Dragonfly and Taylor

A faerie's curiosity sparks an interesting friendship.

 

Dragonfly was there the day Darth Vader moved into the house. She sat on a flower in the front yard and watched as a big truck pulled up in front of the house and Darth Vader got out of the passenger seat. Dragonfly knew who it was because she’d seen him in movies and this was definitely Darth Vader. Watching him as he slammed the truck door and trudged up to the house, Dragonfly was surprised by his size. She thought he’d be taller.

 

            The next day, Dragonfly watched Darth Vader picking flowers. He seemed to like dandelions. Going around to the back of the house, she made herself look like a kid and picked a handful of dandelions. She walked carefully to the front yard, stopping in her tracks when Darth Vader saw her. She held the flowers out in front of her with a trembling hand.

            “I come in peace,” she said.

            Darth Vader raised a small pale hand and touched a button on the front of his suit. “Don’t make me destroy you,” said his deep voice.

Startled, Dragonfly dropped her flowers and ran away.

 

            Dragonfly spent the next week watching. Darth Vader didn’t come out every day, but Saturday came and there he was. She watched as he held a small box and crept softly around the yard. Suddenly he stopped and a small pale hand reached toward a blade of grass, gently picking something up. Dragonfly couldn’t see what it was, but Darth Vader placed it in the small box and a strange voice, both high pitched and electronic, called out, “I got one! Mommy, I found a red one!”

            As Darth Vader ran into the house, Dragonfly noticed a long braid flopping on Darth Vader’s back. Dragonfly flew to her home beneath the back stairs, confused by what she had believed to be Darth Vader.

 

 

            Later that afternoon, footsteps and a door slam drew Dragonfly out of her home. Darth Vader ran down the back steps and stopped in the middle of the back yard. He turned to face the house and opened his little box. A ladybug crawled up on the edge and then flew away to freedom as Darth Vader watched it go. Dragonfly was surprised by this kindness, and feeling braver, she flew high in the sky and landed behind the garage. With no one watching, she made herself look like a kid again and walked up to the back fence.

 

            Darth Vader turned and saw Dragonfly at the gate. In the same high pitched but also electronic voice he said, “Wanna play?”

            Dragonfly said nothing. She may have felt brave, but something still kept her mouth shut. She stared as Darth Vader did a very peculiar thing. He raised both hands and began to remove his helmet. Dragonfly thought Darth Vader would die without his helmet, but instead of a dying man, the face of a little girl looked back at her.

            “I’m Taylor,” said the girl-Darth Vader

 

 

            Taylor opened the gate and let Dragonfly in. “Can you play?” she asked.

Dragonfly nodded as she came into the yard. “I can play.”

They ran around the yard, caught bugs to put in Taylor’s box, set them free again, and dug in Taylor’s sandbox. Dragonfly was startled when a beautiful woman came to the back door with two glasses of water and a tray of snacks.

“I thought you girls might be hungry,” said the woman. “Taylor, who’s your friend?”

Taylor looked blank as she held a cookie. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Dragonfly,” answered Dragonfly. She took a sip from a glass of water.

            “Ok,” said the woman. “You girls have fun.”

 

 

“Who was that?” Dragonfly asked, biting a cookie.

“My mom,” Taylor shrugged. “Is your name really Dragonfly?”

Dragonfly nodded, crunching the cookie. “I like your mom.”

“How old are you?” Taylor asked, and drank some water.

“Three-hundred,” Dragonfly said, finishing her glass of water.

“Nuh-uh, that’s impossible.” Taylor finished her cookie and picked up another one. “I think you’re seven. I’m seven.”

Dragonfly shrugged. “Ok.” She stared at the back steps, wondering how she would get back home. “Why did you pretend to be Darth Vader?”

Now Taylor shrugged. “’Cause I like him. He’s my favorite character.”

 

Taylor and Dragonfly got together almost every afternoon and played and talked, and Taylor didn’t always wear her Darth Vader suit. Then one day, Taylor came out of the house wearing wings.

Dragonfly stared, her mouth falling open. Taylor looked almost like a faerie. “How did you do that?” she asked.

“Do what?” Taylor asked. Then she ran around the yard waving her arms, pretending to fly.

“Grow wings,” Dragonfly said when Taylor stopped.

Taylor laughed. She laughed so hard that she fell over. Then she took off her wings.

