Evangeline Wish Keeper's Helper

by Maggie Alderson

  Kylie chuckled his deep chesty laugh.

  ‘I see what you mean, Vangie,’ he said. ‘Except I don’t, but I shouldn’t sweat it.’ He patted her on the knee. ‘I haven’t been up here much longer than you, but the one thing I’ve already figured out is to expect only the unexpected. Just let it unfold …’

  ‘But what about the Kybosh?’ said Evangeline, anxiously. ‘They’ve told us a bit about it, but I still don’t feel I really understand what it is and what it does. Do you? I’m worried I won’t know what to do if there’s a Code Red, like Nancy said. Do you think we should ask her to tell us more about it?’

  ‘Like I say, go with the flow, Vangie baby,’ said Kylie, closing his eyes and putting his head back so he could feel the sun on his furry grey face. ‘Just let the waves keep rolling in …’

  Evangeline smiled down at him. There was something very comforting about having Kylie around. He made everything seem fine, no matter how strange and new it all was.

  Derek came towards them, chattering as he went.

  ‘I wonder where we’ll go next and who we’ll meet?’ he was saying to no one in particular. ‘I’m trying to think of all the different wishes we were talking about before. We’ve had Easter egg wishes, so maybe it will be something to do with wishing wells, like the sort my little girl and I went to that time. That was the same day her grandma bought her that kittens-in-a-basket toy. I wasn’t very happy about that, but luckily it was very hard and so no good at all as a bed toy and I was a Constant Companion, so I went everywhere with her and those kittens just lived on a shelf …’

  ‘Quiet, please,’ said Nancy, looking directly at Derek, who whimpered quietly and stopped nattering.

  ‘Now we are going to a new area, which is quite different from what we’ve seen so far, and I would ask that you all watch where you’re going. Not just forward or back, but all directions. Mind-your-head sort of thing. Especially you tall ones. Watch out.’

  Evangeline looked at Kylie. What on earth did she mean? Kylie shrugged and then tugged on her arm.

  ‘Can I have another ride, Vangie?’ he asked. ‘Bit short in the old back-leg department, you know.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Evangeline. As she picked him up, Derek jumped up onto her other arm and they set off together towards the gate in the walled garden opposite the Easter Bunny’s door.

  Once again it took a few moments for Evangeline to adjust her eyes once they’d come through the gate. Even more so this time, because wherever they were seemed to be entirely white. It was quite dazzling and there was a strange noise in the air, a kind of hum.

  ‘Follow me,’ said Nancy. ‘This way.’

  Now Evangeline could see that on either side of them, soaring up into the sky, were bright white cliffs, sparkling in the sunshine, with streams running down them and lots of birds flying in and out between the peaks.

  But as they walked further in and the cliffs got closer together, Evangeline could see they weren’t birds – they were toys, with little wings. And not just the toys you would expect to have wings, like parrots and dragons, but bears, rabbits, dogs, monkeys and every other kind of cuddly toy, all with very fast-moving, translucent wings.

  ‘Now isn’t this lovely?’ said Kylie, looking around him. ‘I love sparkly things. I learned that from my little girl. She would have loved it here. She had fairy wings just like these, but hers didn’t work …’

  Fairy wings! That was it, Evangeline realised. She’d seen fairies in the storybooks that her little girl had sometimes left open on the floor of the bedroom. All these toys had working fairy wings. How on earth had they got them?

  Derek was wriggling so much with excitement Evangeline put him down on the ground before he fell out of her arms. He ran round and round yipping up at the flying toys, his ears bouncing around.

  Kylie chuckled. ‘Reckon he thinks they’re pigeons,’ he said. ‘What do you think they are, Vangie?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she whispered. ‘They look like ordinary toys who’ve grown wings, don’t you think? Or been given them.’

  ‘You’re not wrong,’ said Kylie, nodding. ‘Perhaps we’ll get some and you won’t have to carry me everywhere.’

  ‘I don’t mind carrying you,’ said Evangeline, smiling at him and thinking – but too shy to say it – that she liked him so much she would happily have carried him anywhere.

