Lily's Pesky Plant

by Kirsten Larsen

  Later, Lily found a quiet patch of clover and sat down alone. All day, not a single fairy had come to smell the roses or walk among the flowers of her garden. They had come only to complain.

  Bumble saw Lily’s slumped shoulders and sad expression. He flew over to her and gently bumped her arm.

  When Lily didn’t respond, Bumble flew in crazy loops and zigzags. He was pretending he’d had too much pollen. Usually that made Lily laugh.

  But Lily didn’t even smile. “Not now, Bumble,” she said with a sigh.

  Lily saw Iris flying toward her. Lily wished she would go away. She didn’t need to hear another “I told you so.”

  “What a day, huh?” Iris said as she landed in front of Lily.

  Lily shrugged.

  “Look on the bright side, Lily,” Iris said. She sat down beside her in the clover. “Everyone’s nose is so stuffed up, no one can smell those stinky flowers anymore.”

  Lily laughed. But a second later her smile faded.

  “All the other fairies want me to fix the plant,” she told Iris. “But what can I do? Can you stop the clouds from raining? Can you stop the wind from blowing? The plant is just doing what it normally does.”

  She glanced over at the plant. Despite its ugliness, awful smell, and itchy pollen, there was something special about it.

  “The thing is,” Lily added, “I think there’s more to it than just what we’ve seen.”

  Iris nodded. “I feel the same way.” A look of alarm crossed her face as another thought occurred to her. “Do you think it could be something bad?” she asked. “After all, it’s already caused so much trouble.…”

  Lily shook her head. “I don’t think so. I always know when there’s real trouble, because the plants in my garden tell me,” she explained. “When they’re tense, I know a big storm is coming. If there’s a fire anywhere in the forest, my flowers let me know even before I can smell smoke. But since I planted that strange seed in my garden, the other plants seem as happy and healthy as ever.”

  Iris looked around. It was true. The garden was bursting with color. Even the leaves of the clover they were sitting in seemed greener and fuller than usual.

  “If the plant were really bad, my garden wouldn’t look so good.” Lily sighed. “But all the other fairies are so angry with me. I don’t know what to do. I want the plants in my garden to make other fairies happy, not miserable.”

  “They make me happy,” Iris said quietly. She looked down and plucked at a cloverleaf. Then she said, “I should have stood up for our plant that day when the wasps came. It was wrong that I didn’t.”

  Lily looked at her and knew that she meant it.

  “It’s okay,” she said.

  “I like gardening with you,” Iris went on. “None of the other garden fairies like to have me in their gardens. I know what they say behind my back, you know. They say I’m incomplete.”

  Lily swallowed hard. Before fairies became fairies, they were laughs. But sometimes a bit of laugh broke off and the fairy ended up with something missing. A fairy like that was called “incomplete.”

  Lily had heard other garden fairies say that about Iris. She hadn’t realized that Iris had heard it as well. Suddenly, she felt sorry about the times when she’d wished Iris would go away.

  “You’re not incomplete,” Lily told her.

  “Maybe I am,” Iris said. “I love plants as much as any garden fairy. But growing them doesn’t come naturally to me the way it does to you. You know, I fibbed about the buttercups in my garden. They weren’t as big as soup pots. In fact, they weren’t very big at all.”

  Lily looked surprised. Iris had always made a big deal about her garden.

  Iris nodded, ashamed. “I could never keep things straight in my head. Which plants need shade, which like more sun. Which plants like to be watered in the morning, and which like water at night. That’s why I started to write things down. Then I got carried away. I started to write down everything I’d ever heard about all the plants in Never Land.” She shook her head. “But I guess it’s not the same as having a garden.”

  Lily thought about this for a moment. Then she smiled. “You do have a garden,” she said.

  Iris looked confused.

  “Right here.” Lily tapped the cover of Iris’s plant book. “Your garden is on these pages. I’ll bet it has more plants than any garden in Pixie Hollow.”

  Now Iris smiled. For a while, the two fairies sat quietly with their arms hooked around their knees. They looked up at the strange, ugly plant.

