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I love my little sister.
Big goofy grin, an adoration for all things pink and sparkly, and yet not afraid to go out in the garden and get dirty to find the strangest creepy crawlies you could imagine, all to name them something elaborate like Nadine Sparklington Cupcake the 13th; after the first other 12 Nadines of course.
Some people think the 9 year age gap would suck as an older brother, but they don’t know me and Elise. Even though she’s 7 and occasionally begs for the odd makeover session, I wouldn’t change a thing about our relationship. The endless tea parties, dress up sessions and piggyback rides weren’t as bad as what my friends all made it out to be. I quite liked getting to be a kid a bit longer than all my mates. Added a sense of wonder and magic to my otherwise bleak life of High School and studying. Besides, getting to be her knight in shining armour wouldn’t last forever.
But I won’t lie and say there aren’t some drawbacks. The free babysitting for my parents is one, and the whining when I prioritise studying over playing some made up game would not be missed if I had a choice. But trying to get my sister to go to sleep was easily the hardest of them all and tonight was far worse than usual.
“Elise you need to go to sleep if you want the tooth fairy to visit.”
“But Dylaaaan! I don’t wanna go to sweep!” she whined, a small lisp from the freshly missing tooth in the middle of her mouth giving her words a slight lisp. “I wanna stay up and see the tooh fairy.”
“Well she’s never going to come if you’re still up trying to catch her.” I reply as I try to tuck her in, but ultimately fail as she springs up out of bed to stand on the covers. “Elise come on. Don’t do this to me, it’s late.”
In reality it was only 7:30, but we’d been out all day at the park while Mum and Dad were at a function across town and wouldn't be home till late. I was on put down duty and I was ready to chill on the couch with a movie till they got home, but of course it would be tonight that her wobbly tooth decided it was time to fall out, which after we informed my mother meant a follow up text of: there’s $5 in the kitchen drawer, you’re on tooth fairy duty.
It’s not the worst gig in the world, but having to nod and smile as your sister goes chattering away about how magical and cool the tooth fairy is whilst you lied to your baby sister that she was real wasn’t super fun. Especially while you tried to think of ways to make ‘mission impossible’ of getting her tooth and not waking her up again’ possible, and with how insistent she was about staying awake to see said fairy, this would be no easy feat.
“Nuh uh. I wanna see her Dyls. I weally weally do!” she pleaded as she jumped on the bed as if it proved her reasoning. “I wanna see the tooh fairy.”
I sighed, dragging a hand down my face as Elise continued to bounce, chanting tooth fairy over and over again. Where do 7 year olds get all this energy from?
“Come on Elise, it’s time for bed.” I reiterate using my stern tone hoping she’d get the message it was sleep time, but of course instead she blows a raspberry in my face, spit and all and adds spinning to her insistent bouncing.
“I’m. Not. Sweeping.”
Welp. Sometimes bedtime calls for desperate measures and it seemed it was one of those times.
“Elise, you’ve got to the count of three to get in bed or I’ll take the money you get away from the tooth fairy.”
She immediately stills, shocked that I would even suggest such a thing. “You can’t do that! It’s mine!”
“One,” I say, drawing out the number as I watch her little face morph into surprise that yes; her older brother was serious.
“Two,” I struggle to keep a straight face as I watch her frantically pull the blankets back as she jumps beneath the covers.
“Thre-”
“WAIT!” She shouts before grabbing her rabbit stuffy and grabbing her tooth from the bedside table, slipping it beneath her pillow gently with a kiss, before shuffling underneath the covers to cuddle in for the night. “Okay ready.” She smiles as if she wasn’t being a little rascal seconds before.
“Three.” I finish, returning her smile with a fond look of my own. I help tuck her in fully before giving her a soft kiss on her forehead before standing to leave. “Good night Elise.”
“Night Night Dylan.”
Sometimes I wish she’d never grow up.
I head down stairs and throw on a movie- My little pony Rainbow rocks or something like that. One thing about having younger siblings is watching kid movies and this movie is unironically amazing to watch. It’s two more movies later before I check the time again, the screen flashing 9:30pm and I’ve not heard a peep from upstairs. Best get this over with now before I start another movie.
