Fairy Stories

By Nikki Bollman

A collection of five short stories about tiny magical beings. In this collection, fairies infest a yarn store, tiny dragons flock to a pepper garden, a farmers' market sells fairies in a jar, and more. Settings in the stories are inspired by the author's hometown of Duluth, Minnesota.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sticks & Scribbles Press
• Release date: Jan 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781507096307

Book preview

FARMERS MARKET FAIRY

They held the farmers’ market each Saturday in a long, low building painted red and white like a barn, but its roof was pointy, not like a barn. Lily liked when there were lots of fresh flowers, how the row of stalls was populated with color bursts, like dancing cartoon princesses. Today, she followed Mama in, trailing behind with a loosely clutched hand, and saw that vegetables had replaced many of the bright flowers. Mama led her past the banjo player in the middle of the hall straight to a table full of red tomatoes.

Lily let go of Mama’s hand and went to the next table, where jars of honey sat next to jewelry beaded with tiny beads, all in different colors and arranged in geometric patterns. She picked up a bracelet, felt its texture. It looked like snakeskin, but felt bumpy. She knew that snakeskin didn’t feel bumpy, because her cousin Matt had caught a baby garter snake once and made her hold it.

Do you like it? I made it, said a girl Lily hadn’t noticed before. Lily thought she looked as tall as Matt, who was in fourth grade.

Did you make the honey, too? Lily asked.

Do I look like a bee?

Lily blushed and ducked her head. She set down the bracelet and looked for Mama. She spotted her several stalls past now, handling potatoes.

Hey, I was just teasing. Want a sample?

Lily took the offered honey stick, said thank you, and went to the seller with the potatoes, but Mama wasn’t there. The honey tasted sweet and a little like fruit. She would tell Mama to buy honey from the nice girl, and maybe she could ask for a bracelet, too.

She didn’t spot Mama at any of the tables on this side of the market, but she kept walking. Mama would find her when it was time to go. The market had filled up with more people now and Lily was too short to see past them. Now she had to pee, and she wished she could tell Mama where she was going.

Instead of a bathroom, the market had a door that led outside. Wooden stairs led to two blue portable toilets. Lily curled her nose but used it anyway.

When she came out, a movement caught her eye. The farmer’s market building was next to a creek that ran through the city, and at this spot a steep ravine led down to the water. Trees and dense underbrush blocked her view of the creek, but she thought she had seen a person disappear into it. She walked past the stairs until she came to it: a path, worn and narrow and almost invisible. Lily pushed aside a branch and headed down the path.

Trees and bushes crowded in on her. Their branches grabbed and clung, and she could hear them whip back behind her as she walked. The path went on smooth and at a slight angle for a bit, then Lily arrived at a clearing of a sort.

More than a clearing, it was the edge of the ravine, and not as many trees crowded the rocky ground that tumbled down to the creek bed below. But the path didn’t disappear here. It took Lily up to the top of a stone staircase, with boulders for railings and cracked stones that seemed as if they used to be flat but now heaved up at angles against themselves.

Lily had the thought that Mama would tell her to be careful on these stairs, and now she glanced back at the path through the trees. From here she couldn’t see the red farmers’ market barn at all. She bit her lip, but one look back at the stairs, and her feet decided for her. She tripped down the uneven stones as only a child could, handling their unevenness and jutting corners with ease.

She arrived at the bottom onto a carpet of gravel and moss. To her right, near the bridge where the street crossed over the creek, rushed a waterfall. Purple and yellow flowers climbed the jagged rocks on either side of the waterfall and drank from its spray. The water fell into a shallow pool. Lily thought it might be nice to take off her shoes and walk barefoot through the clear water, but before she could do it, she spotted a bridge. The path led to it. She could now see that the path had started up again after the gravel at the foot of the stairs. Now that she saw the bridge, she had to cross it.

The bridge ended in front of a small wooden shack. It had one window in front next to the door, with a tattered curtain hanging behind dusty panes of glass. Lily pushed the door open and stepped through. The room inside was not dark, but not sunny, either. Sun filtered through the one window, but the room was lit by a different kind of light. It seemed bigger inside than the shack looked from the outside. Lily wasn’t sure how that could be. She stepped in among the tables. It reminded her of the farmer’s market, with tables lining each wall up and down, only they didn’t hold vegetables and flowers. Each table held a collection of glowing glass jars, so many that the light filled up the dim space. Jar stacked upon jar, with a tiny light flitting inside each one like captured fireflies.

Do you like them? I caught them myself, said the girl from the market.

Lily froze at the voice. She looked up, found her standing behind one of the tables full of jars. She relaxed when she saw that the girl still smiled, and that the dim lights glowing on her face only made it seem warmer.

What are they? Lily said.

Fairies.

Fairies…

Here, look. The girl plucked a jar from the top of a stack and placed it in Lily’s hands.

The glass felt warm to her touch. Lily could feel the impact as the fairy flitted around and struck the walls of the jar. She held it up to her face. The fairy was a tiny person, just like in cartoon movies, except she wasn’t wearing any clothes and her wings were much larger in proportion to her tiny body. The fairy glowed all over, but beneath the glow her wings held a delicate pattern, like a butterfly but lighter. The fairy paused for a bit in her efforts, then began to fly against the sides of the jar again.

She wants to get out, Lily said, and reached to unscrew the cap.

Don’t let it out! The girl clamped her hand over Lily’s. She took the jar back and set it back in place on a pyramid of jars. You wouldn’t want that to happen.

Where did they come from? Why did you trap them? Lily bent and peered into each jar, taking slow steps up the