Fairysitters
Part 2
hey, ya bum!
hi, dain! what's up (slight pain)! ouch. aside from your
headache, that is. what happened?
i just got shrunk by one of christine's new babysitters.
oh, yeah? who are they? they sound like a lotta fun
(*giggle*).
oh, you're a regular laugh riot today, kat. they're two
fairies i accidentally called. twins, in fact. k'ren and k'rin.
ka-ren and ka-rin?
yeah, but not so much "a" in there. you kinda
glide over that sound.
yeah, yeah, yeah. where'd they come from?
pyrope, i guess.
you guess? the child that means everything to you and to
millions of future fairies and you guess??? you didn't even do a routine
reference check???
well, one of 'em seems nice...
daina, i think you left your common sense behind when you
moved. you wouldn't go off with somebody you'd never met before, would you?
(pause) noooo...
well, why would you leave somebody you don't know with a
cute and very trusting fairy empress-to-be?
(pause) because I couldn't afford day care???
(mental explosion)
alright, alright, i'm sorry! i'll check 'em out later.
go do it now.
give me a million good reasons why I should (*giggle*).
(pause)
can't think of 'em, can y...(sharp pain) oww!
multiply that by a million and you've got your reasons.
point well taken...
By
the time I woke up, I was immediately aware that my surroundings were way, way
larger than they should have been. I sat up and was even more immediately aware
of the incredible pain in my head and most of my body. I hung my head forward
with a long sigh and slowly looked around. K'ren and K'rin were nowhere in
sight. I could've just imagined them, I thought, but would I be this small if I
had?
I
tried all the tricks I knew on trying to get myself back to normal size,
concentrating, finger snapping, nose rubbing, ponytail flipping...all to no
avail. So much for that plan, I thought, standing up with some difficulty. Hey,
I know what I'll do!, I finally decided. I'll call Robin! Yeah!
I've
seen people fall straight back without their knees buckling before in the
movies. Usually, it's one of those goofy Disney movies where after the guy
falls, you see birds and stars circling his head, so I never thought it was
actually possible...
Anyway,
before I knew it, I was being lifted on what was undoubtedly someone's
incredible rough palm. I could only moan and thank God that my eyes were still
closed as I felt myself growing back. I opened my eyes and let them focus on my
saviour. It was Target.
"Gee,
Target, I didn't know ya cared," I murmured sarcas-tically, as we began
moving. "The last time you carried me off, I don't think you were this
gentle." Target grinned, looking almost proud of himself.
"You're
the most foolish creature I know, aside from Kathy." said Robin, striding
alongside Target and I. "But, then, most humans are quite irrepressibly
stupid."
"What's
yer point?" I replied, closing my eyes with a slight smirk.
"Not
to mention the most exasperating. In that, you, specifically, are
unrivaled." My smirk became a weak grin as she pursed her lips and rolled
her eyes at me.
"You
have got to be the most solemn fairy I know," I sighed. "Have you no
sense of humor?" I asked. She gave me a look as if to say "get
real" and I shook my head. "Don't answer that. You might surprise me
and say yes, and I don think I could handle the shock right now. Where are we
going?" I asked, still trying to get oriented.
"To
your room," said Target.
"Wait.
I have to check on Chris," I said, pointing vaguely in the direction of
her room.
Target
and I entered Chris' room and found her sound asleep. On either side of her,
buried partly in her soft hair, were K'ren and K'rin, also resting peacefully.
Evidently, I'd been out longer than I thought. I was dying to be back out
again, the pain in my head was so great, but Target leaned me over and I kissed
Chris' forehead tenderly, being careful not to breathe too hard and wake the
two fairies next to her.
We
reached my room and Target set me on the bed, where I promptly decided to stay
for a week. Robin grabbed my hand and went about the business of taking my pain
away while Target wandered about my room.
"Wot's
this?" he asked, pointing to my Baseball Cardinals shrine.
"M'favorite
baseball team. That's my all-time favorite, Ozzie Smith and that's my hero,
Willie McGee, and that's Vince Coleman and Whitey Herzog..."
"Wot's
baseball?" he interrupted. I paused in mid sentence, wondering if I should
bother to explain America's national pastime in detail or just explain the
little white ball and the wooden club part.
Robin
sighed and pulled her hand away before I could come to a decision. "You're
done. Stay in bed for a while. I'll take over for you."
Don't
have to tell me twice, I thought. "Do me a favor," I asked, as
she put her hand on my forehead. "Check on Christine every once in a
while. She's got two new sitters with her."
"So
I saw," said Target.
"Two...fairies,"
I said, yawning like it was going out of style. Nothing was more relaxing than
being put to...
"What
did you say?" Robin demanded, jolting me back awake.
"Wha-aaaat?"
I whined, ready to cry. Depriving me of sleep is like depriving the average
2-year-old of a toy while he or she is playing with it. "I just said two
fairies are babysitting Chris-tiiiine. If you wanna run a check on them, I don't
caaare, just pleeeease put me back to sleeeep!"
