The Fairy Godmother Part 35

“So,” I smiled at Judith. “What do we do now?”

“Wait,” she suggested.

“But do we sit here and watch the clock or do we get on with something useful?” I asked.

“What do you mean useful?” she asked.

“Well, I’m sure you had plenty of things lined up for today till Jessie and Ella turned up on your doorstep,” I said.

“Of course,” Judith snapped. “What of it?”

“Well, Jessie isn’t here to help you, so I could give you a hand whilst we’re waiting,” I suggested.

“Why would you do that?” she asked.

“They could be gone for a while, it saves us getting board, time passes quicker if you have something useful to do and the work needs to be done sometime, so I may as well give you a hand with it. Stop me when you’ve heard something that sounds reasonable, I have been told that I can keep going for hours and that I do tend to repeat myself after a while,” I paused for breath. “Or we could try baking, I am told that I am very good at Fairy cakes, but then I wouldn’t be much of a Fairy Godmother if I couldn’t bake a few Fairy Cakes.”

“I did have a full day of house work planned till all this happened,” said Judith. “I’m sure Jessie would have given me a hand.”

“But things have gone pants,” I smiled.

“This wasn’t how I thought today would pan out,” Judith smiled.

“If they hadn’t taken my magic wand away, I could have waved it and everything would do itself,” I said. “So, just tell me what you want doing and how you want it done and they will be back when we are right in the middle of something.”

“Or when we are just ready to start something,” Judith laughed.

Enid waved her wand. Jessie and she vanished to appear outside a large detached house, set in a large well tended garden.

“I can see why you wanted to bring Ella here,” said Jessie, when Enid looked confused Jessie added. “It’s so much better than we could ever give her.”

“It wasn’t my decision to bring Ella here,” said Enid.

“If it had been?” asked Jessie.

“I would not have taken your daughter anywhere without your consent,” Enid replied. “Either daughter,” she added quietly. The front door opened before she could say anything else.

“What have you brought her here for?” a man demanded of Enid.

“This is Ella’s mother,” said Enid.

“I know who she is,” snapped the man. “We don’t need her, we need Ella or Rosie will die.”

“Then it’s about time you started being polite to me,” snapped Jessie. “Because Ella wont be coming here without my say so.”

“You aren’t helping anything,” said a woman emerging from the shadows.

“Rosie,” he started.

“I know how Rosie is,” snapped the woman. “And the longer we argue the less likely it is for Rosie to be OK.”

“I’m only trying to help,” he muttered.

“Well, you’ve failed,” said the woman.

“But,” he muttered.

“You are wasting what little time Rosie has,” said the woman turning her back on him, he sighed and walked back into the house.

“You forced me to carry your child, stole her from me at birth, then tried to kill me and my husband so that you could get hold of my daughter to stop yours from dying,” said Jessie.

“That about sums it up,” said the woman.

“So why should I do anything to help you?” Jessie asked.

“This isn’t for you,” said the woman. “It’s for Rosie.”

“And if the shoe was on the other foot,” asked Jessie. “Would you do this for Ella?”

“It isn’t,” said the woman. “And it is difficult to say how I would react in your position.”

“At least you didn’t say what you thought would give you that right result,” said Jessie.

“Why did you come here?” asked the woman.

“I want to see Rosie,” said Jessie.

“Why, she is nothing to you,” said the woman.

“I carried her, I gave birth to her, she is not nothing to me,” snapped Jessie.

“But,” said the woman.

“If I don’t see her, I wont believe that she exists,” said Jessie. “If she doesn’t exist then there is no reason for me to stay here and no reason for me to bring my daughter here.”

“OK,” said the woman, stepping to one side. “You can see Rosie.”

Enid and Jessie followed the woman into the house, up the stairs and into a large darkened bedroom. In the darkest corner there was a child’s bed and in it a very small frail child.

“Rosie?” said Jessie. The child stirred, but did not open her eyes. Jessie sat next to her.

“She looks so like my Ella,” Jessie said to no one in particular.

“If you could bring yourself to help her,” said the woman.

“Would you leave us alone?” asked Jessie.

“I could say yes,” said the woman. “But this condition might recur.”

“And then you would need Ella again,” said Jessie.

“I’m sorry,” said the woman.

“Then we need to organise communication between the two of us,” said Jessie. “Don’t think I am doing this for you.”

“You will agree to the treatment!” the woman sighed.

“Can it be done whilst my daughter sleeps?” Jessie asked.

“She has only a few hours left,” said the woman, looking at Rosie. “We can’t wait till the night.”

“Then it better be done now,” said Jessie. “We’ll get Ella,” she added looking at Enid.

“Thank-you,” said the woman and Enid waved her wand.

“What!” said Judith, as we heard a noise in the living room. We had been in the kitchen washing the dishes.

“I’ve agreed to taking Ella to them,” said Jessie.

“Are you sure that’s wise?” asked Judith.

“Rosie, she looks so much like my Ella,” said Jessie. “I’m doing it for her.

“You’re talking like Rosie is a real person,” said a sleepy Ella standing at the foot of the stairs, still in her nightie.

“She is,” said Jessie. “And she is very poorly. She needs your help to make her better.”

“Then we’d better go to help her,” said Ella. “Should I get dressed first.”

“You will be fine just as you are,” said Enid.

“We’d better go,” said Jessie, picking Ella up. “Get this done before I change my mind.”

“We’ll finish the washing,” I said to Judith as Enid waved her wand.

We had just finished the dishes when Jessie arrived back with a rather tired Ella.

“I’ll put her to bed,” said Judith, taking Ella out of Jessie’s arms. “You look all in.”

“Will she be OK?” Jessie asked Enid.

