Fairy in Waiting Read online

  “Hello?” I could hear Mrs. Lee calling through the woods. “Are you there? Are you all right?”

  We all looked at each other. I tried to waddle to Mom.

  “My spells aren’t working!” Mom said to me. “I don’t know what to do.”

  Then I had an idea.

  “Mom…,” I began.

  “Not now, Ella!”

  “But I know which spell you should use!” I said.

  “Use the Normeridoo spell!” I said. “Code four-five-two. Remember?”

  “Yes!” Mom shouted. “What a good idea!”

  She waved her Computawand, tapped out the numbers 4-5-2 with the end of her flipper and said, “Normeridoo! Please! Please work!”

  I could feel myself getting bigger. My flippers became arms. My beak became a nose. My hair came back. I was a girl again.

  “Thank goodness,” Dad said. He grabbed me and Mom and gave us a hug. “Now, absolutely no more magic.”

  “Ella, you are a wonderful Fairy in Waiting,” Mom said. “You saved the day for everyone.”

  I felt all light and happy. I had saved the day!

  “Thank goodness for Ella,” Dad said, and he gave me an extra-big hug. “Now can we have lunch like a normal family? Just for once?”

  “Of course!” Mom said. “Toffee apple.” And she changed back to normal Mom.

  At that moment, Mrs. Lee appeared through the trees. She looked very confused to see us all together.

  “Hello!” she said. “There you all are! What’s going on?”

  “Um…,” Mom said

  “Well…,” Dad said.

  “Squawk!” came a voice from above. And down from the tree flew Ben the parrot. He was red and green, and he flew straight to Mrs. Lee and sat on her shoulder.

  “Ben!” cried Mrs. Lee. “You found my Ben! Thank you so much!” She stroked his head and he rubbed his beak against her. “Now come and have lunch,” she said to us. “You earned it!”

  We walked to the table and sat down with Ollie and Mr. Lee.

  “You’ll never believe it,” Mr. Lee said, “but we just had two monkeys in the garden!”

  “No!” Mom said, sounding very surprised. “Real monkeys?”

  “Yes!” said Mrs. Lee. “They were starting trouble, but they were funny too. I’m so sorry you missed them, Ella. Maybe they’ll be back. I have no idea where they came from….”

  “Well, I don’t hope they come back,” Dad said, smiling at me. “I don’t want any more monkey business.”

  Just then, Ben landed on my shoulder. His claws were sharp, but it didn’t hurt. It felt funny, having a parrot on my shoulder.

  “I’m going to buy Ben some parrot toys,” said Mrs. Lee. “Then he won’t be bored.”

  “Squawk!” Ben said into my ear. He looked at me as though he was wondering why I wasn’t a monkey anymore.

  I had thought this lunch would be boring, but it was so much fun. I couldn’t wait to tell Tom and Lenka about the parrot. Maybe one day I could have a parrot as a pet. And we could play pirates or hide-and-seek together.

  After lunch I did some drawing in my book. I drew Ben in the tree, with his red and green feathers. And as I drew, I thought about being a monkey with furry legs. I thought about being an elephant with a long gray trunk, and a penguin with flippers. And I thought that what I really liked being, most of all, was a girl.

  One day, we were out shopping when Mom stopped dead and said, “Wow! That’s amazing!”

  I looked around quickly, in case it was something really amazing, like a bathtub full of jelly beans or a real live robot. But it was only an antiques shop with a big clock in the window. Antiques aren’t what I’d call amazing. They are old furniture and things that smell dusty and don’t work. You can’t touch them or sit on them or play with them, even if it’s a doll or a rocking horse.

  But Mom says that antiques are special, like treasure. She loves old cupboards and vases and pictures. Dad doesn’t. He calls antiques “junk” and stands at the door of the shop, looking at his phone.

  We all followed Mom into the shop and watched her admire the clock. Then she spotted some candlesticks and plates. Everything looked boring to me, especially the plates. Plates are only interesting if they have yummy food on them, like spaghetti.

  Then Mom cried out again, “Wow! That’s amazing!”