  Derek was still racing around barking and Evangeline thought Nancy was likely to tell him off, but she didn’t seem to notice and carried on leading them through the strange landscape.

  Evangeline looked up at all the flying toys buzzing about and wondered what on earth they were doing that was keeping them so very busy. It seemed to involve chipping little bits of rock out of the white cliffs and then flying off with the chips towards a small gap at the end, where the cliffs met, where Nancy was also heading.

  As they got closer, it became clear what Nancy had meant about watching where you were walking. The winged toys were now flying so low around their heads, Evangeline had to be careful not to bump into them.

  Geraldine the Giraffe was having a particularly tricky time and the whole group came to a standstill after she collided with a lion cub, who had flown right into her head with a piece of the white rock in its mouth.

  Geraldine sat down and rubbed her forehead with a hoof, looking a bit bewildered. Nancy went over to make sure she was all right and all the new recruits gathered to console her.

  The flying lion cub had dropped its piece of rock in the collision but didn’t stop to retrieve it, just flew straight back to the cliffs, calling ‘Sorry!’ over its shoulder as it went.

  Derek immediately picked the rock up in his mouth and ran over to Evangeline and Kylie to show them.

  ‘What do you think it is?’ he asked, excitedly, dropping it at their feet.

  Kylie picked it up and turned it over in his paw.

  ‘It looks a bit like a nut,’ he said, tapping it with a claw and then giving it a gentle bite. ‘But it’s much harder. I haven’t a clue.’

  He handed it to Evangeline.

  ‘It’s the same colour as some soap I saw, once, in my little girl’s Christmas stocking,’ she said. ‘But that was shaped like a ballet shoe and was much softer than this. And this is more shiny.’

  She handed it back to Derek, who clearly had no intention of parting with his prize, and held it proudly in his mouth as he trotted around, tail waving like a flag.

  After Senior Bear had examined her head for injury, Geraldine got up shakily on her long legs again and they continued on their way. In just a few more minutes they passed through the small gap in the cliffs and found themselves inside a giant cavern.

  Evangeline was surprised to find it wasn’t at all dark inside the cave because of the light from the glowing crystals that made up the walls, ceiling and floor, in different shades of pink, purple and blue, from very pale to rich and deep.

  There were more winged toys in there, but these ones weren’t flying about quite so much. Their job seemed to be to collect all the pieces of white rock that the other toys brought in and do something with them.

  Evangeline couldn’t understand what it was, but it seemed to involve tapping the pieces of rock with little chisels and hammers, to make much smaller bits, which they then put into baskets.

  Nancy took the new recruits straight to the far end of the cavern, where the glowing light was strongest, and, as they got closer, Evangeline could hear another noise above the whirr of wings. It was a kind of tinkling sound, like lots of tiny bells.

  At last, they came to a stop in front of an expanse of smooth pale pink crystal wall.

  ‘Have any of you guessed where we are?’ said Nancy, smiling at the new recruits.

  Everyone shook their heads.

  ‘Fairyland?’ said Derek, dropping his white stone on the ground and anchoring it with a front paw.

  ‘Not far off the mark,’ said Nancy, smiling at him. ‘Not far at all. You are about to meet some
body who comes from Fairyland, but you won’t be able to see her the normal way. She’s much too small.’

  Nancy turned to the smooth wall and spoke: ‘Vara Tyrikos, can you hear me? It’s Nancy Doll, I have the new recruits for you. Can you make yourself visible and audible to us, please?’

  The tinkling bells suddenly became much louder and at the same time a very pretty face appeared on the crystal wall.

  ‘Hello, everybody,’ said a sweet voice. ‘Welcome to my home. I’m sorry you can’t see me with your naked eyes, but I’m not visible to you – just as I’m not visible to humans – so I’m going to fly around your heads so you can feel me and know I am actually here.’

  Then the face disappeared from the screen and after a few moments Evangeline felt a tiny flutter move along her trunk and circle her left ear.

  She turned to Kylie, who was looking very surprised, and twitching his big black nose.

  ‘Did you feel that?’ she asked him.

