Fairy Gold

by Gwyneth Rees

  She stayed behind Precious as they flew over four more gardens, before the fairy turned to her right and flew upwards towards the roof of a house, which Lucy realized must be situated in the same street as her own. The house had bare windows with no curtains and Lucy saw that it had no furniture inside it. One of the houses further down their road had been empty for a while – she passed it every day on her way to school – and she guessed that this was probably it. She watched Precious fly right up to the overhanging part of the roof and disappear.

  Lucy couldn’t understand where Precious had gone at first. Then, as she flew closer herself, she saw that up in the eaves of the house there was a gap that was just large enough for a small bird – or a fairy – to pass through. She flew through it and found that she was in a massive dark space, which she guessed must be the house’s loft.

  A light was coming from the far side of the space and, as Lucy flew towards it, she saw that she was approaching what seemed to be a small house inside the loft. For a moment she was confused, until she realized that what she was looking at was a doll’s house.

  Lucy cautiously peered in through one of the doll’s house windows and saw that there were fairy lights strung up inside.

  Suddenly the front door was flung open and Precious appeared in the entrance, looking cross. ‘I thought someone was following me. I couldn’t smell a fairy so I thought it must be a bird. I might have known it was you!’

  ‘Precious, please don’t be angry,’ Lucy said, feeling a bit frightened now that she had been caught.

  ‘I suppose Queen Eldora gave you some shrinking dust so you could follow me, did she? Well, I’m not giving your teeth back if that’s why you’re here!’

  ‘Can’t we just talk about this?’ Lucy said nervously, trying to buy herself some time.

  ‘Why should I talk to you? You’re only here to spy on me!’ But despite her sharp words, Precious waved Lucy into the house.

  Lucy found herself in a little hall that had old-fashioned stripy wallpaper and a square of faded red carpet on the floor. Pinned up on one wall she saw a large, hand-drawn map of her own street and all the other streets in the surrounding neighbourhood. ‘Is that a pillow map?’ she asked, staring at it.

  Precious nodded. ‘I made it myself as soon as I got here. It’s good, isn’t it?’

  ‘But I don’t see any pillows on it,’ Lucy said, peering at the map more closely.

  ‘That’s because the pillows are invisible! They only light up when someone leaves out a tooth!’

  ‘Precious, the other fairies are really cross with you for stealing all the teeth,’ Lucy said, turning to face her now.

  ‘It’s all right for them,’ Precious said, scowling. ‘They’re not stuck here with no way of getting back home again, are they?’

  She led Lucy through a flimsy-looking door into the living room, which was full of weird-looking furniture. There was a fake fireplace that had coals and flames painted on to it, a pink sofa made of hard plastic that looked really uncomfortable to sit on, and a plastic standard lamp that was clearly fake too.

  ‘How did you find this place?’ Lucy asked.

  ‘I was flying about looking for somewhere warm to sleep and I found this loft. I couldn’t believe it when I found the doll’s house too. I guess it must have got left behind when the owners moved out.’

  ‘The fairy lights are really pretty!’

  ‘I know. The people next door keep their Christmas decorations up in their loft and I snuck in there one day and borrowed them. I’ve had to use fairy magic instead of electricity though!’ Precious seemed to be relaxing a bit now. ‘I’ll give you a tour of the rest of the place, if you like,’ she added. ‘You’re my first ever visitor – even if you are a spy!’

  ‘Precious, I can see how you might want to borrow things that you really need, like fairy lights,’ Lucy began carefully, as Precious led her back into the hall and up an alarmingly wobbly staircase, ‘but I still don’t see how you can need all the teeth you keep taking.’

  ‘Oh, but I do need them!’ Precious said. They were entering a little bedroom that had a wooden bed, a pink plastic wardrobe (which really opened) and some pink curtains that looked like they had gone a bit mouldy. Precious had made a mattress for the bed out of leaves and a white cotton handkerchief, and she sat down on it now and looked up at Lucy.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Lucy said, frowning. ‘Why do you need them?’

