Birthday Games

10. Intense

Karin started to head back into the woods, so pleased with herself for being able to buy food and drinks by herself, and oblivious to how much she would have been cringing if she'd been old enough to realise how silly her behaviour was. There were a couple of tables outside the café, positioned to catch the sun in the morning so you could enjoy a drink and the fine weather at the same time. The big parasols over the tables were still folded now, it was too early for anyone to consider sitting out, although the breeze was starting to warm up. There was a similar area at the back of the shop, which was more popular in the late afternoon once the sun moved around to that side. In the morning, the tables on that side probably hadn't even been put out yet.

"That was cool!" Karin exclaimed, as soon as the fairy Birthday emerged from a hiding place among the frills on her collar. "I love being a little girl again! But people was looking at me funny. Can you make so I'm only just five, so nobody recognises I'm the Princess, 'cause I had my hair in curls then and looked different."

"You asked me to do that before," Birthday pointed out, "You should be careful you don't use that wish too many times, it might –"

"I know, well I want it now!" Karin put her hands on her hips. She maybe even realised that she had no reason to be angry, but it seemed like as she got smaller, all the same emotions were bottled up in a tiny body and it was a lot harder to be sensible. Not to mention that she realised she must look a lot cuter, but less important, than she'd meant to with that gesture. "You got to do what I ask for if it's a wish, I wish I was only just five years old!"

"Your wish is my command!" Birthday grimaced, unable to fight the wish even long enough to remind Karin that she'd already cast the spell once. All she could say, before the sparks of magical energy had faded from the air around the princess, was a quiet: "I'm sorry." Karin immediately felt the giddiness of childhood wash over her, every wave stronger than the last, and her momentary anger at being denied was replaced by even more excitement about what was going to happen next. It was a curiosity shared by the eager little girl, and by whatever little corner of her mind still remembered how to act her real age.

"Oh!" Princess Karin exclaimed, "I should have used the bathroom while I was there!" She had drunk two large glasses of lemonade and juice, she realised, and it was a long way through the woods before she got home. But even at her reduced age, she had a vague idea that it was bad form for a princess to go into a café just to use the bathroom, even if she'd been in only a few minutes before. And the people who'd stared at her antics with the magic door, walking back and forth to make it open itself, would probably be even less amused if she went in again.

"It's no problem!" she reassured Birthday, "There's another bathroom round the back, for people that's eating outside." She strutted off quickly, glowing with pride at having solved what seemed an impossible riddle of good manners. Even being barely five years old, she was way smarter than all the other girls her age. But as soon as she'd rounded the little shop, she suddenly realised why the fairy had been obstinate about making her any younger. The eating area back here was a little strip of decking where tables could be set out, sandwiched between the back wall of the place and the very edge of the woods. And before she'd gone in, she remembered, she had wished to get younger just as soon as there was nobody to see her change.

The reminder of her earlier decision was a cloud of glitter and little glowing sparks surrounding her, and the now-familiar feelings of her clothes fitting poorly for a moment as her body and dress shrank at slightly different speeds. This time, and more immediately noticeable, was a sudden protest from her shrinking bladder. Suddenly she felt like she was fit to burst, and started running forward with slightly unsteady steps as her legs continued to get shorter with every step. She knew that the door on the right hand side had a sign that said 'Customer Toilet', and it was good she already knew that because as she looked up at the letters she couldn't put together a word that long without following a slowly moving finger across each letter in turn.

The sign was well out of reach of her fingers now. In fact, she was just a moment too late as her adorable outstretched fingers just brushed against the door handle. If she'd moved just one step faster, she might have made it. She could remember a month after they said she was four years old, when she had been introduced to one of her first tutors, managing to reach and open the door to her rooms all by herself. But she'd asked to be just about five, and then a year and a bit younger, so she found herself too short to reach the handle in the very last step of her transformation.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?" Birthday fluttered nervously around the decking area, looking for any sign of danger. Even amid her momentary panic, Karin found a moment to wonder if fairies even needed to pee. From the tiny sprite's agitation (though she didn't seem so tiny now she would almost be as tall as Karin's knee), maybe she didn't understand and thought Karin was running away from something. "Can I help?"

"I'm too little, I can't reach!" Karin pleaded, just about managing not to cry over the challenge in front of her. She knew she had to avoid the attention of the people inside the café now. Even if they could open the door for her, she would be too nervous to ask. "Please, please, can you make me just a bit bigger?"

"Your wish–" Birthday bit her tongue to stop her reflexive response, "No, you can't take back a wish, remember. You can't get older. Maybe the same age but taller, but even that might be too close to –" the fairy was going red in the face as she tried to hold her tongue now, but her wand arm was already waving in anticipation. "Yourwishismycommand!" the words leapt out all at once, like a dam bursting, and Karin felt the waves of magic rush over her again.

Of course, you can't take back an earlier wish. And even wishing to be taller was too close to reversing her earlier choice. So just like if she'd wished to change her age in any way, it would only make her younger. This time was even more dramatic, she could see the bricks in the wall almost rushing upwards as she shrank. She guessed that the smaller she got, the more difference it would make to get even a year smaller. When she'd been thirteen, changing to eleven had barely moved her eye level. But going from three years old to two was a big change, and now she wasn't even close to reaching that door handle. Not that it would have made much difference in any case, as she suddenly realised she was younger than she'd ever intended to be. She felt the pee streaming down her legs, and sat down heavily on the deck, almost in tears.

Right when she'd made her first wish, she'd said she wanted to return to normal if she did anything too embarrassing; but she'd been a little careless with her words. It was only now, sitting alone on the ground and mortified by her little accident, that she found her body returning to normal. First to eight years old, and then thirteen, and then seventeen.

"Oh... my... gods!" she whispered, barely able to believe that she'd just wet herself like a little kid.

"Don't worry," the fairy still fluttered around her head, "But let's go somewhere nobody can see, yeah? You got clean clothes in your bag I think, then maybe we can play some more?"

Karin thought Birthday's attitude sounded awfully childish, offering more games in the hope of turning attention away from her mistake. Karin was sure, now she could think clearly again, that everything that had happened could be traced back to the novice fairy making a mistake with her wand in the first place. But as much as she wanted to be angry, to blame someone for the desperate shame welling up within her, she knew that her helplessness had just made her more impressed with what the fairy could do, and more excited to discover what her real present for this day would be.

After a few moments to change her soaked and mud-splattered jeans, Karin nodded to the fairy and set off to find her next adventure.

Turn to chapter 12 to see what happens next...