“She will be now,” said Enid.

“And if she isn’t?” asked Jessie.

“I shall let you know,” I said. “And then the decision is all yours.”

“It better had be,” said Jessie.

“You need to rest,” said Enid. “I’ll give you my phone number, if you have any questions.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll ring,” said Jessie, escorting us to the door.

“Will they be OK now?” I asked Enid.

“Should be,” she sighed.

“How did you talk her into doing it?” I asked.

“I didn’t,” said Enid.

“But?” I asked.

“She looked at Rosie, said how much she looks like Ella and agreed,” Enid sighed.

“So what do we do now?” I asked.

“Go back to the council and see what’s going on,” Enid replied, waving her wand.

By Janice Nye © 2020

The Fairy Godmother Part 34

“Easy?” I asked Enid.

“Piece of cake, walk in the park,” Enid replied without looking at me.

“We are asking a woman to put her child through a bone marrow transplant for a child whom she was told died at birth,” I said.

“She thought she was expecting one child and she got one child,” said Enid.

“But she was delivered of two, one of whom was taken away without her even seeing them,” I replied.

“It happens all the time with fairies,” said Enid.

“These aren’t fairies we are talking about and they don’t expect it to happen,” I replied.

“We’re here now,” said Enid opening the gate to the garden of a rather average semi-detached house, built around the early 1970’s.

“Are they here?” I asked.

“Hello,” said a lady standing at the door. “And who are you?”

“One of them is the woman from the home who warned me that they were likely to spirit Ella away,” said Jessie. “She got her to me before they could,” she added picking Ella up and holding her closely.

“And the other woman?” she was asked.

“I don’t know,” said Jessie.

“There are a few things we need to talk about,” I said to the woman standing in the doorway.

“I’m not sure,” she said.

“We just want to talk,” I said. “There may be a solution, but it’s going to take a lot of explaining.”

“I’ll listen,” said Jessie. “I’m not making any promises though.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” I said.

“You can come in,” said the woman, looking at me.

“What about Enid?” I asked tilting my head in her direction. “I couldn’t have got Ella out without her help.”

“OK,” the woman agreed, but she didn’t look happy about the idea, can’t say as I was either.

“Have I got this right,” asked Jessie about ten minutes later. “You are saying that I gave birth to twins and that one of them was taken from me shortly after birth!”

“Yes,” I said.

“You’d know if you’d given birth to twins,” said Judith, the woman whose house we were in.

“My memories of the birth are sketchy to say the least,” said Jessie. “I was in so much pain, there are gaps. I remember two babies being taken out of the room, there was a problem, but I don’t know what it was. Only one of them was brought back, but everyone told me that there was only the one baby and that I was probably seeing double or something. It was very confusing.”

“Ian would know,” said Judith.

“He didn’t arrive till an hour later,” said Jessie. “He got away from work as soon as he could, but the traffic back, it was horrendous and there were so many delays.”

“There must have been someone in there with you,” said Judith. “Your Mum wouldn’t let you go into Labour on your own.”

“That’s right, Mum was there, she’ll know what happened,” said Jessie, picking up the phone.

“Mum,” Jessie said, when the phone was answered.

“Is it wise you ringing here?” she asked quickly before Jessie could say anything else.

“I’ve been talking to some people, the woman from yesterday and her friend,” said Jessie trying not to name names.

“What did they want?” asked Jessie’s Mum.

“They want to sort out all this mess,” said Jessie. “To start with they say I gave birth to twins.”

“They can’t prove that,” Jessie’s Mum snapped.

“So they were right,” said Jessie. “And you knew about it.”

“You have to understand, you weren’t supposed to know about the second baby,” said Jessie’s Mum, slowly.

“So what went wrong?” asked Jessie coldly.

“Everything,” sighed her Mum. “You shouldn’t have seen her.”

“But I did, I saw her and you’ve been denying her existence ever since,” Jessie snapped.

“It isn’t as if she was your baby,” her Mother tried to explain.

“No, I just carried her for, how many months?” Jessie asked.

“About seven,” said her Mother.

“About seven months, I was a surrogate and no one bothered to tell me about it,” Jessie shouted down the phone.

“It was half fairy,” said her Mother. “A changeling, it isn’t as if it was any sort of drain on you.”

“That isn’t the point,” said Jessie. “You knew about all of this and you didn’t tell me.”

“I wanted to, but your Father thought it best not to burden you with the information,” her Mother replied.

“I am an adult, I was an adult then, I should have had the say in this, no one else,” Jessie shouted at the phone.

“You were under fifty,” said Enid. “A fairy of your age wouldn’t get to make a choice like that.”

“I am not a fairy,” snapped Jessie, glaring at Enid.

“No, well it wouldn’t be a problem if you were,” Enid replied.

“No,” I said. “They don’t have maternal instincts.”

“I’ve never had a problem with it,” said Enid.

“I don’t think this is helping any,” I replied glaring at Enid.

“I’m sorry,” said Jessie’s Mother. “But I hoped, once they had the baby, then everything would be OK.”

“It would have been,” said Enid.

“But?” asked Jessie.

“The changeling got ill,” said Enid.

“How ill?” asked Jessie

“We have tried everything, but without a bone marrow transplant from Ella, Rosie is going to die,” said Enid.

“Is that where they were taking her?” asked Jessie.

“Yes,” said Enid.

“And when they were done what would they have done with her?” Jessie asked.

“She was to be adopted by the changeling’s human Mother, just in case other transplants were needed,” said Enid. “They would explain to her that they were twins separated at birth.”

“You got it all sorted out, so neat and tidy and then things went wrong,” said Jessie.

