Missi - a fairy story

 

Missi was fed up now. A joke was a joke but it had gone too far and she
was getting hungry. ‘You’ll have to wait until someone comes
along and helps you’ Jem had said, the others laughing with him and
at her. He’d made sure that she wasn’t able to free herself one
last time and then had led his ‘merry men’ away, laughing and
slapping each other on the back as they went.

It seemed funny at the time, a bit of a lark. She was sure she’d be
back to wipe the smile off his face in no time but she felt the last
laugh was on her now. Hours had passed by, lots of people too, but
no one had been willing to help her and now she was fed up. More than
fed up. She was close to being furious. Hunger always roused her
temper, even her mother made sure that Missi was the first of her
eleven children to be fed at meal times.

‘It’s like trying to calm a fiery dragon asking Missi to wait when she’s
hungry! And we know what fiery dragons can be like, don’t we,
George?’ Missi’s father remembered his last scorching and nodded
with a grimace. For the sake of family contentment it was agreed
that Missi, despite being second from last, was head of the queue at
mealtimes.

But today Missi wasn’t at the head of any queue and she was hungry.
Very hungry.

Simon Simple had eaten his lunch and all the snacks that he’d packed when
he set out on his walk and was feeling a bit peckish himself. His
mother had sent him out for the day, to get some exercise, and he was
wondering how much longer it would be until he could safely walk back
into his mother’s kitchen and help himself to one of her wonderful
pies. Or a piece of her famous fruit cake. His mouth began to water
at the very thought which is why he walked past Missi without
noticing her the first time.

The need to be back home and sitting at the kitchen table and helping
himself to all those lovely things that his mother had backed this
morning had ensured Simon turned back and was retracing his steps
sooner than he’d planned.

Which was fortunate for Missi, although she didn’t think so when she saw
the boy walking back towards her. So far, everybody had walked past
her without paying her any attention but this chubby boy would be the
first to walk by her twice and the humiliation of it made Missi burst
into tears! And as we all know, a girl’s tears do something
strange to a man!

Simon stopped in his tracks, all thoughts of apple gingerbread cake with
sugar icing lost, as he looked to see who was crying. He’d thought
himself entirely alone in the forest until that moment - just Simon
and his thoughts amongst the autumn yellows and golds of the leaves
that he’d been scuffing up along the way. Now he felt a bit
sheepish at the idea that someone might have been watching him all
the while.

And then he saw Missi, sitting atop a boulder, her knees drawn up to her
chest and her head resting on her folded arms as she wailed. Oh
goodness, what a noise! That was another thing that her parents
warned people about, Missi’s noisy weeping wailing. In fact, there
wasn’t much demure about Missi if truth be told.

‘Shhh, hush! Please stop!’ Simon said, his hands over his ears as a form
of protection. ‘Please don’t cry, what’s wrong? Nothing can
be that bad, can it?’ he pleaded with the young girl.

Hearing Simon calling to her was such a surprise that Missi stopped her awful
wailing instantly and stared back at the boy, mouth open and eyes
even wider, in astonishment.

‘What did you say? Can you see me?’ she asked.

‘Of course I can see you, stupid!’ Simon retorted. Girls were so daft.
He was relieved she’d stopped making that awful noise but not
relieved enough to be polite or friendly.

‘What were you making that darned noise for? What’s wrong with you,
anyway?’ he demanded to know. He was stalking around the boulder
on which Missi perched, staring at the girl and weighing up her
situation. He was looking for her weakness, that’s what Simon did.
He looked for people’s frailties and then took advantage. It was
a life-time’s habit that had served him well but this was a first
for him. He’d never found a crying girl sitting on a boulder in
the middle of the forest before. But as his father always said:
there’s a first for everything.

‘So what’s wrong with you? Why are you sitting there snivelling? Are
you lost? Have you hurt yourself?’ he wanted to know. Missi
hadn’t moved since he’d set eyes on her so perhaps she couldn’t,
maybe she’d hurt herself. Or maybe she was scared? Of him. He
liked that idea. He liked it very much. Fear made people weak, in
his experience.

‘No, I’m not lost!’ Missi retorted. ‘And I’m not hurt, either!’

‘Well, what’s wrong with you then? What were you making that awful noise
for?’ Simon continued walking around the girl looking for clues.
So far, all he saw was a girl of about his age, around fifteen, with
wild curly orange hair and wearing an odd assortment of clothes that
he’d decided were fancy dress. Her very short skirt revealed long
legs in stripy black and red tights that ended in a pair of big black
boots with red laces. On her back she had a pair of white sparkly
wings.

‘You been to a party?’ he asked in a jeering fashion. ‘Bit old to be
playing at being a fairy, aren’t you?’ He flicked one of Missi’s
wings. The wing vibrated, releasing a tinkling sound into the air.
Nice touch, he thought. She’d gone to a lot of trouble with her
costume. Maybe that’s why she’s snivelling? No one liked her
outfit!

‘I’m not playing at a being a fairy, dumb head! And I’ve not been to a
stupid party! I’ve been dumped here by my idiot brother and his
pathetic gang and I’ve been waiting for someone to come and give me
a hand. And who do I get? Of all the people that have passed by I
get you! You!’ Missi was hungry and fed up but now she was angry
and hungry, a doubly dangerous combination as anyone who knew her
would warn you.

‘You weren’t here when I walked past a while ago’ Simon is feeling
offended. ‘You can’t have been hanging about for very long so I
don’t know what you were crying about. Pathetic!’

‘I was here! You just didn’t see me!’ Missi is screeching now.
‘You’re just like all the rest, you never see what’s right
under your noses!. I was here where you went skipping by doing your
red riding hood impersonation with your little bag and kicking up the
leaves and all!’

