by Kiki Thorpe
“They have lights in their bottoms,” Gabby replied.
“That’s right,” said Iridessa. “But they can be hard to see in the daytime. That’s why we need a plan. We should start by looking for puddles. Then we move on to shady thickets. Then we’ll go— Are you listening, Gabby? Gabby?”
Iridessa turned. The little girl had vanished.
Iridessa hovered, looking around. She’s ten times the size of a fairy, she thought. How is it possible that I’ve lost her already?
“BOO!” Gabby yelled, springing up from behind a bush. Iridessa was so startled that she fell from the air. She landed in a giant fern.
Gabby giggled. “I scared you!”
Iridessa could barely conceal her annoyance. “Gabby, we don’t have time for games. Just stay close, now.”
This time Iridessa flew behind so she could keep an eye on Gabby. But it wasn’t easy. The little girl was all over the place! She’d stop to admire a fuzzy caterpillar. Then suddenly, she’d dash off to examine a mushroom or peek into a hollow log.
“It’s harder than herding a butterfly!” Iridessa groaned.
Before she could stop her, Gabby darted away again. In an instant, she had vanished among the trees.
At last, Iridessa spotted the tips of Gabby’s wings poking out from behind a mossy oak. “What are you up to now?” she asked, flying over.
Gabby was holding a silver dandelion. Iridessa watched as she closed her eyes and blew away all the seeds with a single breath. Ever since they’d entered the forest, Gabby had stopped to pick every dandelion she’d seen. It was starting to drive Iridessa crazy.
“Why do you do that?” she asked.
“For a wish,” Gabby said.
“On a dandelion?” Iridessa had never heard of such a thing.
“When you wish on a dandelion, a fairy hears your wish and makes it come true,” Gabby replied. “That’s what Mia says.”
Iridessa frowned. Never fairies didn’t grant wishes. In Iridessa’s opinion, planning was how you went about making sure things turned out as you wanted. What a lot of silly ideas Clumsies have, she thought.
Suddenly, Gabby’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, look! A firefly!” She pointed at a glimmer of light ahead in the trees.
A single firefly wasn’t worth the trouble of chasing, Iridessa thought. But Gabby was already darting after it. “It’s not— Wait! Come back!” Iridessa cried.
Gabby scrambled over rocks and under branches, grabbing for the firefly that was always out of reach. Iridessa was surprised at how fast the girl could run. She could barely keep up.
In moments, they were deep in the woods. The trees grew close together. But it wasn’t just the trees blocking out the light—the whole forest seemed to be growing darker, almost as if night was coming on.
That can’t be right, Iridessa thought. Sunset is hours away.
She glanced up at the sky. Between the towering trees, she could see thunderheads gathering. Storms were rare in Never Land. But they did happen.
Suddenly, Iridessa felt worried. She put on a burst of speed to catch up with Gabby. “Don’t go so far. We need to…”
Iridessa trailed off, forgetting the rest of her thought. Gabby was standing in the center of a clearing, surrounded by thousands of fireflies. They wove patterns in the air around her. The little girl danced with joy.
Iridessa lived in an enchanted world, but even to her, the scene was like magic. She’d never seen so many fireflies glowing so brightly. For just one moment, Iridessa forgot about her plan and her schedule. She didn’t even think of trying to herd all the fireflies. Instead, she flew up next to Gabby. Together, they laughed and danced as the fireflies swirled around them.
Then, all at once, the lights winked out.
“What happened?” Gabby asked.
“Something scared them off,” Iridessa replied, looking around.
CRRACK! There came a clap of thunder so loud Iridessa felt it in her bones. The sky opened up, and rain poured down. It came so hard and fast that it washed Iridessa right out of the air.
The fairy landed hard on the muddy ground. She tried to stand and run for shelter. But before she could, a rivulet of water picked her up and swept her away.
Iridessa bounced over the ground, carried by the water. She grabbed at roots and blades of grass, trying to hold on. But the water tore her off. It swept up everything in its path. Leaves and sticks slammed against her. The forest spun above her. She was going to drown!
