“I don’t have time,” Dr. Griffiths insisted in an exasperated voice, trying to stuff a little piece of cloth into a crack in the ceiling. “I have to stop these leaks before it starts pouring.”
The cloth seemed to stop the flow of drips for a moment. “There we go,” Dr. Griffiths said with a sigh.
“That’s not how you fix it,” Tinker Bell muttered under her breath.
A drop of water came through the cloth and fell on Dr. Griffiths.
“Told you,” Tink muttered again.
Dr. Griffiths jumped off the desk and began to move his paperwork away from the dripping water.
“When will you be able to look at it?” Lizzy asked him.
“I don’t know,” her father sighed. “Maybe later.”
Lizzy turned away and hugged the journal against her chest. “You always say that,” she said in a glum tone. Tinker Bell watched her leave the room, unnoticed by Dr. Griffiths.
Torn, Tinker Bell looked back toward the tall oak tree.
Her friends would be worried about her. She wanted to go back. She needed to go back. But she also knew Lizzy would be feeling pretty lonely. Tink had a big choice to make.
Tinker Bell flew back into Lizzy’s room, approaching slowly so she wouldn’t startle her.
Lizzy gasped. “Tinker Bell!” she cried in a joyous voice. “You came back!”
Tinker Bell floated down onto her hand. “I couldn’t leave my friend,” she said.
Lizzy smiled. She might not have understood Tink’s words, but she heard the warm offer of friendship, clear as a bell. “I’m so glad to see you,” she said. “Father has no time for the field journal.”
Tink flew up and lifted Lizzy’s chin, wiping the tears away. “I think I can fix that,” she jingled.
“Vidia,” Rosetta said, “are you sure you know where you’re going?”
“Yes. Tinker Bell and I walked by here. I just have to find the road.”
Fawn fell into step on the other side of Vidia. “Road? What road?”
Vidia reached forward and parted some tall grass. “That road.”
“That’s not a road anymore,” Iridessa protested. “That’s a muddy river.”
“So I guess we need to find a bridge,” Rosetta suggested.
But Vidia didn’t want to risk taking a detour and getting lost. Tink needed them right away. She drew a deep breath and jumped, landing in the muddy water up to her knees.
“Or,” Rosetta added, “we could be spontaneous and jump right in.”
“It’s not deep,” Vidia pointed out. “We could walk across.”
Fawn jumped in, and then Iridessa and Silvermist. Bobble and Clank plowed in, making major splashes. Only Rosetta hesitated on the bank. “I don’t really do mud,” she explained.
“But … you’re a garden fairy,” Vidia pointed out.
Rosetta gave her an embarrassed smile. “Ironic, isn’t it?”
“Rosetta!” the fairies all shouted.
“Okay. All right. I’m coming.” Rosetta took off her sandals and stepped daintily into the water. “Ewwww! Ooooh. What was that?”
Vidia rolled her eyes and waved her arms like a crossing guard, urging Rosetta across. One by one, Vidia watched all the fairies cross safely and climb up the bank. Once everyone was on the other side, Vidia followed. She took a step and … sank waist deep into a sucking pool of mud. Vidia gritted her teeth and struggled, trying to wrench herself loose.
“She’s stuck,” Clank said, pointing out the obvious.
Vidia gave it one last try, but it was no use. “All right, all right. Someone just get me something to grab on to.”
“Got it!” Bobble said. “Clanky: rescue device!” Clank and Bobble hurried into the weeds in search of something to pull Vidia out with.
Rosetta, Iridessa, and Fawn climbed back into the mud and waded to Vidia’s side. Each one of them grabbed an arm. “Okay,” Fawn said, “let’s give this a try. Pull!”
The girls gave Vidia a tremendous yank. Vidia felt a definite tremble in the mud.
“Do you feel that?” Iridessa. “She’s starting to break free.”
“I don’t think so,” Silvermist said in a wary tone.
Then they heard it. A noise. Loud and angry. The sound of an engine.
The girls looked up and saw a flash of light.
“It’s an angry human machine!” cried Silvermist as they all noticed the oncoming car.
