Fairy Dreams

by Gwyneth Rees

  The fairies promised that they would do their best and they flew away quickly under the covers of Grandma’s bed. It was only then that Evie remembered that, if her plan worked, all the magic would be transferred from this bed to Grandma’s hospital bed and she wouldn’t be visited by Star and Moonbeam ever again. And she hadn’t even said goodbye to them.

  Before she could think any more about it, Mum called for her to hurry up because their taxi would be there soon.

  On the way to the hospital, Mum looked like she was trying not to cry. ‘I think this might be it, darling,’ Mum said, clutching her hand, ‘so we’re both going to have to be very brave.’

  Evie hung her head, feeling terrible. What if there wasn’t enough time now to get Grandma to fairyland?

  The hospital felt very different at night. The corridors were dimly lit and empty, and on Grandma’s ward the only bright light came from the nurses’ station. A nurse was sitting with Grandma. A light was on above the bed and Evie looked at Grandma nervously. Her forehead was shiny white, her cheeks were sucked in and her breathing sounded loud.

  ‘Let me get you a cup of tea,’ the nurse said, standing up. ‘The duty doctor’s on the ward if you want to speak to her.’

  Evie didn’t really want to be left alone with Grandma, so she felt quite relieved when Mum asked her to wait in the TV room while she spoke to the doctor. When Mum came back, she told Evie gently that Grandma was very ill now and that she might not make it through the night.

  ‘I don’t really want you to have to stay here all night with me, Evie. I wish there was someone I could leave you with.’

  ‘It’s OK,’ Evie said. ‘I want to be here.’

  ‘Well, if you get tired, I’m sure the nurses won’t mind you lying down in here. We could pull two of those big chairs together and get you a blanket. I think I might phone Dad after all and ask him to set off now if he can. Then he can take you back to Grandma’s with him when he gets here.’

  After Mum had made the call to Dad, who said he would set off right away, they went back to sit in Grandma’s room together. Mum took Grandma’s hand and leaned against the side of the bed as if she wanted to get as close to her as possible. Evie sat opposite her and held Grandma’s other hand. She didn’t hold out much hope now that Harry and Margaret would arrive in time to do anything. And even if they did, she doubted Mum would let them all hold hands around Grandma’s bed now that Grandma was as ill as this.

  Evie’s eyes felt very tired and she must have nodded off, because the next thing she knew, Mum was slumped over with her head resting on the edge of the bed, her hand still touching Grandma’s. A noise in the doorway made Evie turn and there was Harry, one finger pressed against his lips to warn her to be quiet.

  She jumped up and hurried across to him. ‘You came!’ she whispered excitedly. ‘Did the fairies give you my message?’

  Harry was looking over his shoulder as if he expected to be pounced on by a nurse at any minute. He beckoned Evie out of the room and away from the door. ‘The fairies did give me your message, yes, and I had a heck of a job persuading Margaret to bring me here. I had to threaten to call a taxi before she would. How’s your grandmother?’

  ‘Not very good. Listen, the reason the magic didn’t work before was because Margaret wasn’t here. She helped make the bed by polishing the brass knobs. She must have believed in fairies when she did that. She’s got to come and hold hands with us around Grandma’s bed too if we want to make it magical.’

  Harry frowned. ‘Of course . . . I’d forgotten about those bed knobs . . . But this is going to be tricky, Evie. Margaret doesn’t think we should be here at all. Says it’s interfering. She wouldn’t even come into the ward with me. She’s waiting out in the corridor.’

  ‘What if I go and ask her to help us?’

  ‘I don’t know what she’ll say. She hasn’t believed in fairies in a long time.’

  ‘I’ll go and speak to her anyway,’ Evie said.

  She found Margaret sitting on one of the plastic seats just outside the entrance to the ward. She was yawning loudly and still looked half asleep. Remembering what Star and Moonbeam had said about grown-ups often being in the right mind to believe in fairies when they’d just woken up, Evie felt encouraged. ‘Margaret . . . I need you to come with me to help Grandma. ‘

  ‘Evie!’ Margaret stood up. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘Yes,’ Evie replied. ‘But come and see my grandma. Please.’