 

 

Dragonfly decided she wanted Taylor to know what she was. Taylor liked a lot of things; maybe she would like Dragonfly as she really was. On a Sunday afternoon, Dragonfly stopped in the middle of the game of tag they were playing. Taylor smacked her shoulder and laughed. “You’re it!”

“Wait,” said Dragonfly.  “I want to show you something.” And she turned and popped and suddenly she was a faerie again, and it was Taylor who stared.

 

 

“Wow,” Taylor said and quickly closed her eyes, covering her face with her hands.

Dragonfly put her tiny hands against Taylor’s fingers and coaxed her hands away from her face. In a tiny voice that only Taylor could hear, she asked, “Don’t you like me?”

Taylor nodded, her eyes still firmly shut. “Very much, but I thought Faeries lost their wings when a person saw them.”

Dragonfly laughed. “Who told you that?”

Taylor carefully opened one eye. “My mom.”

 

Dragonfly hung in the air two feet in front of Taylor’s face. “Grown-ups are so funny.” So Taylor could see how she did it, Dragonfly turned back into a kid. Poking Taylor on the shoulder she laughed and ran off. “You’re it!” she called back. And Taylor sprang to life as if a spell had been broken, chasing Dragonfly all around the yard.

At the end of the afternoon, they lay in the grass, panting from their exercise. “I wish I was a faerie,” Taylor said. “Are you really three-hundred?”

“Yep,” and Dragonfly got up, became a faerie again, and flew home.

 

 

That night in her bed, Dragonfly thought about what Taylor had said. She had wished to be a faerie! Dragonfly could do lots of things with magic, but she wasn’t sure turning a little girl into a faerie was one of them. But she decided she could do something and decided that tomorrow she would do it. As she slept, she dreamed of two faeries flying through the sky, talking to birds, sitting on flowers. But a beautiful woman called out in the background, sadness in her voice. Dragonfly woke up crying.

 

 

Dragonfly sat on the bird feeder and waited for Taylor to come out. She was surprised when a car pulled into the driveway and three people got out. One was Taylor and that made Dragonfly happy. One was Taylor’s mom, and Dragonfly remembered the snacks that she always brought out for them. The third was a man. Dragonfly had heard a man’s voice coming from the house before and she had assumed it was Darth Vader.

There had been a man the day they had moved in, but Dragonfly didn’t know who he was. As the three of them came up the walk, Taylor pulled at the man’s hand. “Can I unlock the door, daddy?” The man handed Taylor the keys and after a moment, they all went into the house. Dragonfly looked into the window, watching the family inside.

 

 

Taylor ran out of the house wearing her wings and the Darth Vader helmet. She looked so silly that Dragonfly fell off the bird feeder laughing. Taylor pressed the button that made the helmet breathe.

Dragonfly became a kid, still laughing. “I have an idea,” she said, when she had calmed down.

Taylor pushed a button. “The force is strong with this one,” the helmet said. She took it off. “What idea?” she asked.

Dragonfly took her hand, turned with her and popped. Suddenly Taylor was three inches tall. Still wearing her wings, she almost looked like a real faerie.

 

 

“Wow,” Taylor said as Dragonfly stood in front of her. “Can I fly too?”

Dragonfly shook her head. “You’re not a real faerie. I can’t change what you are. But now you can see my house.”

“Ok.” Taylor followed Dragonfly to the back steps. “But this is my house,” she said, looking up at her back door.

“But this is my house,” Dragonfly led Taylor to the crack between the house and the steps and disappeared inside.

 

 

            Dragonfly watched as Taylor picked her way over weeds and rocks and carefully climbed through the crack. She took her hand and pulled her inside. “This is where I live.” Dragonfly spread her arms wide to encompass the vast space in front of them.

On the ground was a thick layer of dead leaves. In one corner, there grew a cluster of toadstools, and beside that there was a rock with a shallow depression in it. Above them, a shaft of light illuminated the leaves below, and Taylor looked up at the crack in the steps that she’d stepped over every time she left the house.

 

 

Taylor startled as a large mouse came toward them from a dark corner. It began to squeak, and though Dragonfly understood, she knew Taylor couldn’t. “Wait,” she said to the mouse and gently touched the mouse’s mouth. Then she turned and touched Taylor’s ears. “It’s ok,” she said to Taylor. “Please continue,” she said to the mouse.