“Yes,” said Enid looking at me. “Then things went wrong.”

“So you think you have the solution,” said Jessie.

“I think so,” said Enid.

“So what is it?” Jessie asked.

“Rosie needs the transplant, now,” said Enid.

“That’s a big thing for a little girl,” said Jessie.

“Well, for humans,” said Enid.

“Ella is human,” Jessie reminded us.

“But Rosie is part Fairy,” said Enid. “So, in this case the methods we use will work.”

“Which are?” asked Jessie.

“We take Ella to Rosie,” said Enid. “Then a bit of Fairy dust and the wave of a wand, simple transportation.”

“What happens after that?” asked Jessie.

“Ella comes home to live with you,” said Enid. “The family who were going to adopt her wont.”

“But they will have Ella’s twin,” said Jessie.

“Yes,” said Enid.

“I want to see her,” she said hanging up the phone.

“Is that wise?” asked Judith.

“I want to see the baby I gave birth to,” said Jessie. “Because if I don’t, then non of this happens.”

“It is irregular,” said Enid. “But then all of this is.”

“Is that a yes?” asked Jessie.

“Yes,” said Enid.

“Right, well there’s no time like the present,” said Jessie.

“Shouldn’t you talk to Ian about it?” asked Jessie.

“He’s busy fighting through the courts, he said he’d speak to me after it has all been sorted, that way Ella can’t be traced,” said Jessie.

“Only she has been traced,” said Judith.

“But not by the law,” said Jessie.

“If you think you are doing the right thing,” said Judith.

“I want to see my other baby,” said Jessie. “And until I do, Ella stays here,” she added as Enid brought out her wand.

“OK,” said Enid.

“And this one stays here till it is sorted,” she added looking at me.

“You and I will go to see her,” said Enid.

By Janice Nye © 2020

The Fairy Godmother Part 33

With a wave of her wand Enid had transferred us back to the home, at our normal, fairy size, about three inches tall. It was odd seeing myself disappear with Ella, just as I got back, it seemed so long ago. The head of the home opened the door just as Ella and I vanished.

“I hope she didn’t see that,” I thought, but my luck was not in.

“I should have guessed,” she said. “There has been a whiff of Fairy magic in this right from the start.”

“She knows something about us,” I whispered to Enid.

“She would have to,” Enid replied. “She has been in on this right from the start.”

“But she’s human!” I said.

“So are all the people you’ve dealt with,” said Enid. “Didn’t stop them benefiting from your work.”

“I don’t understand,” I replied, shaking my head.

“It will unfold,” said Enid. “At least I hope it will.”

“Have you got the girl?” a voice shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

“Now what do I tell them,” asked Mrs Walters, the Head of the Home, looking in our direction.

“Does she know we are here or is she talking into thin air?” I asked Enid, it was something I had seen humans doing though I couldn’t say that I saw much sense in the action.

“I know that you are there,” the Head of the Home said. “You may as well show yourselves and we can talk this out reasonably.”

“We want answers,” said Enid, becoming more solid and visible, but staying her usual size and keeping close to the ceiling where she was out of reach of the Head of the Home.

“And your friend,” said the Head of the Home.

“Do you need a hand?” asked the voice which was now making it’s way up the stairs.

“Send them away,” said Enid.

“They’ll need an explanation,” said Mrs Walters.

“Tell them Rosie is running a temperature and that it would be unwise to move her today,” said Enid.

“You are asking me to lie to them,” said Mrs Walters.

“It isn’t as if it is something you haven’t done before, with regard to Ella,” Enid reminded her.

“True, but why should I do it now?” Mrs Walters asked.

“Because they wouldn’t believe the truth if you told them it,” said Enid. “In fact the truth would be likely to have you certified. That would be your job and career blown in one go, think about it.”

Mrs Walters left the room and met the voice on the stairs.

“I’m so sorry, but Rosie is running a bit of a temperature, it’s probably nothing, but she’d better stay here till she’s over the worst,” Mrs Walters explained.

“And if the parents solicitor gets his act together, she could end up back with them,” said the voice. “You know what the plan was, to get the child away and the paper trail destroyed so that they couldn’t trace her.”

“They may not be able to trace her, but they’d trace me and then I would be in trouble because one of my children had vanished,” Mrs Walters replied. “I am beginning to think that I have been set up to take the fall for this.”

“She’s not so daft as she looks,” said Enid, as we watched it all from about six foot above her head.

“I hope she’s not out of her depths,” I said.

“What do you mean?” asked Enid.

“I’ve seen him before,” I replied. “He’s a fairly regular visitor and she’s always pretty rattled after he’s been.”

“Self, self,” the man replied. “There’s more in this than just you.”

“I’m the one on the pointy end of this,” Mrs Walters snapped back. “And I get the strong impression that I’m being hung out to dry here.”

“I’ll give them a ring, see what they have to say,” he said. “But I’m not happy and I doubt they will be either.”

“Neither am I,” said Mrs Walters as he stomped down the stairs and out of the building.

“We need to talk and talk quickly,” said Mrs Walters, looking up at us.

“We need to know everything,” said Enid.

“Ask Lily,” Mrs Walters replied. “I think she’s the Head of the Fairy Council, if that means anything to you.”

“She was,” Enid sighed.

“Is she OK?” asked Mrs Walters. “I know she wasn’t keen on doing any of this, but we could think of no alternative.”

“She’s gone,” said Enid.

“What do you mean gone?” asked Mrs Walters.

“She hung herself,” I said quietly, making myself a bit more visible.

“I thought you’d be here somewhere,” Mrs Walters said. “You always did seem to be too good to be human.”

“This is not solving anything,” I replied. “And there is only so long that he is going to be talking on the phone.”

