Leaping Fairies - A short fiction

On the front lines, men screamed in mouthfuls as the war continued to rage, with loss dug beneath the solace. The war has been going on for so long, that Lola and Molly did not remember the days before it. They did not know for how long it had been, all they knew was that they could not have counted it all with their fingers and toes.

Lola and Molly loved to sit in the tree. It became a part of their routine as their housekeeper slowly faded away into the behind curtains that separated the garden and their father's work office. When there is no one here to keep them off the tree, it is all that they do. 

“What if we fall?”, questioned Lola every time they make it to one of the top branches, as she panted. She was not as eager as her sister to stay up here, but she did not want to be left behind down on the ground. 

“We would get hurt” answered Molly like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

“But mom would not be happy about it” trailed Lola as she turned away and adjusted her vision on the skyline. The world seemed so big, the sky was never-ending but it was all in a gray haze. The scenery from the unfamiliar land on the other side of the estate juxtaposed with the world where they live. It was always greener on this side, but Lola suspected that it didn’t matter. The people who live here are the same as those down there, no differences. They are all withered and worn out. Lola guessed it was a good excuse enough to justify the twisted behavior they would indulge in. 

“Mommy would be madder at Elena, so don’t worry”. They sat in silence until Elena’s strained voice floated up on the branch. It was time for dinner. It took longer and longer each day for the food to appear at the disgustingly long dining table as fewer and fewer servants appeared. The hollow room echoed with each footstep and breath. Lola and Molly plopped themselves up onto the dining chairs and waited impatiently for the food to arrive with Lola braiding her hair, then the one of the housemaid’s hair, and Molly picking her nose. 

Elena passed the dad, almost colliding with him in the process, and let out a faint smile. Lola saw it. It was not disturbing that the housekeeper acted like that, she always has. It was more disturbing that their mom had never done such a thing with their dad. Lola wondered if she was the reason for their distance though she did not know how. 

It was as if the war was here and the manor acted as the battlefield. Would that make Elena the war criminal? 

Lola and Molly shared a room. It was not that there were not enough rooms, no there were indeed too many vacancies here. The emptiness scared Lola so much she requested to share a room with Molly. Molly was discontent, to say the least at first, but underneath she was also scared of the constant rain of bombs that crashed in her dreams at night. 

Lola and Molly brushed their teeth clean with strawberry toothpaste transported from France and slipped into their miniature nightgowns of shades of yellow and pink. From afar they resemble twinkling stars trapped in a wooden box. 

Elena walked in, half yawning said “Come get in your beds, let’s go it’s already late”.Lola and Molly quickly finished washing their toothbrushes and sprinted against one another down the hall, crashing onto the two sides of the hall, giggling too much their teeth started to ache. Elena tucked the two girls into their beds situated side by side. “Goodnight Lola, goodnight Molly” “Sweet dreams Elena” muttered Lola. Elena let out a chuckle under her breath “In this day and age” and closed the door. There was no source of light in the room except for the moon shining its beams from the big window on the wall of their bed. The window was sealed shut and the curtains were drawn. The line of light rested on the floor. It danced back and forth. Lola and Molly stared at the light until their eyes grew tired. 

An explosion happened, whether from the back of their mind or downtown, far away from their bed, the girls’ closing eyes flickered upward a tiny bit but faltered back down quickly. They were deep in their sleep, their breathing was the only stability left in the world. 

In the room, three doors down from the girls on the first floor lay their father’s work office. From the outside, the closed curtains illustrated two shadows intertwining on the work table, the movements of the two figures seemed quite rushed and fast, lustful perhaps. In the room on the opposite side of the same floor, a woman lay in her bed with pills spilled on her bedside table and the floor. The glass of water is tipped over, though nearly empty. She had left the window open as if enjoying the world’s stage hit its climax in front of her eyes.  

Their mom was always in her room, built 3 days after Molly’s birthday last year. A doctor was always there. It was as if the doctor stayed too long, longer than their father did. Lola and Molly come into her room every morning. 

“Hello Mommy how are you feeling” asked Lola. “I am doing well” their mom fixated her mouth upward “Thank you, darling.” Her voice is soft but not due to the nature of it, but rather from distress of some kind. Molly made her way onto the bed and into the warm blanket that covered the mom’s body. “Will you play with us today Mommy?” Molly pouted “We want to go into the forest today.” 

