by A W Hartoin
“What do you want me to do then?” she asked.
“I want you to ask Sarah and Marie to take us back to the antique mall.”
“What about the spriggans?”
“It’s the spriggans that I want to see.”
Tess didn’t say anything. She got out of bed and slipped on a fluffy purple robe.
“Tess?” I flitted in front of her face.
She bit her lip and shook her head. “You can’t go see the spriggans. They’re dangerous.”
“I can handle them. I’ve done it before. Miss Penrose will die without that medicine.”
“You don’t mean really dead, right?”
“She has congestive heart failure.”
“My friend Trudy’s grandma had that.”
“What happened to her?”
“She died.”
I flew in close and touched the warm tip of her nose. “Please call Sarah. It’s the only way.”
“What did your mom say?”
“A new healer showed up and Lucrece—” I made a face. “Lucrece says Miss Penrose has an allergy. Mom and Dad believe her, not me.”
“Maybe she’s right. Don’t you want her to be right?”
“Of course.”
“No, you don’t.” Judd leaned on Tess’s door with arms crossed and a wry smile.
“Yes, I do,” I said, crossing my own arms.
“You want to go back to the antique mall.”
“I want to help Miss Penrose.”
“Sure you do and if you can kick some spriggan butt while you’re doing it, that’s even better.”
“Shows what you know. I’m not going to kick any butts. I’m going to trade for the medicine. So there.” And if I could prove myself to the rest of the Whipplethorn fairies, so much the better.
“What are you going to trade?” asked Tess.
“I don’t know yet. I’ll figure it out.”
“What do spriggans like besides stinking and stealing?” asked Judd.
“Money,” I said.
“I’ve got some money,” said Judd. “How much do you need?”
“Human money doesn’t interest them. Too big. I have to find something they need or can sell.”
“What do they need?” asked Tess.
“Soap,” said Judd and we all laughed.
Tess started rooting around in the mess on top of her dresser and Judd punched a number into his cell phone.
“Hi, Gram. It’s Judd. Are you busy?” Judd listened. “Tess and I need a ride.” He paused. “Right now.” Another pause. “Please. It’s kind of important. We’ll explain it when you get here.”
Judd grinned at me. “They’re coming right over. I can’t believe we’re finally going to the antique mall. I can’t wait to see Soren and the rest of the fairies in person.”
“You don’t have to go.”
“Are you kidding? This is my chance.”
“Well, it might actually be fun. You’ll love Soren.” I smiled at the thought of my friend. Soren was a type of wood fairy known as a dryad. He and his group painted themselves to look like bird’s-eye maple. The illusion was perfect. The first time I met him I thought he was made of wood.
“Gram and Miss Marie have been dying to meet him, too.”
“You have the best great grandmother ever,” I said.
“She is pretty cool, especially for someone who’s related to me.”
“I’m related to you,” said Tess.
“That’s my point.”
“I wish you weren’t my brother.”
“I wish you weren’t mine either.”
“I’m your sister, stupid.”
“I am nowhere near stupid.”
“You got a B on your Cuba project. A measly B.”
Judd lunged for Tess and she jumped onto the bed, scurrying over to the other side.
“Stop it!” I yelled as I shot a cascade of flames in front of Judd’s face. “Miss Penrose is dying. This is serious.”
“Sorry,” said Judd.
“I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t fight with idiots,” said Tess.
“Tess!” I yelled.
“Sorry.” She ducked her head, but didn’t look a bit sorry. “I do have what you need though.” Tess held something out to me: a small green stone set in gold. It was one of the earrings Tess had been given for her ninth birthday.
“I can’t take your earring,” I said.
“You can have it. I lost the other one in the club swimming pool.”
I touched the brilliant stone. “Is it a real emerald?”
“Sure.”
“Can you carry it?” asked Judd.
I landed on Tess’s palm and heaved the earring to my waist. It wasn’t much heavier than the gold earring I’d used as a weapon against the spriggans in our last encounter. “No problem.”
