Farrah in Fairyland (2 page)

In actuality,
elite is not an appropriate word to describe Superiora fairies.
They are neither the smartest nor the most talented. By no means
are they more superior in any way to Farrah, except for their
ability to fly, that is. Farrah always had a hard time accepting
that the Superiora were automatically granted all the spoils that
Fairyland had to offer. As for the flightless Ordinaria, they were
left with all of the menial jobs, like baking.

For the past
five years, Farrah had been forced to learn the Culinary Arts at
the Pixie Academy. The Fairy King always thwarted her attempts to
switch into the Fairy Studies program. King Ridicolo believed
strongly that the Pixie Arts program was too dangerous for those
fairies that could not fly.

It pained
Farrah to think that she could be starting her new career as a
Tinker Fairy. Farrah loved to fix things, always tinkering around
with her dad’s electronic gizmos. Or a Paper Fairy – working for
the Pixadilly Times. She especially enjoyed the notion of using
Pixie during an interview to encourage truthfulness. Of course,
Farrah’s biggest dream was to become a Tooth Fairy.

As it has
already been mentioned, there are hundreds of Tooth Fairies within
Fairyland, all of whom have been trained in Fairyland. This of
course is against popular human belief.

The job of
Tooth Fairy is considered the most prestigious and the most
important of all the careers in Fairyland. For one, Tooth Fairies
are the only fairies with the ability to travel to earth. More
importantly, however, it is the job of a Tooth Fairy to acquire
human teeth, as you already know. It is from these teeth of young
children that Pixie dust is made. Pixie dust is used to make almost
everything in Fairyland. It is also the source of every Fairy’s
power. If it wasn’t for humans offering up their fallen teeth for a
monetary reward, Fairyland would not exist.

Despite the
logistics of becoming a Tooth Fairy standing in Farrah’s way,
namely her inability to fly, Farrah had never given up hope. This
stemmed from a dream that Farrah had three before. Actually, Farrah
didn’t consider it to be a dream at all. “It was much too vivid,”
she told her best friend, Giuseppi Piscini.

“I’m telling
you, Giuseppi, it wasn’t a dream, but more of a premonition.”

“You’re
telling me that you have the ability to tell the future now? I know
that you are a talented fairy, Farrah, but this is too much,”
responded Giuseppi, as Farrah started into retelling of her vision
as she always did when she was upset.

“But I saw
him, Giuseppi. I was there in the human boy’s room. He was sleeping
in the most repulsive of places. His room was sparse and dirty – I
could see everything in that room crystal clear. There was a stain
splattered on the bare mattress on which he slept. There was a sole
picture of a woman in a cracked frame hanging crooked on the wall.
He was wearing the most tattered of clothing. The boy only felt
safe when he slept. When he did, his mind could escape to a place
far away from his wretched surroundings.”

“Farrah, what
you are telling me sounds like a dream,” said Giuseppi
hesitantly.

“Then how do
you explain my knowledge of the surroundings outside his window? It
was a city, which had been ravished by fire and war. His house was
one of the few that remained intact. I could feel the warmth of the
burning fires on my body as I slept, and under his pillow, was a
single tooth that I was supposed to retrieve.”

Giuseppi shot
Farrah a sceptical look.

“Well, how do
you explain the scarf? The next morning, I found it in the top
drawer of the armoire in my room.”

“I thought
that you said your mom put it there.”

“Yes, that is
what I thought at first, but when I asked my mom about the scarf,
she had no idea what it was. It was the same scarf that was on the
floor next to the human boy’s bed, Giuseppi – I’m telling you!”

Despite her
friend’s scepticism, it was from that day on that Farrah truly
believed that she was destined to become a Tooth Fairy. With the
realization that her study at the Pixie Academy was complete, and
she was nowhere near close to achieving her goal, she felt
sick.

“FAR-RAH! You
get down here this instant!” yelled her mother, Crystaline
Fancycracker, for the tenth time.

Figuring that
she had ignored her mother long enough, Farrah got up from her bed
and made her way downstairs, but not before she turned her pillow
over to hide the tear blemish, she had left.