“Can’t you stop time or something, Lily could,” said Mrs Walters.

“Or we could leave you with him,” Enid snapped.

“OK,” said Mrs Walters. “I had a sister, very dreamy, she went walking in places that people said were frequented by the fairy folk. She met a man there, he was everything she wanted. She said he even took her to the fairy kingdom one night.”

“Fairy Kingdom,” Enid grunted. “It’s been run by a council for as long as I can remember.”

“Whatever,” said Mrs Walters. “He made her happy.”

“So?” muttered Enid.

“What went wrong?” I asked.

“He stopped coming and she started to put on weight,” said Mrs Walters. “My sister was no longer happy when she came back from her wanderings, she was desperate, deranged we worried for her sanity and the safety of the baby.”

We waited.

“One evening she came back with another girl, least we thought she was a girl, turned out to be your Lily,” Mrs Walters replied looking at Enid. “She said we needed to talk, we needed to come up with a solution, not an easy thing to do when she wanted to be with him and he didn’t want to be with her.”

“He dumped her?” I asked.

“Yes,” sighed Mrs Walters. “And my sister Lily didn’t take it too well.”

Enid shuddered.

“It was decided to move the baby,” said Mrs Walters.

“Move it!” said Enid. “But that is a total no no.”

“That is what Lily said,” Mrs Walters agreed. “But my sister Lily said it was that or she didn’t want to live any more. So the baby was moved, to a couple who were expecting a baby at the same time.”

“Wouldn’t they see the difference?” I asked.

“Lily cast a spell, to make the changeling look like the other baby, it’s sibling,” said Mrs Walters. “It was thought that everything was going well, until the birth.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“My sister Lily decided that she wanted the baby,” said Mrs Walters.

“Is that why it was taken away from the delivery room?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Mrs Walters. “And we thought everything was going OK, but eight years on something wrong with Rosie, the changeling, she needed a bone marrow transplant from Ella, to put it right. It was either that or watching Rosie die.”

“So why didn’t they just ask?” I asked.

“How would they explain knowing that there was a match?” Mrs Walters asked. “It was impossible.”

“So how come, once you had her at the home, you did nothing for over a year?” I asked.

“Lily, my sister, she thought she’d come up with a cure, some crackpot religious person talked her into making donations to his church and God knows what else, so they put the bone marrow transplant on hold whilst we tried to talk some sense into her,” Mrs Walters sighed.

“And now you’ve made her see sense?” I asked.

“Something like that,” said Mrs Walters. “Not that it matters now, now that Ella is gone.”

“The changeling is OK?” I asked.

“Getting weaker with everyday,” said Mrs Walters.

“Would the transplant still work?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Mrs Walters. “It would if we had and Lily was here to sort it out, she knew what needed to be done.”

“I know what needs doing,” said Enid. “If we brought Ella here, would you let Ella be with her parents?” asked Enid.

“If that is what it takes, then I could sort that,” Mrs Walters agreed.

“We shall talk to Ella’s parents, you talk to that man, whoever he is,” Enid said.

“He’s Rosie’s step-father and he’d do anything to keep her alive,” said Mrs Walters.

“I think this can be sorted,” said Enid.

By Janice Nye © 2020

The Fairy Godmother Part 32

“Ethel,” I said following her into Enid’s office.

“I can’t cope with this,” she said, not even looking at me. “It didn’t happen. That’s it, it didn’t happen.”

“But it did,” I said turning her around.

“This was not my fault,” she said, looking frightened.

“Of course not,” I assured her. “The fault lay with whoever did what they shouldn’t have done and was compounded by the Head of the Fairy Council, for reasons only she knew, trying to cover it up.”

“But if I hadn’t found out about the cover up,” Ethel started, looking round the room wildly.

“If they hadn’t tried to cover it up, you wouldn’t have found out that there was a cover up and therefore something that need covering up,” I reminded her, hoping it didn’t sound as unconvincing to her as it did to me.

“If I hadn’t done, what I did, she wouldn’t be dead,” she shrieked.

“She didn’t have to end it that way,” I said. “She could have explained why she did what she did, the council might have understood. As it is we don’t know what she was trying to cover up or why. All we can say is that she chose to do this rather than explain herself.”

“Like knowing that is going to make a difference,” Ethel muttered. “She isn’t going to be any less dead is she?”

“No, she isn’t,” I agreed. “But there are people in shock and grieving now. Don’t you think they need answers, don’t you want some answers?”

“Me?” she asked, stopping shaking for a moment.

“Yes, you,” I replied. “She left you feeling like it was your fault. Do you think that is fair?”

“But,” Ethel looked bewildered. “She was never anything other than nice to me.”

“You were lucky,” I thought, but didn’t say.

“You, Enid and everyone else deserve answers,” I said.

“Enid was the one who pushed me to find all this stuff out,” she snapped. “If it wasn’t for her Lily wouldn’t be dead.”

“She knew her name,” I thought. “There is more to this.”

“She didn’t expect her sister to do this though,” I said.

“I had forgotten they were sisters,” said Ethel.

“We all need answers,” I said. “And you are the one who can find them.”

“But,” Ethel stuttered.

“It isn’t as if you can make it worse for anyone, not anyone that doesn’t need it to be made worse for,” I sighed. “But you could make it easier for some.”

“What do you mean?” she asked cautiously.

“You saw how Rosemary reacted, I think the Doctors had to sedate her, God knows what she will do or say when she wakes up,” I said.

“She was threatening to have Lily thrown off the Council. The Council, it meant everything to Lily, she would have been devastated,” Ethel sobbed.

“How come she knows so much about the Head of the Fairy Council?” I thought.

