Chapter Thirteen: Curtis is Taken
The time, the actual minutes that followed, went insanely slow. Bea was able to remember every single second it seemed, in obscene detail. Curtis had leapt into the sky. He was a natural at flying and his beautiful magic-crafted wings carried him high above the trees and the lights with the stars sparkling in their bubble cages. He had found Bea's face below and shared one more smile with her. That smile, he looked so alive and so happy. That smile would be what would help her get through the days to come, although Bea didn't realize yet what was really going to happen. Curtis then flew away. He flew out over the crowd that had gathered for the solstice. Old and young all slowly took notice of the strange sight and began to point and stare. The buzz of conversation had reached a feverish pitch and Curtis continued his flight. He flew in circles; he hovered and then dashed away at top speed. He shot straight up into the sky and flew as far as he could and the crowd grew nervous imagining that he had disappeared, when suddenly his figure grew larger and larger as he descended. Then Bea felt the atmosphere change. The jovial conversation continued to her left, but something was wrong towards her right. She knew it before she turned around. They had come. Just as Curtis had said, they had come. Bea turned to see two fairly large male fairies from the patrol. They pierced the crowd as they walked towards the center of the park. The two did not keep their eyes off of Curtis as he flew straight down to where they waited.
Curtis did not reduce his speed at all. He seemed to be crashing downwards and everyone that had been watching with excitement now shared gasps of concern. No one seemed able to gather words. Curtis was just able to brush the tips of the higher trees when he came to a sudden halt midair. His beautiful wings fluttered softly as he stared down amongst the crowd. He was looking around him, and Bea understood why. He was looking for Catherine. Bea watched him as he found her. Catherine had moved forward through the crowd, Steven following anxiously at her side. She stared up at her brother, tears running down her face. Bea hadn't realized, but she herself and moved slowly through the crowd, until she stood on the other side of the cleared circle from where Catherine stood. Bea couldn't see Curtis' face, but she was sure that he was still smiling. The patrol fairies seemed to have reached a decision. They both shot sharp lines of dust from their fingertips, straight at Curtis. The glow of the dust lit up the faces of the crowd, casting harsh shadows. In this moment, Bea and Catherine found each other's stares. Catherine's eyes met Bea's and Bea felt all of her excitement and happiness that she had just shared with Curtis shatter inside her. Catherine's glare sucked everything out. Catherine's eyes burned with tears and anger and Bea felt her friend's hate for the first time. Suddenly time seemed to return to its natural pace. Bea wasn't even sure of what she was seeing, things seemed to be going so fast, so quickly now. The patrol fairies dust had hit Curtis in the chest. His wings broke like glass into hundreds of shards of glittering beauty before they turned to dust and were carried away into the night. Curtis' body fell far too fast. He wasn't very far up, but it was shocking to see him slam down to earth. Before he could bring himself up to his feet, the patrol fairies had grabbed hold of either side of him and taken him away. They dragged him to the Hall, which stood behind the crowd, and Bea knew that they were going to use a stone to get to the Great Hall. The minute that they were out of sight the crowd seemed to suck in on itself, filling the gap that had existed seconds earlier. Everyone was mumbling amongst themselves. Bea's feet felt glued to the grass beneath her. She had lost Catherine in the rush of people. Groups of fairies around her spoke in hurried tones of concern. But slowly the frenzy of worry shifted to one of surprise and excitement. Bea caught words here and there, but her mind was fuzzy.
"You!" A strained voice rang through the crowd and Bea looked up to see Catherine breaking her way through the fairies until she was standing unreasonably close to Bea. Bea felt herself feeling protective of her own body as Catherine's manic energy vibrated off of her. Catherine clearly thought it best to take a step back, and just to make sure she took two.
"How could you let him do that? You were with him the whole time!" Catherine's voice was oddly steady. Bea had heard her friend get angry before. Catherine had usually been lost for words as her anger took over her. This strange, controlled accusation was very unsettling.