“I’m so sorry darling but I need to rest today. I need to rest so that I will be more healthy to play with you, alright?”

“Yes Mommy” Molly uttered. 

“Lola, Molly it’s time for breakfast!” hollered Elena. “And there you two go, go eat your breakfast. Remember to fill your tummies.” Their mom ushered them out of the room and they made their way into the dining room, with Elena standing by the door hands on both sides of her hips. “You two need to stop wandering around on your own! Do you know what could happen?” The quick lecture officially ruined their mood for the day. 

Breakfast for the day is beans, fried eggs, fried bread, and sausages. Molly chugged down her cup of orange juice as Lola barely messed around with the plate of food. What would they do today? The taste of the air seems prosaic enough. As soon as she finished scraping the last crumbs on her plate, Molly wandered down the long hallways, the red floor carpeting shined warmth on her face. Each step was reluctant and slow as if Molly was slowly descending into the depths of the sea, trudging until water was filling her throat. She aimlessly treaded into the father’s office room by coincidence, and right there on his desk, a big black machine that if not for the war, would’ve brought Molly to the death god himself, sat compacted and in utmost silence. Intrigued, she inched forward until it towered over her. The angular black square that had an arm reached outward, and the machine had more buttons than she ever did on her shirts and dresses. Molly knew this was today’s circuit ride’s menu, which was a total treat. 

The heavy machine had the two sisters struggle with it as they, together one on each side, marched their little feet to the sound of panting pyrrhic, to the back of the residence. They wanted to capture something pretty, something magical even. It was the lack of activities that caused them to seek adventure by themselves since as children they are sick of mundane affairs that go merry-round and turn them nauseous; eating desserts, and reading books that are so worn in the girls can outline the fingerprints of where they had laid their fingers the days before. 

A forest borders the residence. Everything about it screamed forbidden but the louder it screamed the more Molly wanted to fall into its overcast lanes of oaks. “I think we should go back this doesn’t look safe,” Lola stuttered as she got more frightened with every word “What if a monster comes out and eats us?”. “Molly let’s go. Let’s go back please!”. But Molly did not seem to care. “No, we must go. We have nothing better to do, and besides do you want to hang yourself on that tree again? For the billionth time?” Molly leaned forward with the hope that she would successfully guilt-trip her dovelike sister into joining her in this out-of-the-ordinary, fortuitous escapade. “I, I don’t know” Lola dragged out her words as if to have a moment to rationally give a thought that such a dangerous quest will be undertaken. “Please” Molly whined while squeezing Lola’s forearm. “Sure,” Lola said in defeat. With her back slumped forward like she had been dragging the weight of the world on her bare shoulders, Lola hesitantly entered the forest borderline with Molly. She looked back at the mansion for the last time, but it rendered a battlefield of graves, with bodies stacking on one another. “It’s not a bad idea to leave for a while if it means you become better” Lola recited with squinted eyes, what her mother had placed in her ears some years back, before she got more sick, before her heart became weighed down with white pills. 

Though it was quite bright outside, the frost still rested on the leaves, and the grievances still buried under the trees. The air was thick with smokey fogs, though the sunlight did make a very clear effort to stab through them. The girls’ miniature physique lies in the cracks of the grand wood, like unwelcomed guests in an abandoned home, creeping on tippy toes. Lola and Molly seemed to be the first ones to have wandered here in forever, with each step disrupting the hazy scene. 

“Molly look! Those flowers are so pretty!” Lola gasped elegantly as she tipped her body over a group of peonies emerging from a small bush. Their lively pink coat left Lola awed, her face tilted slightly to one side, mouth curved upward. Lola looked just like a butterfly sucking nectars out of the plant. Beauty must surrender to beauty, that is the way life works and the peonies had to surrender themselves to Lola’s gentle heath. 

“Not magical enough. Lola, we can’t stop every time you see something pink lurking. We just need to find something magical, capture it, return home, eat dinner, and go to bed. And hopefully don’t get caught by Elena.” Molly huffed and crossed her arms. Lola crossed hers too, and the two stayed silent like this for a good minute. “Fine!” Lola said shakingly and quickly used the inner of her thumb to block the waterway in her pupils. 

“Come here, Molly! Come quick!” Lola yelled quietly to not scare away the little creatures. “What?” Molly questioned with a hint of irritation as she walked to where Lola was looming over. “Look! Fairies!” Lola pointed her finger at the glittering beings, her face almost as bright as they were. She has never been this happy before. 