I go grab the $5 from the kitchen draw and a sparkly bit of ribbon to tie it up into a roll before heading to Elise’s bedroom. Who even came up with the idea of the tooth fairy? You literally waste money on kids to collect their teeth so they can go into a draw and be forgotten. Instead you’ve got parents and good older brothers like me doing make believe fairies dirty work.
I tip toe down the hallway, being careful to keep stealthy in case she was still up like she had planned before gently pushing the door open a crack to peer inside. As a 7 year old, it’s still perfectly normal for a little girl to use a night light and the soft glow of her flower light is enough to illuminate her beside table and in turn, her little face. There she is, curled up in a nest of blankets snoring softly into her Bunny's head fast asleep. It’s a good thing she’s so sweet because seeing her this precious almost makes this whole endeavor worth it.
As I go to open the door though, another light mysteriously appears on my sister's face, only it’s being illuminated from the outside window. At first I thought it was the car headlights from my parents car, but I couldn’t hear the tell tale signs of the car engine.
Before I could question it further, the light grows brighter and somehow the window unlatches itself and opens just enough that in flies a small ball of light, flying right up to the night light. It moved around a bit sporadically, as if it was looking for something before the light dimmed in brightness, revealing a pair of sparkling wings on the back of what looked like a tiny person.
My jaw dropped as I stared mouth agape at what I saw through the door.
Was that- Is that actually the Tooth Fairy?!
They were a bit hard to make out from the weird angle, but yes that was a tiny person flying around the bedside table. They land on the wooden surface before unslinging something from their shoulder- presumably a bag before rummaging through it. I could hear them muttering something, but they were doing it so quietly it was hard to make any coherent words out, besides a small yes, presumably finding what they were looking for before flying over to the pillow by my sister's head.
Carefully I pushed the door open a bit more to get a better view of this so-called fairy, watching them look around my sister's head, throwing their arms about in frustration as they looked for presumably her tooth. Why else would they be here? The little fairy muttered something else before grabbing something from a pocket and throwing - was that pixie dust? Onto my sister before getting low to the covers and started tunnelling under the pillow.
Curiosity piqued my interest and slowly I crept into my sister's room, careful of where I tread to avoid stepping on any of her toys and alerting the fairy to my presence. As I got closer I noticed my guess was correct and couldn’t help but pick up the little bag the fairy had left on the dresser. It was so soft to the touch and delicately stitched together and appeared to be made of some kind of fur. Perhaps they had made it themselves?
My attention was drawn back to the pillow at the sudden muffled “Aha! Found it.” from beneath my sister's pillow. Looking at her now, you wouldn’t even know there was a small person under there. It’s not long before the little creature is shuffling back out from beneath the pillow, tooth in hand that I can see them in their fullness.
Unlike the stories, there were no frilly flower dresses in sight. This fairy wore what looked like cargo pants with a camouflage gear on top, adorned with a small rope and dental equipment? I guess that makes sense as the tooth fairy but the camo gear was a surprise. Their wings were what truly stood out though. Shimmering a pale blue and almost translucent, the patterns on their wings were truly breathtaking and I hadn’t even realised my hand was reaching to touch them before the tip of my finger made contact; and nor had the poor fairy.
They shrieked in surprise, shooting into the air so fast they smacked into my face knocking us both back before she fell onto the bed in a daze. I take a sharp breath in, trying to suppress the pain blooming across my head, before turning my attention to the mess of sparkles on the covers below. The poor fairy was in absolute daze, I swear you could see sparks flying off their head as they tried to regain their bearings.
“Ugh, my head.” They groaned as they tried to push themselves up. “That hurt. Like, really hurt.”
“You’re telling me.” I emphasize, rubbing at where the fairy had collided with my forehead. The impact was probably going to leave a mark. The fairies head snaps up to mine, their eyes widening in fear as they just now seemed to notice my presence. I feel kinda bad. It was my fault after all they got surprised and launched themselves.
“Hey I’m sorry about touching your wings. Maybe we could-” I don’t even get to finish my sentence, before the fairy is trying to push themselves off the covers to fly out the window.
