Beyond the Firefly Field (24 page)

“That's it!” Clayton shouted as the wind screamed over the clatters and rattles of the truck. “The beetles could be exactly the species we're looking for. We'll have to find some and take them to school for our biology teacher to confirm what they are.”

“Not today while it's windy,” Farmer Hawkins cautioned.

“Of course not,” Clayton agreed.

“And you have to be careful not to cut yourselves on jagged metal. Stay away from any puddles of strange-looking liquid. Who knows what that stuff is? We've been trying to get the government to clean it up for years.”

“We'll be careful. Can you drop us off at Karl's house?” Clayton asked.

After listening to the old farmer talk, he decided he wasn't really mean, but they only saw him after they made him angry.

Once at Karl's house, they said their goodbyes to Farmer Hawkins, grateful that he had given them a ride. Then they excitedly made plans to go to the lake site and collect a few beetles. Now they could rest easy, knowing the last of the dangers threatening the fairies would soon disappear. Clayton couldn't wait to tell SeeLee how they stopped the dangers and saved the fairy colony. Maybe they would go to the island and tell the Old Ones their previous warnings no longer needed consideration. The rest of the day was spent doing chores and homework. The night was spent dreaming about the fairies.

The next day, they met at the tree house in the early afternoon and recounted their visit with Farmer Hawkins. They could hardly believe their luck when the old man told them about the plight of the beetles and how contamination had mutated them. This led to a discussion about what they would have to do to obtain the beetles. Since it took over an hour to get to the old saw mill and back, they figured only an hour could be spent at the site actually looking for the beetles on any given school day. There just wasn't enough time, especially with the days growing shorter.

“You know, we might as well walk through the woods today,” Karl recommended. “We can spend more time at the beetle site today than we'll be able to spend on a school day.”

Fifteen minutes later, Karl and the twins met at Clayton's, and with Penny in tow, they began the four-mile trip around the lake. It was a warm, sunny day without the previous day's winds.

It would have been a perfect day to finish chores early and visit the fairy tree, but what the adventurers had to accomplish now was more important. Chores and homework would be waiting for them when they got back. Along the way, they met up with Ron and Brian, who were heading for the tree house, and filled them in on the previous day's happenings.

“That was easy,” Brian said with relief. “I thought the old farmer would chase you off.”

“Or kill us with a pitchfork,” Karl reminded him.

“There was one in his pickup truck. You should have been there.”

“No thanks.”

“He probably would have chased us, but he protected us from the wind,” Clayton explained. “It was so windy, with branches crashing down around us, so he was too worried to yell at us.”

“Or kill us with a pitchfork,” Karl reminded again.

“We got double lucky. Farmer Hawkins actually knew of a species that mutated around here,” Karl summed up.

“I was the one doing all the talking with Mr. Hawkins,” Penny chimed in. “All you guys did was jump out of the truck as fast as you could and throw hay bales off the back. By the time you were finished, I already told him what we needed to know,” she added to set the record straight and place credit where credit was due.

“All Hail Penny, Queen of the Universe,” Clayton, Karl, and Phil chanted as they bowed at the waist.

“Oh, shut up!”

They followed the old, two-track logging road around the lake, talking and laughing in good spirits as they went along. When the road neared Mike's clubhouse, conversation ceased, and they were warily watchful, checking for any sign of Mike.

They finally arrived at the old saw mill and spread out to search for the beetles.

“I don't see any,” Penny complained after a brief look around.

“Did you expect them to come out in throngs carrying a banner saying,
Welcome Penny, Queen of the Universe?”
Ron kidded.

“Oh, shut up; you're such a peasant!”

“Spread out and look under things,” Clayton advised.

They walked around, lifting crates and old machine parts, hoping to see the shiny chrome bugs under things. But soon, their enthusiasm diminished. Then they checked under the heavier objects. Several sheds littered the site, and the kids checked with considerable banging as they kicked over hundreds of empty cans inside. They started out looking for the elusive beetles, but soon the kids were in fierce competition with the winner making the most “canned” noise. As usual, the twins spent time arguing who kicked the cans the loudest.

“Now what do we do? What if they all died off?” Penny asked, beginning to lose hope. Then she looked down at her hands, covered with rust and grease. The foul combination spread to her shirt sleeves.

“Now our parents will know we were here,” Karl warned. Everyone was as filthy as Penny.

