by Kiki Thorpe
They played until the light grew dim. Still, Gabby didn’t notice how late it had gotten until she saw bats swooping past the cave entrance. “Oh, gosh!” she said. “I have to go. My sister is probably looking for me.”
“Will yoooou come back?” Yooni asked.
“Yes,” Gabby promised.
“When?”
Gabby remembered that time worked differently in Never Land. “Tomorrow” wasn’t always the same as it was in her world. “I’ll put flowers there.” She pointed to a boulder near the mouth of the cave. “When you see them, you’ll know I’m back.”
“Okay.” Yooni sang again, and the water went down.
“See you later, alligator!” Gabby said, hopping down from the rock.
Yooni looked shocked. “I am not an alligator!”
“I know.” Gabby laughed. “It’s just a saying. I meant see you soon.”
“Okay.” Yooni thought for a moment, then added, “Take care, toadfish.”
“What?” asked Gabby.
Yooni smiled. “It’s just a saying.”
Gabby waved and ran out of the cave. She hurried along the beach until she found the path back to Pixie Hollow.
Mia, Kate, and Lainey were standing together near the portal back to their home. They all turned as Gabby ran up.
“Where have you been?” Mia exclaimed.
“We were starting to worry,” Lainey added.
“Guess what happened!” Gabby began. “I—”
“Gabby! You’re all wet again!” Mia interrupted.
Gabby looked down at her tutu and T-shirt. She hadn’t even noticed they were wet. “Well, I—”
“Gabby, we’re going to have to start bringing a change of clothes for you,” Kate said, laughing.
“Come on,” Mia said. “We’d better see if one of the fairies can dry you off. I don’t want to take any more chances on Mami noticing.”
As Mia steered her toward the Home Tree where the fairies lived, Gabby fell silent. She’d been so excited to tell the other girls about her day. But now she realized she would have to explain what she was doing in the Cauldron. And if she told them about the Cauldron, she would also have to tell about forgetting her fairy dust. She could just imagine what Mia would say. Gabby! How could you forget a thing like that?
It had been a perfect day. Gabby didn’t want it to be spoiled by a scolding.
And there was a tiny part of Gabby that wanted to keep the adventure to herself. The mermaid felt like her special discovery, something she’d found all on her own. Gabby wasn’t sure she wanted to share her. At least, not yet.
So as she followed the other girls, she kept quiet. But her mind was filled with things she and Yooni could do—games to play, secrets to share, songs to sing.
Gabby smiled to herself. They were going to have so much fun.
“No, no daisies,” said the garden fairy Rosetta. “They aren’t my style.”
“How about a gardenia, then?” asked the sewing-talent fairy Hem. She pointed to the large white flower taking up a whole corner of her workshop. “We just got this one in. Fresh-picked today! Doesn’t it smell nice?”
The gardenia was indeed filling the room with a lovely scent. “But gardenias are so formal,” said Rosetta. “Besides, I want something pink.”
“A zinnia, then,” Hem suggested. “Plenty of ruffles, and they come in every color.”
Rosetta shook her head. “Too frilly.”
“A poppy, maybe?” Hem tried again.
Rosetta frowned. “No…”
“Cherry blossom?”
“Uh-uh.”
“Petunia?”
“Ew.”
Hem plopped down on an overstuffed pincushion. “Well, Rosetta, what kind of dress do you want?” she asked.
Rosetta thought hard. “Something simple yet elegant. Sturdy but delicate. Soft as velvet and perfectly pink. Something like…like…”
Hem arched her eyebrows. “A rose?”
“Exactly!” Rosetta cried.
“But, Rosetta,” Hem said with a sigh, “you have dozens of rose-petal dresses.”
“I know! That’s why this one needs to be different,” Rosetta explained.
Hem stared at Rosetta for a moment. Then she stood and smoothed her apron. “Tell you what,” she said. “Why don’t you go find the perfect flower? Then bring it to me, and I’ll make the dress.”
“Well…I suppose that would work,” Rosetta said as Hem ushered her toward the door. “But don’t get too busy, now. I’ll be back just as soon as I find the perfect rose.”