  ‘I need them for the same reason the other tooth fairies need them,’ Precious told her. ‘To make Goodness!’

  Lucy stared at her, still not getting it. ‘But why?’ she asked. ‘I mean why do you need to make Goodness separately from the other tooth fairies?’

  ‘I’m making it to use on myself, of course,’ Precious said. ‘Everyone thinks I’m happy being bad, but I’m not. If you’re bad, nobody likes you and you get left out of things – you even get left out of Fairyland. So I’m going to use the Goodness dust to turn myself into a good fairy!’

  Lucy gaped at Precious, hardly able to believe what she was hearing.

  ‘You can come and see if you like,’ Precious offered, jumping up and leading the way across the landing into the bathroom, where the blue sack containing Lucy’s teeth was propped up against the bath.

  The bath itself was filled almost to the top with the same golden dust Lucy had seen before in the Goodness Factory, and Lucy stood and stared at it in amazement.

  ‘When I’ve turned all your teeth into Goodness too, I reckon I’ll have enough,’ Precious said.

  ‘Enough for what?’ Lucy asked.

  ‘Enough to make me good enough to pass through the Goodness curtain, of course!’ Precious was starting to sound excited. ‘Then I’ll be able to go home to Fairyland!’

  Lucy didn’t know what to say. She found herself suddenly feeling quite sorry for Precious – and she wanted to help her get back to Fairyland again too. But she wasn’t sure that the way Precious was planning to do it was the answer.

  ‘You can stay and watch if you want,’ Precious told her. ‘There isn’t time for you to go and fetch the other fairies now in any case.’

  Before Lucy had time to reply, Precious removed the first tooth from the sack and flew up to hold it out over the bath. Then she leaned forward and kissed it – just like Goldie had done to the tooth in the Goodness Factory – and suddenly the tooth exploded into a cloud of golden dust.

  The whole bathroom lit up as the Goodness dust showered down to join the rest already in the bath.

  Precious took out the remaining five teeth one by one and repeated the action five times. Then, when all the teeth had been changed into Goodness, Precious asked Lucy to wait outside while she took her Goodness bath.

  ‘You mean you’re going to take a bath in that?’ Lucy exclaimed.

  ‘Of course. How else am I going to become a good fairy?’

  ‘But are you sure it’s safe?’

  ‘How can Goodness not be safe?’ Precious said. ‘Though I might be so good when I come out that you won’t recognize me!’

  So Lucy went back into the bedroom to wait and, as she sat down on the bed, she started to feel a bit light-headed. At first she thought it was just all the excitement, but then she felt her arms and legs begin to tingle.

  It was then that she remembered the shrinking spell. Goldie had told her that shrinking spells never lasted long if you were outside Fairyland. Her head was getting dizzier and as she felt the familiar tingling sensation spread over her body, she knew that she had to get out of the doll’s house straight away.

  Just in time, Lucy remembered her fairy wings. She dragged herself over to the window and flew out of it, making sure she headed straight for the ground. She landed just in time. One second she was fairy-sized and the next she was back to her full size again – sitting on the floor of the loft.

  She stayed where she was, feeling her heart racing. She felt dizzy and a little bit sick. Everything looked completely different now. In fro
nt of her was the doll’s house – looking toy-sized in comparison to before.

  Suddenly Precious emerged from the front door and Lucy immediately saw that she looked different too – and not just because she seemed so much smaller. Her clothes, her skin and her shiny dark hair were all sparkling so brightly that just looking at her made Lucy blink.

  ‘It worked!’ Precious exclaimed. ‘I’m covered in Goodness now. That silly Goodness curtain will have to let me through!’

  ‘My shrinking spell’s worn off,’ Lucy said when it didn’t seem as if Precious was going to mention it.