  “There is something special about that plant,” Iris said at last.

  “What is that?” asked Lily.

  “It made us friends,” Iris replied.

  That night after dinner, Lily went once more to her garden. She stood for a long time looking at the mysterious plant.

  “Where did you come from?” she murmured. “What are you? Why are you causing so many problems?”

  A breeze blew. A few more grains of pollen drifted down from the flower. Lily sneezed three times in a row. Ah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah-choo!

  The wind shifted, and suddenly Lily sensed a change in the garden. The buttercups, the grass, the lavender, even the mysterious plant all seemed alert. It was as if they were waiting for something.

  A raindrop fell from the sky. It landed on Lily’s head, soaking her hair. More raindrops splashed on the ground around her.

  Rain! Around Lily, the plants began to perk up. This was what they had been waiting for.

  The rain came down harder. Lily stretched out her arms and let herself get drenched. The rain washed the pink pollen out of her hair and off her skin.

  By the time Lily left the garden, her wings were too wet to fly. She had to walk all the way back to the Home Tree. But she didn’t mind.

  That night, she stayed up late. She watched the rain from the window of her room. For the first time in days, Lily felt happy. The rain was scrubbing Pixie Hollow clean, washing all the pollen away.

  LILY STARTED AWAKE. Was it morning? No, her room was still dark. Glancing out her window, she could see that the sky was starting to turn gray. It was just before dawn.

  Why did I wake up? Lily wondered.

  THUMP! Something banged against her window.

  Startled, Lily climbed out of bed. She crept over to her window and cautiously peered out.

  THUMP! A yellow and black shape threw itself against the window.

  Lily quickly undid the latch. “Bumble!” she cried as the bee flew into the room. “What are you doing here? What’s wrong?”

  Bumble buzzed urgently around her head. Then Lily heard a faint cry come through the open window.

  “HEEEEEELP!”

  Someone was in trouble! Without changing out of her nightclothes, Lily raced out of the Home Tree. Bumble followed on her heels.

  Outside, she met up with Tinker Bell and Rani. They, too, had heard the cry.

  “HEEEEEEELP!”

  “It’s coming from over there,” said Tinker Bell. Tink’s hair, which normally she wore in a ponytail, was loose around her shoulders. Both Tink and Rani were still wearing their pajamas. Like Lily, they had come straight from their beds.

  Bumble shot off in the direction Tink had pointed. The fairies followed him. The cries were coming from Lily’s garden.

  When they got there, they saw Pell and Pluck, two harvest-talent fairies. They were dangling from the branches of the mysterious plant.

  Pell and Pluck saw them, too. “Help us!” they cried.

  Tink flew over and grabbed Pell’s hands. She tried to pull her away from the tree. But Pell’s wings seemed to be glued to the branch.

  Tink looked closer. “They’re stuck in sap!” she cried. “We’ll need hot water to unstick them!”

  Lily grabbed a watering can and ran over to the little stream. She filled it with water, then brought it to Rani. Rani sprinkled a pinch of fairy dust on the water and waved her hand over it. It began to steam.

  Holding the wate
ring can between them, Lily and Tink flew to Pell. Carefully, they poured the hot water over Pell’s wings. Slowly, the sap began to loosen. Tink grabbed Pell’s wrists.

  Snap! Pell’s wings came free and she dropped. Only Tink’s grip on her wrists kept her from falling. Carefully, Tink lowered her to the ground.

  Then Tink and Lily flew to Pluck and freed her wings, too.

  When both harvest-talent fairies were on the ground, Lily and Rani used more hot water to wash the rest of the sap from their wings. The sap was hard to scrub away, but luckily neither of the fairies’ wings had been hurt.

  As Lily and Rani worked, Pell and Pluck talked over one another, explaining what had happened. “We woke up early—”

  Pell began. “Like we always do—” Pluck added. “And came down to the garden to pick raspberries—”

  “For breakfast, you know. The cooking fairies were going to make raspberry jam.”

  “We were flying through the garden—”

  “It was still dark out—”

  “So we couldn’t see anything. And I accidentally bumped against that plant.”