"What do you mean?" Bea asked, trying to keep her own voice calm.
Catherine took a deep breath through her nose and her face seemed contorted with anger. "Why did you let him do that stupid thing again? Why? Why tonight, of all nights?"
Bea felt her own anger rise in her chest giving her strength as she replied defiantly, "I'm not his keeper. He wanted to do this. He had been planning it for a long time. He's my friend, so I made sure I didn't get in the way of what he really wanted to do."
Catherine laughed a strange short laugh as she continued, "You got out of his way? You think that is your job as a friend? Your job as a friend is to get in his way, keep him safe, to make sure he doesn't get hurt." Steven, who had been standing behind Catherine, gently placed his hand around her clenched fist.
Bea saw this and took it as fuel for her anger. All Bea could think of was ways that she could hurt Catherine to teach her a lesson for hiding so many secrets from her and then blaming her for something when Bea had done nothing wrong. "Oh yea? Well, if you are such a great friend and sister, where were you tonight while Curtis prepared his wings? Weren't you supposed to be around to help him and make sure he didn't get hurt? Or did you have more important things to do?" Bea finished her accusation with a long stare at Steven. She was surprised though to see that he did not stare back, but had chosen to look down at his feet. When she looked up at Catherine, Bea felt a sudden leap of happiness as she saw fresh tears run down the tracks already drawn down her face. But her odd sense of satisfaction left quickly and embarrassment flooded her. How could she be so happy to see her friend so sad? What kind of a person did that make Bea? She wanted to move closer to her friend, to make a bridge and reach out her hands to show her that she really was sorry, but her feet would not move. Instead she stared dumbly down into her hands wondering how much longer this was going to last.
It did feel like an eternity as the two best friends stood facing each other, both staring down at the ground. The crowd around her had moved on from their excitement of the flight of Curtis. Conversation returned to other topics and some people actually moved through the space between Catherine and Bea. Bea needed to say something. She could feel the urgency of it all. She knew that if she didn't do something soon she would regret it, forever maybe? But her mind seemed trapped, her voice unreasonably dry. Could she even speak anymore? Steven leaned down and whispered into Catherine's ear. Catherine seemed frozen, her eyes glazed. She showed no change as Steven spoke to her. Bea watched. Catherine gave a slight nod and the two of them walked away.
Bea didn’t even remember going home. She found herself in her house, arriving before her own parents who would still be enjoying the festivities until the early morning. She had walked numbly to her room and fell face forward onto her bed. Her beautiful dress made strange suffocating crinkly noises beneath her and the thought of Catherine rushed into her mind and suddenly she couldn't stop crying. She cried until she just didn't have the strength to force the tears from her sore eyes. Bea sat up on her bed and caught her reflection in her mirror. She looked terrible. The beautiful arrangement Curtis had done with her hair had fallen in awkward places and her dress was wrinkled and twisted in an odd sort of way. Her face was pale, but her eyes were red and puffy. Determined to take control of the situation in some way, she pointed at her hair and little lines of dust shot out of her fingertips and in a rather unspectacular way her hair had returned to the way it was naturally. Then she gently took the beautiful dress off and did her best to smooth out the creases and hung it up on a hanger. She placed it in the very farthest part of her closet. Bea looked at it once again and was caressing the delicate floral accents alo
ng the small pocket on the side when she felt something protruding from inside. She reached in and found the small, golden hued sweet from the Zephyr's stall. Even in her dark room the little ball seemed to glow on its own. Bea didn't know why, but she had a strong feeling that this had nothing to do with magic. Something about this little ball felt so foreign and unreal to her. All the things in the fairy world were made with fairy dust. Bea had never given much thought to this really, but when she picked up a dish at breakfast or her brush to comb her hair, all these items had felt connected to her somehow. They had felt alive in some way. This little ball of gold felt much heavier than it was as it rolled in her hand. There was no familiar tingle of the dust within the object before her. What was this? Bea's thoughts brought her back to memories of her father insisting that they not go near the stall, that stall that actually belonged to the Zephyrs. Bea felt an odd laugh rise in her throat. She didn't really feel like laughing and yet it had come. The fact that her father had tried so desperately