by Cat Connor
“No, Ginko. I can’t. Most humans can’t. We have to say goodbye.”
“What if you could?” Arabella asked.
“Then … then I don’t know,” Cassie said. “Everything would change.”
“We can change it for you. We can give you the gift,” Ginko whispered.
Cassie thought for a moment. How wonderful it would be to never miss anyone ever again. Reality crashed like a stormy wave.
She shook her head.
“What’s the catch?”
The fairies glanced at each other. Right then, that’s when Cassie knew she was right, there was a catch. This wasn’t one of her mother’s fairy stories of taming trolls and fairy Christmases.
“You have to say yes or no, we cannot tell you until you do,” Ginko said.
That indicated the catch was a big one.
Cassie stood up. She towered above the fairies.
“No,” she said.
Arabella flew up and perched on her shoulder. She weighed nothing.
“You would’ve lived forever,” she said leaning close to Cassie’s ear.
“And?”
“You would’ve been able to see everyone who’d ever died.”
Cassie nodded.
That was one helluva catch. Peace would have evaporated.
“I prefer to say goodbye than live forever in a crowded world that only I can see.”
Arabella nodded. She jumped off Cassie’s shoulder and hovered in the air over a large hydrangea bush.
“You better hurry or you’ll miss the goodbye.”
Cassie turned and ran back up the steep driveway to the house. Ginko flitted around her, getting in the way.
“I swore to my mother I’d never hurt a fairy,” Cassie growled. “Get out of my way.”
Ginko danced in front of her, Cassie dove around her and kept going.
“You should’ve said yes, then you’d be one of us.”
The fairy came back and at the last minute changed shape. She became a fat possum.
“Pest,” Cassie yelled. “Vermin!”
Not a fairy now.
She took a swipe at the possum and sent it flying into one of her father’s yellow traps. Its fat body writhed for a split second.
Cassie ran on.
Charging into the bedroom just as the last fairy book slipped from her mum’s hand and hit the floor.
The End.
(Tales of the Fox and Fae, Fox Spirit Books, 2013)
Other works by Cat Connor:
Novels:
Killerbyte
Terrorbyte
Exacerbyte
Flashbyte
Soundbyte
Databyte
Novella:
Snakebyte
Short story collections:
Archive
Torrent
Array
Cat’s short stories also feature in the following anthologies:
Tales for Canterbury - Random Static, NZ
Biohazard 2012 - Beanpods Press, USA.
Tales of the Nun and Dragon - Fox Spirit Books, UK
Love Stories - Beanpods Press, USA
Tales of the Fox and Fae - Fox Spirit Books, UK
The Girl at the End of the World, Vol 1 - Fox Spirit Books, UK.
Children’s stories:
Romeo and the Chicken
About the author.
Cat Connor is a coffee addict who loves greyhounds. She’s been described as irresistible, infectious, and addictive – and quite liked it. Connor believes music is as essential as a good red wine. She knows where to hide the body and what you did last week.
Connor lives in the Wellington Region of New Zealand with her husband, their youngest two children, Romeo the greyhound and Missy the Fat grey cat.
For more information about Cat Connor and her work visit her website www.catconnor.com
You can also find Cat on Twitter @catconnor