Unfortunately for them, they never even made it off the covers.
“Hey wait!” I cry and before I know it, I’ve reached out and got the poor fairy in my grasp.
“LET ME GO!” They shriek, pushing and kicking at my fingers and oh boy does it feel weird knowing I’m holding a whole person in my grasp. My sister lets out a noise of discomfort and it’s as she does I realise now was probably the worst time she could possibly wake up, and I quickly throw my other hand over the fairy’s head to muffle their cries and they go deathly silent. I hold my breath, waiting for my sister to stir, but she rolls over and deeply exhales, signalling she’s still asleep.
I sigh in relief, my attention back on the small creature I hold in my hands. I turn and make my way out of my sister's room and head towards mine. I can hear the fairy mumbling to themself, things about hating this job and how her Grandma sucks for forcing this on her. Was this not her usual job?
“Okay, so I know you probably hate me right now, but I didn’t want to wake my sister up. Trust me, she would have been all over you right now if she was.” I joke trying to break the tension, but all I earn is a nasty glare.
“Can’t be much more over me than your grubby hands I doubt.” She sneers. For someone so small I have to admit, they’re quite the spit fire.
“Hey, I didn’t mean to grab you, but you were going to take off and I was only trying to apologise for touching your wings. Didn’t mean to make you angsty.”
“Yeah well you shouldn’t have been up in the first place! I already did a sweep of the house and no one was around.” She scolds, glaring for good measure. “Now put me down. Your hands are way too sweaty right now to stay this way.”
“Ah.” I cringe at the notion as I look for something I can put the fairy in before spying my bug catcher. That’ll do for now. Take that Mum for telling me to clean my room out.
“Haha, very funny.” The fairy laughs nervously as I use one hand to open the bug catcher base up. “I said put me down, not put me in a container.”
“It’s a bug catcher.” I correct as I put it down and maneuver my hand around to slip them inside. “Besides, I will let you go as I’m sure you have many more teeth to collect tonight, I just want to talk before you do.” Man even if she’s staring daggers into me she’s got the most beautiful blue eyes I’ve ever seen.
“And you think keeping me as a prisoner is going to make me talk?” She seethes trying to push back against my fingers as I let her fully go, snapping the lid back on before she can slip out.
“Temporary prisoner, but yeah pretty much.”
“Well you’re dreaming if you think I’d tell an ugly human anything, that’s for sure.” She huffs, banging on the plastic for good measure.
I feign being hurt at the comment and the fairy has the slightest decency to feel bad about it. “I’ll have you know that I’m actually quite good looking, thank you very much.” I lean in close with a smirk on my face “But you on the other hand are so adorable in all your commando gear.” I swear her face turned bright red as she turned around to hide her face at the comment.
“I- what? No you can’t just- SAY something like that out of nowhere.” She replies flustered, grabbing at her hands as her wings twitch anxiously.
“Well it’s true though. I’m just stating fact.” I can’t help the smile on my face grow wider as she dissolves into more embarrassed sparkles.
“Ugh Grandma's going to kill me when I get out of here.” She groans, pushing her back up against the plastic, sliding down to hide her head in her knees. “The one thing she said not to do and of course it happens to me.”
“Hey don’t beat yourself up.” I try to comfort her getting down to her level to not completely tower over her in her confines. “You can’t be perfect every time. Surely she’ll understand it’s just a little mistake.”
“You don’t know my Grandma.” She mutters back muffled, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Not that it matters. I’m never leaving.”
Well now I feel really bad for trapping her in there. Even though I intend to let her go, she doesn’t know that for certain. From her perspective, I’m just some big terrible human who could keep her forever when all she had done was her job. I wouldn’t trust a word I say either. But I couldn’t just let her go without asking a few questions! I blame human nature for being curious about everything to some credit, surely she must know humans would want to know more about fairies if one just so happened to come in one night.
“Hey, as I said before I promise I’ll let you go, I just want to talk a little first. It’s not every day you meet a fairy you know.”
She lifts her head and meets my gaze, her eyes searching my face for any trace of a lie in my words.