  “She got stuck!”

  “I got stuck! And when Pluck tried to help me, she got stuck, too!”

  “And then we heard an owl!”

  “We couldn’t move.”

  “We thought he’d catch us for sure!”

  “We called and called. We were afraid no one would ever hear us.”

  “It was so scary.”

  Pell and Pluck stretched out their wet wings to dry. By now the sun was up. Still, they were shivering in the cool morning air.

  “Rani,” said Lily, “will you go back to the Home Tree and get some hot tea and—”

  “—blankets?” Rani nodded. She put her fingers to her lips and whistled for Brother Dove, who acted as Rani’s wings. When he came, Rani climbed on his back and they flew off.

  Tink looked at Lily. “The other fairies are going to be upset,” she said.

  Lily nodded. “I know.”

  Tink gave Lily’s hand a squeeze.

  Lily’s heart sank. She knew Tink meant to be comforting. But Lily knew what that little squeeze meant.

  The worst was still to come.

  RANI RETURNED WITH several other fairies. Some carried blankets and a clay thermos full of hot tea. Others had come along simply to see what the fuss was about. Ree, the fairy queen, was with them.

  “What has happened?” Queen Ree asked.

  The two harvest-talent fairies repeated their story.

  When they were done, Vidia pushed her way to the front of the crowd. “That vile plant has caused nothing but trouble in Pixie Hollow. It should be cut down!” she cried.

  Some fairies in the crowd began to murmur, “She’s right. The plant is bad. We should get rid of it.”

  Lily stood with her hand on the plant’s stem. Her heart pounded in her chest. Would they try to uproot the plant right then and there?

  Suddenly, Tinker Bell moved over to stand beside the plant, too. She folded her arms across her chest and glared at Vidia and the grumbling fairies.

  Lily gave her a grateful look. She knew Tink didn’t care much for the plant. But Tink was a good friend. And a brave one.

  Just then, a familiar face moved through the crowd. It was Iris. She came to stand next to Lily, Tink, and the plant.

  “This is Lily’s garden. The plant belongs to her. You can’t just chop it down,” Iris declared.

  “That’s right,” said another voice. It was Rosetta. She joined Lily, Iris, and Tink. “This plant has my protection,” she declared.

  “And mine!”

  “And mine!”

  More garden fairies came out of the crowd. They gathered around Lily and the plant. Now there were two big groups of fairies facing each other. And everyone looked angry.

  “That plant is a menace to all fairies!” Vidia shouted. “Pell and Pluck could have been caught by an owl this morning.”

  More fairies raised their voices in agreement.

  “It’s not the plant’s fault they were flying in the dark without a lamp!” a garden sparrow man argued.

  “That plant is ugly!” cried a light-talent fairy.

  “It’s a monster!” added a cooking-talent sparrow man.

  “You’re a monster. Plant hater!” a garden-talent fairy snapped back.

  “Petalhead!” the sparrow man retorted.

  Suddenly, another voice rang out like a bell.

  “Fairies!”

  Everyone turned to look. Queen Ree was standing with her hands on her hips. She glowered at the crowd of fairies before her.

  “What a disgrace. This is not how we settle a disagreement in Pixie Hollow,” said the queen. Her voice sounded cool, but her gaze was stern. Behind her, the queen’s four attendants glared at the crowd. “Shouting. Name-calling. I’m disappointed in all of you,” the queen declared.

  Several fairies in the crowd hung their heads. Vidia lifted her chin defiantly.

  “At noon tomorrow we will have a meeting in the courtyard of the Home Tree,” said the queen. “All fairies are to attend—that includes you, Vidia.”

  She fixed the fast-flying fairy with a steely look. Vidia was known for disobeying the queen’s commands. Vidia tossed her hair as if she didn’t care. But the look on her face said she understood.

  “Everyone will have a chance to speak,” the queen continued. “Until then, I want all fairies to return to their fairy domains. Now.”

  Grumbling, the groups of fairies broke up and left.

  Lily flew over to Pell and Pluck. “Let me help you carry some raspberries back to the kitchen,” she said.