“At least it's for a good cause,” Phil said as he shoved Paul, continuing their noisy argument.

“Let's go to the edge of the clearing and look under logs,” Clayton said, hope still lingering in his voice.

“We'll have to look along the edge closest to home because our time is almost up. We have to get home soon for supper,” Karl said, pointing at his watch.

Whatever size the saw mill property used to be, its boundaries were now blurred by the brush and saplings blanketing it after three decades of being closed. The adventurers went to the clearing's edge and searched the area before they headed home. They vowed to come back every day after school until the bugs were found.

“You guys sure vow a lot,” Brian observed after they all vowed again.

“Who made up that word? It sounds stupid,” Penny added.

“Will you vow to never use that word again?” Brian asked.

“No. But I might promise.”

“Well, I promised Mom I would have you home in time for supper. So let's hurry,” Clayton urged as he picked up his pace.

After fruitless searches on Monday and Tuesday, only a small area was left to hunt on Wednesday. All three days were sunny and warm, and would have been perfect for visiting the fairies. They were debating whether to skip their beetle pursuit so that they could go to the fairy tree.

“Sorry, guys. We vowed to find beetles, and it wouldn't be a vow if we didn't do it.” Brian threw all the vowing back in their faces to end the discussion.

With waning optimism, the group examined the area along the clearing's edge until they were almost out of edge to search. Only an area of thick, tangled brush remained to investigate. They avoided the piled scrub as long as they could, as it disguised rusty machines that could be dangerous. Being near the lake's shore, the thicket was riddled with puddles. With the rest wandering warily around the pile, Paul's voice shot from somewhere within it.

“Here they are! I found them! I found them!” he shouted excitedly.

The others stopped dead in their tracks, hardly believing their ears.

“How did you get in there, and better yet, how will you get out?” Phil asked.

“Walk fifty feet back, along the lake head into the trees, then walk between the bushes until you get here. The bushes part for a small path to follow.”

Soon they stood in a small clearing where Paul was holding a large panel of old sheet metal. Dozens of bright-silver beetles had been using the metal as a roof.

“Look how shiny they are!” Penny said. “They're like little metal bugs.”

“They do look like they are chrome-plated,” Karl observed.

“Well, let's collect some specimens,” Clayton said. “We can show them to Mr. Becker in biology class tomorrow.”

“Isn't he expecting dragonflies?” Ron asked.

“I can make little dragonfly wings for them,” Penny offered.

“No, he will be more interested in these,” Karl assured her.

As the bugs slowly stirred, Karl scooped them up with a little garden shovel he'd brought along. To keep the bugs in a familiar habitat, he added a good dose of dirt and put the whole ecosystem into a plastic bag with holes poked near the top. Showing nervous relief at their mission accomplished, the kids started laughing and joking.

“Thank you, Farmer Hawkins!” Clayton declared.

“I can't wait to tell SeeLee,” Penny said with excitement.

“With any luck, we can visit the fairies Friday night.”

They were so happy and proud of themselves; they loudly bantered and joked all the way home. They even forgot to be quiet as they neared Mike's clubhouse.

Over the next two days, the kids spent time convincing teachers to help get the proper government agencies involved with their astounding find. By after school Friday, a growing number of parents embraced their cause, and things started to move at a faster pace. Having learned a way to stop the developer, parents who didn't want to sell their land took the project out of the children's hands.

Clayton left the parents' planning meeting that was currently being led by his biology teacher. The silence in the deserted hallway offered dramatic contrast to the turmoil spinning his life out of control. He shuffled aimlessly down the hall immersed in his thoughts. As he was passing a classroom door, Wendy appeared with two girlfriends at her side.

“Hi, Clayton!”

“Hi, Clayton.”

“Hi, Clayton.”

Clayton barely heard the other girls' greetings as waves of excitement washed over him. There she was, standing before him. His heart was pounding, and the anxiety was back with the beginnings of nausea. He started to feel warm all over, and he was sure his face was turning a stunning shade of red. Looking into Wendy's eyes dissolved any thoughts from his mind, and he was barely able to stammer, “Hi.”

That simple word was followed by a parade of “ums” and “uhs” as he tried to collect himself. When he was finally capable of articulating thoughts, the part of his brain telling him to say something intelligent smacked into the part that assured him he couldn't.