I dropped it back in Tess’s palm and flew up to kiss her cheek. “Thank you. It is a far, far better thing that you do now than you have ever done before.”
Judd and Tess looked at me, puzzled. I pointed to the thick book on Tess’s desk that I’d recently finished, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. One of the best things about living with humans was their books. Sarah, the great grandmother, had insisted I start with the classics. They were a lot better than I expected, not that I had much to compare them to. Before we lived in Judd and Tess’s house, most of the books I’d read had been boring tomes on woodworking.
“I’ve got to get back,” I said. “When Sarah and Marie get here, I’ll be ready.”
I flew down the stairs, followed by the dogs. I passed by the kitchen area on the way to our mantel and spotted the Home Depot fairies marching in a line past the kitchen table. They carried bags, bulging with tools, and worse, Dad was right there, yelling and pointing.
I landed near them and the dogs sat on their wrinkly butts to await my next move.
“Dad! What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m stopping them.”
“From doing what?” I asked as Rebecca passed by and began loading dishes into the new dishwasher.
“They’re messing with the house. They’ll wreck it. We’ve got a good family here and they’re not going to ruin it.”
I looked back at the dogs and they cocked their heads to the side. “Girls, go get Mom.” The dogs trotted to the mantel and yipped at it.
“I don’t need Mom!” yelled Dad.
I pointed to the Home Depot fairies who had marched past us and were headed to the garage. “Looks like you do.”
Dad gave me the stink eye. “I am going to stop them and I don’t need Mom to do it.”
“Sure, Dad,” I said, not adding that he was pretty close to being known as Crazy Dad.
“Evan agrees with me.”
“Evan doesn’t even know you exist.”
As if to illustrate the point, Evan ran in yelling, “What are you doing?” He nearly stepped on the Home Depot fairies, but they didn’t try to dodge him at all. They just kept going in their line. Evan’s pant leg thwacked Dad in the face and almost knocked him over.
Rebecca looked up from her coffee. “What’s wrong with you?”
“The dishwasher isn’t hooked up. You’ll flood the house!”
Rebecca raised an eyebrow. “Works fine.”
Evan turned off the dishwasher and pulled it out. “I don’t believe it. It is hooked up.”
“I told you,” said Rebecca.
“But I was sure I didn’t hook up that last line.”
“You must’ve forgot. Have a donut.”
“I really don’t think I did.”
“Forget about it and, by the way, thanks for fixing the van taillight.”
“I didn’t fix that.”
“Well, it’s not broken anymore and the left sliding door doesn’t stick either.” She kissed him. “You’re on fire today. How about getting on the kids’ leaky shower next?”
The Home Depot fairies did an about-face, marched back through the living room and headed
for the stairs.
“Do you see that?” yelled Dad, his eyes bulging.
“So they’re fixing things. So what? That’s good,” I said.
“I can fix it!”
I took a step back. “Okay. Nobody said you couldn’t.”
Nobody would say he couldn’t because they didn’t dare. Dad could do anything with wood, but that was where his talents ended. He was hopeless with anything mechanical, which only made sense. He was a wood fairy and had lived his whole life in isolated Whipplethorn Manor. We hadn’t even had electricity.
Dad glanced around like he was looking for a weapon. “I’m going to put a stop to this.”
Behind Dad I spotted Iris, Gerald, and Ursula flying in from the garage. Iris waved at me to come on and then dodged behind a potted plant when Mom emerged from the mantel. She landed on Ellie’s snout and rode her toward us. Dad didn’t wait for her. He zipped up the stairs, presumably to head off the Home Depot fairies before they could fix the shower.
I landed beside Mom on Ellie’s velvety snout. “Dad’s losing it.”
Mom frowned. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with him. He can’t fix things. He doesn’t even know what most of them are.”
Iris waved again from behind the plant.
I had to get rid of Mom. “You better hurry. He’s looking for a weapon.”
