The Fairy-Tale Matchmaker

by E. D. Baker

  “Honey, I’m going to be eating crabs for days, and enjoying every minute of it!”

  Cory couldn’t be sure, but she thought the scratching of the restless crabs in the metal tub sounded louder.

  The sun was shining when Cory woke the next morning and the weather promised to be beautiful. As she flew to Suzy’s house, Cory thought about how nice it would be to take a dip in the ocean after they finished inventory, or at least wade along the water’s edge barefoot. As she neared the cove, the screeching of gulls made her pull up short and flutter in place. A flock of seagulls was circling Suzy’s house, screaming and diving at anything that moved. Afraid that a gull could mistake her for a bug when she was tiny and snap her up in its beak, Cory landed a good distance away and returned to her human size.

  The gulls spotted her when she was approaching the house and came swooping down at her. Waving her arms in the air to fend them off, she ran as fast as she could across the sand. Suzy had left all the shutters closed except for one. She was standing in the opening, shouting, “Run faster!” when a determined gull tried to peck Cory. “Duck!” Suzy shouted as she lobbed an empty clamshell at the bird.

  Cory ducked and the shell hit the gull’s head. It swerved, startled, just as Cory darted up onto the porch. Suzy slammed the shutter while Cory caught her breath. “That was close!” Cory said. “Thanks!”

  “Closer than you think,” said Suzy. “We’ll go to the bathing room to clean up your hair.”

  “What’s wrong with my … Oh!” Cory said, touching something wet on the back of her head.

  Cory grimaced when she thought about what the seagulls had done, and scarcely noticed the rooms they passed through on their way to the bathing room. She tried to see her reflection in the shell-framed mirror while Suzy wiped the worst of the bird droppings out, but she couldn’t see much.

  “Bend down and stick your head in the sink,” Suzy told her.

  Cory closed her eyes as warm water doused the back of her head. When she opened them, she took the towel Suzy offered and dried her hair as she looked around the room. It was a cozy room with a huge shell for a bathtub and a smaller one for a sink. Seashells cupped the fairy light on the walls while tiny shells of pale pink, yellow, and orange covered the floor.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this!” Suzy said when Cory handed her the damp towel. “First the crabs yesterday, then the gulls today. I wonder what’s making these critters so crazy!

  “Last night I looked at the boxes we found,” the older woman continued as they walked down the hall. “We should have the inventory finished in no time. I probably could have finished them myself without much trouble, but I’d already asked you to come back, and I do enjoy your company. It makes the job fun having someone to talk to, don’t you think?”

  Cory agreed. She liked working with Suzy, although she could have done without the encounter with the gulls.

  When they reached the storage room, they divided up the boxes and got to work. They finished a few hours later, but Suzy wouldn’t let her helper leave until they’d eaten crab cakes for an early lunch. When it was time for Cory to go, Suzy led her onto the porch. The screaming of the gulls was louder there than in the house, and Cory began to wonder if she should stay until the gulls had gone.

  She was about to mention this when Suzy took three of the live crabs from the metal tub. “What are those for?” asked Cory.

  “They’re your ticket out of here,” Suzy told her. Opening one of the shutters a crack, she pointed at it, saying, “You go out this way when I tell you to. Just give me a minute.”

  Cory shrank while Suzy opened the shutter on the opposite side of the porch. Pulling her arm back, the woman hurled the crabs as far as she could. The screaming of the gulls grew deafening as they converged on the three flailing crabs.

  “Go!” shouted Suzy.

  In an instant, Cory was out the small gap and darting away from the house. She didn’t slow down until she was well away from the beach and was sure that she had left the gulls behind. Somehow she didn’t think she’d go back anytime soon for a dip in the ocean.

  Chapter 11

  It was early afternoon when Cory reached her uncle’s house. She expected to see him outside working in his garden, but no one was there. When she landed on the walkway, she found the muddy paw prints of a large dog heading away from the house toward the street. Following the paw prints back to the house, she discovered that two of her uncle’s prize roses had been uprooted. The garden hose lay next to one of the holes, trickling water into the mud. Cory ran to the side of the house to turn off the faucet.