Suddenly, a hand grabbed her roughly and lifted her into the air. Iridessa found herself looking into a pair of wide brown eyes.
“Gabby!” Iridessa was so relieved she could have cried.
“Are you okay?” the girl asked.
Iridessa nodded. She was muddy and bruised. Her wings were too wet to fly. But she wasn’t badly hurt.
Cradling Iridessa in her hands, Gabby ducked under a giant fern. They waited out the storm. It didn’t last long. Almost as quickly as it had come, the rain cleared up.
Iridessa fanned her wet wings, trying to dry them. “We’d better go back to Pixie Hollow before we get caught in another storm,” she told Gabby. “You’ll have to carry me for now. I can’t fly with wet wings.”
“Okay,” said Gabby. “Which way do we go?”
“This way.” Iridessa pointed into the trees. “No … that doesn’t look right. Is it this way?” She spun in a circle. But each way she turned, the trees looked the same.
With a sinking feeling, Iridessa realized they were lost.
“Are you sure about this, Kate?” Lainey asked.
Kate was using the hammer to work another nail loose from the fence board. “How else are we going to get into the garden to find Rosetta?” she asked.
“We could ring Mrs. Peavy’s doorbell,” Lainey suggested. “We could say we lost a ball in her yard.”
“She’ll never let us in,” Mia said. “She doesn’t even answer the door for trick-or-treaters. On Halloween, she turns off all the lights and closes her drapes.”
“I heard she’s a witch,” Lainey whispered.
“I heard that, too,” said Mia.
Kate frowned. “I thought witches were supposed to love Halloween.” She pulled the nail out. Pushing the board sideways made a gap just big enough to squeeze through.
The girls all looked at each other. “Who’s going?” asked Kate. For the first time in her life, she didn’t look eager to have an adventure.
“Let’s do rock-paper-scissors,” Mia suggested. “On the count of three. One … two … three!”
Mia scissored her fingers. Kate and Lainey both curled their fists into rocks.
Mia swallowed hard. “Okay,” she said. “Wish me luck.”
“Good luck,” said Lainey.
“Don’t get turned into a frog,” said Kate.
Mia scowled at her, then crawled through the fence.
She found herself in an overgrown garden. The grass grew a foot high and the flower beds were choked with weeds. The few flowers that remained were wilted, and the herbs had all gone to seed. The sole tree in the garden was so strangled by ivy that Mia couldn’t see an inch of its bark.
It sure looks like a witch’s garden, Mia thought. She glanced up at the house, but the shades were drawn. Was it possible that Rosetta was trapped inside?
Mia tiptoed farther into the garden.
Just then, she spotted her friend. The fairy was crouched beside a bedraggled rosebush. It looked as if she was talking to it.
Mia hurried over. “There you are! We thought something happened to you. We were so worried!”
Rosetta looked up at her with tears in her eyes. “Mia, look at this place. Who would do this to a garden? Flowers need love and care. You can’t just ignore them.”
Mia was getting anxious. Mrs. Peavy could come back any minute. “We should go now,” she whispered.
“But, Mia,” Rosetta said, widening her eyes. “I can’t leave them like this!”
“You there!”
a gravelly voice rang out, making Mia’s blood run cold. “What are you doing in my garden?”
Mia turned and saw Mrs. Peavy standing a few feet away. The woman was wearing a wide-brimmed hat that cast a shadow over the top half of her face, so Mia couldn’t see her eyes. But her mouth was turned down in a deep frown. She gripped a gardening trowel in her fist as if it were a weapon.
Mia’s lips moved, but no words came out. They seemed to be stuck in her throat.
“Speak up!” Mrs. Peavy came closer. Now Mia could see her eyes. They were a startling shade of blue.
“Who were you talking to?” the woman snapped. “And don’t lie to me. I can smell a lie a mile away.”
Is that why her nose is so long? Mia wondered. For smelling lies? It seemed like something a witch might be able to do. Mia decided not to take any chances. “I was talking to a fairy,” she answered honestly.
“A fairy?” Mrs. Peavy made a sour face. “What nonsense!”
“But it’s true!” Mia said. “She’s right here!”