  ‘You don’t say,’ Precious joked. ‘Well, that’s what happens, I’m afraid. Shrinking spells always wear off in the most inconvenient places! That’s why I didn’t even bring Izzy here. I’d used up my last bit of shrinking dust on her, so I knew I couldn’t shrink her again when the spell wore off. I didn’t want her to get trapped up here, you see.’

  ‘Trapped?’ Lucy looked around her in alarm. ‘But there must be some way out.’

  ‘There isn’t. You can’t get down into the house from up here.’

  ‘But there must be some sort of door,’ Lucy said, starting to feel anxious.

  ‘There is, but it’s been locked from the landing side.’

  ‘Well, can’t you get inside the house and unlock it?’ Lucy asked her.

  ‘I haven’t got time,’ Precious said. ‘I have to get back to the Golden pillowcase before all this Goodness wears off.’ She started to fly towards the fairy-sized hole that led outside. ‘You’ll be all right. Once I’m back in Fairyland I’ll tell Queen Eldora where you are. Then she’ll send someone to let you out.’

  ‘But that might take ages,’ Lucy protested. ‘You can’t leave me here all on my own!’

  ‘You’ll be OK,’ Precious said again. ‘I won’t forget about you. Don’t worry.’

  ‘Precious, please,’ Lucy pleaded, hearing her voice begin to tremble. ‘I’m frightened.’

  Precious paused for a moment, frowning. Then she seemed to shake off any doubt about it as she snapped, ‘You should have thought about that when you volunteered to come and spy on me! You weren’t frightened then, were you?’

  ‘Well, I am now,’ Lucy said, fighting back tears.

  But Precious had already disappeared through the hole in the roof.

  Lucy desperately started to search for the door that led down into the main part of the house. She soon found it but, just as Precious had said, there seemed to be no way of opening it from her side. She tried to push the door downwards, then she tried pulling it upwards, but it wouldn’t budge either way. Precious must be right about it being locked.

  Lucy felt her mouth go dry. What was she going to do?

  It was a horrible feeling being trapped, and even though Precious had promised to send someone to help her when she reached Fairyland, Lucy didn’t trust her to remember – at least, not straight away. Lucy might be stuck there for several hours, or even for the whole day. What would her parents think when they found out she was missing? Grandpa, Thomas and Izzy would all be worried too.

  Lucy sat down in the middle of the loft, hugging her knees. Then, to make things even worse, the lights in the doll’s house suddenly went out. She was in total darkness now. And, even though Lucy wasn’t a child who cried easily, she felt a big tear roll down her cheek as she tried to stop trembling.

  She thought about what Thomas would say – that she was scared because she was a girl. She knew that wasn’t true – girls were just as brave as boys – but even so she wished that Thomas was with her now. Maybe if she hadn’t been so quick to use up all the shrinking dust on herself, they might have been able to share it between them. Then they could have followed Precious together while Grandpa went to rescue Izzy.

  Lucy felt more and more guilty as she sat in the dark thinking about how she had brought all of this on herself. Even if there hadn’t been enough shrinking dust for both her and Thomas, Lucy thought now, the fair thing would have been to flip a coin to decide who got to use it. She couldn’t help wondering what Thomas would think when she didn’t return home as planned. Maybe he wouldn’t be worried about her at all. Maybe he would just feel pleased that she was gone. She felt even more alone as she thought that.

  Suddenly she felt a draught at her back and she turned to see Precious hovering in the air behind her.

  ‘Precious!’ Lucy gasped. ‘You came back!’

  ‘I’d forgotten the lights would go out after I left,’ Precious said, sounding apologetic. She snapped her fingers and the lights in the doll’s house instantly came on again.

  ‘Oh, Precious, thank you.’ Lucy felt like crying with relief now.

  ‘Yes . . . well . . . for some reason as soon as I flew away I started to feel guilty about leaving you,’ Precious said, frowning, ‘which is very strange since I don’t usually feel guilty about anything. It wasn’t a nice feeling at all. Anyway, I’ve decided I’d better get you out of here after all.’