“I know you can't talk to me, and I think that's so cute,” Wendy announced, flinging her dark hair. “So I'll do all the talking, and you can just nod your head. Did you find a field in the woods that fills with fireflies when it gets dark?”

He nodded yes.

“Will you take me to see it?”

He nodded yes.

“Because my mom is helping your mom with her baking business and your brother works for my dad, my family is having yours over for dinner next week. Will you take me to see the field after we finish eating?”

He nodded yes for the third time.

“You will be able to talk to me eventually, won't you?”

He nodded again, with hope.

“You're so adorable,” Wendy finished before balancing on her toes to give him a quick kiss on the lips. With a flurry of energy, she hurried down the hall with her friends.

He was in shock. A tidal wave of exhilaration steamrolled over the anxiety and worry that once consumed him. He wanted to jump for joy, but he couldn't move a muscle. So he just stood in the hall feeling like he did when he first saw the fairies. A few minutes later, the parents' meeting broke up, and he joined them as they talked over plans to investigate what chemicals caused the beetles to change their appearance so dramatically.

After the parents assured him and his friends that the proper government agencies would be contacted, the boys felt smug, knowing government investigators wouldn't be combing the area because a species needed saving or a contaminated area needed cleaning up, but because beautiful, tiny fairies needed protection.

“What are you so goofy-faced about?” Karl asked him as they walked ahead of their parents.

“I just saw Wendy, and I'm having dinner with her next week, and she wants to see the firefly field.”

“Wow, you
are
the man! How did you manage that?”

“I guess I just have a way with words.”

“Wouldn't you know it,” Karl said as he opened the door and walked into a light rain. “Now that everything is taken care of, it's supposed to rain all weekend.”

“Yeah, but we actually saved the fairies,” Clayton whispered as they crossed the parking lot.

“I guess we'll have to be happy with that for the time being,” Karl conceded.

The Secret

T
hey met at the tree house on a dreary day, the sound of rain pattering the roof, luring the kids into drowsiness as they tried to form new plans.

As always, the only thing keeping them awake was reminiscing about the fairies, just as it had so many times before. It seemed like forever since they had last seen the little creatures. Between visits to the fairy tree, the kids shared anything and everything the fairies did or said. They often talked about how their lives had changed after they encountered the fairies. It was a constant topic of conversation whenever they gathered.

As they rehashed their discoveries, Clayton stared out the window at the gloomy day. Talk eventually got around to school, and his thoughts wandered. He ran through all the questions he still wanted to ask the fairies. Most were the same questions he'd forgotten to ask every time they visited the fairy tree, and he had no clue why they always slipped his mind.

Like a bolt of lightning, something new flashed through his mind. He thought back to when they retrieved Penny from her eventful trip to the lake in the bottom of the tree. After finding Penny and walking back up a long, gently sloping tunnel, they took a turn leading to yet another tunnel. The new channel veered off into dozens of passageways. As they wound their way up, the fairies led them through so many twists and turns that he wondered if they were lost. He knew
he
was lost. He had no idea where they were headed.

All the tunnels were lit by a softly glowing bluish-green fungus, until one tunnel loomed as dark as night. The group stopped at its mouth, and there was barely enough light to see each other.

The archers stationed at the front of the group turned on small lights and silently slipped into the darkness. He finally saw how the lights worked when MarJoReAn picked a plant growing from the tunnel wall and it immediately started glowing.

Cheela, becoming increasingly nervous, sniffed the air and wildly paced back and forth across SeeLee's shoulders, softly gurgling, “Rin.”

SeeLee suddenly jumped in front, blocking the travelers' path. She had warned that they must be absolutely quiet while walking through the darkest part of the tunnel, and must carry glimmer fronds to shower the ebony tunnel with whispers of light.

The frond SeeLee pointed to was as long as her arm. It resembled a dandelion after the golden flower was replaced by the fluffy seed ball. SeeLee picked the frond at its base, and a glow of white suddenly radiated from the fluffy ball on its end. The frond's light reached three feet in all directions as SeeLee held the stem tightly, putting the glowing ball at arm's length in front and slightly above her head.

She told her followers to pick a glimmer frond, explaining that their bodies' electromagnetic field would make them glow. Upon release from the wall, the fronds glowed with a brilliant radiance, with golden rays filtering through the light. SeeLee warned that the glimmer frond would go out if it left the warmth of their hands. It had but one chance to shine.

