A Fairy Long Night by Lenora Rodgers (reader novel TXT) 📕

heart. Many times he had chased tennis balls thrown down by THE CHILD. But this time, in his haste, he stepped on one huge, floppy brown ear and tumbled down the last four steps.

Zeke and Zak had made it all the way down to the far reaches of the basement with their fairy wings backed up against a wall. Out of breath and panicking, they were holding on to each other when suddenly they heard a yelp and a loud thump, thump, thump sound coming from the stairs. They looked over and saw the huge basset tumbling head over tail on his way down. Then he hit the floor at the bottom and all was quiet for a second. They saw him slowly get up and shake his head. Slobbers flew straight out on both sides and stuck to the walls.

After Marshall shook the stars out of his eyes, he trotted over to just beneath the two small lights glowing in the dark high up on the wall. He sat down hard on his bottom to have a closer look.

SNIFF…No, not Frisbees, he decided

. SNIFF SNIFF…Milk bones?

SNIFF SNIFF SNIFF…No, not milk bones. The smell’s not right

. WINGS! THEY HAVE WINGS! BUTTERFLIES!

Marshall stood up, danced back and forth and began wagging his tail, waiting for the butterflies to come down and play but they stayed up in the air and wouldn’t budge. So he barked in his deep baritone again. “WUUUF! WUUUF! WUUUF!”

The sound was deafening to the two little apprentices. They trembled and hung on to each other with all their might. Why doesn’t that child come and get this creature? They didn’t get paid for this!

Suddenly there was a third small light entering the room. The two little fairies looked toward the stairs and saw THE BOSS coming at them…and fast.

Marshall, the basset, turned around and saw the third light coming at them, too.

“Yay, another butterfly! Maybe this one…”

THE TOOTH FAIRY straightened out her arm and pointed a bright red fingernail at the basset’s face. The dog went perfectly still and stopped barking. He continued to stare at the third little light shimmering in the dark.

The two hapless little fairy assistants turned, looked at each other, and in unison whispered “Whoa!!” As they continued to watch, they saw something they had never witnessed before—and had only heard rumors about.

THE TOOTH FAIRY put her right hand into her pocket, pulled it out and held it over the dog’s nose. She released a fine, gold powder which drifted down and covered his entire snout.

SNIFF…Marshall blinked and his brown, soulful eyes crossed. SNIFF SNIFF…he staggered sideways. SNIFF SNIFF SNIFF…he slowly melted down onto the floor, spread eagle, jowls spread out on either side of his head--and began snoring.

THE TOOTH FAIRY looked up at her two assistants. She had her hands on her hips and was tapping her tiny left slipper in midair. The look she was giving them had them scrambling to attention.

She suddenly thrust out her left hand, which Zeke could now see, was holding a small, white baby tooth. He flew forward quickly and watched as THE TOOTH FAIRY dropped the tooth in the opened bag. Before he could even pull the drawstring tight, the air vibrated and shimmered and then POOF…she was gone.

When Zak could pull himself together, he flew over to where Zeke still hovered, mouth agape, bag still open in his hand. “She didn’t ask me for any money.” He said. “Think she forgot?”

“Forgot?!” Zeke asked, irritated. “She doesn’t have all night to wait on you! She probably had to use her own money…AGAIN! C’mon, we don’t want to be late to the next house.”

They both looked down at the snoring basset. What a nightmare. Their wings were still trembling.

Zak said, “I’m scared. I want to go home.”

Zeke tried to comfort his partner. “Look, you’re ok. If she was going to fire you, you’d have been gone by now. Don’t forget what we witnessed here tonight…fairy dust!! It’s real! Now we know! She would never have let us see that if we were going to lose our positions. She must really like us.”

“Yeah, she’s tolerant.” Zak sighed.

“Yep, tolerant.” Agreed Zeke

“Tolerant...Zeke?”

“Um hum?”

“What does tolerant mean again?”

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Images: cover photo: publicphoto.org
Publication Date: 02-05-2013

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