  ‘How?’ Lucy asked, as Precious started to fly away from her again.

  ‘I’ll go down the chimney into the house and then I’ll find the door to the loft and see how they’ve locked it. We’ll have to do this very quickly though, before my Goodness dust wears off.’ She had flown outside again before she’d even finished talking.

  It wasn’t long before Lucy heard Precious’s high-pitched voice on the other side of the loft door. ‘A removal van was pulling up outside as I flew down the chimney,’ the fairy shouted out to her. ‘I think the new owners must be arriving.’

  ‘Well, hurry up then!’ Lucy burst out, starting to panic again. ‘What’s the lock like? Can you undo it?’

  ‘It’s just a bolt,’ Precious called back, ‘but it’s a bit stiff . . .’ There was a long silence, punctuated by little grunting noises as Precious tugged at it. ‘All right, you can push the door now!’

  The door itself was a bit stiff too at first, but Lucy soon managed to budge it and it swung open so suddenly that she only just stopped herself from falling through the hole.

  ‘Your fairy wings won’t support you now you’re human-sized,’ Precious told her, ‘so you’ll have to jump down.’

  ‘It’s too far to jump,’ Lucy said. ‘Isn’t there a ladder we can borrow from somewhere?’

  ‘There isn’t time!’

  ‘Well, I can’t just jump!’ Lucy protested. ‘I’ll hurt myself!’

  Precious frowned as if she was thinking very carefully about something. ‘I could use up the rest of my Goodness dust on you, I suppose,’ she finally muttered. She quickly explained to Lucy what she meant. ‘Once, when Goldie and Bonnie were in a children’s playground sprinkling the air with Goodness dust, a little girl lost her hold on the climbing frame. They could see she was going to fall so they threw the rest of their Goodness dust on the ground where they thought she’d land – and she ended up having such a good landing that she wasn’t hurt at all. I suppose I could try the same thing with you.’ Precious reached inside the pockets of her dress and brought out two handfuls of golden dust.

  ‘I thought you used up all your Goodness dust in your bath,’ Lucy said in surprise.

  ‘I kept a little bit back in case I needed a top-up when I got to the Goodness curtain,’ Precious explained, as she sprinkled the dust on to the floor directly under the loft entrance. ‘Now jump!’

  Lucy stared down at the sparkling carpet and jumped – landing on the floor with a thump that was ten times softer than she’d expected it to be.

  ‘A very good landing!’ Precious said approvingly. ‘Now, let’s go.’

  They were just about to go down the stairs when the front door opened and voices sounded in the hall.

  ‘Hide!’ Precious hissed, pointing to one of the empty bedrooms. ‘I’ll go down and distract them. When I give the signal, you run downstairs and escape through the front door and I’ll follow you and meet you back at your house.’

  ‘What signal?’ Lucy whispered, but Precious had a
lready disappeared.

  Two minutes later, Lucy heard a loud crash coming from downstairs and she guessed that the signal had been given. The two adults who had been standing in the hallway headed off in the direction of the noise, which had come from the back of the house. Lucy knew that this was her chance to escape out the front. She tiptoed down the stairs, across the hall and out through the open door.

  There was a large removal van outside and a car parked in the driveway, which Lucy guessed must belong to the new owners of the house. The removal men, who were starting to unload their van, stared at her as she ran past and one of them grunted, ‘Where did she come from?’ But they didn’t try to stop her.

  Lucy ran up the road towards her own house without looking back and when she got there she hurried round to the back door where she hoped there would be someone to let her in.

  She knocked on the door and it was opened immediately by Thomas.

  ‘You’ve been ages!’ he exclaimed. ‘We were getting really worried about you! We’ve had to make Mum and Dad breakfast in bed to make sure they didn’t get up and find out you’d gone.’

  Izzy was in the kitchen too and Lucy was so relieved to see her back to her normal size again that she rushed over to give her little sister a hug. ‘We got such a fright when Precious kidnapped you, Izzy! Are you OK now?’