A Fairy of Principles

This is for the Write Anything [Fiction] Friday Challenge on 17 September 2010

which was "Why did the Tooth Fairy fail to deliver coins one evening?"

Some years ago The Union of Tooth Fairies wanted to organise a strike. Hizzy and Jock who led the union at the time felt that tooth fairies were invisible and their needs had been ignored for far too long. Pom never agreed with the leaders as he had always wanted to be good at his work and not mind what anyone thinks of him – as long as his happy, his wife is happy – and most of all – the kids are happy. Hizzy and Jock were not happy and caused a lot of trouble for everyone; they had been thrown out of the Union after their plans faced a lot of opposition from the rest of the fairies. Pom and most of the fairies were sure that Hizzy – a short plump fairy who was lazier than an average tooth fairy and just wanted to stay at home and eat Jaffa cakes and not go out to do his “unthankful” job of delivering coins, or in some countries, sweets or chocolate covered fruit. Pom didn’t want to get involved in the conflict, he just wanted to keep doing his job and do it well, and so far he had managed it quite well.

One day or rather – one night – Hizzy and Jock came to visit Pom as he was on his way to work. Pom had finished his pancakes that he and his wife made for breakfast which they normally had in the evening, gulped down his two pints of milk-coffee, adjusted his pointy tie, kissed his wife goodbye and opened the door to leave. It was quite late in the evening, although still a bit too early for work but Pom wanted to get going sooner to make sure he would miss any kids on his schedule. The sack of coins was heavy and he had to hold it with both hands as he stooped under the weight. Darkness was taking over while some sunlight still echoed at the back of the sky. Hizzy stood near Pom’s door. He wore a crooked black top hat and a black suit and his wings were covered in smudged inky art work. Jock stood behind his shoulder with his old grey wings and yellow teeth bared as his tried to form a deceiving smile.

“You’re off to work, then,” Hizzy said, leaning against the door frame.

“Yes, I am.” Pom looked him straight in the eye. He wouldn’t let himself be intimidated.

“What would you say if I were to invite you to our meeting?”

“I’d say “no, thank you. I’ve got work to do,” that’s what I’d say.”

“Not to attend – no – we’d like you to come and give a speech.”

“What? A speech. Why?”

Hizzy held his fist up under Pom’s nose.

“We need you’re determination. We need someone who can inspire.”

Pom always got a bit nasal when he was impatient. “I’m truly sorry but I need to get to work.”

“Okay. No problem. Just think about it. We’d really like you to come. When ever.”

“Thanks,” Pom said hesitantly as his feet took off the ground and he hurried off.

Hizzy and Jock were still standing by his door and watching him when Pom glanced back before disappearing behind the roof top.

Pom arrived at the kid’s window. He checked his pocket book to see if was the right address and the right window. It was. He was just about to study the window frame and look for any open ventilation holes when he noticed some black ink smudged on the window glass. It could be anything, he thought and carried on but an odd feeling kept nibbling him. He felt like he was being watched.

Pom was always careful. He found a nook and hid himself, covering himself with his wings that would camouflage him against the wall. He waited patiently but there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary. Just in case, he went back to study the smudges on the window glass and discovered that they were gone! Pom was quite puzzled and rubbed his neck. Pom touched the glass to see if his eyes had been playing tricks on him but his fingers came off clean. But there was still something odd about this. The window glass was warm as if someone had breathed onto it. He’d been standing right there next to the window and surely he would’ve noticed any movement. Very odd, he thought. He then noticed a little crack in the window frame and discovered it was a secret door just big enough for him and a coin. Pom began to wonder whether there had been a mix-up with the schedules and someone had already delivered a coin to this address. But just then he heard something from inside and quickly dropped flat down on the window sill. The kid was awake!

Pom’s heart rate went up and his head began to shake in fear of being detected. He raised his head, slowly and carefully, and peeked in through the window. It was dark in the room and it certainly was a kid’s room – there were airplane models under the ceiling and pictures of dinosaurs. Somewhere at the back of the room there was a bed and in the bed there was someone lying under the quilt that had airplane pictures on it and near the head of the bed there were two excited eyes glinting as the boy was waiting, holding the quilt up over his nose with just his eyes and the top of his head visible. Patient. Just as patient as Pom. The boy couldn’t see Pom but he knew he was coming. Pom noticed that there was a thread tied to the inside of the secret door with the other end attached to a toy car next to the toy box. Opening the door would’ve caused the car to move which would’ve pulled the cover of the toy box, causing it to slam down and alert the boy of his arrival. The noise would’ve been loud enough to wake the snoring parents.

Pom waited and the boy waited. Pom looked at his watch and worried about the other kids on the schedule but he knew he couldn’t go in and risk getting detected.

It had to be Hizzy. Hizzy set him up, Pom realised. Hizzy had been here and wanted him to get caught by the boy so that the old code centred around avoiding detection would become redundant and Pom would join Hizzy’s cause. Hizzy had known that Pom was going to complete the job no matter what but he didn’t know Pom as well as he thought he did. Pom was a thinker and he thought long and hard before deciding what to do.

Pom waited for a few more minutes but there was nothing left to do. He was a fairy of principles. He had always honoured the fairy code, and whatever he chose to do that night he knew it would bother him for years to come. There were two ways out and they both meant dishonouring the code. The coin had to be delivered and had to go undetected but that night he could only do one of these and it was hard for poor old Pom. He just could let Hizzy get what he wanted. Pom had to choose whether to complete the job but get detected, or not deliver the coin at all. But delivering the coin was the purpose of his whole being, it was who he was, what he did, his fathers did, his wife did, his children will do. So, in order for the world to continue as he knew it he decided not to complete the job and leave – no matter how much regret and heart ache it would cause. This kids would wake up and there would be no coin, he though on his way to another kid’s home, I’ll never be able to forget it.

It had to be done.