to keep her from this insignificant thing rolling around in her hand felt so absurd that the laugh came again. Bea didn't even give thought to her father's warnings as she took one more look at the ball and then popped it into her mouth. The outer casing of the treat felt strange. There was no flavor at all and the ball had a rubbery feel to it. Bea waited, wondering if something might happen, but nothing did. Perhaps it didn't melt in your mouth like the buttery flowers at the solstice. Maybe she needed to bite into it to get what was inside. She let the ball settle on her back teeth and gave a gentle bite. The ball was not hard, but smushed down. Bea was starting to feel embarrassed. Had they tricked her to put something that wasn't even food in her mouth? Was this something else entirely? But then suddenly, a small crack must have broken in the rubbery wall the ball, because sweetness was pouring out of it and into Bea's mouth. The substance was a little thick and Bea was so surprised by the flavor she had to sit down. It wasn't sweet like fairy food was. Fairy food had a distinctive, bright, clear sweetness to it. This was sweet, but thick and dark. Before Bea could have more time to think though the delicious insides of the ball had all disappeared down her throat. She was now left with the ball. Not really knowing what to do, she gave it another chew and found that ball's walls had all collapsed and with each chew she seemed to be reforming the empty shell into something else. Bea took it out of her mouth and saw that it was a pale white color and that she could bend it a little with her finger tips to change its shape. Bea put it back into her mouth but was only reminded that it had absolutely no flavor and so Bea took out the strange substance and tossed it into her trash. Bea didn't know how to feel. She was disappointed that the delicious golden insides of the ball had melted away in her mouth so fast. She was also disappointed that, though the treat was really surprisingly delicious, it was nothing to be as excited about as her father had led her to believe all these years.
Bea lay down on her bed and felt her mind stay with thoughts of the sweet and she was grateful that this gave her a chance to fall asleep without being disturbed by the other thoughts of all that had happened that night. Bea woke feeling rested, but her mind was heavy as she sat down for breakfast that morning. It took her a moment to process why she sat all alone at the table. Her parents had probably come home very late and would be sleeping until lunch. Bea saw Steven's shoes at the door and remembered that he was home again and that he and Catherine. . . Bea wanted to see Catherine, or at least she thought she did. She knew she wanted to hear news of Curtis. She had flying practice after lunch and Bea was looking forward to the time to not think about things and just fly. She could try to go and visit Catherine before her practice, but she knew that it would be bad manners to disturb her family so early on the morning after the solstice. Bea felt lost. She looked at the clock and saw that she had so much time, hours, and with nothing to do. She just really wanted to fly. So she made up her mind to go to the school and practice early on her own. She left her quiet house and got on a pod. The island was oddly deserted. As Bea sped by houses she noted the absence of any activity. She arrived at the school and made her way to the field. She looked at the track and, without much thought, leapt into the air. Bea just started to fly. She flew steadily round and round. She felt the way the air swept over her body as she slowly and deliberately increased her speed. She stretched herself out and felt her speed increase. She straightened her arms and locked them at her sides. She pointed her toes and lengthened her legs. Her speed increased again. Bea was flying as fast as she had ever flown before and it was bliss. No thoughts, nothing but flying. Bea felt each moment, forcing more attentiveness to her own body than she had done before. She had to focus or some thought might creep into her head and she did not want those thoughts to interrupt her now. Bea had heard Ms. Hill scream about focus so many times and now she finally understood. Now that she had thoughts that she did not want to think about, and now that she was trying so desperately to push them back away, she understood how to master them and focus on the flight. Bea knew that all of this focus had made her body weak and that the time that she would be able to sustain her speed was going to be less than normal. But perhaps it had been for the best that she felt her stamina drain and she slowed down to a stop after a couple hours of flying. Bea flew casually over to the wall the school and over the entrance on the side by the field was a clock. It was nearly noon and that meant that Ms. Hill and Laura and Veronica would be here any second. Bea dashed behind the school and started walking. She thought she might come around from the other side a little after the others arrived.