“Swear on your teeth you'll let me go.” Fiery blue eyes pierce my own at the demand. It was clear she was deadly serious, and I didn’t think I should test my luck with what that would mean for my teeth if I went back on my word.
“I swear on my teeth I’ll let you free.” I promise, even smiling and tapping my teeth for good measure- not that it would do anything. I think?
“Good. Because if you don’t, I’ll have you know I can just as easily make all your teeth fall out if I want to.”
“Oh well I definitely can’t have that! How will I turn on the charm with the ladies if all my teeth fall out?” I smile as the little fairy dissolves into a fit of giggles and I know that I’m getting her to relax. “Now I think we got off on the wrong foot, so lets start over with introductions yeah? My name’s Dylan Mcaroy.”
“Pearly.” She offers back. “Pearly White.”
“Pearly White the Tooth Fairy. Hang on, Pearly White Tooth… Like Pearly White Teeth?! Oh my gosh are your parents mean or what?!”
“Ugghhhh my Mum is the worst!! I told her people would figure it out!!”
“Well despite the dorkiest name ever it’s a pleasure to meet you.” I say with a slight bow of my head. She nods back once as she drops to her knees to shift to be sitting cross legged and a bit more comfortable.
“Now you Humans always have the same questions you want to ask when meeting my kind so we’re gonna skip the formalities and get straight to the point.” Pearly states, holding up a hand to silence me when I go to argue with her. Bossy boots…
“Yes, I’m a fairy, a tooth fairy to be exact. Yes I am real. No you are not dreaming. My job is to fly in, collect teeth, leave some money and get out. We collect the teeth and categorise them to be used for magic dust and other spells as Human teeth are high in Calcium which is difficult to get in powdered concentrated form unless we want to hack at bones for hours.”
I listen intently, trying to make mental notes despite the speed she’s speaking at. It almost sounds like she’s reciting the procedure of what to do in an emergency or a warning from a strict parent.
“No we don’t make furniture out of the teeth, no we don’t live in hovels and no I’m not telling you where to find us and yes I think it’s a gross job. Any questions?”
She waits for an answer, a smug smile on her face while I stare a little dumbfounded. I guess we really do ask all the same questions.
“No, I think that’s covered just about everything.” I relent, scratching at the back of my neck, the smile on Pearly’s face somehow growing smugger. I have a feeling she’s always like this.
“Now, since you have no more questions, that means you have to let me go now or say bye bye teeth.”
She gets to her feet and stands expectedly waiting for me to let her out, but I wasn’t about to let the pipsqueak win over me that easily.
“Well,” I start, dragging it out as I stand to pace my room. “It’s true you answered all the generic questions. But there’s still so much more I want to know and you’ve not let me ask a single question.”
I’m not looking at her directly, but I can hear the slight tapping of a tiny foot on plastic, the fairy getting impatient. “Uh huuh. So what is it? I don’t have all night.”
I pause for a moment, a grin creeping up my face as I swoop down to her level and get close enough to see the details on her face. She bites her lip, trying to hold back her nerves from showing.
“Uh-um. Well?” She stumbles over her words, fiddling with her hands avoiding eye contact.
“Tell me,” I start, laying on the charm thick in my words. “Are all fairies as beautiful as you, or are you the exception?”
Hehe. 1-0.
Pearly’s face turned bright red and her dim glow shone brighter than the sun itself, momentarily blinding me and sending me flailing backwards in surprise. The fairy dissolved into a million stutters of embarrassment at the comment, but I was only half paying attention as I rubbed at my eyes, trying to blink away the white blotches dancing across my vision from my new spot splayed across the floor.
“WHY WOULD YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!?!” She shrieked, still processing the words playing over and over in her head.
“Humans don’t just say stuff like that?” She knew all the standard questions!!! What was this one thinking!?
“Well if I’d known I was about to be blinded by the sun, I would never have said it!” I yelled back, my eyes watering from the excessive blinking.
“Ugh I’m never agreeing to this job ever again!”
“Good! My eyes will be spared next time and then I won’t have to-”
“Um Dylan?” A small tired voice cut through the noise and the two bickering teens froze. “What are you yelling about?”
