a wish, an’ it can grow inta all sorts o’ wondr’-blime things.”
“An’ awful-ick things too-” added Mamy.
“Yup,” Papy sighed. “We gots all sorts of critters here. Purty and ugly, an’ useful an’ frivol’us. An’ ya gotta be careful as what ya sees on the outside, be not always what ya get when ya take a closer look!”
Mamy burst in. “Like the Blue Queen! She’s –”
Papy humphed at her. “We mostwise get along just fine. We don’t get in each other’s way. Ah be from a long line of Wishermans an’ we’ve been livin’ in this hill for as long as wee wishes ha’ been dancin’ around in the caverns below. An’ that be a mighty long time!”
“But, tell her ‘bout the Blue Queen.” Mamy interjected.
“Ah’m gettin’ thar! We never paid much ‘ttention to Kings and Queens. They had their doin’s and we had our doin’s! But outside that window be a biggish place! Ah s’pose it needs a measure of organizin’ and that those there royalty folks have some purpose in that respect. But we never paid them no mind. It pro’bly works better in that there human world where yar from, but here no one much cared one wit ‘bout how gov’ment works unless you be havin’ a gnarly-cross patch wi’ yer neighbor. We didn’t have much. We just want ta go ‘bout our doin’s without much bother.”
“The Queen!” hissed Mamy.
“Yeah- ah’m gettin’ thar! Well, somehow or other this new queen set herself up and surprised all o’ us who warn’t payin’ attention. Suddenly, thar be new laws and new ways ta get inta trouble. Somehow’s some folks came ta be more ‘mportant than they were, and others got more likely ta get stomped on.”
“Not like the old MerKing who were nice ‘nuff.” sighed Mamy.
“MerKing?” asked Jenny.
Papy smiled. “He used to be o’er in the Bay of mer’Rin, where all the merfolk lived. If cit’zens had problems they’d go ta him and he’d make decisions that’d be fair ‘nuff, and kept most folk happy.”
“There are mermaids here?” asked Jenny with a fair amount of excitement.
“Used ta be, but they’s all be gone now.” sighed Mamy.
“They done disappeared someways and this giant blue lady took charge and everythin’ started ta change up. Ah hear she be purty ‘nuff. but–” Papy lowered his voice to a whisper. “That don’t mean diddly if she don’t act purty as well.”
“Why did she take your babies?” asked Jenny.
Papy growled. “Everybody has ta be ‘useful’ now. Even babies! She takes lots o’ babies now! She finds uses fer ‘em!”
“What would she do with your babies?”
Mamy burst out in tears and Papy turned red with embarrassment and anger. It looked like he wasn’t going to speak, but then he just came out with it.
“Ya may have noticed that we Wishermans be proud Fluffballs. We’ve a beauteous lavender dust and a lovely smell - if ah don’t say so me-self. Each family be a different color, but wi’ the Queen bein’ blue, she wants our lavender babies fer her hideous cheeks.”
“The queen is using your babies as powder puffs?”
“They be small and easy for her ta pick up.” Mamy sobbed. “She’s giant. Lots bigger than ev’n you be!”
“That’s awful!” said a shocked Jenny.
She was exhausted. But Jenny adjusted her pirate hat and looked squarely at the Wishermans. “I’m going to help you get them back, but – I might need to take a nap first.”
The Wishermans looked at the little girl who was twice their height.
Papy was skeptical as to how useful she’d be. “Well when ya be ready, we’ll go about barterin’ fer those two big wishes at the Frey Wish Market. One fer the babies an’ one ta take ya home. Maybe then we’ll talk ‘bout how useful ya might be.”
Chapter 8
The Nature
Of Wishes
“Jack, I don’t think we’re under the vegetable garden. My brain couldn’t make this up!”
Finn stared at the giant fork in the path. It extended all the way to the ceiling – where glowing bugs fluttered against their reflections. Some of them fluttered about Finn and Jack as well. They seemed to like Jack better.
Finn then noticed the restroom. “Hey! Facilities!! And a drinking fountain! We can’t be that far from civilizatio
n! It’s almost like an underground amusement park.”
“Well, that’s crazy convenient!” Jack gently rested Pinkie on a wide mushroom. Jack opened the door. “It’s got a bathtub? And it’s stocked with toilet paper. We’ve got to be close to somewhere.” Jack saluted. “Ma Nature’s calling!” With his best Arnold voice he uttered, “I’ll be back!” Jack stepped into the restroom for some much needed rest.
