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