The girls began to tug and tug, desperate to free Vidia before the machine ran them over. Only Iridessa did nothing. She stood perfectly still.
“Light!” whispered Iridessa, as if mesmerized.
The car came around the bend. The full glare of the headlights played over the road. Iridessa began walking straight toward the oncoming machine. The headlights illuminated her in a blaze. At that very moment, she lifted her hand.
Vidia and the others gasped. Using all her strength and her light-fairy magic, Iridessa cupped her hand and bent the beam of light backward, sending it straight at the oncoming driver. From his perspective, it looked as if a motorcycle’s headlight had suddenly appeared in the road.
The driver slammed on his brakes. The automobile careened toward Vidia and her protectors. They huddled together, watching with huge frightened eyes.
The automobile veered wildly to the side and skidded to a stop at the last possible second.
The door opened and they saw a huge boot step out.
Vidia’s heart thundered in her chest. The automobile hadn’t run over them, but they were still far from safe. She was still stuck, and a human with very large feet was stomping around in the dark.
“Hello!” the human shouted. “Is somebody out there? Anybody? Hello?”
The big boots came closer.
Vidia felt Fawn poking her. Why? What was she trying to tell her?
Fawn pointed to the human’s untied bootlace. It lay on the ground inches away. Fawn picked it up. “Grab this!” she hissed. “Hurry!”
“Are you kidding me?” Vidia asked.
“Trust me,” Fawn urged. “And hold on tight.”
Every fairy grabbed the bootlace, including Vidia.
“Hello?” the driver called out one last time. “Anybody?”
When no one answered, he turned, and as he picked up his giant foot … plop! Vidia came up out of the mud, along with everybody else.
The human swung his foot forward, toward the car. The girls let go and dropped safely to the ground at the side of the road. They scrambled out of the way as the driver climbed back into the automobile, started up the engine, and roared off.
They watched the lights disappear around the bend. Usually, an escape this close and this clever would have been the cause of much celebration. But everyone was quiet and somber.
They still had a job to do. They had to find Tinker Bell and rescue her.
Vidia was grateful for the help, but she also felt guilty. They had all come so close to being killed. And it was all her fault. Why had she always thought Tinker Bell was the troublemaker? Why had she taken so much pride in having no friends?
Vidia shook herself, swallowed the lump in her throat, and gestured to the group to keep moving.
Lizzy was tired. Tinker Bell sat beside her on her pillow and waited for the little girl to fall asleep. Tink looked around the room and smiled.
It was a mess, but a lovely sort of mess. The kind of mess that happened when two good friends got together to play.
They each held an empty teacup, and Lizzy was sleepily instructing Tink in tea party etiquette. “You hold your pinky out, like this,” she said, fighting a yawn. “And that’s the way”—her eyelids fluttered heavily—“you throw a proper tea party,” she finished, her voice little more than a murmur as she fell into slumber.
Tinker Bell waited a moment to be sure she was sound asleep, then gently pulled the covers up and tucked her in. “Good night, Lizzy,” she said quietly, knowing that if Lizzy heard anything at all, it would be nothing but a
quiet jingle.
Tinker Bell heard footsteps on the creaking stairs.
She was scared for a second, but it wasn’t the cat—it was Dr. Griffiths.
He stepped silently into the room and stood beside the bed. Tinker Bell watched his face soften as he looked down on his little girl. He gently adjusted the covers and shook his head regretfully. “There just aren’t enough hours in the day,” he muttered.
Tinker Bell quietly followed him out of the room. This father and daughter clearly loved each other, but somehow, they couldn’t seem to spend time together.
Tink was happy to see that Lizzy’s father felt this way. Originally, she thought he was a mean person, but now she saw he cared. There was just too much to do!
Out in the hallway, Dr. Griffiths stopped and looked up.
Tinker Bell followed his gaze. Oops! She’d forgotten about the leak in the ceiling.
Tools lay on the floor. It was clear to Tinker Bell that Dr. Griffiths had been working—unsuccessfully—to fix the leak.
Dr. Griffiths shook his head in a gesture of defeat. “I’m going to bed,” he muttered. He placed a bucket underneath the leak. Then he headed down the hallway toward his own room.
