by Jill Nojack
As Sheila worked through the small stack of dishes, her gaze drifted out the back window and into the garden, where a small group of gnomes hoisted one of the ceramic garden gnome statues up above their heads and began to carry it across the garden. They dropped it several times, raising their voices and throwing punches at each other each time they did.
Sheila left the dishes to dry themselves and moved to the sliding glass door that opened on to the back patio to get a better look. She'd tried to remove the ceramic gnomes several times, but she couldn't budge them. She also couldn't figure out how they were held down; there were no obvious stakes or cement that could hold them fixed in place.
She was surprised when the gnomes finally made it to the back of the garage where they managed to knock the lid off one of the garbage cans and, with the only well-coordinated effort of their task, toss the gnome statue up and into the can. Afterward, they ran quickly back to the garden and started all over again with the next one. They didn’t stop until they had removed all seven of them. It took nearly an hour.
When the job was complete, they ran onto the patio and looked up at her, each of them saying one of two words.
She understood the first. It was "Bobby."
She didn't understand the second, gnomish word.
Sheila turned and called for her son, "Bobby, you have guests..."
Bobby was immersed in a video game when his mother called for him. "I'm busy, mom."
"Well, you're going to have to tell your little gnome friends that. They're all standing around on the patio asking for you, and I don't think they have any plans to go away."
"Alright..." Bobby saved his game and headed toward the back door. When the gnomes saw him, they cheered.
As he exited the house, two of the gnomes climbed up his body and perched themselves on his shoulders as the others led him back to the burrow.
This was something new. While he often went out to see what the gnomes were doing, they had never come for him.
When they got him into the garden, Gurrdenn called up to him, "Sit, Bobby, sit."
Bobby sat. The gnomes formed into a circle around him, serious expressions on their dirt-smeared faces. Each one of them wore a hat made from the face of a small bird or animal. Even though Bobby had told them not to use it for fur, the neighbor’s former cat was represented in the circle.
Gurrdenn made a speech in gnomish that Bobby didn't understand and then handed him a wreath of twigs, miming for Bobby to place it on his head. After Bobby set the wreath on top of his red curls, the gnomes began to dance around him, eventually laughing, farting, and whirling with their usual glee. Whatever serious moment had just happened was now over. Bobby got up, touched Gurrdenn on the arm, saying "Tag, you're it!", and the games began.
The fae Morgan opened her eyes into the darkness of Lizbet's room. The girl had gone to bed early again with one of her headaches. Good. More time for Morgan.
She stood the girl up, enjoying the feel of her young, athletic body, so different from the elderly body she had been burdened with when the realms were separated. Morgan was glad to have remerged with a human half that was so young. She hadn't counted on the girl being such a fighter, but she had managed to preserve her separateness when the remerge occurred through the skillful application of magic and sheer will. Lizbet experienced her as a painful buzzing in her naïve, young brain.
Morgan walked to the closet and exchanged the girl's pajamas for a long, velveteen dress. She moved to the full-length mirror on the wall and smiled. Myrrdin, when he saw her again, would be hard pressed to resist her. She'd be with him soon enough; she knew it, as surely as she knew that the strength of the girl was failing more and more each day. She didn't actively wish the girl harm, but now that she could be with Myrrdin again after all this time, she had no choice but to remove her as a competitor.
Morgan opened the window, smelled deeply of the clean night air, then slowly faded into the aether. Moments later she arrived in London, coalescing again to float lightly outside the window of James's bedroom. It was dark, but not so dark that she couldn't make out his figure tangled in the bedclothes. She stayed to watch him sleep until his alarm rang and he rolled over, opened his eyes, and sleepily reached out to turn it off. She had missed him so terribly for so long, and to have Myrddin again so close…
As she faded back into the aether to take the girl's body home, she thought he might have caught a glimpse of her. But never mind, he would only think her a dream he pulled into reality from his sleep. Soon, though, she would be able to be with him in more than his dreams.
CHAPTER FOUR
Broken Wings
Lizbet woke to the sound of her alarm, exhausted rather than well-rested. Every morning now she felt like she’d hardly slept at all. She didn't know how much longer she could keep going. The headaches, the exhaustion—and yesterday she'd blanked out completely, waking up to find herself standing in the garden, holding a couple of gnomes upside down, with Bobby standing in front of her looking terrified.
Why can't it just go back to how it was? she thought as she headed for the bathroom. She remembered why as she caught the first glimpse of herself in the mirror. Because of the freaking wings. I'm marked.
It's not that they weren't pretty. They were gorgeous; not too big, not too small, feathery and mostly blue, tipped with colorful "eyes" like a peacock tail. They shimmered where the light hit them. She understood why Tanji liked them so much, but when Lizbet had imagined fairies as a child, she'd imagined their wings as small, gauzy things, not at all like the solid, muscular protrusions set in her upper back. And comfort? Sure, there are lots of comfortable ways to lie down or sit when you've got wings. Thinking about leaning your back up against a wall? Forget it.