"Where
are they?"
"In
her hair."
"What?"
"In
her haaaairrr. Ro-binnnn!" I was actually starting to cry now and Robin
realized her welcome was past worn out.
"Wot
the 'ell's base-ball?" I heard Target say, as I faded back into my stupor.
"Oh,
some silly game she's taken a fancy to..." was Robin's response.
It
was almost a week after I had completely recovered that I got to have a chat
with Christine about K'ren and K'rin. In fact, it was almost a week after I had
completely recovered that I got to talk to the kid at all. I took her to
another one of our favorite haunts, Sol's Ice Cream Parlour. I was beginning to
notice some little things about the kid, even as we hit the front door, such as
instead of her running to open the door and me having to help her open it, she
calmly walked over to it and opened it almost immediately...with hardly any
trouble reaching the handle. I didn't really notice that I noticed until later,
though.
We
walked into Sol's and headed for the counter. Sol was there as usual, wiping
down counters with KMOX blasting the play-by-play scoop on the Cards game. He
was a funny guy, Sol. Everything about him suggested he'd be better suited to
being a bodyguard for some movie star or breaking legs for the mob, but here he
was. Amazing what imagination can do for a character.
Sol
stopped, turned the radio down, tilted his triangular hat back, looked at the
two of us and said, in a gravely voice, "Well, if it ain't the prettiest
ladies in the subconscious. The angel and the boss." It was the same thing
he always said. "Might I add that you're lookin' par-ti-ca-ly ravishin'
today, Miz D."
"Quit
kissin' up and bring me my butterscotch sundae," I replied, with a grin.
That Bronx drawl always gets me.
"Ya
want whipped cream?" he grinned back.
"What're
ya, new-on-the-job or something? I wanna enjoy the sundae, not gag on it."
I retorted, sitting on one of the stools. We both turned to Chris, who was
getting into her stool with a great deal less of her usual clambering action. I
raised an eyebrow in mild surprise as Sol said,
"How
'bout you, angel? The usual Chocolate Fudge Mini Delight with rainbow
sprinkles?"
"Nope,"
said she, sitting up straight. "I want a Regular Chocolate Fudge
Delight," she said. "But I still want the sprinkles."
Sol
looked at me and I looked at Chris. "Hey, kiddo, we've been this route
before. I don't wanna hear you complaining about tummyaches when we get
home."
"I
won't," came the simple reply. I looked at her for a few seconds, then
nodded to Sol.
"Awright,
two regulars it is," he said, expertly whipping up our sundaes. We took
them to the window table, our regular seats, but she declined use of her
personalized booster chair. That was when I remembered the door. I decided to
keep my observations to myself for the time being.
"So,"
I began, after she had gotten pretty well into her ice cream, "whaydya
think of K'ren and K'rin?"
"They're
cool," she said, still concentrating on her sundae.
"Define
cool," I prodded.
"Y'know,
hip, okay..."
"Let
me rephrase the question. What do you do with them?"
"Well,
sometimes we go to the Lake an' sometimes we hang out at the 'musement park,
stuff like that. K'rin hardly ever wants to let me do any fun stuff."
"Hey,
the second you get tired of her, you just...well, you just tell me and I'll fix
her."
"Okay."
"So,
have you learned any new tricks?"
She
looked sideways at the window without even turning her head. It began to
shudder. A few seconds later, it shattered completely, as if there had been an
explosion. Not a shard of glass fell inside.
"A
few," she said.
Sol
and I stared like there was no tomorrow.
an entire window???
she hardly even looked at it, kat.
i bet that was a pain to recreate.
to say the least. and when i tried to tell her she should
apologize, she got snotty and said it wasn't like all this stuff was real,
anyway.
ooo, kinda bad omen.
you're tellin' me! and to top it off, she's growing, too.
how do you know?
little things. she can reach the door, she doesn't need a
booster chair, she can open doors alone...
it's about time!
no, it isn't! i don't want her to grow up!
daina, she's not peter pan. let her go.
like i'm holding her back.
well, mentally, you are. she loves the heck outta you and if
she thought for a minute you wouldn't love her, she'd stop doing anything.
(pause) anything?
she knows how to control her age, dain. if she wanted to...
yeah, yeah, yeah. well, what's changing her mind now?
kren and k'rin, maybe. or maybe this is all a part of her
growing up nad she's not controlling it at all. or maybe she is and she's just
testing the water a little. y'know, to see how you'd react to a little change
before going all the way.
shouldn't i be saying all this psycological stuff?
under pressure, everybody forgets one or two details.
that's why people have best friends to help remind them.
aww, mannn! you're embarrassin' me!
(*giggle*) look, i'll get back to ya later. the kid is
tossing in her sleep and i don't know why.
bad dream, maybe?
she's the creator of dreams, kat; she doesn't have any of
her own...
she's had a few of her own...
(pause) yeah, that's right! and they were like premonitions!
i better go check on her now!
i'll be waitin'...