Despite the fading splotches, I was quick to move to my open door and cover the direction of the fairy from the view of my tired little sister.
“Elise! What are you doing up?” I ask her, trying my best to pretend like I hadn’t been yelling seconds earlier. Elise yawned as she rubbed at her eyes, her bunny clutched in one hand tightly.
“You were being loud and I got scared when I heard a loud bang.”
Ah shoot, we’d woken her up.
“Uh right, yes um- that was me falling over. Got up too quick haha.” I quickly rushed out, trying to come up with a cover story. “I’m okay now though, thanks for checking.”
Despite being tired, Elise squinted her eyes at me looking me up and down before reaching out for my face. “You don’t look okay.” She whispered quietly, lip turning to a quiver. “Have you been crying?”
Her hand brushed a stray tear from my cheek and I wiped at my face to clean up the tears as I reassured her. “No, no I’m okay. I just got something in my eye and was trying to get it out.”
“You mean like when I got dust in my eyes at the park? That weely hurt.”
Bless her kind heart.
“Mhmm just like that. I’ll be okay though. How about we get you back to bed?”
She nods tiredly, motioning hands for upsies as I scoop her up into my arms. The last few dots are still dancing across my vision as I carry her back to her room, her head slumped on my shoulder. I slip her back into bed with no fuss, tuck her back in just like before and creep back out of her room and into my own.
Pearly's glow had returned to its normal brightness as she jumped up to face me when she noticed me enter.
“Is she back to sleep?” She asks, concern gripping her voice with her hands pressed up against the plastic awaiting my response.
“Yeah she is. She’s normally a pretty heavy sleeper, so we must have been louder than I thought.”
“I hope she sleeps okay then. I’d hate to think I caused a child to lose sleep over my own brashness.” The little fairy sighs in relief, as she relaxes against the plastic.
“It’s odd to see you so concerned about humans when you were literally cursing me minutes earlier.” I chuckle as she rolls her eyes.
“Just because I don’t immediately like the human who trapped me in a bug catcher doesn’t mean I think Human children are bad.” She huffs, crossing her arms in front of her as if the answer had been obvious. “Besides, your sister is one of the nicer regulars on Grandma's list. I don’t want to let her down if she finds out Elise didn’t get a good night's rest after our visit.”
“Wait, Grandma's list? So is this not your normal job then?” I ask as I move to sit down at my desk to lean on the wooden surface, and be more eye level with Pearly.
“Well yes and no.” She slips down the plastic again to a more comfortable seated position as she continues. “I am a tooth fairy by family lineage, but being on the field isn’t my normal job. You can thank my Grandma, the real tooth fairy for me gracing you with my presence tonight.”
“Oh, so are you just standing in for her?” I ask as she nods.
“Yeah I am. Normally, my Mum wouldn’t let me anywhere near the field as technically I’m not legally qualified to be on my own yet, but this is Grandma's route and she’s unwell.” Pearly fiddled with the rope attached to her hip as she continued.
“She’s extremely stubborn, and despite my protest about not going and that it could wait until tomorrow, she basically kicked me out of the house and wouldn’t let me back in unless I agreed to go.”
“Geez, mean Granny much? That must have been a real pain in the tooth.” I tease which earns me a glare in return. So cute.
“Well, aside from being tortured by your bad puns, I can get into serious trouble for being out here without supervision, but nooooo she insisted I’d be fine. Just because I’ve been doing this run with her since I was 5 doesn’t mean it’s okay Grandma!”
“They make you start tooth fairying at 5?” I ask, mouth agape at the thought of a child starting a job so young but Pearly simply shakes her head.
“No no, I’ve been going on trips with her since I was 5. You can’t start training until you’re at least 16, but I may as well have started then because I know how to do everything, just the fairy council is brutal if you get caught breaking policy.”
“Man being a tooth fairy sounds rough. You sure you don't want to just stay here and start a new life? I know this really great doll house with a side gig of pretending to be a cute doll for 6 hours a day.” She laughs in response, her voice almost sounding like bells on the wind.
