Lilacs and Fairies

Colleen sat down on her back porch swing. She had been working all morning and was ready for a break. Saturdays were always busy for her since she liked to have her Sundays free to play after church. As she inhaled, she savored the sweet scent of lilacs. It was going to be a good year for them. Late frost had done in the blossoms last year and she had missed them. Her neighborhood was full of lilac bushes so the air was saturated. She glanced across into the rear of her neighbor's yard. Melody, her neighbor's daughter, as pale as ice, was playing with her friend Miranda, who was as dark as Melody was light. The sight of the girls reminded her of her childhood friend Bridget. Her eyes were running. Was she crying? Well, Bridget had disappeared when they had been just like the girls in the yard next door. She hadn't thought of Bridget in weeks, but then it was springtime again. Colleen reached into her pocket for something to wipe her eyes as she started to sneeze. Not about Bridget, but about spring pollen. She loved the lilacs, but they didn't love her. Best to appreciate them from inside the house, where she could at least enjoy the color while she finished her laundry.

As she stood to go back inside, she glanced again at Melody and Miranda. Did something move in the forsythia bush behind he girls? Colleen thought she saw a dark shape flitting between the yellow branches. Was someone there watching the girls? She looked again but could see no one. She thought about calling Melody's mother, but hesitated. Melody's mother might think she was an interfering, nosy neighbor if she wasn't careful - Or even worse, someone who interfered with little girls. There didn't really seem to be any lurkers there. She would just keep an eye out for a while.

The girls noticed her watching and she waved out the window before she picked up a box of winter clothes to carry to the back bedroom where she would store them until next winter. As she returned to her kitchen, she saw a slight movement near the girls out of the corner of her eye. When she looked directly at the place she had seen the movement, she could see nothing. Maybe it was a bird, hopping around. But Colleen was nervous. She remembered how no one had seen anything when Bridget had disappeared. If only there had been a nosy neighbor then.

Melody's mother called the girls inside for lunch and Colleen was left to her memories. She and Bridget had been playing together in the very same spot where the girls were playing this morning. That had been a safer time, but she hadn't been allowed to play there again after the day Bridget had vanished. Today people didn't remember Bridget or her disappearance. Once again everyone thought things were safe for their children, especially since there were so many houses with windows over looking the yards.

Colleen and Bridget had shared everything. They laughed and talked about which movie stars they liked and what movies they wanted to go see. They read the same books and talked about how smart or dumb the people in the books were. They talked about which clothes were pretty and how dumb some of the fashionable things looked or how much they wished their mothers would get them something like that. She remembered how proud she had been when she shared the secret of being the first to get her period with her best friend. How dumb she had been to think that had made her superior as she answered Bridget's questions? It was the last thing they talked about.

Colleen's mother had called her in for lunch and an afternoon trip to the dentist. When they returned Bridget wasn't there. She walked two blocks over to Bridget's house to see if Bridget could spend the night, but she wasn't home. Her mother thought she was with Colleen all afternoon. So they began to look for her. Not in her room, or at any of their other friends. Not at the library, or at the dime store. She was just gone without a trace. She never returned. No one ever found her. There were days and days of questions from stern faced men and softer women. The answers didn't change. No strangers had been seen driving through the neighborhood. No matter how hard she tried, Colleen had no idea where Bridget was. Her grandmother had finally put a stop to the questions when she found Colleen crying in her room alone. No body was ever found. No phone call ever came. Colleen grew up and moved back into the house when her parents moved south, hoping to hear from her friend. Sometime she forgot about Bridget for weeks or months, but the sight of the two girls brought it all back.

She didn't even have a good picture of Bridget to remember her by, just their class picture from that year. After thinking for a minute, she stood up and went to get her camera. She called Melody's mother and asked if she could take the girls' picture in front of her lilacs. "My mother always said that you should have something in the picture to give you some perspective, and I thought it might be nice to have a snap of the girls with the lilacs." Her neighbor said that she would be glad to send the girls when they had finished their lunches.

She could tell that the girls' faces had been washed and their clothes had been straightened and tucked in when they came over. Colleen took several pictures of the girls in front of different lilac bushes. "Do you think your mother would like a picture of her forsythias?" Colleen asked Melody when she had taken several of the different lilac bushes in her yard. The three of them trooped over to take the picture. Before she went home, she stopped to tell Melody's mother that she could e-mail her the pictures if she wanted or she could bring the girls to see them. She said that she would work on them tomorrow.

