Cordelia And The Magical, Mysterious, Links

It was a Saturday in September when I woke up to see the oddest of things, a tiny little fairy, was floating over my head. I laid there, frozen, from the shock of seeing Tinkerbell floating above me. This couldn't be real, I thought to myself, as the tiny little lady hovered around, looking down on me as she descended to landing on my chest. I honestly thought I was losing my mind. How could something like this be real?

"Um..." I stammered. I didn't know what it was I wanted to say. My amazement aside, I was left tonguetied. I don't want to say girl, but the little female fairy had blonde hair, green eyes, and pointed ears. She was maybe three inches tall and her wings glowed slightly, sparkly dust emanating from them like glitter off of a stripper.

Fairies can and do read minds. I found this out rather fast as the little thing was able to answer my questions. She was in my head, reading everything that was running through my mind. Then, by surprise, I heard her.

"Why no, silly, you're not dead."

I'd literally just thought to myself, I must be dead. If I wasn't dead then I was still asleep. That was it, I was still asleep on my bed, beneath my covers, my head on my pillow as I dreamt this all up. That was obviously the answer, I told myself. Although, the sudden eruption of giggling from my little friend was leaving me less than convinced that I was dreaming.

"Crazy, I've officially gone down the rabbit hole," I said.

The fairy flew up in the air, spun around, and then smiled big at me as she got so close to my face her, light affected my eyes. She was smiling from ear to ear, shaking her head at me.

"Not crazy, you're not crazy, Jason. Oh, no, no, no."

"Who in the hell are you?" I asked as I leaned my head up, looking her in the eye.

Looking around the bedroom, the little fairy had a quizzical expression. "Cordelia's not in hell, she's in Jasons' room."

I was being visited by a fairy and she was taking things as literal as a Kylosian character in the comics. This should be a fun discussion, especially at six o'clock in the morning. I still had no idea why Cordelia was there, or what she wanted with me, but was certain that whatever it was couldn't be good. As Cordelia's glow got brighter, lighting up more of the room, I shielded my eyes until I could find the switch to my reading light. She really had no idea the bright green light she was emitting was as bright as it was.

"So, what do you want? Why are you here?"

"I'm here for you silly," she chuckled. It was annoying that she answered with vague, ambiguous responses, but that little laugh of hers was adorable.

For me, I wondered. What does she mean by "there for you"?

"I'm here to help you and to guide you on a grand adventure, something that you've always dreamed of," Cordelia told me.

After hearing the tiny little fairys' explanation, laughing about it inside my head, I got up and put on some clothes. Pouring a cup of coffee and grabbing my keys, I walked out to my car with that annoying green light floating behind me. We were outside, and while it was early, there were still people that could drive by and see her. Gus, my neighbor down the street was an early morning jogger. There was a park down the road that was known for people loving to fish there.

"So, where to?" I asked her.

"First we go to the games," she told me.

It was just before seven o'clock in the morning and I struggled to think of the games she referred to, especially at this time of day. There were no ball games this early in the morning and football players might practice this early but wouldn't be playing. I heard her voice in my head, or in my ear. I couldn't tell with her riding on my right shoulder. She told me it was the money games. She was directing me to one of the five gambling joints in my area.

"All right," I said, pulling into the lot of the Discount Tobacco Warehouse.

We were the first ones there, other than the manager. I put Cordelia in my front pocket and we went in, hearing the manager greet me, "Good morning Mr. Jason."

"Mr. Donnie," how are we doing today.

Once in the gaming room, I stood there, looking at six empty machines. Which one did she want me to play? Machine four suddenly popped into my head. It had Heidi's Beer Garden game. It hit me that Cordelia looked a lot like the image of Heidi on the machine. I put some money in and asked Cordelia if she was sure about me playing. She flew up in front of me, giving me a playful thumbs up, before dropping glitter dust over the machine. I grabbed her and put her back in my jacket, afraid Donnie would notice.

"Here goes nothing," I sighed, pressing the button the first time.