  ‘But, Evie . . . Dad and I aren’t family.’

  ‘That doesn’t matter. There’s no one else who can do this.’

  ‘Do what, Evie?’

  ‘I’ll show you.’ Evie put on her most pleading expression. ‘Please come.’

  Reluctantly, Margaret went with her, looking increasingly unsure that she was doing the right thing as Evie led her through the ward.

  Harry was waiting for them outside Grandma’s room. ‘Now listen,’ he said before Margaret or Evie had time to speak, ‘you might not believe in fairies, Margaret, but Evie’s grandma does. And so does Evie. And Evie wants to make a fairy ring for her as a very special goodbye present. A fairy ring has to have five people in it – five people who’ve seen a fairy. And that’s why she needs us. Isn’t that right, Evie?’

  Evie nodded, gazing at Harry in admiration. She was sure she couldn’t have made up such a good story so quickly.

  Margaret was staring at her father as if she wasn’t sure how to react to what he’d just said. ‘That’s all very well, Dad,’ she replied, frowning, ‘but what does Evie’s mother say about this?’

  Evie had to admit that she had a point. If Mum didn’t agree to them doing this, they might as well forget it. There was nothing for it now but to wake Mum up and ask her.

  Inside Grandma’s room, Mum was already awake. She was sitting up, rubbing her neck. ‘Evie, are you all right? Where have you been?’

  ‘I went to speak to Harry and Margaret.’

  ‘Harry and Margaret? What are they doing here?’

  ‘I asked them to come. You see . . .’ Evie repeated to her mother more or less what Harry had just told Margaret about the fairy ring. Then she held her breath nervously as she waited for Mum to react in the way she normally did whenever fairies were mentioned.

  But since Mum had only just woken up, her common sense hadn’t fully kicked in yet. At least, Evie assumed that was the reason why she gave a wry smile and said, ‘So Grandma still has you all fired up about fairies – even now. It’s amazing really. And apparently I can’t escape either. I just dreamt about Buttercup – my fairy friend from when I was little.’

  ‘Did you?’ Evie wondered for a second if Grandma’s bed had somehow already become magical. But then she reminded herself that flower fairies didn’t visit you in that sort of way. Mum must have just had a normal dream about Buttercup. ‘Mum, we have to make this fairy ring for Grandma while there’s still time,’ she persisted. ‘Please, Mum. Grandma really needs us to do this for her.’

  Mum reached out and gently touched Evie’s anxious face. ‘It seems to me that you’re the one who really needs to do this, Evie. But you’re right . . .’ She glanced across at her mother. ‘I expect Grandma would be tickled pink at the idea of a fairy ring in her honour.’ She paused. ‘All right, then . . . So long as you realize that no fairy ring is going to make Grandma better.’

  ‘I know that,’ Evie said firmly.

  Evie quickly invited Harry and Margaret into the room, before Mum could change her mind. She instructed everybody to link hands around Grandma’s bed, and this time, as soon as they did, the whole bed began to sparkle.

  As Mum and Margaret tried to make sense of what they’d just seen – and soon concluded that it must have been a trick of the light, since they both had much more common sense than fairy sense – Harry and Evie watched Grandma closely. On the outside, at least, she didn’t seem any different.

  Harry asked if Evie would like to come home with him and Margaret until her
parents were ready to collect her. That way, when Dad arrived, he’d be able to stay at the hospital and support Mum. Evie shook her head at first, saying she didn’t want to leave Grandma, but then Harry reminded her – whispering so that the others wouldn’t hear – that there was a magic bed at his house too. ‘I’ll sleep downstairs on the couch,’ he said, ‘and you can borrow my bed.’

  Evie immediately realized what he was getting at. Now that the magic had been transferred from Grandma’s old bed to her new one, Evie didn’t have a magic bed of her own any more. But she could still get to Dreamland – and meet Grandma there – if she borrowed Harry’s.

  So Evie agreed to go home with Harry and Margaret.