“I’ll be on pins and needles,” Hem said. Was it Rosetta’s imagination, or did she hear a note of sarcasm in her friend’s voice?
The door slammed behind her. Rosetta flew down the Home Tree stairwell feeling positively wilted. She had been so excited to get a new dress. Almost nothing made her happier. But Hem was making things so difficult!
Then again, how hard would it be to find the perfect flower? “After all, I am a garden-talent fairy,” Rosetta said, cheering a little.
Outside, she flew to her garden. Every garden fairy in Pixie Hollow has her own special patch, and, true to her name, Rosetta’s was full of roses. There were pale pink roses and deep red roses and roses the color of the sunset. Rosetta flew from bloom to bloom, but none was just right.
She was wondering if she should try the gardenia after all, when she spotted Bobble the sparrow man. He was carrying the most perfect pink flower!
“Bobble!” Rosetta exclaimed, rushing over. “Where did you get that lovely blossom?”
“This?” Bobble stopped and looked at the flower, as if he’d forgotten he was carrying it. “Found it down near the cliffs. Thought it would make a nice sunbrella. You know, to keep the sun out of my eyes. Helps with the glare,” he added, blinking behind his large dewdrop glasses.
“Yes, I see,” said Rosetta impatiently. “Where exactly did you say you found it?”
“Over there.” Bobble waved toward the shoreline. “There’s a whole patch of them. You can’t miss it.”
“Thank you, Bobble!” Rosetta cried, flying off in the direction he’d pointed.
Before long, she came to a thicket of wild sea roses on a cliff above the ocean. Sea roses! Yes! Rosetta thought. They were so simple and so lovely. She knew they’d make the perfect dress.
As she flew closer to pick one, Rosetta heard voices. She stopped and listened. The voices were coming from the cave below. She fluttered over to the opening and peered down.
There, inside the Cauldron, was Gabby the Clumsy girl talking to…a mermaid!
Rosetta stared. Mermaids were famously snobby. They wanted nothing to do with fairies, and they liked most Clumsies even less. But here was one chatting away as if Gabby were her best friend in the world! The two were wearing crowns of sea kelp and sipping from clamshells as if they were teacups.
It was a strange sight, no question. But Rosetta didn’t give it much thought, so preoccupied was she with her new dress. As she watched the mermaid and Gabby laughing together, she thought, Should it have long sleeves or short? Wooden buttons or seed pearl? Hmm.
Gathering up her sea rose, Rosetta went on her way without another glance.
Back in Hem’s workshop, Rosetta stood on a pebble as the sewing-talent fairy pinned the flower around her.
“Hold still, Rosetta,” Hem mumbled through a mouthful of pins.
“I just want to see.” Rosetta twisted around, trying to spot herself in the mirror. “Now, don’t make it too short! And don’t make the wing holes too big. I hate it when they gape.”
“I can’t make anything if you don’t stop wiggling!” Hem snapped.
Rosetta sighed and straightened up. Hem certainly is touchy today, she thought. She tried to think of something to say to lighten the mood.
“You won’t believe what I saw this afternoon,” she babbled. “It was the funniest thing. You know Gabby, the littlest Clumsy girl? She was playing with a mermaid— Ow!” Ro
setta jumped as Hem stabbed her with a pin.
“Oops, I’d fly backward if I could,” Hem apologized. “But did you say Gabby was with a mermaid?”
“Yes,” said Rosetta, rubbing the sore spot.
“That can’t be right,” Hem said. “Mermaids won’t have anything to do with Clumsies. They hardly even speak to us.”
“It’s true, though,” Rosetta told her. “I saw them with my own eyes. They were playing together down by the sea.”
“Hmm.” Hem narrowed her eyes. “Sounds fishy to me.”
Rosetta laughed at the pun. But she stopped when she saw Hem’s face. “It’s no laughing matter, Rosetta,” Hem scolded. “Mermaids are trouble! You haven’t forgotten the flood, have you?”
“Of course not,” Rosetta said. Once, an angry mermaid had threatened to flood Pixie Hollow when she thought a fairy had cheated her. “But that was a long time ago,” she told Hem. “And we worked it all out in the end.”