“Hmmm tempting, but only if I get to stare at the handsome boy in front of me for said 6 hours all day.”
I feel heat rise to my cheeks, and suddenly Pearly full on bursts out laughing, as I turn away to hide my face in embarrassment. She’s cackling at seemingly beating me at my own game, so I guess that makes it one point apiece. I glance back and I can’t help but laugh with her at the absurdity. To think she’d actually manage to get the better of me in the end.
It’s not long before we both settle back into a comfortable silence that I dare a glance at the time and notice it’s just gone 10:07pm. Mum and Dad probably wouldn’t be far off now and if what Pearly had said was true, she should probably get going.
“Well I think you’ve answered all my questions now, so I best let you on your way. A promise is a promise.”
I sit up slowly and wait for Pearly to stand before picking up the bug catch to unscrew the bottom as carefully as possible to not jostle my small passenger too much. I hold the lid from below as I feel it pop off, and carefully lift the top off the fairies head as she stretches up to her full height and lets her wings completely unfurl. She gives them an experimental flap before zipping up into the air to do a full circle around my head, coming to a stop a couple inches away from my face.
Truly remarkable.
“I’ll just get the window open for you and you can be on your way.” I offer as I place the bug catcher back down, moving around the hovering fairy to crawl across my bed and open the window to the cool night breeze.
“While I know it wasn’t the most conventional kind of meeting, it was nice to meet you Pearly.”
She flies forward, opting to land on the windowsill glancing off into the dark of night before turning back to me with a disbelieving smile shaking her head. “I am most definitely going to be in so much trouble for this, but in terms of my first time being caught by a Human, at least I can say it ended somewhat pleasantly.”
She smiles and I smile shyly back at her, almost wishing she didn’t have to go at all. She adjusts her bag and checks to make sure everything is secure before sticking a finger in her mouth and pulls it back out to check which way the wind was blowing from, before nodding satisfied with her judgement and floating back up into the air with one arm extended forward.
“It was nice to meet you too, Dylan Macaroy.”
I stare at her slightly confused, and it's not until she flicks her hand up that it hits me she's offering a handshake good bye. I mentally slap myself as I raise my hand to shake hers awkwardly before realising it completely dwarfs her, instead delicately grasping her tiny hand between my pointer and thumb to gently shake it.
It’s so surreal to know I’m holding such a tiny hand in my grasp that if I squeeze too hard, I could crush the bones to bits, but the fact she even offered to do so shows she must hold some level of trust. How I deserve it, I don’t know but I never wanted to forget this feeling.
“Do you think-” I stumble over my words as she pulls her hand from my grip softly, fluttering back ever so slightly. “Do you think I could see you again? Doesn’t have to be for long, I just thought- well um, it would be nice to get to know you some more.”
She thinks to herself for a moment, before a mischievous smile creeps onto her face with a twinkle in her eye.
“Perhaps,” she draws out cheekily before zipping right up to my face that I have to go cross eye to see her, as she balances an elbow on my cheek and pretends to look at her nails nonchalantly. “Loose a few teeth and then we’ll talk.”
I’m about to protest, but before I even have a chance, she sets a quick peck on my cheek before zooming back.
“See ya round.” She calls as she shoots out the window in a flurry of sparkles and disappears into the night. I’m frozen for a solid minute, face bright red and mind processing what had just occurred.
Make that 2:1 on the score board.
˖⁺‧₊⟡₊˚⊹ ˖⋆｡𖦹 ˚ 𓇼 ˚｡⋆˙⟡ 𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ𐀔 ˖⁺‧₊⟡₊˚⊹ ˖⋆｡𖦹 ˚ 𓇼 ˚｡⋆˙⟡
The following morning, I’m woken to an earful of screams of delight, as my sister runs around the house proudly shouting about her sparkly $5 note from the tooth fairy. She bursts into my room, deciding to jump on me whilst I’m still half asleep.
“DYLS DYLS DYLS! LOOK LOOK LOOK! The tooth fairy came and she gave me a BIG ONE!”
“That’s- OOF!” I groan as she decides to jump on top of me, giving me a tight squeeze in delight. “Nice…” I finish, as Elise decides bombarding me first thing wasn’t enough and starts jumping up and down on my bed with me still in it.