When Dr. Griffiths closed his door, Tinker Bell flew down to his office and saw more buckets and more leaks. She flew closer to the ceiling and found a small hole leading into the dusty attic.
Tinker Bell flew about the attic gathering supplies. She snatched up some rope, old tubing, a funnel, and a copper connector shaped like a T. Tink knew just what to do.
She cut some of the tubing, fastened it to the copper connector, rigged the rope, tied the funnel, and, with a few deft twists of the tubing, redirected all the leaking water through an open vent, where it poured harmlessly outside into a flower bed. It had taken most of the night, but her mission had been accomplished.
Or had it?
She knew how important it was to double-check her work.
Tinker Bell zipped down to Dr. Griffiths’s office to make sure the leaks had stopped. When she got there, she felt the happy tingle of a job well done. Not a leak in sight.
A movement on Dr. Griffiths’s desk caught her attention. It was the butterfly—still trapped in a jar!
Tinker Bell’s work wasn’t finished after all. There was one more little thing she needed to do.
When morning came, Tinker Bell flew to Lizzy. She tugged at the little girl’s nightgown until she awoke.
Lizzy opened her eyes and smiled. “Good morning, Tinker Bell. How did you sleep?”
“Well, actually, I didn’t. But that doesn’t matter. You should go downstairs to your father.”
As Lizzy tried to understand Tink, there was a brisk knock on the bedroom door. “Lizzy?” Dr. Griffiths opened the door.
Tinker Bell dove behind a pile of stuffed animals.
“Yes, Father?”
“Good morning, my dear. All the leaks seem to have stopped. I just wanted to make sure everything is okay in here.”
“Oh, yes. Just fine. No leaks at all.”
“Strange,” Dr. Griffiths commented. “It’s as if the leaks mended themselves.”
Lizzy threw an inquiring look in Tink’s direction. Tinker Bell winked to say, “Yep! It was me.”
Dr. Griffiths frowned. “It’s still raining outside. I can’t imagine how on earth such a thing could occur.”
Tinker Bell motioned to Lizzy to go with her father. But Lizzy didn’t seem to get it. She smiled at her father and impatiently shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
“Well, there must be an explanation that I’m just not thinking of,” Dr. Griffiths continued.
Lizzy began to gently shepherd her father toward the door. “Well, I’m sure you’ll think of it, Father. Perhaps down in your office! You always do your best thinking there. I wish you luck!”
Dr. Griffiths seemed to take the hint and did his best to smile brightly. “Oh, off we go …” He paused a moment and looked at Lizzy, clearly hoping she might suggest that they spend the morning together. Tink wondered why he didn’t suggest it himself; then she realized that Dr. Griffiths was actually shy around his daughter. After another moment, he made a vague wave and left the room.
Lizzy closed the door. “Whew! That was close.”
Tinker Bell was frustrated. Good grief! Like father, like daughter. Couldn’t Lizzy see that her father wanted to spend time with her?
She flew toward Lizzy and held out her hands. “What are you doing?” she said. “This is your chance.”
Lizzy looked confused.
Now Tinker Bell was losing her patience. She flew over to the fairy field journal, picked it up, and held it out to Lizzy.
Lizzy thought for a moment, then finally understood. “Is that why you fixed those leaks? So he can spend more time with me?”
Tinker Bell nodded.
Lizzy took the field journal. “I’ve really been wanting to show him this. He has so much to learn about fairies.”
Tinker Bell gestured vigorously toward the door, and Lizzy giggled at her. “Okay. Okay. I’ll go.”
Lizzy hurried from the room. Tinker Bell followed at a discreet distance. She watched Lizzy bound down the stairs and hover in the doorway of her father’s study. “Father, since you have more time, maybe I can show you my field journal…”
But when Dr. Griffiths spoke, his voice was distraught. “The butterfly is gone.”
“What?” Lizzy cried.
Tinker Bell put a hand to her mouth.
Dr. Griffiths walked into the hallway with the empty jar in his hand. Tinker Bell backed out of sight.