  “Who would have done such a thing?” she wondered out loud, although she had a good idea who it might be.

  Planning to change into clothes that she wouldn’t mind getting dirty, Cory started up the steps and found that the muddy paw prints led all the way to the door. She shook her head in dismay when she saw mud splattered on the door and the wall on either side. A folded leaf was stuck in one of the bigger globs on the floor. Poorly written in crayon, the note said,

  A scowly face was drawn on the note.

  Cory took the note inside and sent a message to the Fey Law Enforcement Agency.

  Someone has vandalized our front porch and left a threatening note.

  Cory Feathering,

  576 Maple Lane

  She wasn’t looking forward to talking to the goblin officer again, but she didn’t see how the FLEA could ignore the continued vandalism. While waiting for him to show up, she changed her clothes and collected a bucket, soap, and a sponge. When she went back outside, Johnny Blue was trudging up the walk, wearing the same dark green uniform that Officer Deeds had worn.

  “Cory, are you all right? You sent a message about vandalism,” said Johnny.

  Cory nodded. “It’s right here,” she said, pointing at the door. “I didn’t know you were an officer for the Fey Law Enforcement Agency.”

  “Officer-in-training,” said Johnny Blue. “I’ll finish my training in six months. I hope to become a CI—Culprit Interrogator—next year. In the meantime, they send me out on the jobs that they think aren’t worth their time. Sorry, I didn’t mean that this—”

  “No, I’m sure you’re right,” Cory said. “Officer Deeds made it plain enough that he felt that way when he was here.”

  Johnny nodded. “He can be a little gruff. So, why don’t you tell me what happened.”

  “This time or last time?” asked Cory.

  “Both,” Johnny said.

  “Last time, someone threw a tooth through the window. It was a plaster tooth. I can show it to you if you want. I kept it in case Officer Deeds wanted to see it again. Then today I came home and found the door splattered with mud and, well, you can see for yourself,” Cory said, gesturing to the door. “Whoever did it got the mud from there.” She pointed at the muddy holes where the roses had been.

  Johnny nodded and bent down to examine the holes. He wrote something on a leaf, then stood and climbed the steps, stopping to study the paw prints on the way. When he reached the top, he noted the mud on the door and wrote on the leaf for a while.

  “You mentioned a threatening note?” he said when he’d finished.

  Cory handed him the leaf and watched his face as he read it. He looked grim and far more interested than Officer Deeds had looked.

  “May I see that tooth now?” asked Johnny.

  Cory led him inside and left him in the main room while she retrieved the tooth from the cupboard. When she handed the tooth to Johnny, he turned it over to study the writing on the back.

  “I’m no expert, but I have had a few classes in analyzing handwriting. It looks to me as if the writing on the tooth and the writing on the leaf were done by the same person. He mentions tooth fairies and the guild. Any idea why?”

  “I quit the Tooth Fairy Guild a few days ago. They’ve been trying to make me rejoin, but I’ve refused. I’m surprised Walker didn’t tell you about it,” she said, unable to keep a
trace of bitterness from her voice.

  “I haven’t spoken with Walker since the night I saw you on your tooth-fairy run,” said Johnny.

  “I quit that morning after I got home. I hated the job and I’m never going back. The TFG doesn’t seem to understand that.”

  “And they’ve been trying to force you back by vandalizing your home?”

  “Among other things. I helped a woman named Suzy inventory her merchandise in her store at the beach. Two of the days I worked there, something happened. Yesterday crabs swarmed her house. Today it was seagulls. Suzy said that she’d never seen anything like it. I didn’t mention it to her, but I think it was the TFG. Why else would they show up when I did?”

  “And Suzy can verify the crabs and gulls?”

  Cory nodded. “She filled a tub with crabs. She told me about all the different ways she was going to cook them.”

  Johnny jotted something else on his leaf. “You’re traveling quite a way if you’re working for someone at the beach. Why did you go there?”