“I’m so, so, so, happy!” She cheers with every bounce, but I’m starting to feel sick as her bouncing increases.
“HaVE, yoU, shOWN, mUM aND dAD yET?” I say, every jump bouncing my words as my weight dips with the bed. She stops suddenly, and quickly scrambles off and out of my room before thundering down the hall to our parents’ room.
“MUM MUM MUM!”
Yeah, their turn for a bit of crazy, I decide.
I groggily sit up in bed as I let my world readjust to the still un-bouncing of my dear sister and sigh as I think about the joy the tooth fairy had brought her. My gaze turns to the bug catcher, sitting innocently on my desk as my mind goes through the events of last night like a movie.
It sounds almost impossible.
The Tooth Fairy?
Real?
Nah, not possible. I probably stayed up too late watching movies and my mind just manifested some elaborate dream; though my hand subconsciously lifts up and rests on my cheek. A kiss from my dream girl with wings at a couple of inches tall is definitely just my imagination. It couldn’t have been real.
Could it?
“Mum! Dad! You have to see the cool money the tooth fairy left me!!! It’s so sparkly and pretty and magic- oh. Where’d it go?”
I hear Dad mumbling something about the $5 maybe being on the floor somewhere, but I know she more likely dropped it in here from her bouncing and sure enough, at the foot of my bed is a $5 note. I lean over and pluck it up between two fingers. I’m about to call out saying I found it, but a flash of sparkles makes me falter.
From a glance it looks like a normal $5 note, but upon closer inspection it’s covered in shimmering rainbow sparkles that dance with the morning light, as it streams in through the window. This is not the note I had tied up and left for my sister last night. I don’t think I even left it there in the end. I was far too distracted by…
Pearly.
My head snaps to the bug catcher and I reach over snatching it up in my grasp hastily undoing the bottom to look inside and sure enough, the whole thing was filled with the same dazzling sparkles. I run a single finger through the dust and it almost feels warm to the touch as the dust dances across my fingers.
Did that really happen? Could it?
“I lost it!!!”
Elise’s sudden crying interrupts my thoughts and it’s then I remember she’s still looking for the money and my parents are getting more frantic by the second it’s not found.
“It’s in here Elise!” I call for her and the thump off our parents’ bed and the thundering of footsteps brings the arrival of a teary eyed Elise to my door, as I hold the magical note out to her and watch her tears melt away.
She hastily runs up and grabs it before running back to show Mum and Dad, with no thank you of course, as I simply shake my head in fondness as she squeals with delight over its return, turning my attention back to the bug catcher.
The $5 note, the sparkles in the bug catcher, even a name! Surely this wasn’t just all in my head. Right? Surely this was a dream and I just imagined the whole thing! But part of me knew it couldn’t have been. Didn’t want it to be. If she was real, I wanted to see her again. Wanted to know I wasn’t crazy and I had indeed met her. But even if she did exist, she wouldn’t come back here. Not any time soon at least.
I sigh as my gaze wanders back to the window sill where I last saw my tiny dream girl, and to my surprise laying innocently on the window sill is a tiny white flower and a note folded in half.
Slowly, as if it would disappear the moment I touched it, I pick up the flower and unfurl the note. In tiny curly writing, so small that I almost have to squint to read are the words:
‘Till we meet again- P Xx’
I can’t stop the heat rising to my cheeks as I flop back onto my bed covering my face from embarrassment. Had my hands not been in the way you’d see a grinning love struck fool in a blubbering mess.
Another thud comes from down the hall, and I faintly hear my Mum panicking over another instance of Elise’s clumsiness from moving too fast and not letting her brain catch up.
“Muuuuuum! I lost another tooth!”
Guess I’d be seeing Pearly sooner than I thought.
˖⁺‧₊⟡₊˚⊹ ˖⋆｡𖦹 ˚ 𓇼 ˚｡⋆˙⟡ 𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ𐀔 ˖⁺‧₊⟡₊˚⊹ ˖⋆｡𖦹 ˚ 𓇼 ˚｡⋆˙⟡