“Dragonfly, who is this you’ve brought home?” The mouse looked at Taylor and wagged its whiskers. “It smells like a human. But it has wings. This doesn’t look like any human I’ve ever seen.”

“She is human.” Dragonfly took Taylor’s hand and brought her to the mouse. “Mithria, this is Taylor. Taylor,” Dragonfly turned to her friend, “This is Mithria Mouse. Her burrow is in that corner over there.” She pointed.

 

 

Mithria turned to the sound of scurrying. Several little mice came sniffing their way out of the corner. “My children,” Mithria bowed her head in introduction. “They are curious too. What are your intentions Taylor?”

Taylor shrugged, looking at the mouse and her children with a wide-eyed stare. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. Mithria sniffed closer, looking at Taylor from her hair to her shoes.

 

 

“No matter, I have a request to make of you, Taylor,” said Mithria. “Can you do something about the rabbits? They bully my children,” the little mice squealed in fear at the mention of rabbits, “and they eat the best food in the yard.”

Taylor found her voice, though she seemed to be surprised to be talking to a mouse. “My mom has been trying to do something about the rabbits. I’ll try to help.”

Just then, a loud munching came from just outside. Peeking out, they saw a huge rabbit sitting outside the steps. It was chewing on a dandelion.

 

“You’re lucky that crack is so small,” said the rabbit, “that would make a nice burrow for my family.” The rabbit blocked the exit.

The little mice scampered back to their corner as their mother let out a squeal and followed them. The rabbit laughed. Taylor went to the exit and reached through the crack to feel the rabbit’s wiry fur.

Dragonfly shook her head at Taylor and pulled her away from the opening. She didn’t want the rabbit to hear her so she touched her head and then reached out to touch Taylor’s head. “Can you hear me?” she thought at Taylor.

 

 

Taylor stared at Dragonfly, her mouth open, ready to speak. Dragonfly clapped her hand over Taylor’s mouth to shush her. “Don’t speak,” she thought. “Rabbit must not hear. There are so many rabbits that they don’t even have names. There are so many that only the insects are greater in numbers. It makes the rabbits feel powerful. So they bully everyone else.”

“But that’s not fair,” Taylor thought.

A loud boom sounded through the hollow cavern beneath the stairs. A woman called out from above them. “Taylor!” Then silence as the woman waited for a response. “Maybe she went around front,” she muttered, and the back door slammed as she went back in.

 

 

Dragonfly looked worriedly at the crack where the rabbit sat, and looked up at the hole in the steps. She suddenly remembered her dream, where two faeries flew, but a woman in the background called out with sadness. Dragonfly knew that she couldn’t keep Taylor much longer, and she flew to the crack to see if the noise above had startled the rabbit into moving.

 

 

“I’ve got to get you back out of here,” thought Dragonfly. “Your mom will worry when you don’t come."

Taylor nodded and pointed toward the rabbit. It hadn’t moved. “How do I get out?”

Dragonfly tried to lift Taylor, but she couldn’t. An idea came to her and she looked at Taylor. “Wait by the crack,” she thought, and flew out through the hole above them.

 

 

Outside, Dragonfly flew down to the rabbit and yanked its dandelion away. “You think you’re so tough. How come you run when a person chases you?” She stuck out her tongue and flew away.

“Get back here,” grumbled the rabbit and hopped toward her.

Taylor crawled out through the crack and tripped on a stick falling to her hands and knees in the dirt.

 

 

The rabbit turned toward the noise and hopped back to Taylor. Sniffing at her, the rabbit twitched its whiskers at her. “You smell like that kid who chases me around, but you’re so small and you have wings. You look like a faerie.” The rabbit shook its head. “What are you?”

“I’m Taylor, and I do chase you out of the yard,” she said with attitude. “You eat my mom’s garden.”

“Heh,” the rabbit laughed. “I own this neighborhood, me and my family. We eat what we want, and we don’t like being chased.” He hopped closer.

 

 

Taylor backed against the wall of the house, then glared at the rabbit and yanked its whiskers. Dragonfly took her hand and pulled her out of the corner.

“Let’s see who chases who,” scoffed the rabbit, and it started to hop after Taylor.

Taylor screamed as the large rabbit turned and chased her. Dragonfly flew overhead. “If only your wings were real,” she thought at Taylor.