  As Evie went to kiss her grandmother goodbye, Mum was watching her closely, making sure she knew that this was a forever goodbye. Evie did say her forever goodbye to the Grandma who was lying in front of her now, but at the same time she knew that her last goodbye to the Grandma she had known all her life was going to come later.

  Back at Harry’s house, Margaret thought it strange that her father was giving up his bed for Evie and she didn’t really like the idea of him sleeping on the couch. But Harry was insistent. As Margaret tucked Evie up in Harry’s big brass bed, which was almost exactly like Grandma’s, Evie wished she could tell her why she needed to sleep there.

  Evie didn’t feel very tired at first because she was so nervous and excited at the same time, but once she closed her eyes and started to hum the fairy lullaby to herself she soon found herself in Dreamland.

  Star and Moonbeam were there to greet her. They were dressed in short fluffy dresses that seemed to be made out of yellow cloud. Instead of being in bed, Evie was lying in a yellow silk hammock in a strange garden, swinging gently between two trees. She was her normal size compared to the fairies and everything in the garden seemed human-sized too. Yellow blossom had fallen on to her tummy and when Evie looked up she saw that each tree was covered in yellow petals. Instead of the borrowed T-shirt that she had gone to sleep in, she was wearing a yellow summer dress that had been a favourite of Grandma’s a year or two ago. It had become too small for her eventually and Mum had given it away to a charity shop, but now it seemed to be just the right size.

  ‘You aren’t really awake this time,’ the fairies told her. ‘You’re in our dream garden. It’s yellow because that’s your grandma’s favourite colour and you’re in her dream now. She got here before you did. She’s waiting for you in the dreamkeeper’s cottage.’

  Evie could hardly wait to see Grandma again. She climbed out of the hammock and Star and Moonbeam led her across a lawn of fresh green grass bordered by lovely yellow flowers. A familiar smell was coming from the little cottage – which had yellow smoke coming from its chimney this time – and when Evie stepped in through the back door, she found herself in a replica of Grandma’s kitchen at home. Judging by the smell, Grandma had been baking. There was a ginger cake resting on a wire rack on the side and a tray was laid for tea in the middle of the big kitchen table.

  ‘I thought we’d have tea in the garden, darling,’ Grandma said, stepping out from the pantry, holding her best china plate. ‘What do you think?’

  Seeing Grandma as she had been before her stroke, and actually hearing her voice again, brought a lump to Evie’s throat. She ran forward and hugged her really tightly. She found that she was crying. ‘I’ve missed you so much!’

  Grandma hugged her close for a while, then brought out one of her yellow hankies and got Evie to dry her eyes. ‘We have to have a talk,’ she said, ‘but let’s take the tea things out first, shall we? Look, I’ve got all our favourite things here – chocolate cake and ginger cake and jam tarts for you and lemon-curd tarts for me.’

  Evie sniffed and did her best to feel happy so as not to spoil things. ‘Do you like lemon-curd tarts because your favourite colour is yellow?’ she asked as they sat down in the garden together.

  Grandma laughed. ‘Mostly what I like about them is the taste. You know me – I’ve always had a sweet tooth!’ Grandma was sitting in the same way as Evie, with both legs tucked round to one side. Evie had never seen her sit like that before and when she pointed it out, Grandma chuckled.

  ‘This is my dream garden, isn’t it? Do you think I’m going to choose to have eighty-year-old legs here when I can have the legs of a young girl?’ She bit into a lemon-curd tart and smiled. ‘I’ve got my own teeth back too. You don’t mind if I change that chocolate cake to a fruit cake, do you? I haven’t been able to eat cake with currants for years because of those wretched false teeth.’

  Evie said she didn’t mind as she cut herself a slice of ginger cake. ‘I don’t suppose I’ll ever taste your ginger cake again after this, will I?’ That thought made her feel very sad.

  Grandma smiled. ‘We’ll see about that. All my cakes are made from recipes and when I’m gone those recipes will still be here. Why don’t you and Mum have a go at making them? You’ll find my recipe book on the kitchen shelf at home.’

  ‘But, Grandma, I don’t want you to go.’ Evie was frowning.