“If Lily had been in Rosemary’s position she would have done the same,” I said.

“You can’t know that,” snapped Ethel.

“I know that she was a stickler for the rules. If any rule was transgressed then she would come down on the guilty person like a ton of bricks. That is why it is so hard to believe that she could do something so serious as what she was accused of doing,” I couldn’t bring myself to mention it. “And that is all the more reason to get to the bottom of what did happen.”

“You think she is guilty?” asked Ethel.

“I don’t know,” I sighed. “The evidence says what she did, but not why and that may explain everything.”

“So you think, if I find out what happened, right from the start, then it could help,” said Ethel slowly.

“Yes,” I smiled.

“Couldn’t someone else do it?” she asked.

“You are the one who knows all about computers, you know where to look for the answers, the rest of us wouldn’t even know where to start or what questions to ask,” I said. “We need you to find out what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again.”

“OK,” she said slowly. “But, I’m going to need access to Lily’s laptop and things she had with her whilst working on it, they may give clues as to passwords and stuff.”

“The Council have said that you can work in her office,” said Enid, standing in the doorway, I hadn’t even noticed her arrive, she didn’t look too well. “They are offering you any help that you need, all you have to do is ask. They have even given you an assistant.”

“What do I need an assistant for?” Ethel asked.

“To get you anything that you might need,” I said.

“And to remind you to sleep and eat,” Enid added. “By the way, when did you last sleep?”

“I went to sleep early on Monday,” Ethel replied defensively.

“And what time is early?” asked Enid.

“About 3am,” Ethel admitted, trying not to make eye contact.

“Would that be on the Monday or after the Monday?” Enid asked.

“Does it matter?” asked Ethel.

“Yes it does,” said Enid. “Because it happens to be Wednesday today.”

“What happened to Tuesday?” asked Ethel.

“I don’t know, but you may have slept through it, but that is why you need an assistant, so that you can sort out your sleep,” Enid sighed. “In the meantime, I suggest you go to Lily’s office and get to work finding out how we got to this state of affairs.”

“What about the work I normally do?” Ethel asked.

“What can be done by others will be, the rest will be waiting for you when you have finished this,” said Enid.

“OK,” said Ethel, picking up her laptop and heading off to Lily’s office.

“If there’s anything else you need, send your assistant,” said Enid.

“Aren’t I welcome here?” asked Ethel, stopping in her tracks.

“You are always welcome,” Enid smiled. “But this work takes priority, we need answers.”

“Right,” she muttered and the door closed behind her.

“You look like you need a cup of tea,” I told Enid, guiding her to a comfortable looking chair and heading off to make the tea and see if there were any chocolate biscuits to be found.

“A cup of tea would be good,” Enid sighed, sitting down at her desk and then turning the chair away from it.

“How was your Mother?” I asked cautiously.

“Angry,” Enid sighed. “She blamed me.”

“But it wasn’t your fault,” I stated.

“I could have done things differently,” she replied.

“So could Lily,” I said.

“I know, but somehow that doesn’t make me feel any better,” Enid sighed. “Mum said we always faced it different directions, that we never worked as a team.”

“It takes two to do that,” I reminded her, handing a mug of tea to her.

“But perhaps I could have done more,” Enid sighed, taking the mug.

“Ethel is working on getting some answers,” I sighed. “Till then it doesn’t help anyone if we all go round blaming ourselves.”

“So what do you suggest we do?” Enid asked.

“We need to find out what is going on at the home,” I said.

“What!” asked Enid.

“Things haven’t stopped just because we aren’t there to oversee,” I replied. “Ella has been spirited out of the home to her Mother, before the home can send her off to adoption. The Head of the Home has found out that she is no longer there. So we aught to find out what is happening.”

“I suppose it might help pass the time,” Enid sighed.

“Or it might shed some light on what has happened here,” I replied.

“As if that is likely,” muttered Enid.

“The cover up of what happened there is what brought about what happened here, it is therefore very likely that what is still happening will hold some clues or even answers as to why she chose to end it all,” I told Enid.

“And we wont find that out here,” said Enid, putting down her mug of tea and standing up. “We’d better go,” she added waving her wand.

by Janice Nye © 2020

The Fairy Godmother Part 31

“Don’t think for one moment that you’ve won,” said a voice in my ear.

“What I muttered,” instantly awake, I leapt to my feet looking round for the person who had spoken.

“What is it?” asked Enid, yawning loudly.

“I heard a voice,” I said.

“Who?” Enid asked.

I paused for a moment to think.

“It sounded like the Head of the Fairy Council,” I said slowly.

“She has not moved from the waiting room,” said the footman, he was presumably coming to see what the noise was all about.

“I think you aught to check up on her,” said Enid.

“Of course,” said the footman bowing slightly to Enid and heading off to do that. I followed him, though I can’t say why.

“I think you should stay out here,” said the footman, pausing at the door.

“Why?” I asked, though I suspected something had happened to the Head of the Fairy Council.

“It may effect the Council’s judgement if they think you tried to influence the Head of the Fairy Council.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” I said, backing off.

The footman opened the door, walked in and then closed it after himself.

“There is something not right about this,” I said to Enid.

“It was probably nothing, just a dream,” Enid said, but the look on her face said otherwise.

“Fairies don’t dream,” I said absently repeating something we had been taught at the Fairy Godmother college. “Human’s dream, but Fairies don’t.”

“Trust you to remember that one,” muttered Enid as the Footman walked out of the waiting room.

“She’s dead!” he said.

“What do you mean, she’s dead?” asked Enid, pushing past him into the room, I followed before anyone could think to ask anything.

