“Watsa matter ‘Ren?” I said cheerfully to my older sister. Most people called her Serenity, but I just called her Ren.
She sighed. “Nothing.”
I adjusted my grip on my teddy bear. “Doesn’t look like nothing.”
Ren ruffled my hair. “You’re a sweetheart Jenny. I’m just not happy my friends cancelled going to the movies.”
I smiled, showing off my missing front tooth. “You can always play with me!”
She smiled back, but in that big-sister way. The way she always smiled when she was about to say no. “Sorry, but I’d rather play with my friends right now. Why don’t you play in the garden?”
I stuck my bottom lip out. “But I always play in the garden! Alone! Don’t I Walter?” I held Walter up to my ear so he could talk. Teddies always have the perfect things to say. “Walter thinks you should come out and play with me.”
Ren was about to open her mouth when the phone rang. She let out a breath and grabbed the talking-bit. “Hello? Hey! I was just about to call you! Hang on.” Ren put her hand over one end of the phone and looked at me. “Sorry, I have to take this. I’ll play later, okay?”
I looked down. “Okay.” She smiled at me and went back to the phone. I made my way out of her room and went to sit on the stairs. Why did she only want to play with her dumb friends anyway? I was almost four! Practically a grown-up. But, she was already grown up. She was fifteen.
I went down the stairs and passed by Mommy in the kitchen. She was busy baking for some party she was going to. When I had asked her what kind of party, she just told me I couldn’t go because it was all for grown-ups. I knew she wouldn’t play with me. She had told me to go play with Ren.
In the yard, things were empty. As usual. I skipped past the play-structure to go to the back of the yard. The play-structure wasn’t fun like the back garden. The back garden was full of flowers and all these waxy green leaves covering the back wall. A plant Mommy called ivy. I saw fairies there, sometimes. When things were blooming. They liked to dance on spider webs.
Walter agreed with me that fairies were real. Nobody else seemed to see them, even when I pointed right at one. It was very frustrating. Daddy always used that word when I asked him about all the paper on his desk. He always said paying the bills was very frustrating. When I had asked him what that meant, he’d said that something was frustrating if you couldn’t understand something or people couldn’t understand you. That’s what it was like with fairies. Nobody else understood they were there.
When I got to the back garden I was sad to see no flowers were there. And Mommy had gardened yesterday so there were no spider webs. Even the ivy leaves on the back wall didn’t have any. I sat in the dirt and pulled Walter into the dirt in front of me. While he sat there, I put my elbows on my knees put my knuckles on my cheeks.
“Now what do we do?”
I heard some noise in the plants behind me. “Over here.”
I jerked up and looked around. “Tiger? Is that you?” Tiger never showed up when there were no flowers. She liked to dance on the orange flowers in corner of the garden. Mom called those flowers ‘tiger lilies.’ But Tiger looked more like a cat then a flower, so I always called her Tiger.
I looked right behind me and saw a big door in the ivy. Mommy called that an iron gate. She said that was sometimes used in gardens to make them look pretty. Now that I saw one, I wondered why we didn’t have any.
A little behind the door I saw Tiger running up a hill with other fairies I knew. Rose was there, and Ivy, and Patty and Violet and everybody. They were all grown up too. Just as old as Ren. Just as pretty too. I grabbed Walter’s paw and put my hand on the gate.
The gate felt all cold under my hand. But not a bad cold. It felt like playing in the sprinkler on a hot day. As I pushed the gate open it didn’t make any sound. As soon as Rose saw me, she dropped her beach ball and ran up to me. I giggled as she pulled me into their game.
“You stay there, Walter,” I told him before going to join my friends. “I don’t want you getting hurt.” He was too little to play a game with us. He was even littler then me!
As I turned around to go play catch, I heard Walter say behind me, “Aw, why can’t I play too?”
I looked back at him. He was standing up now, and he was a little taller. I blinked, and he was taller again.
I tilted my head to the side. “Walter! You’re all grown up!”
He was as tall as me now. He blinked and looked down, then looked back at me. “Does that mean I can play now?”
I grinned. “Yes! Come on!”
Walter jumped in the air and ran to catch up with me. I ran with him, wanting to beat him to the game.
Violet smiled when she saw me. I named her Violet because of her purple hair. “We have somebody else playing too?”
Ivy tugged on her green dress, causing her wings to move. “You two can stand on each other’s shoulders for Monkey in the Middle!”
“That’s not very safe,” Patty said. She was always saying if something was safe or not. Just like the Patty I knew in kindergarten. “They might fall over and scrape their knees.”
Rose tapped her lips, her bright pink wings moving at the same time as her finger. “What if we play Hide and Seek? Then we’d all be safe.”
I clapped my hands. So did Walter. “Hide and Seek is my favourite!”
We looked at each other and laughed, since we had said it at the same time.
Tiger jumped in the air. “I’m not it!”
“Me neither!” I shouted. All the other girls said almost the same thing, until only Walter was left. He didn’t mind being It though. He usually hid from me. Now he would have to find me.
I ran away as Walter counted to twenty. At the top of the hill there was a big castle where all my friends lived. Right at the front door was a big tree shaped like a bear. I crouched down to hide behind it.
From the “You found me!” from the bottom of the hill, I knew Rose had been found. I didn’t dare look where she had hidden, just in case Walter saw me. Next I heard an “Aw” from Patty. She hated being found. Then I heard Ivy, then Violet, then Tiger. It took me awhile to hear anything about Tiger being found. She always hid in the best hiding spots.
There was a long pause as everybody kept looking for me. It was even longer until I heard Walter say,
“You’re too good, I knew I should, have given up before!”
I giggled and jumped out of my spot. “Now you see, look at me, the best hider in the land!”
Rose clapped. “Good job Jenny!”
Tiger flew into the air and did a loop-de-loop. “I have an idea! Why don’t we play in the castle? Then we’ll have more places to hide!”
We all agreed and ran inside. Since Rose had been found first, she was It this time. As she counted to thirty, just because she could. Rose was so smart! I went and looked for another hiding spot.
I was found second in that round. This time it was Walter who was found last. I should have known he’d be the best hider. He was always hiding around the house.
We kept playing Hide and Seek until some room started getting too dark. It was then we went outside to play catch with the big beach ball. It wasn’t until the sky was all pink that I heard my name called from the other side of the gate. Until then, I had forgotten about that gate.
I looked at my friends. “I have to go. You too Walter,” I added when he didn’t come closer.
He kicked the dirt. “Do we have to?”
I put my hands on my hips. “If we don’t get home soon Mommy will wonder where we are. And, it’s dinnertime. I thought I saw Mommy getting the things she needed for mashed potatoes.”
Walter perked up. “Mashed potatoes? Tonight?”
I smiled. “Yep! If we hurry, they’ll still be warm.”
“You’ll come back soon, though. Won’t you?” Ivy asked as I turned to leave. I looked back at them. They were sad to see me go.
I smiled. “I’ll come back tomorrow!”
Tiger tossed the ball into the air. “We’ll make sure to leave the gate open for you. Bye!”
“Bye!” the other girls cheered.
I waved while running with Walter to the gate. “Bye!”
I took Walter’s paw before pushing open the gate. We were back in Mommy’s garden now, and Walter was back to his normal size. I was sad to not be able to see him move anymore, but at least he was still talking to me. I took a few steps towards the house, listening to Walter talk about all the hiding places we could share next time. I giggled and told him about some of the places I had found. We both agreed to share spots next time, and be sure to win each round.
After taking a few steps I looked back towards the ivy. The gate was gone. It didn’t matter, though. I knew I could go back tomorrow.
Much thanks for pointing those out.