“It’s just like mermaids to hold a grudge, though,” Hem said with a sniff. “They think they’re so much better than everyone else, with their long hair and their fancy tails. But deep down, they’re heartless as sharks.”
“Mmm,” said Rosetta, who didn’t have strong feelings about mermaids one way or the other.
“Do you know,” Hem went on, “I once went to the lagoon to ask them for some seed pearls. I wanted the pearls for a dress I was making, you see. And those mermaids wouldn’t even speak to me. Looked right through me as if I weren’t there!”
“How awful!” Rosetta said.
“And then,” Hem said, lowering her voice, “there’s that dreadful business with their music.”
Rosetta shivered. It was well known that mermaid songs could be dangerous to those who heard them. Terrible things had happened to fairies who’d been caught in the lagoon at night, when the mermaids did most of their singing.
“If you ask me,” Hem said, “no good can come of hanging around mermaids.”
“Do you think I should tell someone? About Gabby, I mean?” Rosetta asked.
“You mean no one else knows? Of course we should!” And before Rosetta could say more, Hem had fluttered to the workshop next door, crying, “Elixa! You won’t believe what Rosetta saw!”
In no time, the gossip had flown around Pixie Hollow faster than dry leaves carried by the wind. A mermaid. With Gabby! Can you believe it?
Rosetta’s story was repeated many times. And each telling grew a bit more exciting. The cave became darker. The sea kelp, slimier. The gleam in the mermaid’s eye became a little more cunning. The fairies were all aflutter. Everyone wondered what a mermaid could want with Gabby.
“Maybe it’s some kind of trick,” said Dulcie the baking fairy.
“Maybe she wants to steal her away under the sea,” guessed Loom, a weaver.
“Maybe she wants to be her friend,” suggested the water fairy Silvermist. Everyone laughed. A mermaid, friends with an average Clumsy? Absurd!
Soon enough, the rumor reached Kate, Lainey, and Mia. “What do you mean, a mermaid has got Gabby?” Mia asked when she heard. She was picking fruit with the harvest-talent fairies. Now Mia set down the peaches she’d been holding. “Got her where?”
“Trapped! In a cave!” replied Dooley, the mouse-cart driver who’d given them the news. “Just ask Rosetta. She saw it all. Rosetta!” He summoned Rosetta over to repeat the story again.
“Well, er…” Rosetta was starting to regret she’d ever said anything about the mermaid. But it was too late to take it back now. “I did see Gabby with a mermaid. When I was out picking flowers.”
“Why would a mermaid bother Gabby?” asked Kate.
“Who knows?” said Dooley. “Nasty creatures! They’re nothing but trouble!”
“Oh, I don’t know,” chimed in a harvest fairy named Pluck. “I think they’re pretty.”
“The mermaid who adopted Sunny was nice,” Lainey said. “I mean, she wasn’t exactly friendly. But she did a good thing.”
“Well, that’s the first good thing a mermaid’s ever done,” grumbled Hem, who’d come along, too.
The fairies began to argue. Some thought mermaids were wicked. Others thought they were merely snobs. Still others thought they added a touch of elegance to Never Land. But they all seemed to agree that mermaids were best left alone.
“Wait!” Mia exclaimed. The fairies were all talking over one another. She had to shout to be heard. “Wait! Where exactly is Gabby now?”
“She’s in the Cauldron, down by the sea,” Rosetta replied. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
Gabby had been having the best day with Yooni. Together they’d peeked in tide pools and drawn faces in the sand. They’d raced waves and chased pelicans and dug for clams.
Now they sat together on the large rock inside the Cauldron. “Show me again,” Yooni said to Gabby. “Slower this time.”
“Okay.” Gabby crossed her arms across her chest, slapped her thighs, and started to sing.
Miss Mary Mack,
Mack, Mack
All dressed in black,
black, black
With silver buttons,
buttons,
buttons
All down her back,
back, back…
As she sang, she clapped her hands—right, clap, left, clap, cross, slap, clap. Yooni caught on quickly, clapping her hands against Gabby’s. The mermaid’s hands felt cold and soft. She grinned wide.
“What does it mean?” Yooni asked when the song was over.