Sure enough, Ms. Hill arrived and had gone to the field to set up for practice. Laura arrived next and was soon followed by Veronica. The two were huddled together talking excitedly and Bea felt a strong urge to run the other way and skip practice completely. She was drained from her morning of flying and she knew she would not perform well today. She also dreaded facing Veronica and even Laura for that matter because she knew that they would want to talk to her about Curtis. But just as she was walking slowly away from the school she heard Ms. Hill's voice scream, "Featherstone!" Ms. Hill had seen Bea and there was no turning back now. She turned on her heel and set off towards the field.
"You sure took your sweet time getting here today. Up too late? Well, playtime is over. You all need to focus and put your full effort into today's practice." Ms. Hill spoke directly to Bea. Veronica's face had a twisted smile spread across it that made Bea want to throw something at her. Why did she have to always be so mean? Why did she have to bug her today?
Ms. Hill turned her back to the girls and pulled up the board that had the course drawn out on it. She was preparing to explain the goals of that day's practice when Veronica and Laura both turned to look at Bea.
"Can you believe what Curtis did last night?" Laura had spoken first and Bea was somewhat relieved to find that she was mostly curious and not ready to harass Bea over the night's events.
But before Bea could respond Veronica spoke out in a clear voice, "He is such an idiot, a total showoff. I heard that he won't be coming back from the Ancients any time soon."
Laura's forehead wrinkled in concern as she asked Veronica, "I know you said that before, but are you sure they will hold him for so long? I mean it was all in good fun, don't you think?"
Veronica laughed. She had no time to respond however since Ms. Hill had turned to face the girls and practice truly began. Bea was right when she had assumed that she would perform poorly. She was last in every practice run. She was making stupid mistakes. It didn't help that every time Veronica had a moment she kept hissing rude comments about Curtis. Bea found she had no energy to be mad at Veronica and instead just felt numb by the time their long day of practice was done. Bea barely mumbled a goodbye in Laura's direction when they were done with practice. She started walking away for the school, towards Catherine's house. She knew she needed to go there, she had to try to speak to her friend, to find out more about what happened to Curtis, but her feet were dragging in the gra
ss as she cut across yards to get to her destination.
She found herself in front of Catherine's house and stared up at the familiar windows. It didn't seem as though anyone was home. Bea couldn't bring herself to step up to the door. She just stood there, staring at the house and trying to work out what she was going to say to Catherine when she saw her. Every time she got close to finding the words to apologize her mind would race back to all the reasons for her to be angry with Catherine instead. The minutes ticked by as Bea stood outside the Royce's home and finally it grew dark as the summer night fell. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she did not hear Mr. Royce call to her the first time.
"Beatrice! Is that you? What you are doing here? Have you been waiting long?” Bea turned her head and was surprised to see both Mr. and Mrs. Royce followed by Catherine in the shadows.
Bea shook her head to try to focus. "Mr. Royce. Hi. Umm, yeah, I haven't been here long," Bea lied.
Mr. Royce smiled at Bea, but then Mrs. Royce came forward and gave a gentle push to Bea's shoulders as she guided Bea toward the house. "Let's go inside. You are just the person we were wanting to talk to." Mrs. Royce's voice sounded calm and kind, but Bea had known her too long to not be able to notice the slight undertone of anger in her words.
Bea allowed herself to be lead into the house that she had not been able to bring herself to approach for the past few hours. The house was dark as they entered and Mr. Royce flicked on the lights when suddenly the phone rang. Mrs. Royce ran to answer it as Mr. Royce asked Bea to have a seat. Bea didn't know what to do. She didn't know where to look. Catherine apparently felt the same as she continued to stare at her feet. Then Mr. and Mrs. Royce came back into the room.