Finn took a sip of water at the fountain, then noticed Pinkie daintily nibbling on the edge of her mushroom. He took a deeper drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“So, where are we, Pinkie? You live here. How do we get to the surface?” Finn crouched down by the broad mushroom where she stretched out.
She eyed him with languid eyes and purred, “My deliciouss Finn,” while her eyes tracked the flying gold bugs about him. “I’ve never been anywhere. I’ve no idea how to –” She made a sudden spring and swallowed a fluttery bug near Finn’s face.
“AHHHH!” Finn screamed as those giant teeth swept by his face. He fell back on his butt as she retracted coyly to her mushroom.
Pinkie grinned mischievously. “Sssorry. Didn’t mean to ssstartle you. Girlss gotta eat. Wishess are hard to catch. One hasss to be fassst.”
“Wishes?” Finn gasped.
A toilet flushed and Jack burst out still buttoning his shorts. “Everything okay? You screamed!”
Finn glanced up at Jack’s worried face. “I’m okay. Little Pinkette just showed me how fast she can move. But we’re good.” Finn stared at Pinkie. “Why do you call these bugs ‘wishes’?” Finn pointed to the fluttering things which had retreated to the ceiling.
“Becausse that’sss what they are. Thisss tunnel isss full of wishesss.” Pinkie gestured at the fork and the bathroom. “How do you think these sstrange thingss ended up here?”
“The little golden moths grant wishes?” Finn asked.
“They don’t grant wishes, they ARE wishess. But they don’t work well unlesss they like you.” Pinkie looked at the wishes again fluttering about Finn’s head. “They sseem to like you.” She added flirtatiously. “But they like Jack better.”
Finn turned to see that Jack had a virtual halo of glowing bugs around his head.
Finn scoffed. “But, there’s no such thing as wishes. That would be like magic or something.”
Jack agreed. “Like giant mushrooms and talking caterpillars.”
“Fuzzy-wiggles,” Finn corrected.
“Absolutely impossible.” Jack pointed out.
This was crazy.
Finn smiled. “So I can just wish for anything?” he asked tentatively - his stomach growling.
“Try it.” Pinkie said with curiosity.
“I wish I had a tuna melt sandwich on sourdough - with a pickle on the side.” Finn rattled off the top of his head.
“You don’t like pickles.” Jack commented.
“But, you do.” Finn smiled.
There was a tinkling sound and one of the fluttering wishes disappeared in a flash. On a nearby mushroom appeared a crispy tuna melt sandwich on sourdough wrapped in wax paper. And it was still hot. With a pickle on the side (which Jack helped himself to).
Finn was stunned. “Holy crappola! OH no! Did I just kill a wish?”
Pinkie looked thoughtfully at Finn. “No. Wishess want to transsform into sssomething else! They are in sstasiss ... like a flying cocoon perhapsss waiting to be sssomething more.”
“Even if that something is going to get eaten?” asked Finn looking hungrily at the sandwich.
“And then becomes a part of you. It merges with you. Wishes don’t die. They ... travel. And what are you Finn, but many, many wishes that have come to be?”
“Magic exists...” Finn rolled the words around in his brain.
Jack tilted his head. “Jenny. Good toilet paper. That explains that! Jenny’s been here. I don’t think there’s ever been another seven year old so obsessed with good toilet paper.”
Finn interrupted. “Jack, want to split a tuna melt?” Then remembering Pinkie. “We could split thirds?”
“Yes! I’m starved.” exclaimed Jack.
Pinkie sniffed. “That’s sssweet, but no... that doesn’t sssmell like sssomething I would eat.”
Jack took the half-sandwich that Finn offered and asked with his mouth full, “What do you eat then? Other than wishes and... us.”
“Fuzzy-wigglesss live on love and affection - with a ssside of mushrooms, but if we want to get big, there’sss nothing like a tasssty, fluttering wish.”
Finn looked up at the ceiling. “They’re all over the place. Is that why you are all so big?”
She laughed. “We can get much bigger than this! But wishesss are hard to catch from the ground – without bait.” She batted her eyes at Finn and Jack.
The wishes were fluttering around the boys’ heads again.
“That’s why you wanted to come with us? We’re your walking bait?” asked Jack.