“I don’t think it means anything,” Gabby said. “It’s just a silly song. Now you teach me a song.”
Yooni thought for a moment. “This is a famous mermaid song. We sing it to greet a good friend.”
But she’d hardly sung the first note when they heard shouting overhead. “Hey! What are you doing?” someone yelled.
Looking up, Gabby saw her sister, Kate, and Lainey peering down at them from the top of the cave.
“Hey!” Mia yelled again. Gabby heard the sharpness in her voice. Uh-oh, she thought. Mia is mad at me. Her sister must be jealous because she wasn’t sharing her mermaid.
But Mia wasn’t yelling at Gabby. “You better leave my sister alone!” she shouted at Yooni.
Gabby was shocked. Why was Mia being so rude? She turned to see Yooni’s reaction—but the mermaid was gone. Gabby saw the tip of her tail as it slipped into the water.
“Wait!” Gabby cried. “Come back!”
Yooni didn’t stop. Gabby could see her swimming fast below the surface.
Suddenly, Mia, Lainey, and Kate landed on the rock. Mia wrapped Gabby in a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re all right!”
“Gabby, we were worried!” Lainey added.
Gabby looked around, confused. Why was everyone so upset? She wriggled out of Mia’s grip. “Why were you mean to my friend?”
“Your friend?” asked Mia.
“My mermaid friend!”
“Gabby, listen to me,” Kate said. “You shouldn’t be hanging around mermaids all by yourself. They’re dangerous. The fairies told us.”
“Yooni’s not dangerous,” Gabby said. “She’s nice.”
But the other girls looked so concerned that Gabby began to wonder if she might be wrong. Mia and her friends were older. Usually, they were right about things.
“She’s my friend,” Gabby repeated, but with less certainty.
Mia gripped her arm. “Gabby, don’t ever come back here alone,” she said. “Promise me?”
Everyone was looking at her. “Okay,” Gabby mumbled. It didn’t seem like a bad promise to make. They would all return to the cave together, Gabby thought. And when Yooni came back, the other girls would see there was nothing to be worried about.
But Yooni didn’t come back. The girls returned to the cave together once, twice, three times. But Yooni was never there. Once, Gabby thought she saw a mermaid watching from the waves far offshore. But she couldn’t say for sure. And when she looked a
gain, the mermaid was gone.
Gabby was worried. Why hadn’t Yooni come back? Was she angry? Or had the other girls scared her away for good?
Finally, Gabby gave up going to the cave. But she didn’t forget about Yooni. The trips to Never Land just didn’t seem the same without her mermaid friend.
The sea-rose dress had come out perfectly. Rosetta stood before the mirror in her room, admiring it. The crinkly petals made a soft, pretty skirt. Hem had added yellow beads to the bodice to match the flower’s yellow center. It was exactly what Rosetta had wanted—simple, elegant, and just the right shade of pink.
Still, a tiny sigh escaped Rosetta’s lips. She couldn’t enjoy wearing the dress. Every time she put it on, she remembered the trouble with the mermaid.
It didn’t help to see Gabby moping around Pixie Hollow. Rosetta lifted the edge of her Queen Anne’s lace curtain and looked out the window. There she was again. She could see Gabby sitting alone on a stump, looking as if she’d lost her best friend.
I did the right thing, Rosetta told herself. What if I’d said nothing at all? Mermaids could be unpredictable. Gabby might have been in danger! But a tiny part of Rosetta knew that maybe, just maybe, she’d let the rumor get a little out of hand.
There was only one thing to do, Rosetta decided. She would have to cheer Gabby up herself.
Leaving her room in the Home Tree, she fluttered over to the girl. “Fly with you, Gabby!”
Gabby looked up. “Oh. Hi, Rosetta.”
“I was just thinking how I’d like to play a game of fairy tag,” Rosetta said brightly. “Join me?”
“No thanks.”
“Not today? Well, that’s fine. Oh, look!” Rosetta pretended to notice a patch of blue flowers growing nearby. “Cornflowers. They’d look so pretty in your hair. Should we make a crown?”
Gabby shook her head.
“Cup of tea, maybe?” Rosetta suggested. “We could have a little tea party in my garden.”