  By now, she was at the back of the shop, looking at a big wooden wardrobe. It had little legs and pictures of trees painted on it.

  It actually was amazing. I had never seen a wardrobe like it before. I looked at the pictures and wondered who had painted them.

  “It’s beautiful,” Mom said. “We have to buy this.”

  Dad looked up from his phone. “It’s very big,” he said. “And the door is falling off.”

  “We’ll fix it,” Mom said.

  Dad looked at the wardrobe again. He didn’t seem happy. “Do we really need this?” he said.

  “We’ll keep our extra clothes in it,” Mom said. “It’s fabulous.”

  When Mom says things are fabulous, we always buy them.

  * * *

  When the wardrobe was delivered, it seemed even bigger than it had in the store. The men heaved it in through the door and up to the guest room, while Mom followed them, saying, “Isn’t it beautiful?”

  “Now we must fix this door,” Mom said when the men left. She looked around. “Where did Dad go?”

  A text beeped on her phone. Mom read it and looked a little bit mad.

  “Dad has suddenly decided to take Ollie to the supermarket,” she said. “Well, that’s okay. I’ll fix the door myself.”

  Mom got out the toolbox. She put a scarf around her hair. She made herself a cup of tea. She took out the screwdriver and looked at it before putting it down. “Magic is better,” she said. She stamped her feet three times, clapped her hands, wiggled her behind and said, “Marshmallow,”…and POOF! She was a fairy.

  I was excited to see Fairy Mom fix the wardrobe, but I hoped nothing would go wrong.

  “Have you ever done any fixing spells before?” I asked her.

  “Actually,” Mom said, “I am very good at fixing spells. I got a gold in my Fixing and Building Spells test.” She pointed her Computawand at the wardrobe, pressed a code—bleep-bleep-bloop—and said, “Menderidoo!”

  The wardrobe door came to life and made itself straight. The screwdriver floated into the air and fixed it with a screw. The door was perfect again.

  “Yay!” I said, and clapped my hands.

  “There,” Mom said. “Good as new. What a beautiful wardrobe! Let’s put all our winter clothes in it.”

  We found our sweaters and put them into the wardrobe before closing the doors. But within seconds, the doors opened and the sweaters flew out again, landing on the carpet.

  Mom and I stared at the clothes on the floor.

  “Did those sweaters just fly out of the wardrobe by themselves?” Mom asked.

  I was confused too.

  We tried putting the sweaters in the wardrobe again, but they flew out a second time. This time, one landed on Mom’s head.

  “Mom!” I said. “The wardrobe is magic!”

  “Oh no!” Mom said. “My spell must have been too strong. Let me fix it.” She got out her Computawand, but before she could use it, we heard something coming from the wardrobe.

  “Itchy,” said a very small, squeaky voice.

  “Itchy?” Mom asked. “What does that mean?”

  “I think it means the sweaters,” I said. “The sweaters are too itchy.”

  I felt sorry for the wardrobe. Itchy sweaters are horrible.

  “This is ridiculous!” Mom said. “It’s a wardrobe, not a person!” She pointed her wand at the wardrobe and said, “Stoperidoo! Now it will become normal again.”

  But the wardrobe did not become normal again.

 
“Itchy!” it said. “No sweaters!”

  Then it started walking to the door on its little legs.

  “Mom!” I said. “It’s a walking, talking wardrobe!”

  “Stop right there!” Mom said, pointing her wand at the wardrobe. “Stoperidoo!”

  But the wardrobe didn’t stop. It walked along the hall and started going down the stairs. Thump, crash, thump. Mom ran after it, calling “Stoperidoo! Stayeridoo! Stilleridoo!” But it still didn’t work.

  Mom tried grabbing the wardrobe, but it was too heavy. It marched out the back door into the garden. Then it found our inflatable pool and started kicking its legs, making big splashes.

  “Stop that!” Mom shouted. “Stoperidoo!”

  The wardrobe laughed a squeaky laugh—“Hee-hee-hee!”—and splashed even harder.

