Pixie Dust
My two best friends are Selena and Ashby. They’re identical twins, but if you know what to look for, you can tell them apart. Selena’s ears are a little bit more sticky-out than Ashby’s, and Ashby has a wider smile. But if you really want to tell them apart, ask them to say “vodka”. Ashby always says it in a Russian accent.
We became best friends when they moved into my street and we walked home together. Ashby is the only one of us who has ever had a boyfriend, and that only lasted a month. Maybe he didn’t like the way she said vodka.
“Where’s Selena?”
Ashby shrugged. Already I could see sweat marks in the armpits of her shirt, which said DRAMA QUEEN in gold glittered writing.
“We were supposed to go to the movies,” I said. “And she chose the movie.”
“We don’t always have to do things together,” Ashby replied, tracing the outline of her lips with a pencil.
“Except that we do, and we always have.”
Ashby applied cherry lip gloss and turned to stare at me. “Well, today we don’t.”
“Fine, I’ll just text her.” I touched my finger to the phone. It lit with enthusiasm.
Ashby knocked it out of my hand. The phone slid across the tiled floor, stopping just before it hit the wall.
“What’s your problem?”
Ashby smacked her lips together, wiping a stray smear of lip gloss from around her mouth.
“I don’t know where she is and I don’t care either.”
“So you had a fight,” I said, reaching down for my phone. “You could have just said that.”
Ashby shrugged again.“Let’s go. I don’t want to miss the beginning.”
The film was boring. I think I dozed during it, waking when Ashby poked me in the ribs and whispered that I was snoring. We grabbed frozen drinks and some hot chips before taking a shortcut through the bushland on our way home.
“I still can’t believe we’ve finished school,” I mused, taking a slurp of my drink. “Mum wants me to get a proper job right away, but it’s hard unless I want to work in a supermarket or McDonald’s.”
“Oh boo hoo! Must be hard, not having parents who want you to work as soon as you’re old enough,” Ashby said, her foot crashing down on a large twig, snapping it in half. “Me and Sel have been supporting our parents since year eight.”
I sighed. Ashby was in a mood today. “I know that! I’m just saying…”
She stopped. Hands on hips. Eyes locked onto mine. “Your mum has money, you don’t have to keep rubbing it in my face.”
“Screw you,” I snapped. “Just because you had a fight with Selena doesn’t mean you have to take it out on me!”
“Hmph.”
“Fine. You go home and me and Selena will go someplace. I’m not going to get caught in the mid-”
A flash of red caught my eye. In the brownish green landscape, red did not belong. I reached out to touch it. It felt silky. I scanned the bushland, hoping to see something that would lead me to whatever had left this here. Ashby walked on without me.
“Hold up,” I said. “I’ve found something weird.”
“It’s just a bit of fabric. Someone tore their shirt while bushwalking. See ya,” she said, already several steps ahead.
“Text me later,” I called after her. The only acknowledgement was a wave of her hand. She didn’t even look back.
Years ago, when I was just a kid, my brother and I went bushwalking and found torn scraps of cloth. We ignored it. Later on the news, we saw that two people had fallen in the bush. One had broken their ankle and the other went for help but got lost. By the time they were found, they had both died. If my brother and I hadn’t ignored that torn cloth, we might have found them and been able to get help.
I fingered the material. It was soft, silky. “Hello?” I called into the trees. Only bird calls answered. I left the path, not sure what I was looking for, only knowing that I wasn’t going to ignore this again.
“Hello?” I called over and over. “Can anyone hear me?” I strained my ears. A soft moan might be all they could manage.
I walked in a zigzag pattern until I could heard the creek running over rocks. “Hello?” If anyone was lost down here, surely they’d head towards the creek.
Still no response. I dropped a pin in my location, just in case. With a sigh, I headed back the way I’d come, found the path, and went home.
Leaving Ashby to cool her mood, I didn’t bother texting her for three days. It was actually Selena who texted me first, replying to several messages I’d left. We met up at a cafe three streets over. I ordered my usual caramel latte, she ordered her normal Americano with a dash of hazelnut.
“Where have you been, anyway?” I asked, sipping the coffee. “I’ve been texting like crazy, and your sister wouldn’t tell me anything.”
Selena rolled her eyes. “She’s upset because I apparently used her foundation and didn’t put it back. Chloe licked it clean,” she said, referring to their cat. “As if I’d use her stuff. That colour doesn’t suit me anyway.”
“Well, you’re here now,” I said cheerfully. “Wish you two didn’t fight though, it’s so inconvenient.”
“Yeah.” Selena paused for a minute, holding her drink, staring into the dark liquid. “It’s so weird, right, I went for a walk, and I completely lost track of time. I went home and everyone was so worried. It was like I’d been gone for three days!”
“That’s not so weird. People worry when you go out and don’t contact them.”
Selena shook her head. Her blonde hair straggled over one eye. “No, that’s not it. They actually think I was gone for three days. And look at this.” She tapped her phone and opened up photos. Her perfectly manicured nails flicked through to the end before handing it to me.
I tapped the first photo to enlarge it on the screen. It was a selfie; sunlight dappling through her hair, creating shadows which made her face look sharper than it really was.
“I like your hair this way,” I noted.
“Scroll through,” she instructed.
I swiped to the next photo. She was lying on the ground, but she wasn’t holding the phone. Her eyes were closed, both arms beside her body, ankles neatly crossed.
“How did you press the button, resting it against a rock?” I said, turning the phone to another angle. “You kinda look dead…”
She leaned over and tapped the picture. “Look closer.”
Using two fingers to enlarge the pic again, I scrolled around. “I can’t see anyth-”
My fingers froze a millimetre off the screen. Hard to see, but there was a blur just off her stomach, like something was standing on her arm. Everything else was clearly focused. I scrolled further. Three blurs were around the top of her head.
“What is that?” I asked.
She raised her eyebrows. “I don’t know, but look at the next picture.”
It was a face. Right in front of the camera. Obscuring the still body of Selena behind it. It kind of looked like those trolls from the movie, the ones with bright hair who sing a lot. This face smiled. A peaceful smile, if I were to describe it. A cheeky smile. A I’m-not-going-to-hurt-you smile.
“What…”
“There’s more.” She took the phone from me, flicked through a few more photos, and handed it back.
This time, Selena was standing. She was awake, laughing. Little blurs danced around her feet. Rather, tiny people danced, their backs were blurry.
“Wings,” Selena said quietly. “I think I was taken by fairies for those three days.”
I laughed. “Yeah, OK. Great joke. Does SnapChat have a new filter?”
Her face fell. “No. No, you don’t understand. I actually think the fairies took me for those three days. I don’t remember anything.”
“But you’re dancing with them,” I said, not believing a single word.
Selena bit her lip. “I know. That’s what worries me. I don’t remember anything and somehow they got into my phone and took pictures.”
I handed the phone back. “OK, so you were taken by fairies…”
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me. No one does.”
“Oh come on! Fairies? Really?”
Selena stood abruptly, scraping her chair across the floor. “I’m going home. I’ll see you later.” She grabbed her scarf from the back of the chair: it was silky red material.
Alone with two untouched drinks, I pulled out my own phone to search for ‘fairy abductions’. I found pages of stories from all over the world- including several from the bushland near our own houses.
The three of us searched many times for fairies, but never found any evidence. We made fairy houses, left gifts, and eventually opened a Fairy Tours business. Several customers have claimed to see fairies, some even have photos. I never quite believed Selena’s story… maybe she licked a mushroom… but if others believe, what choice do I have?