  “A job is a job. Since I left the TFG, I’ve been trying to find what I really want to do, so I go where the jobs take me.”

  “And what is it you really want to do?” asked Johnny.

  “Help people,” she said. “The jobs I take might not be much, but I am helping people.”

  “That’s very admirable, but you should be careful not to put yourself at risk. Flying to the beach and back is a long and potentially dangerous trip, especially when someone is out to harass you.”

  “I was fine,” said Cory.

  “This time,” said Johnny. “But harassment like this tends to only get worse. Please stay closer to home, Cory. It’s the only way the FLEA can help you if you need us.”

  “The FLEA hasn’t done much to help me so far,” Cory told him.

  “I wasn’t on the case before,” said Johnny. “If anything else happens, contact me directly.”

  He took a fresh leaf from his pocket and wrote his name and number on it, handing it to Cory. The look he gave her was still grim, but somehow it made Cory feel better.

  After Johnny Blue left, Cory took Noodles with her when she went back outside. The woodchuck followed her around while she replanted the roses and used the garden hose to rinse the mud off the door, the porch, and the walkway.

  “Why would someone bring their dog with them to do something like this?” she asked him as she watched the muddy paw prints dissolve. “I would never take you with me if I was slinging mud around.” When she glanced at her pet, his fur was caked with mud. There were flat places in the mud under the rose bushes where he had rolled. “Noodles! Sometimes I really do wonder why I keep you!”

  Cory grumbled at Noodles the whole time she was giving him a bath and drying him off with an old towel. She had just taken him back inside when she heard the ping! of an arriving message.

  I’M INTERESTED IN HAVING YOUR BAND PLAY AT MY CAFÉ. COME SEE ME AS SOON AS YOU CAN AT PERFECT PASTRY. IT IS LOCATED AT THE INTERSECTION OF COZY COMFORT LANE AND LAST CALL ALLEY.

  JACK HORNER

  “As soon as I can is right now,” Cory said, tucking the message in her pocket.

  Taking a leaf from the stack on the table, Cory wrote a note to her uncle saying that she was back from house-sitting, and had gone to meet Jack Horner at Perfect Pastry. Noodles refused to go into Cory’s room, so she dragged him in and slammed the door before he could escape. “I’ll probably have to pay for that later,” she muttered as she stepped onto the porch and locked the door behind her.

  Cory knew where Cozy Comfort Lane was, but she wasn’t sure about Last Call Alley. She found the café easily enough, though, because of the picture of a giant basket of pastries above the front door. perfect pastry was written below in plump gold letters. It looked like a nice little restaurant, but the smell of baked goods wafting from the building alone would have been enough to draw her in.

  A young man wearing a white shirt with a halo-crowned éclair embroidered on the pocket approached her as soon as she crossed the threshold. Cory noticed that he was wearing a name tag that bore JOSEF in big, bold letters. “Good afternoon, miss. How many in your party today?” he asked.

  “Actually, I’m looking for Jack Horner,” said Cory.

  “Ah,” the young man said. “He’s seated at the last table.”

  Cory glanced toward the back of the room. Most of the tables had two or three people seated at them, but a single man was writing something in a notebook at the last table. After thanking Josef, Cory headed to the back of the room. When she looked around, she noticed the pastry displays behind the counter, the pastries listed on the wall menu, and paintings of pastries decorating the walls.

  “May I help you?” Jack Horner asked when Cory paused near his table.

  “I’m Cory Feathering. You sent me a message today.”

  “You were quick!” Jack said, his eyes lighting up. “I’m glad. Please sit down. Would you like something to eat or drink?”

  Cory pulled out the chair across from him. “No, thank you,” she said. “You mentioned my band in your note.”

  “I did,” Jack said, nodding. “I’ve heard only good things about Zephyr. You were quite a hit the other night at Sprats’.”

  “We were lucky enough to play songs that the audience liked,” said Cory.

  Jack smiled and leaned back in his chair. Steepling his fingers together, he gazed over his fingertips at Cory. “An audience that included a group of ogres. Not an easy audience to please.”