Her wings were about one and a half feet across when fully furled, as they often were when she was angry, upset, or the headache was at its most painful level. They were not really broad enough to be terrifying to an attacker even if she had also grown talons and a sharp beak. No, they were just big enough to distract people from what she was trying to say. Sometimes her father could barely look at her.
It might have been a little more okay if flapping her wings actually produced a little flight time, but she had tried and...nothing. She’d felt like she might take off a couple of times when she'd tripped and been off balance, but she couldn't manage to fly even a couple of feet with a running start. She looked fae, but she didn't control her magic. Magical things sometimes happened around her, but she never made them happen.
Lizbet took a quick shower and got dressed. She would have liked to have dressed in something new for her first day of school, but it's difficult to shop when you have to accommodate an extra set of appendages. It seemed to be part of the magic she inherited that her clothes would re-tailor themselves to fit over the wings, but she'd had to pay for a few things she didn't want when they re-tailored themselves in the store. They weren't even things she could see herself wearing. They were too mature and fancy for her. She was happy with jeans, yoga pants, baby tees, or cotton button-downs over a cami. She didn't need the glam dresses in fancy fabrics she’d felt compelled to try on.
Being in the mall had made her feel like she was on display. People pointed, gawked, and turned to friends to talk about her. It had just been too much. She'd eventually turned and asked her mom if they could just go home, and she hadn't tried going to the mall again. It couldn't go on that way forever. She would have to get new clothes eventually, but she hoped that before her clothes weren't wearable anymore, she'd have lost the fairy extras.
But today, right after breakfast, she had to face going to school in last year's clothes with a brand new, shiny set of wings.
"Hey, Moore! Take off your backpack and show me your wings."
Bobby turned around to see who was yelling at him. It was one of the big boys from fifth grade. The boy started to move fast toward where Bobby stood on the sidewalk in front of school.
"I don't have wings. T
hat's my sister."
"Yeah? I don't believe you. Gimme your backpack and let's see," the older boy said as he grabbed the strap of Bobby's bag and tried to pull it off of his shoulder. Bobby hung on, his small body tight with the effort, but the boy was stronger than he was, and he pulled the bag away with a couple of strong tugs.
"Give it back! It’s not yours!" Bobby yelled, but the boy pushed against Bobby's chest and held the bag away from him with his other hand.
"Show me your wings, Moore. Come on!"
Then the boy screamed. Gurrdenn had gotten the zipper clasp undone, crawled out of the bag unto the boy's arm, and dug his teeth into his wrist.
Bobby laughed aloud. "Gurrdenn! When did you get in there?" Gurrdenn kept right on chewing.
The boy dropped the backpack, screaming and slapping at the gnome, "Get him off me, get him off me."
"Stop, Gurrdenn! He let it go," Bobby told the gnome, and Gurrdenn dropped to the ground, making room for the boy to run quickly away.
"And don't ever pick on me again, or I'll have all my gnomes come after you!" Bobby yelled at the fleeing boy's back.
"Girl, you're beautiful, you're strong, and you can do this," Tanji reassured Lizbet as Tanji carefully pulled the car into a narrow space in the school parking lot. "If anyone says anything, you just give them that trademark Moore snark right back."
"If you say so. But Tanj...I'm just so tired."
"I know, but you can make it through today, I know you can. Look, my life was complicated enough being half black and half white. The white kids know I'm not one of them, and once the black kids meet my dad, suddenly I'm not black anymore, either. Throw being half fae into the mix, and try to tell me that things could be more complicated! So, we're both freaks. Who cares? Let everybody get a good gander at you, and then it can only get better from here."
The two girls walked up the steps toward the school door. One of the boys who leaned up against the railing made a flapping movement with his arms and yelled out, "Nice pair!" The other boys in the group laughed and high-fived him.
Tanji kept her eyes straight ahead as they walked and said quietly, "Ignore it. If you'd ridden your bike to school, one of those jerks would have said, 'nice rack' when you were locking it up in the bike rack. You know that. They're fools."
The two girls continued up the stairs and into the open doorway, and as they walked down the hall to Lizbet's locker, everyone got quieter as they approached, elbowing their friends and turning to watch Lizbet and Tanji as they came down the hall. Then, as they passed, they heard the whispering start behind them.
Tanji suddenly raised her hands above her head in a flourish and slowly turned in a circle. She'd worn her hair up so that her elvin ears were clearly visible. "Alright, alright, I know you're all looking at the ears, going 'mmmhhhmmm, wish I could rock me a set of ears the way that girl rocks 'em’, but you know nobody can rock 'em like me." Tanji struck a series of glam-girl poses while the other students either laughed along with her or turned away, suddenly embarrassed that they'd been staring. Several people shouted encouragement with "you go, girl" and "looking good!"
Tanji hooked her arm through Lizbet's and pulled her down the hall, both of them laughing so hard that they were gasping for air, ears and wings forgotten as they just enjoyed each other's company.
They got to Lizbet's locker, and when Lizbet was able to catch her breath, she said, "Tanj...you are a freak, but you are my freak."