Mom zipped off the snout and flew upstairs at her top speed which was saying something. Mom was really fast. I joined Iris, Gerald, and Ursula at my window. We stepped in and I checked Horc’s compress. The bleeding had stopped and the swelling had receded. Ursula hung by the window looking as though she might fly out of it at any second. She wore her lucky sweater, the green one with dragonflies on the sleeve. I hoped she’d keep wearing it. She’d need some luck.
“Did you have any problem getting away?” I asked.
“No. My dad was having a meeting,” she said and then blushed because my dad obviously hadn’t been invited.
“Iris explained what’s going on?”
“Yes, but why do you need me?”
“Miss Penrose needs you. Iris, Gerald, and I are going after a root to cure her, so I won’t be here to give her the meadowsweet and ma huang. You and Horc will have to handle that until we get back. Once a day should do it.”
“How long will you be gone?” asked Ursula.
“I don’t know. Maybe a couple of days. It might take a while to negotiate with the spriggans. We’re not exactly friends. All you have to do is dose Miss Penrose while I’m gone.”
“Your mom won’t let us with that Lucrece around.”
“You’ll have to find a way to get her, Dad, and Lucrece out of the room long enough to administer it. It only takes a second. You can do it.” I showed Ursula and Horc the bottles and dropper. “It’s three drops of each. Do it every morning. If she starts to get worse, dose her again. You can give her white willow, if she’s in pain.” I showed them the bottle and dosing instructions on the side.
“My dad won’t let me come over here.”
“Then don’t ask permission.”
“Matilda, I’m not like you. I can’t just disobey.”
“You’re here right now, and you’re not supposed to be,” I said.
“I don’t know.”
“You know Miss Penrose is dying. You saw it in her face, didn’t you?” I asked.
Her eyes filled with tears. “Yes. I think she is.”
“Then you’ll find a way. Horc will tell Easy and the three of you together will keep her alive until we get back.” I handed Horc the silver key to Grandma’s medicine bag and he tucked it in his pocket. “Don’t let Mom see that you have the key. She’ll get suspicious.”
“What about that Lucrece? What if she stops us? She doesn’t sound right. It’s like she doesn’t want to cure Miss Penrose.”
Gerald, who’d been standing in the corner uncharacteristically quiet, came forward. “I agree. If what Iris told us is true, she sounds very suspicious.”
“And more than you think,” said Horc. “While you were gone this morning I caught her looking through Grandma Vi’s books. She tried to pretend she wasn’t, but I’m quite certain she was reading the page on congestive heart failure.”
“Maybe she changed her mind about the diagnosis,” said Iris, hopefully.
“No, she did not,” said Horc. “She reconfirmed it with Mother shortly after.”
“You’ll have to keep a sharp eye on her,” I said. “Horc, see if Mom will let you stay with Miss Penrose and make sure that Lucrece doesn’t give her anything more than that useless tea.”
“I’ll insist upon it.” Horc slapped his fist into his other hand.
Iris touched my shoulder. “Sarah and Marie are here. We have to go.”
Iris, Gerald, and I packed carrying bags with water flasks and fruit leather. I asked Gerald to turn around and I slipped on a fitted knit dress I hoped Soren would like. It matched my eyes. Soren always liked my eyes.
Then I hugged Horc and then Ursula. “I know it’s going to be difficult, but you can do it. You have to.”
Then we flew out the window, certain we were doing the right thing, but I had a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. We were leaving at a bad time. Dad was on the rampage and Lucrece, well, I didn’t want to think about Lucrece. Whatever she was up to would have to wait.
CHAPTER SEVEN
SARAH AND MARIE stood by the front door, dressed in their usual black and casting sly glances around the room. Marie saw us first. Her eyes were the sharper of the two despite being two years older than Sarah. The only thing sharper on Marie was her tongue or maybe her wit. She acknowledged us with a slight nod and elbowed Sarah, who caught sight of us and smiled.
Rebecca frowned at the old ladies. “So what are you doing here?”
“We’ve decided to take your offspring for frozen yogurt,” said Marie.