Just like that, the machine hit a jackpot. The bonus hits paid out the biggest pay in the game's history, ten thousand dollars. My vacation was off to a running start and I had an extra ten grand to spare over the next ten days. I was about as excited as I had been all year long. We cashed out and as I walked out the front door I left Donnie a hundred dollar tip. Getting back in my Charger

"Alright," I said, "What's next?"

Cordelia flew out of my jacket and sat on the dashboard in front of me. She smiled wide at me as she rocked her crossed leg back and forth.

"Now, we find the magic link."

What in the bloody hell is the magic link, I wondered. What direction am I supposed to be driving? Where might I be heading? Cordelia liked to be mysterious, or rather mischievous. Her playful antics aside, the morning had been the most interesting thing to happen to me in a decade and the adventure seemed to be just beginning. The car started and we were moving. Cordelia was sitting on the dashboard, mimicking the movements of driving a vehicle.

"What the hell?" I exclaimed. "You can drive?"

"Cordelia can do many things, silly."

Our next stop was an old farm about seventy miles away from home. Cordelia wanted me to come with her as she stopped the car. I followed her as she floated along above the corn, making her way to the old barn before the owner's house.

It was a creepy old barn from the mid-nineties. Nobody had been on the property for years. As I wandered out of the corn, I saw the real beauty of what Cordelia wanted to show me. There were other fairies, playing together, buzzing over the top of an endless sea of marigolds. Even in the light of an overcast day, their green and yellow magics glowed, lighting up the field of the wildflowers. It was beautiful.

"Why have you brought me here?" I asked.

"You needed to see this place, it's beauty," she answered, before trailing off, starting back toward the car.

Just like that, we were off and running. How this was happening, I didn't know. I was 49yrs old when it happened, six months from my 50th birthday, and I was being led around by a bonafide fairy. The saddest part of the story was that I was being led around by a fairy, who I had now spent more time with over the past few hours than any human I knew.

We got back to the car and my stomach began to growl. I had grabbed a cup of coffee for the road but didn't stop to eat breakfast. After a few rounds of my stomach letting me know it needed to be fed, even my little friend at the wheel knew I was running on empty. We reached a park in the next town over, one situated right on the river. Cordelia pulled into the park near the shelters. We were able to find a spot to sit right along the Mississippi.

"Why here?" I asked.

"You're hungry," Cordelia laughed as she spun around, a small wand in her hand.

Before my eyes, I could see a shimmer in the still morning light. Right in front of me, on the picnic table, I could see a beautiful chocolate cake as it materialized. I rubbed my eyes to make sure it wasn't an illusion. The smell was unmistakable. This was a real cake, created by a three-inch fairy that was leading me around on a mysterious mission.

I was having fun, however, and looked forward to whatever was next on Cordelia's agenda. In my almost fifty years I had been on a lot of dates, and while it wasn't, this was the closest I was to a date experience I had that year. Maybe it was her laugh, maybe it was that whimsical way she fluttered around whenever she did something new, or maybe I was that lonely at the time. For some reason, I remember being more excited that morning than I had in years.

"Cordelia," I asked, as she drove me to my next mystery spot. "Who are you?"

Cordelia was the daughter of the fairy queen. It made her the princess of her people. They existed in a place between plains of existence, always around us, but never being seen unless by choice. Her mother challenged her to go and find a human, a human that needed to believe again. I was her human.

"Believe in what?"

"You have to believe in the good in the world, that good still exists in the world," she smiled. "And that you're worthy of being happy."

"Why me?" I asked.

Cordelia looked over her shoulder at me, smiling from ear to ear like some sort of magical being bringing me hope. "Because you have been alone too long, not seeing the links between you and your kind. I'm here to help you find them."

Links between me and others. What did she mean? I would soon find out that this was only the first few hours of the rest of my life with my new friend, Cordelia.

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I hope you enjoyed this "Fairy Tale" as much as I did coming up with the idea and what I could do with it. If so, consider leaving a heart down below next to my name.

The use of the links in the text is to make this a fun story, which I hope goes well, and randomly link to works of others that I have enjoyed as well as those of my own that I'm particularly proud of. Have fun and keep reading!