Sheila Moore felt like she was back in grade school as she sat in one of the kid-sized plastic chairs in the elementary school Principal's office, waiting to be called in for her appointment. She had never had problems with either of her children's behavior at school, so the experience was something new for her. She couldn't imagine that Bobby would start a fight with another child. Despite his blazing red hair, he was never temperamental.
Sheila stood as gracefully as she could when the secretary advised her that the Principal would see her. Bobby was already in the office, looking like he was about to cry. Her boy was so tender-hearted. There was no way that sweet child would have gotten into a fight if he had any other choice.
Principal Connors stood up and gestured to the empty seat next to Bobby. "I'd have liked to have met you under different circumstances, Mrs. Moore. Normally, Bobby is such a well-behaved student."
Sheila replied, "I understood from the secretary who called my office that Bobby was in a fight?"
Bobby quickly chimed in, "I didn't fight anyone..."
Principal Connors looked over the top of her glasses at him, "Bobby, it's my turn to talk now."
Bobby folded his arms and lowered his head.
"Yes, technically, Bobby didn't fight anyone. He brought a gnome to school to do his fighting for him. One of the fifth grade boys has some very nasty bites on his arm. I'm sure he's going to need a tetanus booster and possibly rabies shots."
"How terrible! I'm so sorry..."
"I have no choice but to suspend Bobby for the next week due to the seriousness of the issue. You can pick up each day's work after school, and he can complete it at home."
"But he's never done anything like this before. And I don't think the gnomes actually listen to anyone. Even if they did, Bobby wouldn't have told a gnome to attack another child."
"We don't allow violence or magic in this school, Mrs. Moore. You may have different rules at your home, but we have high standards here. He's suspended for one week. If he brings a gnome or any other magical creature to school again after that, he'll be expelled."
Sheila stood up, "I understand. Lizbet will pick up the work from his teacher after school each day, if that's okay."
"No, it's not okay for Lizbet to pick up his work. As I said...there is to be no magic in the school. Your daughter has wings, Mrs. Moore. She is clearly practicing magic."
"Fine," Sheila said, beginning to burn on the inside but quiet on the outside, "His father or I will pick up his work. Come on, Bobby."
On the way to the car, Bobby told his mother, "I didn't fight anyone. The kid tried to take my backpack 'cause he said he wanted to see my wings, and Gurrdenn jumped out and just started biting him. I didn't even know he was in there."
"I believe you, Bobby," Sheila said curtly, still working hard for control.
Bobby couldn't hear everything his mother said to his father when she called him at work, but he knew that she was angry—maybe even angrier than she'd ever been. Bobby hid around the corner in the hallway while his parents talked on the phone.
"Steven, I'm furious about the whole thing..." his mother said. Bobby put his head on his knees and hugged them tightly to his chest. He began to rock just a little, but he told himself he wouldn't cry.
"Well, something needs to be done. It's not acceptable..."
His mother's voice grew quieter and he couldn't hear her for a little while.
"… but can you take him?"
"Yes, call me back when you know. Thank you, Steve..."
Bobby started to cry quietly. Now he was even going to be sent away.
"Bobby?" his mother called, then walked into the hallway and nearly fell over the weeping boy as she rounded the corner.
"Please don't send me away. I didn't do it, really. I didn't do it!" he managed between sobs.
His mother collapsed to the floor and pulled him close to her, nearly bursting into tears herself. "Oh Bobby, I'm not mad at you...I'm mad at lots of people, but I'm not mad at you. Your father isn't mad at you, either. That's not why I asked him to let you stay there. It's because you can't stay home alone. I can't have time off work until later in the week. Someone has to be able to stay with you while you’re suspended. Your father is sometimes able to work from home, that’s why I asked him if you could stay there." She smoothed his hair and pulled him even closer.
Bobby sniffled a few more times and said, "Are you sure?"
"Honey, I’m completely sure. I know that you wouldn't do what the Principal said you did, and I know you would never
lie to me about it even if you did do it. If that Principal thinks that gnomes don't have minds of their own, then she has obviously never met a gnome! And to say that Lizbet is practicing magic because of something she has no control over..." His mom took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. "She's just wrong, Bobby, and it made me mad. But that's between adults, not between you and the principal, okay? I don't want you getting angry and getting in trouble again."
"Yeah, okay, mom." Bobby snuggled into his mother's arms and stopped crying.
CHAPTER FIVE
I Will Follow Him
Gurrdenn motioned Meshharr, Gorjunn, and Kaluum to follow him. They were unusually silent for gnomes. Below the window, they formed a gnome pyramid and Gurrdenn scrambled to the top. He could see Bobby inside, sitting down and watching a picture box. A man, the father, entered the room and sat down next to him.
Gurrdenn jumped down and looked around, trying to figure out how the huddle could build a burrow on the hard walkway, high in the air, so far away from the yielding earth.
Bobby called to his father, "Can I watch TV?"
Mr. Moore walked into the small living room and joined Bobby on the couch. "Looks like you've already turned it on without asking. Don't you have any schoolwork?"
"No. You have to pick it up from my teacher after school, remember?"
"Yes, I remember. But being suspended from school shouldn't be a vacation. I'm trying to think if there are any chores you could do until you have some homework..."
