The Fairy Garden

A young girl is told stories of fairies but the stories were lies.

The spring had just let way to summer and the heat, not yet blistering seemed to come in waves in the town of Pleasant Ville, Kansas. Near the outskirts of the town stood a single house, standing two stories tall. The color of the house was debatable, some said it was a vibrant green but to others the house was a dull green, it all depended on the angle you were looking at it.  As for its door, it was painted a vibrant orange, which to the child that lived there was a nasty color. On the inside, it looked as though you had traveled back into the 1950’s, the colors were just as vibrant as the outside of the house.

          Behind the house there was a large garden, but the garden seemed to change every day. This was the observation of Millie, who would go outside every morning before school began and pick a flower for her favorite teacher. It became such a habit that the young girl went outside every morning during the summer as well. When she would realize that it wasn’t a school day she would go sit on a bench that over looked the garden. This is when she first saw what she described as a little person with the wings of a butterfly.

          Millie had always heard about fairies, but had never seen one before. So as you can imagine the sight of this little person with wings came with some disbelief. Her father had told her magnificent stories about creatures that flew around gardens, like he had seen them himself. One such story recounted what would happen if you could catch a fairy.

“Tell me again papa, what would happen if I caught a fairy?” Millie asked her father as he told her, her night time story.

Her father with a sigh nodded and interrupting the story he’d been telling, to tell his five year old daughter what would happen if she caught a fairy. “A fairy is extremely difficult to catch but if you can catch one, that fairy becomes indebted to you. I’m not sure why, but there are three things that a fairy must do. They must take you to where the other fairies live, grant you a single wish, then they must stay with you for as long as you live.”

The young girl’s eyes became droopy and she began to fall asleep “So if I were to catch a fairy I would have a friend for life.” She said softly.

“Yes darling, now go to sleep Millie.” Said her father as he patted his daughter’s head.

‘But papa, I’m not sleepy.” The young girl said though her face gave her away as she yawned.

Her thoughts were interrupted when her mother hollered at her to come inside. She merely pouted and took one last look at the garden, then it was decided she would come back out to the garden after breakfast. She walked inside and a plate was placed in front of her heaped up with eggs, bacon and three pieces of toast. When her father came into the room, she grew excited.

“Papa! Papa! I saw a fairy!” Millie said her voice slightly high pitched and the sound came out very fast.

There was the sound of a plate crashing to the ground and her mother came running to her. “You did not catch it did you?”

“No mother it zipped past me faster than a fly. Why what’s wrong I thought that catching a fairy was good luck! I thought Papa said that it would give me a wish and be my friend forever!” The young girl said loudly and very confused. Her hands were on the table and her fingers tapping madly on the table.

“Darling, are you sure that is was a fairy? What did it look like?” Her father said quietly and Millie nodded enthusiastically.

“It looked like a tiny person, with the wings of a butterfly. But as I said it flew past me faster than a fly.” Millie said her voice calmer and quieter now. She was very confused, why had her father told her stories about fairies if they were bad.

Her father sighed as she read the look on his daughter’s face, “I told you the stories so you may learn from them. So that you would learn not to go looking for fairies.”

The conversation ended with a very sad look on Millie’s face and her storming out of the house to sit on her bench that looked over the garden. ‘I’ll show them,’ she thought ‘I’ll prove that fairies aren’t bad.’

It has been three weeks since she last saw the fairy and she had been sitting in the garden every day almost all day. Today was her fifteenth birthday and she was hoping that she would see one today. What she wasn’t expecting is for one to land on her leg. She almost let out a scream when the small creature hushed her.

“Shh, don’t want your father to come out because you’re screaming do you? Didn’t you want to prove that fairies are good don’t you?” The fairy said in a hurried and squeaky sort of voice.

“Y-Yes, yes I do!” Millie said very excited.

“Then do as I say, first go get your coat it is getting cold and I’ll take you to see the queen.” 

“The queen?” Millie said aloud as she ran inside and grabbed her coat. “MOTHER I’M GOING TO LINDA’S.” She hollered and her mother replied with an alright dear.

As Millie ran back outside, she saw the fairy floating above her bench. “Ah there you are what took you so long?” The fairy said and began flying to the center of the garden.

Millie had never ventured into the garden past her bench. Her parents had told her never to go farther than her bench and she paused. ‘Do I do as my parents said or do I follow this fairy and prove to them that they are good?’ Her face contorted as she contemplated this. The fairy noticing that she wasn’t behind her spoke up

“Are you coming?” said the fairy

Just like that she was running after the fairy, but she was never heard from again. A year later her body was found sitting on the bench just like she had all the time. A note was attached.

You were right Papa, the fairies were bad. I hope that you aren’t mad at me. ~Millie

Author's Note

This was for english class.

Reviews

[TerryDarcy-Ryan akaSh..]

Lady Magicae, your story serves as a metaphor. The people we trust the most in life lie to us about important issues. What a parent may think is protecting their child is actually setting them up. The hardest part of raising a child to adult is what to give them to defend themselves against a very scary world. Your story is provocative it takes one on a journey. It has the air of a nice fairy tale but you pull no punches you really let us have it in the end. Beautifully written.

Sheer Terror

[Crystal_vars]

But what really happened to Millie

[AmateurWriter01]

Wow that went in a totally different way than I expected. I am never going to look at fairies the same again. This was really good though. I totally expect you got a very good grade on this story. It was good, thank you for putting it on here for us to read.