“You wound me, Jackie.” Pinkie teased archly. “I do like you. I even like you too, Finn. Though it’s halvsiesss as to whether I want to eat you or look at you.” She smiled. “You are rather pretty.”
Finn turned a bright red and stammered but no words came out.
Jack laughed. “You won’t eat tuna, but you’ll eat us?”
“Oh, but I wouldn’t.” Then she added, “You ssmellsss tasty, but few fuzziesss have ever tasssted human blood.” She sized them up. “No, I prefer fluttering, golden wishesss.”
Finn mused. “Caterpillars typically build a cocoon and become something else like a butterfly. I know you’re not a caterpillar, but...”
“Wishes?” Jack added curiously.
Grinning ear to ear, Pinkie hopped off the top of the mushroom and started crawling down the trail. “Boys, I’m going to be the biggest wish that anyone ever wished.”
Jack started after her, till Finn shouted, “Wait! I need to do a pit stop too while we’re here.” The door banged shut behind Finn.
Pinkie stopped to watch Jack take a drink from the fountain.
Jack raised his head. “If you eat wishes to get bigger, doesn’t that make you a –”
Pinkie shrugged her non-existent shoulders and smiled sweetly. “I’m sssimply drafting othersss into my... enterprissse.”
Jack reflected. “What would happen if you tasted human blood?”
Her voice quieted, “Then I’d become a dark wish.”
“Dark?”
“Ask too many questions and you might find out.” she growled.
The toilet flushed and Finn stepped out. “So, which side of the fork did Jenny take? It’s all rock both directions and no footprints.” He then had a second thought. “Pinkie, would one of these wishes get us home?”
Pinkie smiled. “No, these wishes are too small to take you that far,” then she looked at the paths. “Perhaps we should take the tunnel that leads up?”
Jack looked both directions. “Makes sense to me. Greenbean?”
Finn shrugged. “Well, Pinkcheeks, let’s find Jenny and figure out how to get home! Our folks have to be wondering where we are by now.”
Finn set off down the trail. Jack and Pinkie followed behind.
Jack could tell that Pinkie still gave Finn the creeps, but he thought she might be a useful companion in this strange place.
“My parents have got to be crazy worried,” thought Jack guiltily. “First Jenny. Now, me. But, we’ll find her!”
Chapter 9
Changeling
Times
When Jack did not appear for lunch, Mrs. Sanders went into a panic. She ran frantically around the property calling his name. Mr Sanders hurried outside when he heard her shouting.
Then they thought to look in the mushroom cellar.
There was Jenny! She was
sleeping – curled up among the mushrooms in one of the beds of straw and shredded paper. She was naked and very white. At the other side of the room, in another long bed of Mr. Saunders special mix of sawdust and manure lay the sleeping, unclothed bodies of Jack and Finn. And each child’s hair was stark white.
Why were they naked?
Mrs Sanders checked Jenny’s pulse and though it seemed normal, Jenny did not seem capable of waking up.
Mr. Sanders checked the boys. It made him uncomfortable to see a naked Finn unconsciously spooning a naked Jack. Both were very pale and skinnier than he remembered. But, of course he realized that he didn’t actually look at Jack that much. Not really. He worked a lot of hours at the office, and was exhausted when he got home. At home he mostly watched TV because it was relaxing. Jack really needed to watch more television! It would give them more father and son time.
He ran up to the house to get blankets, while Mrs Sanders didn’t let the children out of her sight. When he returned, they wrapped each child up and carried them up to the house.
They called Finn’s parents and then drove the three children to the hospital. Each had a ghastly pallor, and wouldn’t wake up.
Finn’s foster parents arrived at the hospital as soon as they could get there. It had been a crazy day for them. They were fostering nine children and two of the new arrivals had the flu.
The doctors couldn’t figure out what had happened to the kids. The children were very pale (the white hair suggested a great shock), and oddly they no longer had any fingerprints. The tips of their fingers were as smooth as the bottom of a spoon. But they slept peacefully.
Chapter 10
A Journey
In Disguise
Pirate Jenny slept very well. She’d had the oddest dreams. Her hand touched rock. Jenny raised her head and remembered. They weren’t dreams. She was lying on a pile of lavender blankets and pillows.
She was figuring out that part of being a Fluffball was to leave a trail of color on everything you touched. It did smell nice though.
“Mornin’, little lady!” greeted Mamy.
Olly, Olly, Oxen Frey Page 5
