Four Children and It Read online

  She flew off, still clutching Maudie, so we had to follow her. Robbie got a bit fed up after that and kept moaning that he was tired and his back ached and he was starting to feel dizzy. I was getting tired too, and my own back ached and my shoulders and neck. I just wasn’t used to the weight of my beautiful blue wings.

  ‘Smash, we need a rest,’ I shouted after her.

  ‘Oh, you two are hopeless! Look at Maudie – she doesn’t want a rest, do you, darling?’ Smash said.

  Certainly Maudie was still bobbing along merrily, her little white wings flapping like handkerchiefs.

  I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t go down to earth with Robs to have a ten-minute rest. Smash and Maudie would fly miles away from us and we might never be able to catch them up. Yet I could see Robbie was really struggling now, getting redder and redder, his face creased up with effort.

  ‘Smash!’ I called again.

  She looked round and saw Robbie.

  ‘Okay, okay,’ she said, peering downwards. ‘There’s a great big park beneath us. We can swoop down and hide among the trees for a bit. Oh! Look! Animals, Robbie!’

  There was a large herd of fallow deer standing tranquilly below us, flicking their white tails as they nibbled grass.

  ‘There!’ said Smash triumphantly, as if she’d conjured them up herself.

  We all flew down and landed on the soft grass in front of the deer. They didn’t seem at all startled and went on feeding placidly, but a little girl spinning a hula hoop gasped at us and let her hoop clatter to her ankles.

  ‘You’ve got wings!’ she cried, her eyes huge.

  There wasn’t any point denying it, as we were all four flapping frantically, trying to get the knack of folding our wings up neatly, feathers dovetailed into place.

  ‘Where’s your mum?’ I asked the little girl.

  ‘Back there, in the trees,’ said the little girl. ‘I came out here to do my hooping.’

  ‘Well, hoop away then,’ said Smash.

  ‘You really do have wings,’ said the little girl, and she stepped out of her hoop and edged right up to me. She reached out and touched the very tip of my wing with one trembling finger. ‘Real wings,’ she repeated. ‘So, are you … are you fairies?’

  Smash snorted with laughter.

  ‘That’s right! We’re definitely fairies. Aren’t we pretty?’ she said, striking a silly pose and batting her eyelids.

  ‘I’ve always, always wanted to see a real fairy,’ said the little girl earnestly. ‘I’ve got all the Rainbow Fairies books and the Flower Fairies with the pretty pictures.’

  ‘I’m not a fairy!’ said Robbie indignantly.

  ‘Oh yes, you are,’ I said firmly. ‘We’re all fairies, but you mustn’t tell anyone about us, even your mum, or we’ll disappear in a puff of smoke. You won’t tell, will you?’

  ‘No, I absolutely won’t,’ said the little girl, shaking her head vigorously. ‘But why are you all so big?’

  ‘That one’s little,’ said Smash, pointing to Maudie.

  ‘Yes, but she’s still quite big – and you’re ever so big,’ the little girl said tactlessly.

  ‘All the better to give you a thump if you’re cheeky,’ said Smash, flapping her wings.

  ‘Oooh! They’re so beautiful!’ said the little girl.

  ‘We’re a new breed of big fairies,’ I said.

  ‘Can you grant wishes?’ asked the little girl.

  ‘Well, it depends,’ I said cautiously.

  ‘Can you make me a fairy too?’

  ‘No, I’m afraid you’re not quite magic enough, but I tell you what – would you like to fly up in the air with us, just a little way off the ground?’ I offered.

  ‘Oh yes, yes!’

  ‘Okay! Smash, you take one of her hands. Robbie – Robbie, come over here!’ I said.

  Robbie was crouching by the deer, making little murmuring sounds of encouragement to them.

  ‘Don’t shout, you’ll startle them,’ he hissed, but he came over reluctantly.

  ‘We’re going to help this little girl to fly and we all need to pull her up and get her airborne,’ I said.

  ‘And me help too,’ said Maudie.

  ‘Yes, we’ll all help,’ I said.

  ‘I thought we came down to have a rest,’ said Robbie, but he held out his hands.

  We stood in a circle, the little girl giggling excitedly.

  ‘Okay, one two three – fly!’ I said.

  We all knew how to let ourselves go now and just drift upwards, but it was much harder dragging the small wingless girl up with us. Smash and I had to haul hard, flying lopsided, but we just about managed to get her off the ground.

  ‘Oh! Oh, I really am flying!’ she cried. ‘Mummy, look!’

  ‘Sh! It’s a secret! You mustn’t tell your mum, remember. She won’t believe you anyway, she’ll think you’re just telling stories,’ I panted. ‘I think we’re going to have to set you down soon, it’s ever so tiring.’

  We managed to whirl her round in a circle for a minute or so and then we all collapsed back on the grass.

  ‘Can we do it again?’ she asked eagerly.

  ‘No, we’re too tired. Run away and play now,’ said Smash. She tried to lie flat on her back, but her wings got in the way, even when she folded them up tight. She had to roll over on to her tummy, groaning. ‘Go!’ she barked at the little girl, who was staring.

  The little girl ran off, clutching her hula hoop.

  ‘Don’t be mean to her. Imagine how exciting it would be to go to the park and discover four fully grown fairies,’ I said.

  ‘I wish you’d stop calling me a fairy,’ said Robbie. ‘I ache all over. How do birds sleep? They’re meant to put their heads under their wings but it’s impossibly uncomfy,’ he said, experimenting.

  Maudie was the only one of us who didn’t seem at all tired. She ran around in the grass, hopping and skipping right up in the air, singing her favourite mad nursery rhyme.

  ‘Hey diddle diddle,

  Jack and Jill went up the hill

  Atishoo atishoo,

  We’ll all have tea.’

  ‘I’d like some tea,’ said Smash. ‘In fact I’d like some lunch. It seems ages since our breakfast picnic.’

  We suddenly realized we were all very hungry and thirsty indeed.

  ‘There’s bound to be a park cafe somewhere. I’ll treat us,’ said Smash, fishing her fat purse out of her jeans pocket.

  ‘Yes, but how are we going to stand in a queue with our wings?’ I said. ‘We’ll have a huge crowd round us in no time.’

  ‘Mmm,’ said Smash. ‘Leave it to me.’

  We flopped uncomfortably on the ground a little longer and then flew up into the air, seeking out a cafe.

  ‘There’s a little food van in the car park, that’ll do,’ said Smash. ‘We’ll fly down behind the trees and walk over. Just act dead casual, as if wings are simply the latest fashion.’

  We tried to do exactly that, but it wasn’t easy. Drivers got out of their cars and stared at us, children pointed, and dogs barked hysterically. The people already queuing at the van stepped backwards, as if they were frightened of us.

  ‘We’d like four big Whippies, please,’ said Smash. ‘And four bars of chocolate, those ones, oh, and four of those fruit pies, yum, yum. And four cans of Coke.’

  ‘Maudie will get hiccups,’ I said.

  ‘Okay, four little fruit juices then,’ said Smash. ‘That’ll please Mum – all the fruit, dead healthy.’

  The people surrounding us relaxed a little, because Smash sounded so ordinary, but they still stared at our wings as if bewitched. We tried to keep them tightly furled and as still as possible, but it was a great struggle, and way beyond Maudie, who hopped about flapping her dear little white wings, showing off their pink underside.

  The man in the van was also staring, mesmerized. Smash shuffled her feet impatiently.

  ‘I said, we’d like four ice creams, all with chocolate flakes – and f