“Oh my God!” said Enid looking upwards. I followed her gaze and saw the Head of the Fairy Council hanging from the chandelier, a glittery rope tied tightly round her neck.

“But she can fly!” I said, the words escaping before I could work out what they where.

“Yes, it must have been how she got up there,” said Enid.

“She might be able to fly, but I can’t,” said the Footman.

“Of course not,” said Enid, looking puzzled by the comment.

“How am I going to get her down?” he said.

“I’ll go,” I said, heading for the ceiling before anyone could say anything.

“I shall tell the Council,” said the Footman.

“Shouldn’t you wait to make sure that she’s dead?” asked Enid.

“I don’t think there is any doubt about that,” said the Footman sadly.

I nearly bumped into the ceiling, I had got there quicker than expected. Somehow, seeing her up close didn’t make things any better. The inner glow, was fading, as was everything about her. I untied the rope from the chandelier and for a moment, I had her, dangling from my hand. Then I took hold of her and flew slowly down to the floor, resting her body on the sofa.

“I know that humans do this sort of thing, sometimes,” I stuttered. “But I didn’t think it was possible for a fairy.”

“They have to be very determined,” said Enid.

“What is all this nonsense,” said Rosemary walking in through the waiting room door. “You two should not be in here, it is most irregular, you do realise it could effect the council decision.”

“I don’t think that is going to have much baring on anything,” said Enid standing aside to let Rosemary see the Head of the Council.

“What’s that rope doing around her neck,” said Rosemary shaking the Head of the Fairy Council in an attempt to wake her up. “Why is she so cold?”

“She’s dead,” said Enid.

“But that can’t be,” said Rosemary, shaking the body even more.

“Could you call for the Doctor?” said another of the Councillors as she guided Rosemary away from the dead fairy.

“I think the Head of the Fairy Council is a bit beyond any help a doctor can provide,” said Enid.

“I meant for Rosemary,” she said.

“Fairies don’t die,” Rosemary said. “Not like this,” she added sobbing loudly.

“Get that Doctor quickly,” hissed the Councillor.

“Of course,” said Enid, dashing away.

Soon there was just me and the body of the Head of the Fairy Council in the waiting room.

“You spoke to me,” I said, looking at her. “You spoke to me as or just after you died.”

“Fairies don’t die,” I heard the Doctor saying as the door opened and he walked in. “They may grow old and fade away, but they don’t die.”

I stepped away from the sofa and he walked over to examine her.

“Except this one has and by her own hand,” he said picking up the rope. “What do you expect me to do, I deal with the living?”

“Rosemary, one of the Council members is in the Council room, she didn’t take this discovery well,” said Enid.

“Then I’d better go and see to her,” he said snapping his bag shut. “I don’t know why you bothered to bring me in here when there was clearly nothing I could do.”

“We might have been wrong,” I said. “She might not have been dead.”

“Highly unlikely,” said the Doctor. “If she hadn’t been dead she wouldn’t have left that thing round her neck, total colour clash.”

“Never did think much of his bedside manner,” said Enid as the door closed.

“What do we do?” I asked, looking from the body back to Enid.

“Old fairies don’t die they just fade away,” said Enid. “So I suppose that’s what she’ll do.”

“So do we just sit here till she fades away?” I asked.

“It’s the only thing I can think of,” said Enid. “I wouldn’t want her to be alone whilst it happens.”

“What was her name?” I asked, sitting down on a nearby chair.

“Lily,” Enid replied. “I always thought she got the better of the names.”

“How do you mean?” I asked.

“Enid, it’s not exactly a name I would have chosen,” she said. “I always thought Lily was much better, but Mum had two names in mind and I drew the short straw.”

“You were sisters?” I asked.

“Couldn’t you see the family resemblance?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “But then I wasn’t looking for any.”

“Mum always said we looked in two different directions,” she sighed. “Don’t know what she meant by that. I do know that she would never have wanted her to do this!”

“I don’t understand why she did,” I said as the body began to fade out.

“She knew what she’d done,” said Enid. “It must have gone deeper than even I thought, because what I found wouldn’t have been enough for her to do this.”

“Do you think we’ll ever find out how far it went?” I asked.

“There will have been evidence on her computer,” said Enid thoughtfully. “Hopefully she didn’t wipe the memory before she did this.”

“We’ll need to get Ethel to go though it,” I said.

Lily’s legs had faded away and her shoes had flopped down, her hands where turning translucent, the rings no longer had fingers in them.

“She always like rings,” said Enid watching as some of them fell to the floor. With a sigh her clothes fell empty and her hat fell off the sofa.

“She’s gone,” Enid sighed. “I’d better contact Mum.”

“She’s still alive?” I said without thinking.

“We’re not that old,” Enid snapped.

“I’ll go talk to Ethel,” I said, quickly, I thought she might need time by herself. To be honest, I couldn’t think of what to say.

By Janice Nye © 2020

The Fairy Godmother Part 30

“Where are we going?” asked Ethel, looking round her like a frightened rabbit, her large glasses increasing the effect that she’d been caught in the headlights of a car speeding down a country lane.

“To see the Fairy Council and more specifically, the head of that council,” Enid smiled. Ethel shuddered.

“Do I really need to go along?” she asked. “There isn’t really very much I can add to what you’re going to say to them.”

“Of course there is,” Enid replied. “You helped us find the evidence, the smocking gun.”

“But, I,” she stuttered.

“Don’t worry,” I smiled. “You were doing what we told you to do, no one is going to blame you for anything.”

“The blame will go where it should, and that is to the one who was trying to cover up what shouldn’t have happened in the first place,” said Enid storming her way down the corridor to the council room, pulling Ethel along in her wake. She paused only when we reached the impressive, double doors that lead into the Council Chamber.

