The Little Things - A Short Story

By Bridget McKenna

They came in twos and threes and half-dozens, flying above the main street of town on some unknown and unimaginable errand, perhaps twice the size of large butterflies, with pale slender bodies, and dragonfly wings sparkling in the sun.

The children noticed them first, and followed them down the street, looking up in wonder.

“Fairies!” they shouted to their parents inside the cozy houses. “Fairies!” they shrieked to one another in high voices. “Fairies!”

In Morgan's Glen, everything was about to change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ravenscourt Press
• Release date: Jan 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781507038086

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The Little Things is copyright © 1993, 2012 Bridget McKenna, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior permission of the publisher, with the exception of brief passages quoted in reviews.

The Little Things was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, in October/November 1993.

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Contents

The Little Things

Dear Reader

A Free e-Book for You

It’s The Little Things

About the Author and Editor

More by Bridget McKenna

Copyright Page

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The Little Things

IT STARTED OUT in a small way early one evening, almost like some sort of divine visitation. They came in twos and threes and half-dozens, flying above the main street of town on some unknown and unimaginable errand, perhaps twice the size of large butterflies, with pale slender bodies and dragonfly wings sparkling in the sun. The children noticed them first, and followed them down the street, looking up in wonder.

Fairies! they shouted to their parents inside the cozy houses. Fairies! they called to one another in high voices. Fairies! Finally the grownups came out to see.

Have you ever seen so many in one place? asked Mr. Finchley, who was old enough to remember them from his childhood.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a live one at all, replied Mrs. Samuelson, and her eyes filled up with tears."

They’re so beautiful! said some, So delicate! said others. It’s as though they came from another world!

In fact, they had come from the fairy preserve, only forty or so miles to the north, but visitors were not allowed on the preserve, and since fairies could not live in captivity, and were protected by stringent government regulations, most of the people of Morgan’s Glen had never seen one except in picture-books. Some of them gazed aloft in amazement while others hurried inside for cameras to record the impossible moment.

From her ancient porch swing, Miranda Morgan watched the townspeople bumbling about on the street in front of her house. We told them there’d be a fairy problem, she muttered, picking up her cane. Daddy tried to tell them about the damned things, but who’d listen?

I beg your pardon, Miss Morgan? Martin Price, Miss Morgan’s gardener, had his back to the commotion on the street as he arranged bedding plants into a border under the boxwood.

They weren’t always endangered, you know, the old woman told him. She rose from the swing and went inside, shaking her head.

What wasn’t? asked Martin. He got up and