Taylor ran all around the yard, barely keeping ahead of the rabbit.

 

 

As Taylor ran, she looked back, and tripped on a stick. The rabbit stopped above her and laughed. Dragonfly landed behind Taylor and pulled her to her feet. She saw that now Taylor had a stick in her hand.

“Stupid rabbit,” Taylor said. “I’m not afraid of you. You don’t eat anything but grass and vegetables.” She raised the stick over her head. “You won’t eat me, so what will you do?” She brought the stick down hard connecting with the rabbit’s nose.

Dragonfly smiled. “Yeah, so go find another yard to lay in,” she said, shaking her fist at the rabbit.

 

Dragonfly put her hand on Taylor’s shoulder and suddenly they were kids again. The rabbit was so much smaller now. Taylor growled and stomped in front of the startled creature. The rabbit jumped.

“Stupid faerie magic,” the rabbit muttered as it hopped away. Taylor and Dragonfly laughed.

 

 

“That was cool!” said Taylor. “Can we do that again?”

Dragonfly looked toward the house and saw Taylor’s mom coming to the door. “Another day maybe,” she said. And she put her hands on Taylor’s ears, forehead, and mouth. “It’s not right that you understand animals now.”

The back door opened and the girls turned. “There you are,” said Taylor’s mom. “Why didn’t you answer me?”

Dragonfly started walking toward the back gate and waved good-bye to her friend. Taylor went to her mother. Dragonfly smiled when she heard Taylor say to her mother, “We need a cat.”

 

 

Dragonfly went back to her home under the steps thinking about how to help Taylor get her wish. She wasn’t worried about a cat. She could introduce a cat to Mithria and they’d be friends. And Taylor said her mom didn’t like the rabbits either. It wouldn’t be too hard.

Dragonfly also wondered when she could make Taylor her size again. There was so much she wanted to show her, and not all of it had to do with the rabbits. She decided to talk to Cardinal in the morning.

 

 

Cardinal was forgotten all about as Dragonfly waited for Taylor and Taylor never came. The car didn’t even come home. That night, still with no sign of her friend, she didn’t sleep well. She worried about Taylor. 

When Dragonfly woke up, she saw it was late. Her body had slept even when her mind was restless, and that wasn’t good for her. She took off quickly out of her home, and nearly flew into a new pole that stuck out of the ground.

            Right next to the stairs, at the top of this new pole, beside the bird feeder, was the prettiest little house Dragonfly had ever seen.

 

 

            Hanging from the corner of the house, sitting against the pole, a tag read simply “D” in a child’s writing. It wasn’t a birdhouse as it had a door. Dragonfly was just the right size to fit through the door, and she pushed it open. Inside was a little bed, and also a small table and chairs. It was beautiful.

            No one had ever done anything like this before. She flew out and stood on top of the house. In the window of Taylor’s house sat a cute brown and orange kitten, and behind her stood Taylor, smiling. Dragonfly was the happiest she’d ever been in her whole life.

Author's Note

I wrote this as a picture book for my daughter, but unfortunately can't draw >.<
Anyway, the extra breaks are where I have a page break for a picture.

Reviews

[Melissa Kesead]

Absolutely wonderful!

[John]

It is a cute story. Nice job. I only found a few picky issues.

First in the beginninng of the story the girl presses a button on the front of her suit to talk as darth vader and later on all she has is the helmet and she talks like darth vader pushing buttons on the helmet.

Dragonfly knew darth vader, so somehow she saw movies, but she couldn't tell a kid in a costume from the real thing. She also seemed to not know much about human family life, mom and dad, but she knew pop culture.

Lastly you mention the cardinal, but never go to talk to him. Why even bother with it? Cutting that would take nothing from the story.

I can really see some good imagery here when I read the story and can almost picture the artwork that would be included. i think an artist would find it easy to fill in the pictures from your descriptions.

[Dott]

oh wow! this strory is amazingly cute!!! you should do what miss melancholia says! et someone to do the picture and get it published! It's absolutely adorable!!!

[Ophelia]

This is so adorable! I love it! Dragonfly and Taylor are adorable, and it's really easy to tell that they have a strong bond. I definately enjoyed reading this. You could always find someone to draw pictures. You should definately get this published. I would love to read this to my future children!