  ‘Cripes,’ said Kylie, his eyes crossing as he squinted down at his nose. He touched it with one furry paw. ‘That was unusual. What do you reckon she is?’

  ‘She must be a fairy!’ said Evangeline, her eyes opening wide at the amazing thought of meeting one.

  Kylie opened his mouth to say something, but before he could speak Derek started to yip and yelp and dance round in circles at their feet.

  ‘Ooh! Ooh!’ he was saying. ‘Ooh! Tickly! I like it. Hee hee! Oh, where’s it gone?’

  All the new recruits burst out laughing as he went faster and faster until his head and his tail were almost touching. Even Nancy was laughing.

  ‘That’s enough, Derek,’ she said eventually, patting him on the head – they were about the same height. ‘Calm down, she’s about to speak to us again.’

  Sure enough the pretty face, surrounded by curly dark hair, held back with a twinkling tiara, appeared on the screen again.

  ‘Right,’ said the sweet, tinkling voice. ‘Now we’ve met properly and you’ve all felt these …’

  She turned round to reveal the most magnificent pair of fairy wings. All the new recruits gasped they were so beautiful. Lots of lovely translucent colours, like the crystals in the cavern, constantly changing like the patterns in an oily puddle. They were much bigger than the wings the flying toys had, reaching up higher than her head and sweeping down into splendid pointed tails at her ankles. And as they watched, the wings started to move, slowly at first and then speeding up until they were a shimmering blur.

  The fairy giggled and turned round to face them again, on the screen.

  ‘Right,’ she said, smiling broadly. ‘So, as I said, my real name is Vara Tyrikos, but you probably know me by another name. I am the Tooth Fairy.’

  Evangeline turned excitedly to look at Kylie, whose mouth was hanging open.

  ‘I remember the Tooth Fairy,’ he said.

  ‘So do I!’ said Evangeline. ‘I was a bedroom toy, so I always knew when the Tooth Fairy was coming.’

  ‘Same,’ said Kylie. ‘Great excitement every time she was expected, but I never did see her, did you?’

  ‘No,’ said Evangeline. ‘Not even when I was lying on the bed, but she always came and took the tooth and left the money. She never let my little girl down.’

  ‘Gee, she’s pretty,’ said Kylie, sighing.

  Evangeline nodded and glanced down to see how Derek was reacting to the news, but he was no longer by her feet. He was right at the front, gazing up at the crystal screen, his prized bit of white rock in his mouth.

  His tail was wagging so hard, he looked as though he was about to take off, and his back legs did actually leave the ground a few times in his excitement. He was yelping, too, but it was muffled by the rock.

  The Tooth Fairy looked down at him, her eyes twinkling with merriment.

  ‘Hello, little dog,’ she said. ‘You look like you’re trying to tell us something.’

  Derek’s yelping got louder and more frenzied, but it was still impossible to tell what he was saying.

  The Tooth Fairy spoke again. ‘Maybe it would help if you dropped the tooth stone,’ she said.

  Evangeline immediately turned to Kylie. ‘That’s what those white cliffs are made of,’ she whispered. ‘Teeth.’

  She looked over her shoulder at all the winged toys behind them, tapping away at the pieces of rock with their little hammers.

  As she watched, a white mouse wearing yellow dungarees scooped up a pile of tiny pieces of the white rock, put them in a basket and then flew off with it down a tunnel in the back of the cavern.

  Evangeline was pretty sure the toys were making teeth with the pieces of rock gathered from the cliffs, but surely the Tooth Fairy’s job was to collect teeth that had fallen out, not make them? She was just wondering how it all worked, when Derek started speaking.

  ‘I felt you!’ he was squealing. ‘I felt you! One night you came to my little girl’s bed and I felt your wings on my cheek, just like then. I was lying next to her on the pillow – I always did, I was her Constant Companion – and it was the time she left all those teeth under her pillow and I felt you come and take them …’

  ‘Teeth, you say,’ said the Tooth Fairy, looking interested. ‘I think I remember that little girl. Were there four teeth?’