Sundays in spring always brought her memories of Bridget and their difficulty in being still in church when they wanted to be outside playing. When Colleen got home she took a sandwich to her computer to work on the pictures. The girls next door reminded her of how close she had been with Bridget. They were about the same age as Bridget had been. After Bridget disappeared she would see Bridget's mother watching her and wondering what had happened. Everyone seemed to feel guilty, to think it was their fault that Bridget was gone. No one looked each other in the eye and everyone avoided talking about Bridget. Now,it was like she had never existed..

She uploaded the pictures and began editing the lilac pictures to show off the lilacs and then to show off the girls. She was absorbed in her work when the doorbell rang. It was the girls. They were excited to see how the pictures looked. Colleen wasn't done, but she invited the girls back to look at the pictures and help her with the editing. They played with the forsythia shots, enlarging them and cropping here or there to see how the pictures would look. Suddenly Melody asked "What is that?" as she pointed to a dark shape in the picture on the screen. Colleen moved the picture back and forth, enlarged and reduced it, but nothing came into focus. She printed a picture for each girl and one for their mothers and sent them on their way.

Colleen returned to her computer to try some more effects on the pictures and suddenly there was a small face in the forsythia. After enlarging the picture a couple of times there was a blurry face that looked vaguely familiar. How could that be? It looked like Bridget, but she had not aged a day since her disappearance. Colleen shook her head in hopes that the face would disappear. She repeatedly changed the picture, but the face wouldn't go away. It looked like there were wings on the back of a green body with Bridget's face. Colleen went to her kitchen and made got a cup of coffee before returning to her computer. A "fairy" Bridget was still there staring at her.

Colleen cropped the picture some more until it was just a face. She called her mother after chatting a bit, she asked her to look at the picture she was e-mailing her while they talked. After a while her mother said the picture was there. "It looks a lot like that O'Meara girl who disappeared, doesn't it, but I don't remember that particular picture. Where did it come from?" Colleen said, "Mom, you won't believe this, but it was in the background of a picture of two little girls in front of those forsythia bushes next door. I'll send you the whole picture". She fussed with her computer and the picture was on its way.

Her mother got really quiet, so Colleen told her about taking the pictures of the lilac bushes and the gossip from church, as she wondered what her mother was thinking. "Colleen, your grandmother was right. She said fairies stole Bridget, but I didn't believe her. She is the one who insisted that you not be allowed in that yard. For years I thought she was foolish." Her mother sounded agitated. "Mom, how could that be? Everyone loves fairies. Fairies are good, aren't they?" Colleen asked. "Your grandmother said that they stole little girls every spring when she was young in the old country. Can you get those girls away from those bushes?" Her mother was even more upset. "I'll try," Colleen said. "Do it now," her mother said. "Don't wait, and call me when you have talked to their mothers. If you need me to I'll come." "You know if I push this too much, I could have problems and not be allowed to even watch the girls without being accused of something vile." Colleen was trying to slow her mother down. "I'll let you know how it goes. Okay?"

Colleen called Melody's mother and asked if she could come over and bring Melody for ice cream in an hour. She thought she would start with one parent at a time and if she said that she wanted to give them some enlargements of the pictures that were especially nice, it would get them in the door. She opened the prints and began to print the enlargements while she went to the kitchen and got out her best dessert dishes and silver. This would be an opportunity for Melody to have a real grown up visit. When everything was ready, she put the pictures in page protectors and started looking up fairies on the computer. There seemed to be a lot about how wonderful they were, but here and there were a few entries that were a little darker. She had to decide how much Melody could safely know and how she could stress the seriousness of the situation without creating problems.

When they arrived Melody was on her best behavior. They "ooohd and ahhhd" over the prints. They liked the Chocolate Almond Chip ice cream. Taking a breath, Colleen began to address the issue that had brought about the visit. She began talking about her best friend when she was Melody's age. She showed them the fifth grade class picture and pointed out Bridget's smiling face. Then she told them how Bridget and she spent so much time playing by the forsythia bushes and what fun they had. She could see their minds wandering as they thought about how ditsy she was. Melody got bored and started to wander towards the shelves in the next room. As Melody was distracted, by Colleen's antique doll collection, Colleen began to tell her mother about Bridget's disappearance. Colleen could tell that her audience was skeptical. That skepticism grew as Colleen showed her the enlarged picture of the fairy like creature with a face identical to the one in the class picture.

