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She had bigger things to worry about now: like whether or not to do homework, and what she should plan to do with the rest of her life.
“Ugh,” she whispered to no one in particular. “Why do people have to decide what they want to do with theirwholelife when we’re only like eighteen? It’s too much pressure. And why do peoplehaveto know, anyway? Can’t we just go wherever fate leads? No wonder there are so many unhappy people in the world. Kids who don’t know any better make a snap decision and get stuck with a bad choice for the rest of their existence.”
Tammy closed her eyes.Should I do homework or not? Should I do college or not? I’m going to open my eyes and the answer will be on the ceiling above me.
She waited the span of a few breaths, then opened her eyes to the sight of a tiny woman hovering above her face. Tammy hadn’t truly expected any sort of answer to be magically scrawled on the plain white ceiling, but shedefinitelydidn’t expect to have a faerie show up in her room. The roughly five-inch-tall being gave off a continuous aura of sparkles and green-gold light. Her wings, seemingly made of energy, beat blurrily fast, spraying yet more specks of glowing faerie dust all over the place.
The diminutive woman wore a crown, which Tammy recognized in a few seconds after the initial shock of seeing such a magical creature wore off.
“Queen Maple?” whispered Tammy.
A noise came out of the little woman similar to a mouse squeaking and chittering. Somehow, it coalesced into the meaning of ‘Indeed! We need to talk.’
Tammy stared at her, momentarily mesmerized by the pattern of light the little woman cast on the walls around them. She sat up gradually, giving the faerie plenty of time to float backward to avoid a body-to-face collision. “Okay. What’s up? Are you here to tell me I need to stay in school and finish my homework?”
Maple laughed for barely more than a second before her expression turned stone cold serious. “No. Annie is in big trouble and I need your help. She’s missing and I think the dark ones have her.”
“Dark ones? Demons?”
“No. Dark faeries!” Maple flailed her arms, throwing off a spray of glowing dust. Her eyes flared with frustration, as if she wanted to call Tammy stupid for not understanding, but also didn’t dare do it out of fear she might not help if insulted.
“Umm. Sorry, but you should talk to Mom. I can’t do anything anymore.” Tammy raked a hand up through her thick, black hair. “Elizabeth is totally dead and gone now. All my telepathy stuff went away with her.”
“Dead and gone,” chirped Maple in a gleeful tone that came off creepy. Tiny voices cheering deathalwayssounded creepy. “Yes, we know. Good.”
“But that means I’m just a normal person now.” Tammy bit her lip. “Wait… hang on.” She stared at the faerie, baffled at how the rapid chirping voice made sense to her.Whoa. This is totally a Star Wars thing, like how Luke could understand R2-D2’s beeping…She tried not to laugh. The faerie queen spoke in gibberish noises nowhere even close to English, yet for reasons she couldn’t begin to even guess at, Tammy somehow knew what the woman said. “How can I understand you now?”
Maple zipped closer and kicked Tammy behind the right ear a few times like a salesman trying to show off a used car. “The bad stuff is out of your head now, so your magic works.”
The ‘kicking’ had slightly more impact than a gently tapping finger. Tammy smirked. “Magic? Yeah right. I don’t have magic.”
“Do you understand me?” Maple glided around to hover in front of her face.
“Yeah.”
The faerie held her arms out to either side, grinning. Her eyes, almond-shaped patches of bright green light, intensified with glee. “Then you have magic.”
“Great. I can talk to faeries. How is that supposed to help Annie? You really should get Mom if you need dark faerie asses kicked.”
Maple waved dismissively, scowling. “No. No. No. She can’t help. Immortals can’t go. She could help if she could go, but she can’t go so she can’t help.”
“Uhh. What?”
The textbooks on the foot of the bed leapt into the air, swirling around Tammy and occasionally bumping her on the head. “You should do the smarts more!”
“Sorry…” Tammy raised her arms in an effort to shield her face from the flying books. “It’s kinda confusing. You’re saying Mom can’t go somewhere? Why not?”
The books fell to the bed as if dropped.
“Because can’t.” Maple flew in a rapid, frustrated spiral. “Realm does not exist for immortals.”
This made even less sense to Tammy, but it also seemed rather pointless to press for a better explanation. More than not understanding how it could be possible a place could exist that someone as strong as Mom couldn’t go, it made even less sense how Maple believedTammycould do anything.
“Fine. Okay, but I still can’t do anything more than anyone else. I’m normal.Painfullynormal.”
Maple poked a fingertip to Tammy’s nose. “You can talk.”
So can everyone else.Before the smart-ass remark flew from her lips, she figured the little woman meant talkto faeries. “Okay, so I can talk to you, but I’m still an ordinary person.”