"That was your mother, Beatrice," Mrs. Royce said as she brought in some drinks on a tray and placed them on the small table in front of the couch. "She was wondering why you hadn't come home yet, but she had assumed you were here. I told her we wouldn't keep you too much longer."
Bea cleared her throat. "Thanks. Um, Mrs. Royce, how is Curtis?"
Mr. Royce had sat down in his chair and Mrs. Royce had sat down and motioned for Catherine to sit on the couch with Bea.
"Well, he is with the Ancients. This is his second time being taken to them. They are also aware of the numerous other offenses that he was not taken in for. This most recent one has certainly upset them. We just got back from seeing them. It was our hope that we could plead our case and get them to understand that Curtis meant no harm in his magic, that it was just the result of a very talented boy having too much time and not being challenged enough to give him a healthy outlet for his skill. But the Ancients did not see it this way and that is why he will be with them indefinitely." Mrs. Royce's voice was calm but she marked certain words with such emphasis that Bea was sure she was incredibly angry.
Mr. Royce looked from his wife to Bea and said with a small smile to ease the tension, "Beatrice, maybe you can tell us a little about what happened last night. You were with Curtis, weren't you?"
Bea felt better when she saw Mr. Royce's smile and tried to relax a little as she spoke. "Yes, I was with him. He told me he had been working on the wings for a long time and that this was his last chance to use them."
"Did you know that what he was doing was going to get him in trouble?" Mrs. Royce asked, staring directly at Bea.
Bea looked at her hands. "Yes. I told him not to do it, that he would be taken away. He said he knew, and he didn't care and he needed me to be there for him. So I was. ” Bea finished off with a bit more strength in voice as she told herself once more that she had nothing to feel bad about in helping her friend. But she could have sworn she heard a small snigger come from Catherine next to her.
"Well, I understand why you chose to help him then. It is really Curtis that is to blame for all of this. He should have known better . . ." Mrs. Royce's voice trailed away.
Bea smiled as she recalled how Curtis had looked happier than he had in a long time that night. "Curtis was so very happy. I hadn't seen him smile like that in a while Mrs. Royce. That was why it was so hard to interfere. I could tell this was something he really wanted to do. I am so sorry that it got him trouble." Bea found herself speaking to Mrs. Royce but her body had turned to Catherine as though she was trying to speak her apologies to her friend as well.
Mr. Royce stood up. "Well, that tells us everything we needed to know. Don't you two think so? Curtis was happy. He was doing what he wanted to do. We just need to deal with the consequences now. Thank you Beatrice for taking some time to talk with us."
"Yes, thank you Beatrice. I am sure your mother is eager to see you. You should go home now." Mrs. Royce had stood as well and they had started for the door. Bea did the same and saw that Catherine had chosen to not get up from the couch.
Mrs. Royce spoke again, "Catherine, why don't you walk Beatrice to the pod stop?"
Catherine mechanically rose from her seat and headed out the door in front of Bea.
"Goodbye Mr. And Mrs. Royce," Bea said as she stepped across the doorway and out into the night to follow her friend.
Bea heard the Royce's door close behind her and she sped up into a slight jog to catch up with Catherine who had already started walking towards the pod station. Soon they were walking side by side, though neither of them was speaking. Bea couldn't find the words again and her mind was racing with what would be the best thing to say at this moment. Catherine was walking faster than she usually did and Bea kept trying to steal glances at her friend as they walked in silence. They had reached the station before Bea knew it. Catherine stuck her hand out to give Bea the pod bubble. Bea took it without a word and the minute it left Catherine's palm she had turned and started walking back to her home.
"Wait!" Bea's voice was there, finally.
Catherine stopped and turned, but did not bother to return to where Bea was standing.
"Catherine, I'm sorry, you know, about Curtis. I'm worried about him too." Bea stared at Catherine as she spoke.
Catherine nodded her head. "I know. I know. It's not your fault. It's just, a mess, that's all." Then Catherine turned around again and continued her walk back home.
The True Stories of Dream Fairies: Bloom Page 13