Simon felt his face grow red with embarrassment. She’d seen him
skipping! His cheeks burned with humiliation. As always, he lashed
out and pulled Missi’s wing again thinking to strip her of her
disguise. Instead the girl shouted out in pain ‘Ouch, don’t do
that! That hurts, you bully!’ Stop it! They’re attached to me
you idiot!’

Simon pulled and pulled but the girl was right, the wings were attached to
her some how but he couldn’t see where. He stopped pulling and the
tinkling stopped too. Boy, that’s an annoying sound too! He was
getting fed up with this girl and wanted to get home, back to his
mother’s kitchen and the lovely food he had been anticipating
before he bumped into Tinkerbell here. Deciding to cut his losses he
began to walk away, heading homeward.

‘Hey, don’t go. I need your help. Come back! Please!’ Missi had
waited too long for someone to actually see her to let him walk away
with helping set her free even if it did cost her in the process.
The chubby boy looked over his shoulder at her but carried on walking
away nevertheless.

‘OK, I’ll give you a wish. One wish. Anything’

Simon stopped in his tracks. Not because he believed he’d found a fairy
but because he’d found a nutter who thought she was a fairy. He
could see the potential for a bit of fun here. And so he turned back
preparing to play fairy girl at her game.

‘OK, if I help you you’ll grant me a wish. Is that how it works? Any
wish? ‘ He was circling Missi again, a smirk on his face.

‘Yes, anything. Well, within my capabilities of course.’ She sounded a
bit less sure of herself as she revealed that last sentence.

‘Well, go on then. Do some magic.’ Simon taunted. That would put the
girl in her place. Game over. He waited, knowing full well that
nothing would happen.

‘I can’t do anything without my wand, can I! Obvious, isn’t it!’
Missi threw back at the boy. ‘I need my wand. But my idiot
brother took it off me as part of the joke, didn’t he!’ she was
angry again. ‘You’ll have to get it for me.’

‘Me? Why can’t you get it? Where is it, anyway?’ Simon was being
sucked into the situation.

‘If I could get it I wouldn’t need you, would I?’ Missi almost spat
the words out in contempt! Was this the thickest boy in the country?
If she could get her wand herself she wouldn’t need him would she,
duh! She wouldn’t be sitting here on this cold, dirty boulder
getting hungrier by the minute. She’d be at home having her late
lunch having already thumped Jem with a double squealching farting
spell, wouldn’t she?

‘It’s up there in that tree’ Missi pointed to a silver birch that had no
leaves on it at all but as Simon followed her finger a glow appeared
in the bare twigs and a silver wand revealed itself. He shook his
head and squeezed his eyes tight but nothing made any difference.
There, in the tree, was a glowing, tinkling wand, just as the girl
had said.

Simon’s mouth dropped open and he stared in amazement, first at the wand,
then at Missi then at the wand again.

‘So why can’t you get it?’ he managed to ask.

‘Because of these, of course. Why do you think?’ and with that she lifted
one of her stripey legs and Simon heard the sound of chains. Right
before his eyes a pair of leg irons complete with chains appeared on
Missi’s ankles and it was clear why Missi couldn’t leave her
place on the boulder.

Something wasn’t adding up, he thought. Perhaps he’d walked too far and he
was hyper-something or other? He was feeling a bit hot, now he
thought about it. Or maybe that bit of pork pie wasn’t as fresh as
he’d thought. That might be making him see things...

‘Can’t you do some hocus pocus and ...’ he didn’t know what he was
asking but wasn’t that what magic was all about. You wiggled your
fingers and hey presto!

‘It doesn’t work like that! I’m still under age, a learner. I have
to use a wand. That wand’ she said pointing at the glowing,
twinkling wand in the silver birch. ‘Jem thought it would be a
hoot to chain me up here and leave me at the mercy of some helpful
human. But as you can tell, there aren’t many of those around, are
there! I’ve been here for ages and ages and you’re the first
human to even notice me. And you’re not being very helpful, are
you!’ she glared at him meaningfully.

‘GET MY WAND! She yelled in a shockingly loud voice that had Simon moving
faster than he’d ever moved before. Getting the wand wasn’t as
easy it seemed but eventually he held it carefully between his thumb
and his forefinger, all the while little shocks were running along
his hand like a sparkler on Bonfire night.

‘At last! Give it to me’ Missi wasn’t very grateful under the
circumstances. She grabbed the wand and in a trice, and amid a lot
of tinsley, glittery nonsense that a grown up fairy would tell you
was really all done for effect and had been of no help at all, Missi
released herself from the leg chains and flew up into the air,
shaking her wings and testing how much damage Simon had done with his
pulling and pinching.

‘Ouch! I’ve got a twisted wing now thanks to you, Mr Heavy Handed Hairy
Hoggart!’ Missi should have been flying about gracefully, easily,
lightly but instead she was doing the fairy flying equivalent of
walking with a twisted ankle and was not amused.

‘Oh what are you complaining about, Tinkerbell? You’re free again,
aren’t you? And that’s because I helped you so you owe me,
right? That was deal, wasn’t it?’ He stood with his hands on
his hips, face set in a stern expression, glaring at the fairy.

Honour made it impossible for Missi not to grant his wish and she knew it.
There was no one around to know if she kept her promise or not but
The Council would know anyway so it wasn’t worth trying to get out
of her obligations. She had to keep her word and grant this horrible
boy a wish. Just one.

‘Go on then, tell me what you want. And no funny tricks. Don’t go
thinking you can wish for a life time of wishes because it doesn’t
work like that and even if it did, you aren’t worth that sort of
reward!’

Simon thought for a moment...

 

 

 

 

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