“Unless you object, of course,” said Sarah, elbowing Marie back. “They are your children. You are in charge.”
“Children?” Marie snorted. “They’re practically grown.”
“Judd is only fourteen,” said Rebecca in a tired voice. Marie always made her tired, even if she’d just had a gallon of coffee and thirteen hours of sleep. I suspected Marie had that effect on a lot of people.
“By the time I was fourteen, I’d traveled throughout Europe and Asia. Alone, mind you, no governess.”
“They tried to give you a governess. She lost you in New York and you got on the ship without her,” said Sarah.
“She didn’t lose me. I lost her. The woman was a simpleton. It’s a wonder that she ever found her way home.”
Tess’s eyes were round, their normal state when Marie was in the room. “Did your governess get fired?”
“No. Not at all. I think my father gave her a raise for sticking with me as long as she did. She managed to last longer than the other ones, and she didn’t start drinking which was to her credit, I suppose.”
Rebecca shook her head like she was clearing cobwebs. “What were we talking about?”
“You were letting us take the children for frozen yogurt,” said Marie.
“I guess. When will you be back?” asked Rebecca.
“We’ll come back exactly when it’s time to be here,” said Marie, ushering us out the door and closing it in Rebecca’s confused face.
“Nice, Miss Marie,” said Judd. “I could learn a lot from you.”
“Heaven forbid,” said Sarah. “But quick, get in the car before your mother figures out we didn’t give her a time.”
Judd grinned. “Or that no one eats frozen yogurt at ten in the morning.”
We all got into Marie’s Shelby GT500 Super Snake and she gunned the engine.
“Hold on!” Sarah gripped the door and dashboard.
Gerald, Iris, and I hovered over a cupholder Marie had left open for us and filled with cotton. It was probably the safest place in the whole car. We landed on the white fluff and braced ourselves for the worst.
The Super Snake sped off down the street and Marie said, “Wave to your mother. She’s trying to stop us.”
Judd and Tess waved to Rebecca. Marie didn’t slow down. She never slowed down.
“Dear lord. I think this car is worse than the last one,” said Sarah, hanging on to her prim little hat.
Marie grinned. “If by worse, you mean that it has more horsepower and torque then yes, it’s worse.”
“Can’t you get a Cadillac? They make nice Cadillacs.”
“The fastest Cadillac only goes 198 mph. I was thinking of trading up to a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.”
“If you want that car, it has to be a terrible idea,” said Sarah. “Don’t you want to live?”
“That’s exactly what I want to do.” Marie cackled, shifted to a higher gear, and started changing lanes like she was a slalom ski racer. Gerald turned green and fell over. Iris paled, but managed to stay upright. Me? I was loving it.
“Slow down. You don’t even know where we’re supposed to be going,” said Sarah.
“Where are we going?” Marie asked, eyes wicked and ready for anything.
“The antique mall,” I said.
“Excellent.”
She made a sharp left turn and Tess’s fingernails dug into Marie’s leather seat back. Judd did a fist pump and Gerald threw up in his mouth.
“I don’t know about the antique mall,” said Sarah. “I think we’ll just get yogurt.”
Judd leaned forward and said, “We have to go. Miss Penrose is dying.”
Marie slowed. I’d never have believed it, if I hadn’t seen it myself.
“What happened to that sweet girl?” she asked.
“She has congestive heart failure,” I said and then told them the whole story.
Sarah dabbed her eyes. “Perhaps this Lucrece is right. She is older and more experienced.”
“No.” Marie banged her wrinkled hands on the steering wheel. “Never trust a woman named Lucrece. The name is practically synonymous with poison.”
“That’s Lucrezia.”
“Close enough. Her last name isn’t Borgia, is it?”
“She doesn’t have a last name. She called herself Lucrece the Meek, but she didn’t seem all that sure about it.”
“I don’t like it,” said Marie. “We’re not going to trust some Lucrezia—”
“Lucrece,” interrupted Sarah.