  Derek was jumping up and down again. ‘Yes!’ he said. ‘That was it. She had a terrible accident with an old wooden swing. It swung back and hit her in the face and knocked out four teeth. I was watching from the push chair. It was horrible. Two of them were broken half off and the dentist had to pull them out. I went with her, of course, being her Constant Companion and she held me while …’

  ‘Yes, I do remember,’ said the Tooth Fairy. ‘That poor little girl. I left ten dollars that night, didn’t I, in nice shiny coins?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Derek. ‘And a handwritten note. From you. My little girl kept that note forever.’

  The Tooth Fairy was nodding and smiling gently.

  ‘Thank you, Derek – that’s your name, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘Thank you for sharing that story. I’m sure all of you remember times when I came, but it is unusual to feel my wings like that. I suppose I had so much to do that night with four teeth and ten coins, I was there much longer.’

  She gave Derek a radiant smile and then turned her attention back to Nancy.

  ‘Now, it’s time for me to explain to your recruits how it all works here, so could you bring them through to the Tooth Chamber for me, please, Nancy? I will see you in there. You won’t see me right away, of course, but I’ll be there.’

  And with another tinkling giggle, she disappeared.

  NANCY headed straight for the tunnel the mouse had disappeared into. It led to another much smaller cavern, with walls made entirely of smooth rose quartz crystal.

  Dotted around the space were little tables carved out of the same stone and in the middle of each one was a tiny fountain, but where you would expect to see water there was white liquid instead.

  Evangeline spotted the mouse she’d seen earlier. Now he was fluttering over one of the fountains, holding his basket. With his other paw he was carefully selecting what Evangeline was sure were tiny white teeth and dropping them into the white liquid. She wondered where they could be going.

  As the new recruits looked around, all a bit overwhelmed, one of the flying toys – a chubby pink pig with a very friendly face – fluttered over and hovered by Nancy’s head, indicating they should follow him. He led them to a big table with stools arranged round it and gestured politely with his trotter for them to sit.

  It wasn’t until she plonked herself onto the stool that Evangeline realised how tired she was. So much had happened to her in such a short time.

  One minute she’d been lying under the bed with the dust balls, then she’d found herself Upstairs and with everything that had happened and all the people she had met since. It was a lot for a small elephant to take in and she felt a great weariness spread over her limbs. The other new recruits seeme
d to be feeling the same.

  Kylie was already fast asleep, his furry head resting on the table, and she couldn’t see Derek at all until she looked down and noticed him flopped out on the ground, snoring slightly, his little legs still running and kicking in his sleep, his precious white rock tucked in next to his tummy.

  Geraldine the Giraffe yawned loudly and folded her elegant neck, laying her head down on her own lap. The blue-nosed alien was standing on its head on the stool next to her, his googly eyes and toothy mouth both wide open, but also apparently asleep.

  Evangeline was just thinking it might be all right for her to have a little nap, too, when something black and white caught her eye on the other side of the cavern. It was a panda.

  She thought immediately of grumpy Peter, but it couldn’t be him, she decided, because this one was working at one of the fountains, dropping teeth into it as the mouse had been doing. Peter had that important job back in the admissions hall. And anyway, he wasn’t the only panda toy in the world, thought Evangeline. However self-important he might be.

  Before she could think about it any more, she was distracted by an aerial procession of toys flying towards them, holding trays of silver goblets. They skilfully deposited them on the tables without spilling anything and flew off again.

  The flutter of their wings made all the toys wake up and Nancy clapped her hands to get their attention. Evangeline reached under the table and poked Derek, who was still snoring.

  ‘Derek,’ she hissed. ‘Get up. They’ve brought us a drink and Nancy wants our attention.’

  After blinking and snuffling for a moment he sprang up on to his stool and started sniffing what was in front of him.

  ‘As you can see,’ said Nancy. ‘Vara has kindly laid on a refreshment, so drink up. And she is about to speak to us again, so pay attention.’

  Evangeline leaned over and looked inside the goblet that had been put in front of her and immediately recognised it was milk. Her little girl used to have it each night as she was tucked up in bed. Maybe this was the white liquid that was running in all the fountains, she suddenly thought.