Crystaline was
waiting at the bottom of the stairs for her daughter. With both
hands on her hips, it was easy to see that she was unhappy.
Shooting Farrah a stern look, she walked back into the kitchen and
placed a bowl of strawberry and lamb quiche on the table. As Farrah
took a seat, her mother sprinkled some Pixie dust onto the quiche
to warm it.

“Don’t blame
your mother if it’s dry,” responded Couraggio Fancycracker,
Farrah’s father, who sat across from Farrah. He was reading the
Pixadilly Times as he always did after he finished dinner.

Distracted,
Farrah didn’t respond to her father’s criticism. Instead, her eyes
were drawn to an article on the cover of the newspaper.

FAIRYLAND”S
FIFTYETH ANNUAL TALENT CONTEST TO BE HELD AT THE END OF THE
MONTH.

Noticing that
the article had captured Farrah’s attention, her father spoke,
“Don’t tell me that you are getting these grand illusions again
about entering the talent contest? You know very well that the
contest is for Superiora only. After all, what are you going to do?
Are you going to use Pixie dust to whip up a batch of kiwi-pork
chop muffins? Plus, you aren’t going to have time for any of that,
because you’re starting your new job at the bakery tomorrow.”

Having been
reminded of what tomorrow was to bring, tears rushed into Farrah’s
violet eyes, blurring them momentarily. Knowing that Farrah was
upset, Crystaline finished up the dishes with one last dash of
Pixie dust and sat down next to her daughter.

“Farrah, I
don’t understand why you are so ashamed of our family,” said a
gentle-sounding Crystaline Fancycracker, as she placed her arm
around Farrah’s shoulder to console her.

“How many
fairies can say that their great, great-grandmother invented
cereal?”

Farrah snorted
accidentally, which she attempted to cover up by coughing into a
napkin. The legend to which Farrah’s mother was referring was one
that Farrah was far too familiar with. As the story went,
Paulmatine Fancycracker dreaded her morning routine. She found that
she didn’t have nearly enough time to prepare breakfast. Farrah’s
great, great- grandmother would get up a full two hours early to
prepare the meal, which included bacon and eggs for the entire
family. However, with a total of 20 sons and daughters, her other
obligations, which involved making lunches, doing the laundry and
making the beds, took up most of her morning. Despite the use of
Pixie dust to speed along the chores, it was 8:00 when all the
chores were finally done and she had yet to shower or change for
work.

Frustrated one
morning, Paulmatine decided that she wouldn’t make bacon and eggs.
Instead, she combined some biscuits in a bowl with some milk and
she ate them with a spoon. It was quick, simple and delicious. The
entire family loved it and Paulmatine had so much extra time that
morning that she even had time for the occasional bubble bath.

Word quickly
spread around Fairyland of this new breakfast that saved time and
money. People flocked from all over the land to learn how to make
Paulmatine’s biscuits and milk. It was quite funny to see
Paulmatine giving seminars on how to make breakfast. After all, the
seminar took only a few short minutes. She took some biscuits,
crushed them into a bowl and poured some milk over top. The
simplicity of the breakfast creation mattered not to the
townsfairies of Fairyland. They thought that Paulmatine had created
the best culinary masterpiece since Mr. Potatofairy had invented
the baked potato.

Farrah, on the
other hand, knew the real story. When Farrah was ten-years old, her
grandmother Gizella Fancycracker had confessed that her mother
invented cereal completely by accident. According to Grandma
Gizella, Paulmatine had inadvertently left some biscuits in a pail
one morning. As usual, she was rushing to get ready for work when
she grabbed the bucket, forgetting that there were biscuits in it
and went to milk the cow. A sleepy Paulmatine Fancycracker was
surprised when pieces of biscuit floated to the top of the pail.
Not wanting to waste food, she took a spoon and began to fish the
biscuits out of the bowl. One taste and she was hooked. She
instantly fell in love with her new culinary creation, which later
became known as cereal.

Farrah
often toyed with the idea of telling her parents the truth behind
her great, great- grandma’s creation. She thought that by revealing
that piece of information, her parent’s would allow her to pursue a
career other than a baker. She knew, however, that the information
would crush her parent’s spirit, not to mention the business. After
all, they did name their business
Paulmatine’s Bakeria
in honour of Farrah’s great, great-
grandmother.