As she started walking, SeeLee reminded her friends to stay close, as they would be tiptoeing past the den of Rinyon and Thewlian, who were fast asleep. She cautioned that the two would be very angry if awakened and would surely eat whoever disturbed their slumber.

Onward the staggered line marched, more worried about glimmer fronds extinguishing than disturbing sleeping creatures. When the tunnel slowly became fungus-lit again, SeeLee paused to make sure everyone made it through. As they all passed, they were rejoined by SanDroMonEnLor. At the back of the line, only Clayton heard the old fairy, in a low voice, ask SeeLee if the smell of humans had awakened the dragons from their thousand-year nap.

Dragons! He didn't dare tell the others, fearing they would stop going to the fairy tree. Why did there have to be dragons, and what would happen when they started flying around? Clayton thought back to the movies he had watched with dragons cast as villains, and none of them boded well for keeping the fairies' world a secret. The dragons would certainly be seen by the outside world once they started flying, and the attention they would bring would surely flood the fields with news crews and curiosity seekers from around the world.

And what of the dragons themselves? Were they just dumb beasts, or were they highly intelligent and evolved creatures? Sleeping for a thousand years and then waking up to a nightmare of noise and confusion would surely be upsetting. When the dragons first settled down for their centuries-long nap, humans were living in huts, and weapons were swords and spears. The world the dragons would discover upon waking would be horrifically different and hardly one they would fit into.

When the dragons last flew, they were masters of the skies. How would they react to planes and helicopters? What would they think of the cars and trucks speeding along old, weaving roads that once knit tiny villages? How would they function in the towns changed into giant cities? And the numbers of people! Dragons on the loose would not be a good thing.

Rinyon and Thewlian—the names conjured visions of noble beasts, though much literature portrayed dragons as monsters. Clayton recalled Cheela's agitation and distress in the tunnel before passing the den. Did the little churla have an inbred fear of such beasts? He wondered if the dragons should be hunted down and killed.

With today's technology, would there even be a place on earth where they could hide? The hammering questions pounding his head made him uneasy. Fear brought by the dragons' awakening caused him to shudder. He feared the fairies would leave after the dragons awoke.

He desperately wished he could talk to SanDroMonEnLor now. Why would the fairies harbor something that could cause so much harm to their peaceful, safe, and beautiful world? Clayton figured the old dragons must have great worth if the fairies risked being eaten by them every time they passed their den. The fairies probably had some way to control the dragons, he decided. Maybe they even thought of them as pets!

Just what kind of powers and abilities did the fairies possess? He wondered this question for probably the millionth time. The extraordinary things the fairies did on a daily basis seemed completely natural to them. He was surprised the fairies hinted that even humans might develop these abilities if they put their minds to it.

Rumors were always swirling about people who could levitate or use telepathy, but making things shrink was something he had never heard of. He was certain the further they explored the fairy tree with SeeLee, the smaller they became. Penny must have been smaller than a grain of sand when she was standing on the shore of the lake! Whether or not atoms really cared about all this shifting and shaking around, he had no idea, but thinking about it always made him uneasy. Something about the carved panels also made him uneasy. The creatures shown on it would certainly be candidates for fulfilling the Native American's prophecy of creatures that would someday roam the land. And SeeLee almost talked as if they were still around to be a bother to the fairies. Lately, most of his thinking about the fairies world made him uneasy, and he searched for something to ease his troubled mind.

Suddenly, a particular churla incident snapped into his mind. When he and his friends had been exploring fairy furniture on the raised platform, he occasionally looked across the room for Penny. On one eye-search, he saw a churla perched on the nearest table having a tug-of-war with its tail for a piece of wood. The churla and his tail each gained and lost ground in this escalating contest of wills.

Then the angry churla gave an extra strong tug, and the tail, as if purposefully, abruptly let go. The surprised churla somersaulted backward along the table, bouncing off everything in its path. The equally surprised tail quickly followed. The circular motion of the somersaulting churla turned the tail into a spirally whip, the end of which smacked into everything that hadn't been pummeled by the churla's body. As it rolled along the table, the churla managed to bounce into six other churlas before it came to a rolling stop.