“They could do with a repaint,” Enid muttered. “The paint is peeling and the metal work is tarnished. It needs a thorough overhaul as do a few other things round here,” she added, not waiting for the doormen to open the door, she waved her wand and the doors flew open in a cloud of dust. The doormen started coughing and Enid walked past them, Ethel and I following in her wake.

“I was about to summon you,” said the Head of the Fairy Council glaring at Enid.

“If you hadn’t been here I would have put out an arrest warrant for you,” replied Enid.

“You have no right,” the Head of the Fairy Council screamed at her.

“I have every right,” replied Enid. “No one is above the law. You broke it, you covered it up and when things changed you tried to kill two humans off so that you could use their child to sort out the mess that was of your own making.”

“It wasn’t like that,” the Head of the Fairy Council stuttered. “I was young, people make mistakes.”

“We are going back eight human years, not till the dawn of time,” said Enid.

“I’m not that old,” the Head of the Fairy Council replied.

“You aren’t that young either,” said Enid.

“743 years,” said Ethel.

“My birthday isn’t till next month,” said the Head of the Fairy Council.

“Then you will be 744 years,” said Ethel.

“Are you sure of that?” the Head of the Fairy Council asked.

“Yes,” said Ethel. “I am the one who updates the profile data about you in the council book.”

“I wondered who did that,” the Head of the Fairy Council muttered.

“We are getting side tracked,” I said. “You interfered in things you had no right to interferer in. You nearly killed two people and you and your associates were trying to keep them away from their daughter.”

“We need to take a vote on this,” said a voice from the far end of the table.

“I am the Head of this Council,” said the Head of the Fairy Council standing up and glaring at the person who had dared to speak.

“And I am a member of this council and I think we need to take a vote on whether you are a suitable person to head the council, or even to be a member of it,” the voice replied.

“You need at least three people to agree to that,” replied the Head of the Fairy Council, not sounding quite so sure of herself.

“I agree,” said someone else.

“And me,” said a second voice.

“And me,” said a third.

“That’s that then,” said Enid.

“We require you to leave the room,” said the voice from the far end of the room.

“Who?” asked the Head of the Fairy Council.

“You,” came back the reply.

“I will not forget this Rosemary,” the Head of the Fairy Council replied as she stomped out of the room.

“Escort her to the waiting room,” Rosemary said to one of the footmen. “And make sure she stays there.”

“Of course,” the footman smiled.

“We would like to see your evidence,” said Rosemary when they heard the sound of the waiting room door closing.

“Well,” said Enid.

“I think it would be better coming from Ethel,” said Rosemary politely.

“Of course,” said Enid.

“Actually, it might be an idea if you two also waited outside,” said Rosemary.

“But,” Enid stuttered.

“You aren’t exactly impartial,” Rosemary smiled.

“Of course,” said Enid.

“Do we have to wait in the waiting room?” I asked.

“No, just outside, in the reception, will be fine,” said Rosemary. So we left.

“I wonder how come they know the geeks name,” I said as we sat in some comfy armchairs.

“The council know a lot of things,” said Enid vaguely.

“I wonder how long it will take for them to decide what to do,” I said.

“I wonder how much longer you are going to waste our time with pointless speculation,” said Enid, picking up a magazine about knitting and opening it.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I am reading,” she replied, without looking up.

“I didn’t know you were interested in cars,” I said.

“Beautiful things, you never know when you might need one,” she replied.

“Then this magazine would be far better,” I said handing one over to her.

“Why is that one better than this?” she asked.

“Because this is a car magazine, whereas the one you are holding is a knitting magazine and I know for a fact that you don’t like knitting, also you are holding it upside down,” I replied.

“OK,” she snapped, throwing the knitting magazine down on the table. “I don’t know how long this is going to take and although I have got the facts together, I still don’t know what the Fairy Council will decide. It could be anything from reaffirming her position as head of the council, to banishing her from the fairy kingdom or anything in between.”

“Oh,” I said.

“And I only did this because I could see no other solution to the problem,” she said.

“Oh,” I said.

“Of course there may be repercussions for both of us,” she added.

“What?” I asked.

“Good question,” she replied.

“And?”

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “I wish I did.”

And that was that. Darkness fell and still the doors remained shut, though food was brought for us, the Head of the Fairy Council and those in the council chambers.

“Do we have to wait here?” I asked one of the footmen.

“Yes,” he said.

“I need the toilet,” I said.

“There is one through that door,” he said pointing to a side door that I hadn’t noticed before.

“Thank-you,” I said.

“How long do you think this is going to take?” I asked him on my way back from the bathroom.

“I don’t know,” he said. “There are blankets in the cupboards if you wish to sleep.”

“You’ve been told,” said Enid getting a blanket and making herself comfortable.

“Thanks,” I thought, getting another blanket. “This is going to be a long wait.”

by Janice Nye © 2020

The Fairy Godmother Part 29

As the door closed, I thought for a moment that this might be one of the places they would look for Rosie/Ella and I was about to warn them.

“You must take her somewhere else,” Jessie's Mother said.

“But,” Jessie started.

“They may start looking for her,” she replied. “And this is an obvious place that they would look.”

“I doubt if they have this address,” Jessie replied.

“Do you want to risk it?” her Mother asked.

“No,” Jessie replied. “I suppose we could go to,”

“Stop,” her Mother snapped. “If I don’t know, I can’t tell them, whoever they are. Just let me know that you are OK, if that’s possible. Remember we love you.”

“Of course,” said Jessie, putting together a few things and then heading off with her daughter.

I decided to head off back to the home, the answers lay there, of that I was sure.