As they left, Colleen knew that she had not convinced melody's mother. She also knew that it was okay for her to keep an eye on the girls when they were playing. The girls would still be allowed to play in the yard, but at least Colleen could still watch. She picked up a blanket and a book and went out to spend the late afternoon near the bushes to see if anything would develop.

She lay back with her book. Was she day dreaming or was it wishful thinking? She thought that Bridget was there beside her. They were talking like they used to, but Colleen had grown up and her interests had changed from those of her youth. Bridget seemed disappointed that they no longer seemed to have the same voice. On the nearby street a horn broke the enchantment and Bridget vanished. Colleen waited for her to return, but eventually gave up and went inside.

It rained every day during the next week and Colleen spent every spare minute reading everything that she could find about fairies on the internet. While most of it was romantic slop, there were a few sites where Fairies weren't idealized. By the following Saturday she was ready. She waited until the grass was dry and took her book some cookies and a blanket back to wait again by the forsythia. Shortly she was joined by Melody. She left and returned with her book and picked up a cookie to munch on.

Melody was deep into her book and barely noticed when Colleen began to sing softly. It was a song that she and Bridget had sung often together. Colleen could hear the second voice softly coming from the hedge. The cookies lay on a plate at her side more bait. They had been Bridget's favorite. Melody's mother called and the girl went into the house for lunch. When the excitement had calmed, Colleen began to sing again, ignoring the plate and watching the house. The second voice joined in and gradually came closer. When the Fairy Bridget reached for a cookie, Colleen grabbed her wrist. The wind blew up and the sky darkened as the fairy struggled to get away. For a moment she looked into her old friend's eyes before they turned into the eyes of thousands of eyes glaring out at her. At the same time Colleen shouted "You can not have them." She was deadly serious and she held the fairy arm in a vice like grip. "You have to promise to leave them," she screamed as rain drops began to pelt their skin. The fairy continued her struggle to escape while she hissed and growled at her one time friend. Colleen was reaching into her pocket for something. As she touched it to the fairy's skin, it screamed and writhed in pain. At last the words that Colleen was waiting for came from its lips. "I promise." Colleen lacked trust in the fairy. "Promise what?" she demanded as lightening split the sky. "I promise to not take those girls," the fairy spit with hot breath into her former friend's face. Colleen had thought this out before she began and closed the last loop hole as she asked "For how long?" "Forever" came the fairy's voice as the thunder rolled and the lightening blazed again. "I am sorry Bridget, I miss you" came Colleen's soft voice as she loosened her fingers. "You will be sorry!" screamed the fairy as the lightening struck Colleen's house like an explosion. The fairy's rage burned as brightly as Colleen's house as it disappeared.

Colleen broke the window to her porch quickly reached in and grabbed her cat from its bed where it liked to sleep after watching the birds. Then she went back a safe distance wrapping the cat in her sweater and cradling it to her until it calmed. When the fire truck came they found Colleen watching the fire burn. The house was engulfed quickly and there was little they could do to save anything. Colleen knew that when you get something from a fairy that it wants, it will take something precious from you. At least she had saved the girls and her cat.

The firemen trampled the bushes as they fought to keep the fire contained and put it out. Melody's mother was busy cleaning up the small cuts on Colleen's arm from the window. She was lucky that was all she had. Later Colleen sat with Melody's mother, who said simply, "I think I saw what started the fire. Were you bargaining for the girls?" Colleen nodded her head. She was exhausted. "Thank you. I wish I had taken you more seriously. We are lucky to have you for a neighbor."

The next day she watched in surprise as Melody's father drove a machine into their yard and began to dig out the forsythia. He carefully put it all in a barrel and lit a fire. He watched as it burned, while he smoothed the ground, where they had grown, covering it with sand from the sea side and then large flat stones. Then he gathered the trampled lilacs and put them carefully into the ground next to the stones. He pruned them back and added plant food and water. Then he turned to his wife who nodded at him and smiled. Her hand touched Colleen's arm and she said, "We'll help you through this. It will be all right. We don't want to lose you as our neighbor."

Colleen knew she would have to begin rebuilding her house and believed that it would go up smoothly without the interference of any small people flitting to and fro to knock things over. She was glad that the forsythia was gone. She would never like those ugly yellow blossoms again. Her lilacs would come back and the smoky smell would be covered over by the fragrance from the neighborhood bushes until hers grew tall again.