  “As I said, we were lucky.”

  “An old friend of mine said that it was more than that. He said that you are very talented, but just don’t know it yet.”

  “You mean my band is very talented, right?” asked Cory.

  “Yes, I’m sure that’s what he meant.”

  “If you’re really interested in booking us, you’ll have to contact Olot. He handles all of that.”

  “I will,” said Jack.

  “Your restaurant isn’t very big,” said Cory. “Where would the band set up?”

  “Oh, you wouldn’t be playing here. I have another restaurant—the Shady Nook. It has more than enough room for your band.”

  Cory had heard of the Shady Nook. It was popular among human and fairy kind, but was supposed to be hard to get into, regardless of whether you were a customer wanting to eat or a band wanting to play. Whoever had recommended Zephyr to Jack Horner had done them a real favor. She was about to ask for the name of Jack Horner’s friend when the young man who had greeted her at the door came to the back of the room and murmured something to Jack.

  “You’ll have to excuse me,” he said as he got to his feet. “I’m needed in the kitchen. We’re having a small pastry emergency.”

  As Jack slipped through a door into the kitchen, Cory turned to Josef. “I’d like to buy some pastries to go. How are your cream puffs?”

  Cory was pleased. Not only was her band doing well and about to get a very desirable engagement, but she had a bag of her uncle’s favorite pastries. True, carrying the pastries meant that she couldn’t fly, but she could take the pedal-bus and be home almost as soon.

  Cory was looking forward to rehearsal that night, when she would tell everyone about her meeting with Jack Horner. She was thinking about what fun it would be to give them such good news, when suddenly her vision grew fuzzy. She could see a woman who might be her friend Marjorie with a slightly taller man with light-colored hair. The vision was too blurry to see features, but Cory thought it might be Jack Horner. It lasted just a moment before the image blurred even more and faded away. Cory could get them together and see if she was right, although maybe she wouldn’t mention the vision.

  When Cory walked into her uncle’s house and handed him the cream puffs, he was delighted. He was even more delighted when she told him about her meeting with Jack Horner.

  “It sounds as if your band is finally getting noticed. First Sprats’, now the Shady Nook. Who knows, maybe someday you�
��ll be invited to the palace.”

  “Maybe, but which one? Some kingdoms are better than others.”

  While her uncle nibbled a cream puff, Cory went to her room to change her clothes. Everything looked fine at first, but then she glanced at the floor under the window and groaned. Noodles had chewed up three pairs of shoes. Now her only wearable shoes were the ones on her feet.

  “Oh, Noodles, what am I going to do with you?” she asked as she picked up the pieces.

  A soft groan came from under the bed and two misery-filled eyes peered out at her.

  “You don’t feel well, do you?” she said, hauling him out. He was a large woodchuck and heavy to move, especially when he was limp.

  Cory scratched Noodles behind his ears. “I guess I’m not taking you with me tonight. I’ll ask Uncle Micah to keep an eye on you. I don’t think he’ll mind too much. For some reason, he actually seems to like you.”

  By the time she got Noodles settled on his bed with some peppermint to soothe his stomach and his favorite toy to snuggle, she didn’t have much time left to talk to her uncle and grab a bite to eat. After Micah reassured her that he would keep an eye on Noodles, Cory headed for Olot’s cave. She was flying over the neighbors’ house when movement in their garden made her look down. A large dog was hiding in their shrubs, looking toward her uncle’s house. Cory wondered if she should go back to tell her uncle, but then the dog turned and ran off, disappearing into the woods down the street.

  That’s odd, she thought as she resumed her flight to Olot’s cave, but forgot all about it when a passing fairy asked her for directions.

  When Cory arrived at the cave, Chancy was laughing as she opened the door. “What’s up?” Cory asked, peering down the hall where she could hear more laughter.

  “We have a guest who wants to try out for our band,” said Chancy. “He’s been telling us the funniest stories.”

  “I didn’t know we were looking for a new band member,” said Cory.