  “None of my spells are working,” Mom said. “I think this wardrobe has its own kind of magic.” She walked up to the wardrobe and looked at it hard. “Tell me the truth. Did I turn you into a magic wardrobe or were you magic all along?”

  “Magic!” said the wardrobe in its tiny, squeaky voice. “I’m a magic wardrobe!”

  Suddenly it grew a pair of wooden arms, with wooden hands. It waved at me, and I laughed.

  “Look, Mom!” I said. “It’s got arms!”

  Mom sighed. “We can’t have a magic wardrobe,” she said. “We’ll have to get rid of it.”

  I couldn’t believe it.

  “But I love the wardrobe!” I said. “It’s fun!”

  “Ella, we can’t keep a magic wardrobe,” Mom said. “It will be too much trouble. I’ll lock it in the shed, and then we’ll sell it.”

  When Dad came home, he and Mom had a talk. Then Dad talked very sternly to the wardrobe and tied a rope around one of its legs. He made it walk to the shed and locked the door. I was very sad. Before I went to bed, I ran to the shed. I looked through the window at the wardrobe.

  “Good night,” I said. “I wish you hadn’t gotten into so much trouble today. Then maybe Mom and Dad would let you stay.”

  * * *

  Later that night I dreamed about a fire engine. The sirens sounded like “Waaah, waaah, waaah.”

  When I woke up I realized it wasn’t a dream. There was a real noise in the house. It sounded like “Waaah, waaah, waaah.”

  I got out of bed and went to the door. I peeked outside and saw Mom and Dad in their dressing gowns. They had been woken up too.

  “What is that noise?” Dad asked.

  “It’s coming from the back door,” Mom said.

  We all hurried downstairs, and Dad opened the back door. Outside, on the doorstep, was the magic wardrobe. It was crying very loudly: “Waaah, waaah, waaah!”

  “It wants to come in,” I said. “It’s lonely. Poor wardrobe.”

  “How did it get out?” Dad asked.

  “It has to go back in the shed,” Mom said, and the wardrobe cried, “Waaah!” even more loudly. Up and down our street, lights were going on in houses. The wardrobe was waking everyone up.

  “Please can the wardrobe come in?” I begged. “It sounds so sad.”

  “All right!” Mom said to the wardrobe. “You can come in for one night. But that’s it.”

  The wardrobe hurried into the house on its little legs. It went to stand next to the grandfather clock.

  “Night-night,” I said to the wardrobe. The wardrobe gave me a hug with its wooden arms and I hugged it back.

  “Now, be good,” Mom said, and she wagged her finger at the wardrobe.

  “Good,” the wardrobe said in its squeaky voice. “Good, good, good.”

  Mom, Dad and I went back upstairs to bed.

  “Well,” Dad said, “let’s hope we get some sleep tonight.”

  * * *

  —

  But we didn’t get much sleep. Later that night, I was in the middle of a dream where I was flying with butterflies, when I heard a loud noise: crash!

  I woke up instantly and jumped out of bed. I knew it was the wardrobe getting into trouble again. Maybe it was running around, or maybe it was trying to play with the normal furniture. Mom and Dad would be very mad if they were woken up again, and they would never keep the wardrobe.

  I decided to go downstairs and tell the wardrobe to be good.

  I quietly walked down the stairs. Then I stopped in surprise. The wardrobe wasn’t making any noise. It was standing quietly next to the grandfather clock.

  There was another crash. It came from the family room.

  I was very scared, but I tiptoed to the door of the sitting room and peeped in. A man wearing a mask was putting things into a sack. There was a broken vase on the floor, and a chair was knocked over too. Those must have made the crashing sounds.

  The man put Dad’s camera into his sack, and then Mom’s silver clock. He was stealing our things! I felt very angry, but I didn’t dare go in. Instead, I ran to the magic wardrobe.

  “Wardrobe!” I whispered. “There’s a burglar! Catch him!”

  The wardrobe hurried into the family room on its little legs. I heard a scuffling noise. Then the burglar came running out with the sack on his back.

  “Wardrobe!” I cried. “Help! Get the burglar!”