“The Apatura iris with the irregular wing pattern. I was going to present it to the museum this evening. Now it’s gone. Elizabeth, did you release it?”
“No,” Lizzy answered.
Dr. Griffiths’s face was angry. “Well, I didn’t do it. And since there is no one else in the house, there is only one logical explanation. It must have been you.”
“I didn’t do it, Father.”
Dr. Griffiths glowered. “I’m going to give you one more chance. Tell me the truth!”
“I could tell you.” Lizzy’s voice grew defiant. “But you wouldn’t believe me.”
“Very well—off to your room, young lady. I’m very disappointed in you.”
From her hiding place behind Lizzy’s nightgown, Tinker Bell fluttered sadly. All her efforts had backfired. She had driven Lizzy and her father even further apart.
Vidia led the rescue party across the grassy field toward the house. The closer the group got to their destination, the quieter they became. It was as if they were all afraid of what they might find.
Finally, Silvermist broke the silence. “You know, I was just thinking, if Tink were here, how not quiet it would be right now. I really miss her.”
“Yeah,” Iridessa added. “Even slopping through the mud, she’d find some way to have fun.”
Rosetta playfully jumped in front of the group. “Okay, okay, who am I?” She held her breath, put her hands on her hips, and strained until her face turned bright red.
“Aye,” Bobble said, pointing, “that’s the exact shade!”
Even Vidia laughed along with the others. It was a dead-on impression of Tinker Bell when her temper got the better of her.
Bobble shook his head, chuckling. “Quite a lot of spirit in that little tinker. Aye, a special one indeed.”
Everyone laughed, but as the laughter died down and they walked on, the group grew silent and worried again.
“I’m sure she knows we’re coming for her,” Fawn said finally.
“I just hope we’re not too late,” Rosetta said, giving voice to what they all were thinking but were afraid to say.
Vidia flinched and bit her lip to keep from crying out. Silvermist noticed her distress. “Vidia?”
Vidia came to a stop. She couldn’t go on any longer. The others needed to hear the truth. “Listen,” she said, “there’s something you all should know.
”
Rain kept pouring down harder than ever. Vidia’s wings felt as heavy as her heart. She looked at the wet, bedraggled band of rescue fairies and felt almost too ashamed to go on. But she did. “Tinker Bell getting trapped is all my fault,” she choked out.
Every fairy drew in a breath.
“I slammed the door of that little house on Tinker Bell to teach her a lesson, and … I tried to get her out, but the door was stuck. I tried, but I couldn’t,” Vidia confessed. “And now I’ve put us all in danger. I am so sorry.”
She felt an arm softly circle her shoulder. Another hand squeezed her arm. Vidia lifted her head and saw that they had all moved closer to comfort her.
Rosetta fixed her with a sympathetic eye. “Honey, this is not your fault. We all know that Tinker Bell can get in plenty of trouble all by herself.”
Iridessa nodded. “It scares me to think what would have happened if you hadn’t been there, Vidia.”
Vidia was speechless. Sympathy. Understanding. Forgiveness. She’d always thought those things were for the other fairies—the ones who couldn’t fly fast, the ones who made mistakes. Not for her.
“I don’t know what to say,” she whispered.
Rosetta smiled. “How about …” She thrust out her hand. “Faith …”
Together, Iridessa and Fawn added their hands to the pile and spoke in unison. “… trust …”
Vidia thrust her hand in and they all finished the pledge together. “… and pixie dust!” they shouted gleefully.
Vidia’s heart soared with renewed energy and enthusiasm. For the first time ever, she felt as if she had real friends. And it felt good.
Nearby, Clank was struggling to climb a wall-like pile of rocks.
“Can you reach it, Clanky?” Bobble asked.
“Almost,” Clank grunted. “Just a little more …”
Bobble walked over to him so Clank could stand on his shoulders. Clank’s head rose over the top of the rocks.
“Now can you see anything?” Bobble groaned.
“No,” Clank said. “There’s a big building in the way.”
“Building?” Bobble repeated, trying to think what Clank meant. Then he understood. “It’s a house!” he shouted happily. “That’s it, Clanky. We got it!”
Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue Junior Novel Page 4