Trip & Stumble

{ CHAPTERS 9 - 1 7 }

9

The fairy stirred in her sleep. Before opening her eyes she pulled herself tightly into a navy blue handkerchief that she had been tucked into as though it were a bedsheet. T.H. Was embroidered into one of its corners. She stretched her itty-bitty legs, let out a miniature yawn and rubbed the pixie dust out from the edges of her morning dewdrop eyes. More information about her exact surroundings was obscured by four wooden walls which enclosed her into a rudimentary pen of some sort. She groaned as she stood then peeked out over the ledge. There was a responsibly made child's bed to her immediate left. A smattering of socks and toys had erupted about the closet floor and all along the opposite wall. A door was closed in the wall on her right. "Oh shoot," she exasperated monotonously.

Just then, the sound of creaking footsteps pattered outside the door. They grew louder. Whatever was making them was headed in. The footsteps stopped. The doorknob twisted a little, and around a little more... then snap! The fairy ducked beneath the blanket and pretended to still be asleep. Trip quietly let himself in and lay the tray of breakfast he was carrying down on the corner of his bed. He had already showered and dressed and been awake for some time. While downstairs he had taken one of Grams' ceramic tea set coasters to use for serving a small portion of pancakes and bacon to the fairy whom he had hoped might not have fallen to her death last night.

For a cup Trip had filled a thimble to the brim with some freshly squeezed (Grams' specialty), de-pulped orange juice. He got the portions of food ready for display and set it all up on the edge of the tray. He then stepped over to the drawer to see if he could detect any signs that the fairy was breathing. He held his breath, leaned in closely and focused on the shape her torso made beneath the handkerchief he decided would make for an excellent little sheet earlier that morning. And surely enough, the fairy was laying quite still but would shift ever so slightly in validation of Trip's hopes that she was, in fact, still alive. He smiled and looked again up to her face. He was trying not to admit to himself how fascinated in her triple-freckle constellation (that sparkled on her cheek) he truly, truly was. The fairy shifted a small distance and Trip looked closer still.

The fairy's eyes suddenly flew awake and scared them both into a temporary hysteria. "Ahhhhh!" they each echoed in unison. Trip scrambled away from the drawer and fell over backwardly onto the floor. The fairy scratched at the side of the drawer and uncoordinatedly began climbing over the ledge closest to the window. "Ahhhhh!" they each continued screaming with a second breath. Trip was frozen in his spot on the floor and couldn't bring himself to move. And because she was not watching what she was doing, the poor fairy girl slipped and sunk tightly into the tiny area of space between the drawer and the window. Her body was stuck. Her face was pressed up into the glass in a way that made her voice sound quite ridiculous, even for a fairy. She stopped yelling and realized that she was indeed, quite unfortunately, stuck.

Trip quieted himself as soon as he realized that he was the only one left screaming. He heard Grams' voice calling from the bottom of the steps, "What's going on up there? You all right child?"

Trip opened the door and yelled down to her, "Fine Grams, fell out of bed. Everything's ok!" and he quickly shut the door without waiting for her to reply. Trip picked himself up off the floor and walked over to go see about the fairy. He sat on the bed and peeked behind the drawer and saw how she had inadvertently trapped herself. His eyes just widened at the comedy of the situation.

"Hi up there," the fairy decided to break the ice. Her voice was still obscured by her body being pressed into the window.

Trip leaned in and let his mind respond with the only word it had prepared for such a moment, "Wow." And he smiled a small smile that slowly transformed into a light, childish chortle.