  The wardrobe came running very fast out of the family room. It chased after the burglar and grabbed him with its wooden hands.

  “What?” shouted the burglar. He looked very surprised. He wriggled and hit the wardrobe, trying to get free, but its hands were super strong. Then the wardrobe doors flew open and it stuffed the burglar inside itself. Its doors slammed shut and the key turned.

  The burglar was locked inside the wardrobe.

  “Yay!” I cheered. “Good work, Wardrobe!”

  Seconds later, Mom and Dad appeared on the stairs. Mom was yawning, and Dad’s hair was sticking up.

  “I’ve had enough!” Dad said.

  “What trouble has that wardrobe been getting into now?” Mom asked.

  “No trouble,” I told them. “It caught a burglar. It’s a very, very good wardrobe.”

  * * *

  —

  When the police arrived, Dad opened the wardrobe doors. The police looked very surprised to see a burglar inside. They pulled him out and put handcuffs on him. Then they took all our things out of his sack and gave them back to Mom.

  The burglar was shocked. He told the police how the wardrobe had come to life and trapped him, but they didn’t believe him. Then the police took the burglar away. Mom made us some hot chocolate, and we all sat in the hall and looked at the wardrobe.

  “You can’t send it away now,” I said. “You can’t. It’s a good, smart, brave wardrobe. It’s part of the family.”

  I patted the wardrobe, and it patted me back.

  “I know it is,” Mom said, and she gave a yawn. “But it still needs training.”

  “I’ll train it!” I said. “I’ll look after it. Please? Please? It will be a really good wardrobe. I know it will.”

  Mom and Dad smiled at each other.

  “Do you think you can do it, Ella?” Mom asked. “It’s a big job, training a magic wardrobe.”

  I thought about the wardrobe throwing out sweaters because they were itchy. I thought about it being lonely in the shed. I thought that if the wardrobe was really happy, maybe it would start being good all the time.

  “Yes,” I said. I sipped my hot chocolate and smiled back at Mom. “I think I can.”

  We were going on vacation to Florida. There was going to be a beach and a swimming pool and boats to sail on. I had a new striped swimsuit, a new hat, and even a new red suitcase with wheels. Wardrobe was left in charge of the house while we were away. Even though he doesn’t like magic very much, Dad said Wardrobe would be better than any guard dog.

  Before we left, Mom was having a lesson from Fenella on FairyTube. They were doing magic packing.

  S
he waved her Computawand, pressed a code—bleep-bleep-bloop—and said, “Packeridoo!” But all the clothes whirled around the room and landed on our heads.

  “Oops,” Mom said. “Wrong code.” She pressed a different number and tried again: “Packeridoo!”

  At once all the clothes folded themselves neatly and put themselves in our suitcases. Magic is very useful sometimes.

  When Mom’s magic lesson was over, I said, “I wish I could do the Packeridoo spell every day, instead of having to pack my school bag. I wish I could do magic now.”

  “You’ll be able to do it one day,” Mom said, smiling. She gave me a hug, then said, “Have you packed your goggles?”

  “Of course!” I said. “I’m going to swim every single day.”

  * * *

  At the airport, it was very, very crowded. There were people and rolling suitcases everywhere. We couldn’t see where to go. Dad went to ask someone, but it took him forever to come back. Ollie dropped his teddy and started crying. A man ran his suitcase over Mom’s foot by mistake. More and more people were arriving, and everyone was squashed. Mom looked annoyed.

  “There are too many people here!” she said. “We’ll never get to Florida!” She pulled us behind a luggage cart piled high with suitcases so that no one could see. Then she stamped her feet three times, clapped her hands, wiggled her behind and said, “Marshmallow,”…and POOF! She was Fairy Mom.

  She waved her Computawand at the crowds of people around us, pressed a code—bleep-bleep-bloop—and said, “Empteridoo!”

  At once the airport was empty. There were no people or suitcases or carts. There were no check-in desks or signs. There were no planes outside.

  There was no airport at all! Just a big empty building and our family. Dad came walking across the big, empty space. He rolled his eyes.