Fairy Story
by Susan Kirby-Smith

The fairy had been coming in the window every night for two months. She would come to the window, tap a little on the glass and Sarah would get up to let her in. The fairy would then hover outside the window, floating in the air on her toes. At that time Sarah would be back in bed curled up on her side. The fairy always waited a few minutes before coming inside. Every night she did a quick explore of the room and then fluttered over to Sarah and curled up on the side of her stomach, below her elbow, or on the back of Sarah's neck. The fairy, who was two inches high and one inch wide, wore a gray dress, and resembled a person-shaped moth. Sometimes, if Sarah shifted in the night the fairy ended up underneath, but that did not seem hurt her.occasionally she tickled or pricked Sarah's back with her tiny wand until Sarah gave her more space. Once or twice Sarah picked her up by her wings and restored her to the back of her neck, or the side of her stomach and the fairy would say, "Ahhh, that's better."

Occasionally the fairy sang-she did this even while sleeping. The sleep words came out differently than the awake words of course-more like hums than words. Sarah grew used to both types of songs and did not mind them. One evening she even requested a song, "Love Me Tender," and the fairy sang it dutifully. Nobody could have ever had a nicer fairy to sleep with.

One evening however the fairy seemed to not be able to get to sleep. She rolled back and forth on Sarah's side. She flitted up to Sarah's neck where she continued rolling back and forth. The rolling turned into thrashing, and then yelling, which was a bit like squeaking. The fairy squeaked and thrashed and Sarah ignored her until she couldn't stand it any longer.

"HEY," said Sarah finally. "Knock it off." The fairy stopped rolling and thrashing and yelling and became silent and still for a few minutes. Soon, there were sniffles and then Sarah felt tiny little droplets rolling down the back of her neck.

"You don't what it's like!" said the fairy.

"No, I don't," said Sarah. "But I just want to go to sleep."

"Everyone has something but me!" said the fairy, sniffling. She cried a tinkly little cry that sounded like someone dropping tiny spoons in a pan.

"Fairy," said Sarah after a few minutes. "I didn't ask you to come here. Just because I let you sleep here sometimes…"

"I've been sleeping here for three months!" shrieked the fairy, her voice almost as loud as an answering machine set on volume level two. "But that's not what I'm talking about," she continued. "Everyone I know-all the other fairies have a tea-pot or a shoebox or something---"

"I thought you LIKED being here with me," said Sarah.

"I do, but, I feel like you get to make all the decisions and it's just not right and….oh, I don't know," wailed the fairy.

"Well, if that's the way you feel, why don't you get your own place?" said Sarah, still with her back to the fairy.

"If I got my own place, would you come and sleep with me sometimes?"

Sarah rolled over.

"I am over five feet tall," she said. The fairy stared at her. "If you had a place, I would not fit inside." Sarah looked at the fairy firmly. The fairy's eyes seemed to tremble but she said nothing. Sarah rolled over onto her side again and breathed deeply. The fairy floated to the pillow Sarah never used and lay on her wings, looking at the ceiling. Sarah slept and the fairy did not. In the morning, however, the fairy appeared to be somewhat peaceful.

"Goodbye," she said, floating above the bed. Sarah turned from the mirror where she was putting on a necklace.

"I hope you have good luck," she said. The fairy turned and flew out the window and that was the last they saw of one another for a while.

One afternoon, however, Sarah was going into the coffee shop after her literature class. She saw the fairy leaning against the brick wall, smoking a tiny cigarette.

"Where did you get that?" asked Sarah.

"This elf guy," said the fairy. "He's over there," and she pointed to a planter. The blue and green elf was also smoking, and watching people and pacing on the rim of the planter. With his puffs he took long looks at everyone who passed, and sometimes looked for several seconds at a wall or sign on the street.

"He's a poet," said the fairy. "He's in a poetry class."

"Uh-huh," said Sarah.

"Do you want to go out sometime?" asked the Fairy.

"I don't think so," said Sarah. "I have a lot of homework this week."

"Okay," said the fairy. "I'm writing a novel," she added. "I'm going to be in a writing class too."

"That's good," said Sarah. They nodded at one another and Sarah left in the direction of her house.

The next time Sarah saw the fairy she was going into the sushi restaurant with the blue and green elf. The elf had his arm around the fairy.

"Sarah!" said the fairy and waved, but Sarah pretended not to see her.

"Who is that?" Sarah heard the elf say, but she did not hear if the fairy said anything, because the two had disappeared into the sushi restaurant in front of several pairs of legs.

On the walk home Sarah began to feel jealous. The fairy had been sleeping in her bed every night just several weeks earlier. Would she ever come back? There must be other fairies, she reasoned. But she did not want another fairy, she decided. She wanted her singing fairy in the gray dress, the one who had had the temper tantrum in her bed. When she got home she did everything she always did before bed - made herself a cup of tea and opened her book. But she could not concentrate on what was going on in the book. The meanings of the sentences seemed to cross over one another and she soon realized that she was simply looking at the words and turning the pages. She put the book down, got up and went to the window. She opened the window. It was not supposed to be safe to leave the window open in her neighborhood, but she did leave it open. She turned out the light and lay on her side, thinking. She rolled over on her back and tried to will herself to sleep. She tried counting backwards from one hundred, envisioning her life as a movie, imagining she was on a train, telling herself she was a hibernating jungle creature; she even tried pretending she was extremely ill and needed the rest to build up her health, but nothing worked.

All night she rolled from one side to the other, getting more and more frustrated and thinking that if only the fairy had been there, she would ease into a beautiful, gentle sleep as soon as she felt the reassuring prick of a tiny wand.