  “I think you’ve done enough,” Pell snapped.

  “First the wasps, now this,” Pluck added.

  “From now on, we’ll get our raspberries somewhere else,” said Pell.

  Lifting their chins, the two fairies turned their backs on Lily and flew away.

  Lily’s heart sank. No one would enjoy her garden as long as the plant was standing. But after taking care of it so lovingly, how could she bear to cut it down?

  For the rest of the day, no one was happy. Despite the queen’s commands, the fairies couldn’t seem to get along.

  When a weaving-talent fairy tried to collect sweetgrass to weave her baskets, the garden fairies snubbed her. The cooking-talent fairies argued with the harvest-talent fairies, and as a result, no one got any lunch. Hungry and cross, a light fairy snapped at a water fairy. The water fairy splashed her, and soon the light fairies and the water fairies weren’t speaking to each other. Each talent group was annoyed with the other.

  Lily stayed away from the Home Tree. She spent the whole day sitting in the skimpy shade of the mysterious plant. And after a lot of thinking, she came to a decision.

  “If the fairies of Pixie Hollow decide that the plant should be cut down, I must not stand in their way,” Lily told herself. It pained her to say it. But she knew that the most important thing was keeping the peace in the fairy kingdom.

  “I only hope they don’t make me do it,” she added. Lily had never swung an axe in her life. She didn’t think she would be able to.

  Just then, Spring, a message-talent fairy, flew quickly into the garden. She landed next to Lily.

  Spring seemed to be out of breath. She took a couple of deep gulps of air. “I have a message from the queen,” she managed at last.

  Lily nodded and waited.

  “The meeting has been changed. All fairies are to meet in the courtyard at sundown,” Spring explained.

  Lily’s eyes widened. But it wasn’t only because of the message. Something strange was happening behind Spring’s head.

  A yellow fruit the size of a gooseberry was growing from one of the plant’s branches. And it seemed to be getting bigger before Lily’s eyes!

  “There has been too much fighting,” Spring went on. She hadn’t noticed Lily’s startled expression. “The queen doesn’t want to wait until tomorrow to settle thi
s.”

  But Lily wasn’t listening. She gaped at the fruit. It had already grown to the size of a small grape.

  I can’t let Spring see this, Lily thought. She’ll tell the queen, and then the plant will be cut down for sure!

  Quickly, Lily jumped up. She whisked her daisy-petal sun hat off her head and hung it over the rapidly growing fruit.

  Spring turned to face her.

  Lily smiled innocently. “Courtyard at sundown,” she repeated. “I’ll be there.” She was eager to get Spring out of her garden as quickly as possible.

  Spring nodded. “Good. Well, I’m off. I’ve got to get the message to the rest of the fairy kingdom. If you see anyone, you’ll be sure to let them know?”

  “Yes—oh!” Lily gasped. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another odd fruit growing from a branch nearby.

  “What is it?” Spring started to turn.

  Lily sprang into the air, blocking Spring’s view. She hovered there, dramatically clutching her foot. Think fast, Lily told herself. “I mean—ow! I just stepped on a pine needle!” she exclaimed.

  Spring looked at the ground. There was no pine needle in sight. In fact, there wasn’t a pine tree anywhere near Lily’s garden. She gave Lily a curious look.

  “Well, then, see you tonight,” Spring said.

  Lily nodded. “Fly safely,” she sang cheerily.

  When Spring was gone, Lily breathed a sigh of relief. Then she stepped back to look at the plant. Yellow fruits with bumpy skin were growing from all its branches. They got bigger and bigger before Lily’s eyes. And, Lily noticed with dismay, uglier and uglier.

  Lily clutched her head unhappily. If anyone saw the plant now…She couldn’t finish the thought.

  She glanced at the sun. It was low in the sky—almost time for the sunset meeting.

  If I can keep anyone from seeing the plant before then, Lily thought, there might still be a chance to save it.

  THE SUN WAS sinking on the horizon as the fairies made their way to the roots of the Home Tree. Already the courtyard was in shadow. Light fairies posted themselves all around its edges, brightening the space with their glow.