The battered churlas were playing with wood pieces, trying to build something, as were their tails. The churlas shrieked and jumped, throwing wood high into the air. The tails also shot sky-high and pitched the wood they held. Some wood pieces landed on the next table, startling the churlas, who also shrieked and jumped and threw wildly.

Like a stone thrown into a pond, this activity rippled like a wave. The noise grew louder until the commotion spread halfway across the room. Soon, maybe thinking the ruckus was a signal of imminent danger, the remaining shrieking churlas and their tails began launching their wood pieces. The churlas quickly scattered for cover as the echo of their screams were drowned by the din of the landing, bouncing wood.

Everything fell quiet just as suddenly as it had started. There wasn't a churla in sight, just fairies seemingly frozen in fear of being pelted. Whether sitting, standing, or ducking, the fairies held motionless in strange contrast to the upheaval seconds before. The eerie silence, boding equally strange, was finally broken by the fairies' laughter.

As things returned to normal, the churlas peeked out from their hiding places, and after a quick look around, they returned to their previous woodworking as if nothing had happened.

For one churla, however, the incident wasn't over. That churla, whose tail had started the commotion, walked to its tail's tip, kicked it a couple times, then jumped up and down on it as if to make a point. After that, the churla turned and headed to a pile of wood pieces. Slowly, the tail tip rose like a cobra, and after a few tremors, it shoved the churla from behind into the woodpile. The tip of the tail quickly dove off the table to hide. The churla picked itself out of the woodpile and rose to answer this new challenge, but the offender was not in sight. Trying to pretend nothing had happened, the little churla quickly joined the others.

Of everyone crowding the room, only Clayton had seen what had caused the churla-inspired pandemonium. The others couldn't stop laughing when he explained the domino-like fiasco.

Although at first the fairies distracted the kids from schoolwork, all their grades began to improve after they started to understand the fairies' world. Clayton singled out particular conversations with SanDroMonEnLor and SeeLee as the reason.

The old fairy had spoken of it while walking along the branch. SeeLee mentioned it again as they climbed the circular stairway. As they passed a wooden panel showing a peaceful period, she explained every fairy's obligations to others and life in general.

Challenged by the fairies' view of things, the kids now thought about their own schooling as an adventure in learning instead of only a requirement. It seemed the more attention they paid to a school subject, the easier it was to be good at it. In each class, they demanded a detailed explanation of any new word, idea, or concept their teachers introduced before going on to the next one. A side effect of their new fairy attitude was definitely showing in their grades.

Their diets were also slowly changing. Learning some foods did more harm than good to their bodies, they avoided eating junk. SeeLee had explained how a body's own energy-producing system would shut down whenever the body had sugar to burn for energy. The more the energy factory was shut down, the less able it was to produce energy on its own when needed.

Clayton, his sister, and his friends started eating what their bodies needed instead of what their tastebuds wanted. Their parents were certainly amazed when they asked for more vegetables and fruits at the dinner table. They were even more amazed when desserts were refused. At first, the kids didn't feel a big difference in their bodies. But after a while, they noticed they had more energy when they awoke in the morning, and it seemed to last longer into the day.

Clayton frequently marveled at the things SeeLee knew, until he remembered she was almost twelve hundred years old. The bits and pieces of knowledge shared by the fairies seemed like common-sense lessons humans should know, but did not. Maybe, if humans weren't so busy, they could come to realize these things themselves.

He thought about his friends' older brothers and sisters becoming grown-ups. As they became adults, it seemed they started complicating their lives. Jobs were needed to pay for these complications and took up most of their time and energy. All the adults he knew were busy keeping up with the complications created in their own lives. For generations, the fairies were too busy running from danger to develop complicated lives. Now they seemed entirely happy with the simple way they lived.

He started to dread that he too would get older and have his own set of complications filling his life. Then a thought struck him—what if he ran away and lived in the fairy tree? Would he stay young forever? It had worked for Peter Pan. Maybe it wasn't just a story. Maybe there were fairy colonies scattered all over the map, as SanDroMonEnLor had hinted, and he hoped there were a few somewhere.

His mind blanked out, and he just sat very still, soothed by the rain's patter. With a start, he remembered something SeeLee let slip. It happened in the hall of the peeper fairies, and from what she hinted, older peepers could get out of their bodies. They would drop their bodies in the hall, and their minds were free to float to sites they found familiar.