Farrah’s eyes
were still glued to the article as she tried to read around her
father’s grip. What Farrah’s parents didn’t know was that in her
spare time, Farrah was learning the Pixie Arts on her own. It was a
slow process without the help of a professor and only library books
to assist her. Despite any success at first, it was now five months
ago to the day that Farrah had perfected the Giganto Spell.

This was much
to the delight of her best friend, Giuseppi Piscini, to whom she
had demonstrated the spell. Giuseppi stared at his friend in wonder
on that day when the usually petite, almost weak-looking Farrah had
instantly grown to nine feet tall. Her hands were like tree trunks
and her legs looked like two skyscrapers. After that day, and with
her newfound confidence, Farrah had learned over 25 spells, a
secret that she kept from everyone including Giuseppi.

“Farrah!”
Crystaline Fancycracker hollered even louder.

“Oh, I’m sorry,
Mom,” responded Farrah, as she got up from the table. She sprinkled
some Pixie dust, which she had taken out of her pocket, onto her
plate. Instantly, the dishes were cleaned and returned to the
cupboard.

Farrah headed
for the coat closet when her father yelled out to her,

“Just promise
us, Farrah, that you aren’t going to do anything stupid.”

“I won’t,”
Farrah said hesitantly, yet sternly.

“I’m just
going off to Giuseppi’s for a while.”

With that, she
grabbed a sweater from out of the closet and walked out the front
door.

Pausing for a
moment to look at the beautiful dawn of the night, Farrah was lost
in thought. She often contemplated running away down to earth where
she could start her life over again. Considering the state that the
earth was in, however, her lowly life as a baker seemed to be her
only inevitability. Deep down, she knew that Fairyland was like no
other place in the universe. It was in constant motion for a
reason; a safety mechanism crafted by the founders of Fairyland so
that it would remain protected from harm.

There was only
one place in Fairyland where earth could be seen below. It was high
atop Mount Michelutz, a favourite spot of Farrah and Giuseppi’s.
Mount Michelutz was also hard to find, in that it was also in
constant motion. “Fairyland is like a Rubik’s cube, always
shifting,” Farrah’s father would often say.

Unlike on
Earth, it is always warm in Fairyland, but not sticky warm like the
summers often experienced by humans. The sky is a wondrous shade of
pink with the sun funnelling through the drift of the clouds. The
lakes and rivers are slightly reddish/orange in colour, with Pixie
dust having enchanted them to enhance the ambiance of the mystical
land.

The trees
are a bright orange, almost as a beacon to signal that anything
that pretty should never be destroyed. Within Fairyland, nature is
of the uttermost importance, with rituals held on a monthly basis
to give thanks to the lavish land. The biggest ritual is held on
January 1
^st
. It is
a massive celebration called Equinos, which begins with a daylong
parade with all the fairies in Fairyland floating down the streets
dressed up in elaborate costumes.

Farrah’s mother
had worn a large multicoloured hat at the last Equinos celebration.
It resembled the mane of the lion and was so heavy that she often
had to stop and take off her hat to rest at each block. The
Fancycrackers also baked Pixie-Butter cookies for the entire land,
which was a fan favourite.

Farrah didn’t
care much for these celebrations. She thought it unfair that only
the Superiora were permitted to ride the lavish floats in the
parade. She hated to see the smug faces of the Superiora as they
slithered methodically like the colourful dragons of the Chinese
Golden Dragon Parade in celebration of the Lunar New Year.

The Ordinaria
were relegated to the role of spectators. More excruciating was the
fact that the Ordinaria were also required to clean up after the
celebration was done; a task that could take up to a week, despite
the use of Pixie Dust.

Even with all
of the shortcomings, Farrah knew that Fairyland was a special place
to call home. As she continued around the corner of the house
toward the Volareport, Bella started to hop up and down with
excitement. As one would expect, motorized vehicles are strictly
prohibited in Fairyland to preserve the beauty of the environment.
Instead, many Ordinaria opt to ride a Volare to get from one place
to another.