Moving House

Microfiction madness January continues! And we're just getting started! L.C. Schäfer is to blame. You can find the origins of this idea here:

Prompt twenty-four:

A story about moving house.

***

"You've got five minutes to say goodbye, Jack!" Jack's mum said as she carried a box to the car.

"Who to?" Jack's dad asked curiously.

Jack's mum smirked. "I don't know! The house? Or maybe the fairies?"

Jack's dad gave a knowing smile and shook his head, saying "Fairies!" and continued to wrestle with the vacuum and the small opening in the car's boot he'd designated for its transportation.

*

Jack was running to the oak tree that held the Earthly opening to the Fairy Realm. He skipped over the small ring of mushrooms, knelt down in the roots of the trees and gently knocked on the little door hidden there.

They didn't always answer the door; too busy sleeping. Fairies are always busier at night. Like the tooth fairy. Except that was a myth! The fairies had told him so and laughed hard at his naīvety. Like fairies would be interested in teeth!

"Only if they were in the mouths of foundlings!" Barbaron had said and the rest of the fairies had laughed as had Jack, although he had no idea what a foundling was and his mother had looked at him curiously when he asked where he'd heard that word. He blamed TV. He didn't want to not be able to go into the garden. He'd told his mum about the fairies and he knew she didn't believe him. That suited him fine.

As he was waiting, he remembered the dance of the fairy ring where the light came alive in coloured swirls and beetles strummed their miniature instruments to make the fairies glow as they shimmied; the time one night where he shielded them from the neighbour's dog who came a-sniffing; the stories of magic worlds they told him.

He was sad to go but he couldn't be a full fairy: too big and didn't want to leave Mum and Dad.

"Come on, Jack!" He heard his mum shouting and he put his mouth next to the door and whispered, "Bye, fairies!" before running to the car.

*

Behind the door, Barbaron sniffed and accepted a hug from Sylvana.

"Bye, Jack," he said and together, they descended the stairs to the Fairy Realm.

***

366 words

I actually got this prompt from the link below and will use others as required, although I have adapted it as I think that it reveals too much in the prompt before the storytelling has even started:

The prompt originally was:

A child says goodbye to the fairies in his garden before moving to a new home.

Just in case you were interested.

Thanks for stopping by! If you do read it, please do leave a comment as I love to interact with my readers!

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