“What nonsense!” the woman repeated. “You must be a very silly girl.”
“It’s no use talking to her,” Rosetta said, flying up next to Mia. “Most grown-ups can’t see me. You can’t see fairies if you don’t believe in them.”
How sad, Mia thought, not to be able to see magic even when it’s right in front of your eyes. Suddenly, Mrs. Peavy didn’t seem like a witch. She just seemed like a lonely old woman. A very grouchy lonely old woman.
“Now,” Mrs. Peavy was saying, “what are you going to do about my hollyhocks?”
She pointed at the fence, where a row of unkempt hollyhocks grew. Mia saw that where she’d come through, she’d knocked over a few of the tall flowers. “You’ll have to pay for them,” her neighbor said.
“But I don’t have any money!” Mia exclaimed.
“Then you’ll have to work it off,” said Mrs. Peavy, folding her arms.
Moments later, Mia found herself kneeling on the ground, pulling up weeds in Mrs. Peavy’s garden. “This is terrible!” Mia whispered to Rosetta. “It will take a hundred years to weed this garden. We’re never going to find Gabby. Or get you home again.”
“This is my fault,” said Rosetta. “If only she would go away!” She frowned at Mrs. Peavy, who was sitting on the patio, watching Mia like a hawk.
“You missed a spot!” the old woman called as the phone inside her home started to ring. She got up to answer it.
“It’s about time!” Rosetta declared. Without wasting another moment, she began to fly in circles. As she did, the garden started to change.
Weeds shrank. Leaves sprouted. Brown grass turned green again. Wilted flowers straightened and burst into bloom. Round and round Rosetta went, leaving a trail of beauty in her wake. When the entire garden had been transformed, Rosetta flew back to Mia. “There,” she said, dusting off her hands. “That’s much better.”
Just then, Mrs. Peavy returned from the house. “I hope you’ve been pulling up weeds, not— What on earth?”
She froze at the sight of her beautiful garden and Mia standing in its midst.
“I’m finished, Mrs. Peavy,” Mia said cheerily. When the woman didn’t reply, she added, “I’ll just let myself out the gate.”
Mia left her neighbor staring in awe, the frown at last wiped clear off her face.
When Mia and Rosetta returned to the house, they found Kate and Lainey still waiting in the backyard. Lainey was biting her nails. Kate was pacing the length of the fence like a tiger in a zoo.
“What took you so long?” Lainey cried when she saw them.
“We thought for sure the witch got you,” Kate added.
“She’s not a witch,” Mia told them. “She’s just a cranky old lady who needed a little bit of magic.” She looked at Rosetta, who winked.
“While you were gone, we found something,” Lainey reported. She pointed at one of the fence boards. “The nails here are a different color. They’re new!”
“It must be the board your dad fixed,” Kate explained. “That means it’s the one that leads to Pixie Hollow!”
“Good work, guys,” Mia said, picking up the hammer. She felt bad to be undoing her father’s work. But what other choice did she have?
Mia was just working the hammer under the edge of the nail when the growl of a lawn mower made her jump. She turned to see her father pushing their mower around the side of the house.
Rosetta clapped her hands over her ears. “What is that thing? It’s louder than a bullfrog with a bellyache!”
“A lawn mower!” Kate shouted back. “It’s for cutting the grass!”
Rosetta made a face. “All that fuss? Over a lawn’s haircut?”
“Mia!” her father yelled. He said something else, but the sound of the mower drowned out the rest.
“What?” Mia cried.
Mr. Vasquez cut the motor. “I’ve got to mow the lawn. You girls need to play somewhere else for now.” He looked around. “Where’s Gabby?”
The girls all spoke at once.
“In the bathroom.”
“Hiding.”
“Upstairs.”
“She’s hiding in the bathroom upstairs,” Mia said quickly. “We’re, er, playing hide-and-seek.”
“You’ll have to finish your game inside. At least until I’m done out here.” Her father reached down and started the mower again.
The girls trudged inside. They watched from the kitchen window as Mia’s father pushed the mower back and forth. “At this rate, we’ll never get back to Never Land,” Kate complained.