They have found fairies. The wispy figures in translucent fabrics leaped from tree branch to tree branch, so light you could barely hear them moving, like twinkle drops, like the bombs. They were the hidden gold of August. 

Molly gasped and her jaw dropped open. The two girls stayed quiet but unlike on the tree branch, the space was filled with rumbling sparkles in the depths of their abdomens. The sensation was so overwhelming they felt like they could vomit out pink butterflies. In their mind, the war was ending. Something new was creeping along the horizon. Mom and Dad would be at dinner with them again and Elena would get fired. They will not be tied down to the clustered manor and visit downtown. 

“We need to take pictures of them! We need to show them to mom and dad!” Molly seemed to have snapped back into reality with an incredible plan. “Yes! Everyone would be very happy to see the fairies!” Lola exclaimed but hurriedly collected herself. The fairies are very sensitive and dainty. 

The girls got to work and took turns taking pictures of the fairies. They also tried to stand as close in proximity with the magical creatures, as close as possible, as a way to mark their findings as theirs, and to prove their validity. 

As the sun set behind the clock tower, a golden hue faded into the deep forest, and the quietness settled into the groundwater. Elena’s strained voice somewhere in the estate was their signal to head back. The girls were laughing and capering, the sound echoed and bounced onto the changing season leaves and animals around them.

Molly and Lola skipped out of the forest as the weight of the camera did not outweigh the 

Surprisingly many came. The shop owners and stay-at-home wives. The businessmen the merchants and the homeless, all came. It was like a party the girls were hosting but everyone dreaded around like a shadow in the dark. All the guests gathered in a small auditorium room in the house and with the lights turned off the girl began their presentation. Pictures of them and the fairies were blasted on the wall behind where they were standing. The more they talked the more the audience's eyes widened. By the end of their presentation, it was silent and dead. 

After that came the waves of applause and whistling. With eyes closed it sounded like the nation's celebration of the war ending. Some even stood up. In the corner at the back of the room, Lola spotted their parents standing together, clapping their hands and tears in their eyes. She beamed and stood straighter. The world was healing Lola must have thought, that everything would return to its normality, even though she did not know what the normal looked like she guessed it was better than this. The standing ovation lasted long and when the two sisters slid into bed they still heard the ringing claps in their ears. 

The adults believed it. They truly believed it. And not a single one will admit it but the fact is, they wanted to. They wanted to believe it. Even if that means biting it whole and choking themselves to get it down into their stomachs. The adults didn’t care about the truth because believing was enough, the details blurred the lines of truth but their mind was rusted. It is a way to keep them safe as the claps and gasps would carry the audience away from the ghosts that live in the kitchen. The girls’ pictures opened up a magical reality for them, out of the way of the mundane society in which they have found themselves in the midst of. The same adults are the one who hated lore and was grieving the deaths of their sons. So the scarlet hills hosted petty criers who believed too much, and your stupid prayers are not enough to save them from the damage that has played its part. The damage had sunk into their bones and eaten them alive. 

Things did not get better, to Lola and Molly’s childish surprise. The war, like water, continued through misery, even after the presentation of the fairies. It was then that the girls realized the fairies were not able to cure the boned madness that spread like a disease, but had rather further allowed them to sway harder to the beat of their pain. Just like that, everything relapsed back the way they have always been. 

The estate hoaxed dead wind and false alarms. The unsupervised countryside and its haunted hills twinkle a homely minute of innocence. The girls continue to sit on the branches, hovering above the estate like ghosts.

The girls got sadder and sadder. Now the halls are hollow walls caving inward, and no matter how hard you press your ears against it, no signal of laughter would come through as if the children vanished overnight, replaced by ghostly silhouettes attaching themselves to anything. 

Spinning in their white gowns, looking up to find a fragment of God. Spinning until their hair tangles and invades their vision. Spinning until they feel their body levitate and their mind free from all the troubles of the war, of the property. Spinning until they become fairies. Beauty must surrender to beauty. The girls were too pure, holding beauty within their grace, and they must have had to surrender to the fairies, the magical beings that sparkle trails of beauty. 

I do not know whether the war got better, or how much of the halcyon days were encrypted into the bends of men's minds. I do not know whether the occupants of the manor survived the war, or of the girls…just that fairies exist.