  ‘Evie, remember what I told you that day when we went for our walk together in the graveyard? About how I’d hate to drag on for years, not being able to look after myself ?’

  Evie nodded.

  ‘Well, if I don’t die now, then I will drag on and that won’t be very nice for me, will it?’

  ‘No, but—’

  ‘And I am eighty, after all. It’s not like I haven’t had a good long life, is it?’

  ‘Yes, but . . .’ Evie frowned as she struggled to find the right words. ‘But I haven’t had you for eighty years. I’ve only had you for nine.’

  Grandma sighed and for the first time she looked sad herself. ‘I know you’re not ready to lose me yet, darling. Neither is your mother. I’m sorry about that.’

  ‘I know it’s not your fault,’ Evie said quickly, not wanting Grandma to feel bad. ‘I know you can’t help dying.’

  ‘No, I can’t.’ Grandma looked at her with great fondness. ‘Oh, Evie, I’m so lucky to have had you as my granddaughter. You’ve always made me very happy. You know that, don’t you?’

  Evie nodded. ‘Except . . . except I think you might have missed me a lot too, when I wasn’t there.’

  Grandma looked surprised. ‘Of course I missed you. But I knew you couldn’t be with me all the time. You had to be at home with your mum and dad too, and with your friends, and at school. And I know you never forgot about me. The most important thing is this . . . from now on, you’ll always remember me and I’ll always remember you. Isn’t that right?’

  Evie’s mouth felt dry and tears were welling up in her eyes, but she nodded.

  ‘Good. Now let’s go for a walk, shall we? There are some things I want to show you.’

  They walked through an archway in the hedge, which had moonflowers growing round it, into a field with a narrow footpath running across the middle. In the distance Evie could see a church. ‘Remember how I told you that when I was a little girl we used to walk across a field to go to church?’ Grandma said.

  Evie nodded.

  ‘Well, this is it. We’re back in that field. And when we get to the churchyard there’s something I want to show you.’

  The churchyard was smaller than Evie remembered, and it didn’t have as many graves in it. Of course, Grandad’s grave wouldn’t be here yet, or any of the other people’s who had died since Grandma was little. But something was there that Evie did recognize.

  ‘The white lady!’ she gasped.

  ‘Yes. Isn’t she beautiful?’

  The statue of the angel was clean and white and it was fully intact, with both its arms and two impressive marble wings stretching out from its back.

  Grandma stood admiring the statue for a while, smiling to herself. ‘I never thought I’d see her looking like that again.’ She started to walk past the white angel towards a little gate that led into the woods behind the church. ‘My favourite time of year when I was y
oung was always the spring, when the primroses were out in the woods. Let’s see if we can find some.’

  They found lots of primroses and Grandma picked some and gave a bunch to Evie. ‘Now,’ she said, ‘let’s go back to the garden and have another pot of tea. But this time we’ll ask the fairies to join us.’

  When they had crossed the field and walked back through the archway into the garden, they found Star and Moonbeam hovering around the fruit cake. They seemed upset about something.

  ‘I thought you said she was making a chocolate one!’

  ‘She did! I saw her put the chocolate icing on.’

  Queen Celeste was flying across the garden to join them. She was wearing a beautiful yellow dress with tiny stars sewn all over it, and her yellow shoes were sparkling. ‘Are you having a nice time?’ she asked Grandma and Evie.

  ‘A wonderful time, thank you,’ Grandma answered. ‘We were wondering if you would like to join us for some more tea.’ She smiled at Star and Moonbeam. ‘I think I fancy chocolate cake as well now.’ And they looked back at the picnic and found that the fruit cake had turned back into a chocolate one.

  ‘You are very kind,’ Queen Celeste said.

  ‘There was another fairy I once knew who loved chocolate,’ Grandma told them.

  ‘Was it Buttercup?’ Evie asked.

  ‘Yes.’ Grandma turned to Queen Celeste. ‘Do flower fairies ever visit Dreamland?’

  ‘Of course. They are our fairy cousins, after all. If you want her to be in your dream then she can be here directly.’ She had barely finished speaking when a bright yellow speck appeared at the other side of the garden.