On the windowsill, Rosetta was worried. “Isn’t there some way we can stop it?” she asked Mia.
Mia shook her head. “Once he starts mowing the lawn, he always finishes. Except…”
“Except what?” asked Lainey.
“Well, I was just thinking of one time when I left a jump rope on the lawn,” Mia explained. “Papi didn’t see it and mowed right over it. The mower jammed. He had to spend the rest of the day fixing it.”
“That’s what we can do!” Kate said. “We’ll jam the mower!”
“No,” Mia said firmly. “That’s too dangerous. Papi said so. He was really mad last time. But maybe there’s another way we can stop it.”
Lainey was leaning out the window and studying the mower. “What’s that bag on the back for?” she asked.
“It catches all the grass clippings,” Mia said.
“That’s what I thought,” Lainey said. “Well, what if there was a little hole in the bag. He’d have to stop and fix that, right?”
“So you’re saying we should put a hole in the bag?” Mia thought about it. “It’s not a bad idea.”
“Don’t you think he’d see us doing something like that?” Kate asked.
“He’d see us,” Mia said. “But he wouldn’t see Rosetta.” The girls all turned to the fairy.
Rosetta’s eyes widened. “Oh no, not me! I’m a garden fairy. Holes aren’t one of my talents, remember?”
“Please, Rosetta!” Mia said. “We have to get Gabby back. Otherwise, who knows what will happen—the passage to Never Land might stay closed forever! You might never get home.”
Rosetta looked from Mia to Lainey to Kate. “To think I went through all this trouble for a pretty dress. Okay, I’ll do it,” she said with a sigh.
The girls decided that Mia should distract her father while Rosetta made the hole. Mia found a pair of nail scissors in a bathroom drawer. They were small enough for the tiny fairy to carry.
“Be careful,” Mia said as she held them out to Rosetta.
Rosetta said nothing, but she took the scissors. Clutching them against her chest, she flew out the kitchen window into the backyard.
After Rosetta was in place, Mia went out the back door. “Papi!” she shouted.
When her father turned to her, she held up a glass of lemonade. “I thought you might need something to drink.”
Her father cut the motor. “Well, that’s
very nice of you, Mia,” he said, taking the glass. Over his shoulder, Mia could see Kate and Lainey watching. But where was Rosetta?
Then Mia spotted her. The fairy was perched on a tulip at the edge of the flower bed.
Why doesn’t she go? Mia wondered. Then she noticed the flower trembling. She realized—Rosetta was scared!
Go, Rosetta, go! Mia silently urged.
After what seemed like an eternity, Rosetta lifted off the flower. She began to fly slowly toward them.
Mr. Vasquez finished the lemonade in two big gulps. He handed the glass back to Mia.
“Wait!” Mia cried, stalling for time. “Um … don’t you want some more?”
“Not right now, thanks,” her father said. “Maybe when I’m done.” He reached down to start the mower.
With a jerk of the cord, the motor roared to life. Her father grabbed the handle of the mower and began to push.
Where was Rosetta? Mia couldn’t see her. Had she made the hole? She glanced at the kitchen window. Kate’s mouth was a round O. Lainey had her hands over her eyes.
Just then, Mia saw Rosetta. She was clinging to the mower bag as if for dear life. Then Mia’s father turned the mower, and Rosetta disappeared from view.
Mia gasped.
Suddenly, a plume of grass clippings shot from the bag like a stream of smoke. Rosetta flew around the side of the mower. She smiled and waved at Mia.
Mia’s heart gave a leap. She’d done it!
“What the—” Mia’s father stopped the mower. He bent to examine the bag. Then, grumbling and shaking his head, he rolled the lawn mower back toward the garage.
Now was their chance! Rosetta flew over to Mia, and Kate and Lainey hurried outside. The girls met by the fence board.
“Way to go, Rosetta!” Mia said.
“That was cool,” Kate agreed. She picked up the hammer, knelt down, and began to pry at the nail.
“Hurry, Kate!” Mia crossed her fingers. “If we get Gabby back before Mami comes home, I swear I’ll never fight with her again.”