“What have you found?” I asked Enid, as I appeared in the home’s office, just to one side of her.

“Did you have to do that?” Enid asked jumping. “I could have a weak heart.”

“You told me you didn’t have a heart, you’ve got a brick on a string,” I reminded her.

“You would remember that,” she muttered.

“Anyway, what have you found?” I asked.

“I have been going over the records,” said Enid.

“Did you find anything?” I asked.

“No, but then it crossed my mind that if they were doing things that they wanted to hide, they wouldn’t put them in the official records, so then I went to check her e-mails,” Enid smiled. “She has several e-mail accounts, which she uses from this machine.”

“What did you find?” I asked.

“The two accidents weren’t accidents,” said Enid. “They were planned.”

“But why?” I asked.

“I thought it might be a question of silencing the parents, the two accidents should have killed them both off,” Enid started.

“But?” I asked.

“Going by the personal e-mails of the head of the home, what they wanted was Rosie/Ella, killing off her parents was just a means to an end,” Enid said slowly.

“With them dead, she would be put in the nearest home,” I said.

“Which is exactly where they wanted her,” said Enid.

“But why?” I asked.

“That I don’t know,” said Enid. “It’s something that isn’t mentioned.”

“All the people concerned know, so there’s no need to mention it,” I said.

“Looks like we’ve run into a brick wall,” Enid sighed.

“What other e-mails does she have?” I asked. “Or did she have.”

“What do you mean?” asked Enid.

“I think we need to go back a bit, to when Ella was born, did the head of the home have other e-mail accounts then, ones that she no longer uses,”

“I see what you are thinking,” said Enid slowly, picking up her mobile phone. “I’ll have to contact the office, this laptop isn’t old enough to have been in use at that time and I can’t imagine she would keep any data from then on this computer.”

“Hello,” said to her phone. “Is our resident geek awake?”

“Difficult to say,” came the reply. “I’ll hand the phone to her.”

“I want you to chase some ancient e-mails,” Enid said.

“Would these be on an old account?” the geek asked.

“Yes,” Enid replied.

“The head of the home?” the geek asked.

“Yes,” Enid smiled.

“About Rosie and Ella or their Mother, Jessica?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” asked Enid.

“There are a lot of e-mails between Jessica’s Mother and the head of the home, from that time, though the head of the home wasn’t the head of the home then, if you see what I mean,” said the geek.

“We get the picture,” said Enid. “What is the gist of the conversations?”

“Jessica was expecting twins,” said the geek. “Her Mother was delighted, but didn’t know how they would cope with the extra work and expense. Her friend, who is now the head of the home, came up with a solution, she said she knew a couple who wanted a baby, so she could arrange to take one of them and her Mother was to tell her that one of the babies had died.”

“Her Mother agreed to that?” Enid said, a stunned look on her face.

“No, she was very much against it, but the birth was both long and difficult and afterwards the babies were rushed off to a side room, only one of them was brought back,” said the geek. “There were a lot of e-mails after that from Jessica’s Mother asking the head of the home what she had done with the baby. The head of the home denied knowing anything about the missing baby. The hospital claimed that there was only one baby born.”

“So she had the problem of how to find a baby that everyone else says didn’t exist,” said Enid. “And eventually gave up to prevent Jessica from being hurt.”

“That looks to be what happened,” the geek agreed.

“So why do they want Ella?” I asked.

“That is a good question,” said Enid.

“There is a long gap in e-mails,” said the geek.

“But they started up again?” I said.

“About a month before the accidents,” the geek replied.

“Who started them and what did they want to know?” asked Enid.

“The head of the home contacted Jessica’s Mother to ask how Ella was, specifically if she showed any of a number of symptoms,” the geek faltered slightly.

“What symptoms?” Enid snapped.

“The usual ones connected with there having been some fairy aspect to the conception,” she replied.

“Ella isn’t part fairy,” I said. “We’d know if she was.”

“She isn’t,” the geek replied. “But the twin is, I think they wanted to use Ella to help stabilise her.”

“So how come they didn’t whisk her off as soon as they got her into care?” I asked.

“That’s a good question,” Enid agreed.

“You know some fairies, they blow hot one minute and cold the next,” the geek replied, sounding somewhat evasive.

“Who is this fairy?” I asked.

“I couldn’t possibly say,” the geek replied a little too quickly for mike liking.

“Yes you could and you will, if I have to come back and ring the name out of you,” said Enid.

The name of the Head of the Fairy Council appeared on Enid’s phone.

“If asked, I didn’t tell you,” said the geek.

“I want access to those e-mails,” said Enid. “This is a gross abuse of her power.”

“Isn’t it abuse of your power to get them?” asked the geek quietly.

“I didn’t get them, you did,” Enid reminded her. “Of course, if you back me up, then I will say you were only doing what I asked you to do.”

“Just a second,” said the geek as whispering could be heard somewhere near the phone. “Sorry about that,” she said turning back to the phone. “It seems that a representative of the Fairy Council is asking for me at the desk, they have questions to ask about the research I have been doing into human e-mails.”

Enid waved her wand and we were in her office, standing just behind the geek who was looking as suspicious as anyone could look whilst talking on a mobile phone.

“Hang up,” said Enid.

“Of course,” the geek said, into the mobile phone, turned round, leapt back and almost dropped the phone.

“Do you have the e-mails?” asked Enid.

“Yes,” stuttered the geek.

“Right then we shall go to battle with the Fairy Council,” said Enid, taking the geek by her arm. “By they way, what is your name?”

“Ethel,” the geek replied. “Why, everyone calls me the geek.”

“It’s a description, not a name,” Enid replied. “And I would rather refer to you by name, Ethel.”

by Janice Nye © 2020