I tried to look calm, and tried to smile at Tabitha, but I’m sure I failed miserably on both counts. “Look at me? Why?” I asked.
“You haven’t even been here a whole day, and you’re up for promotion already!” Tabitha said.
“Promotion?”
“That’s what I just heard.” Tabitha came over to my desk and went on. “I overheard Supervisor Raincloud74921 talking to someone about it. She was trying to claim the credit for herself. Said she’d handpicked you to join the department — which is quite funny considering she hadn’t even realized you were joining us!”
“Oh, yes, ha, ha, that is funny, Tabitha,” I said, trying to sound vaguely jovial.
“Tabby. That’s what my friends call me,” she said with a slight blush. “If we’re friends, that is.”
I smiled genuinely for the first time since Daisy had left. “Of course we are,” I said. “So tell me, Tabby, what else have you heard?”
“Well, I heard something about you finding a fairy who’s broken a whole bunch of FGC rules.”
“Mm-hmm,” I said, biting my tongue to stop myself from shouting, “That’s my friend you’re talking about, and she did it for a good reason, you know!” Tabby obviously hadn’t even realized that the fairy who was on her way back to ATC to be punished was the same one who’d brought me up here only yesterday.
Tabby leaned in closer. “And I heard something else,” she whispered, her eyes shining with the excitement of her news. With a quick look around to check that no one was listening, she went on. “I heard that there’s a human up here!”
“A — a —” I couldn’t find any more words. What was I supposed to say to that?
“I know. Isn’t it the most outrageous thing you’ve ever heard? Imagine a human getting into ATC! No one knows how it happened, or even where the human is — but some of the systems have registered its presence.”
“Its?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“The human’s! They’ll find it soon enough and dispose of it somehow — but what a scandal, right?”
“Yeah!” I said. “Ha! What a scandal!” I couldn’t really say anything else for a while. All I could think about was the phrase “dispose of it somehow.”
What would she think if she knew it was me she was talking about?
Tabby shook her head and went on. “You know, it’s hard to even imagine it now, isn’t it? I mean, fairies and humans having the kind of friendships we used to have back in the old days.”
I didn’t get it. It was their job to try and make sure things went smoothly for us. Why did they do it when so many of them didn’t seem to like us? I wanted to ask her — but I knew I couldn’t.
“Um . . . yeah,” I said, wishing I had a clue what she was talking about.
She looked indignant. “But it’s not our fault it changed, is it? After all, it’s the humans who let us down, who forgot about us, stopped believing in us, forgot about the symbols of friendship that we’d built together. It’s not the fairies who moved on and left them behind. And yet we’re still the ones who keep doing everything we can for them. We’ve never gone back on our side of the bargain, and we never will. Honestly, it’s not surprising if every now and then we get a bit touchy about it!”
I paused to take in what she’d said. Her answer had half answered the question I’d wanted to ask — but in the process it had opened up about fifty more! What bargain? If only I could ask her more about it — but how could I, without making her suspicious?
“Yes, I suppose I see what you’re saying,” I said eventually. “And of course, I feel that way too, quite often.” I really couldn’t think of anything more convincing to say. But I was intrigued. Fairies and humans had once been friends? If it had been that way in the past, maybe sometime in the future it could be like that again. Perhaps one day, fairies wouldn’t get into enormous trouble just for trying to help a human out.
The last thought brought me back down to my current reality.
As if on cue, the supervisor appeared at the end of the corridor — and she was heading our way.
“Now then, my little gem,” she said, straightening her already impeccable suit and flicking a nonexistent bit of fluff from her shoulder. I looked around to see who she was calling a gem. A second later, she was at my desk. “You’re to come with me,” she said — to me! “You’re wanted at High Command.”
I got up from my desk and followed her, trying to ignore the looks I got from the other fairies all the way down the aisle, and trying to stop my legs from giving way beneath me. We reached the wall, and the supervisor nodded briefly at it. The wall shimmered and wobbled in front of me. “Good luck,” she said. And with that, she nudged me toward the wall.
Closing my eyes, I took a couple of steps, hoping I wasn’t about to walk into a wall in front of the whole office. But I didn’t. The wall dissolved around me, zipping shut the second I’d walked through it. I turned around. FGRaincloud74921 was gone. The office was gone. I was in a white, bare corridor. At the end of it, a door stood open. I walked toward it. Inside, two stars twinkled and shone so brightly, I had to shield my eyes.
Then one of them spoke!
“Don’t be shy,” it said. “Come in. Come a bit closer.”
I walked toward the star. The door closed behind me as a chair appeared out of nowhere.
“Sit,” the other one said.
I sat down in the chair.
“Now then,” said the first star, and while I was trying furiously to stop myself from contemplating how they were going to “dispose” of me, the star added, “We’ve got a job for you.”
“So, let me just make sure I’ve got this right,” I said. The stars had explained what my job was — and I didn’t have a clue how to respond. “Because of my good work for ALD in catching an errant fairy, I am going to be rewarded and promoted?”
“Correct,” said the first star with a slight twinkle.
“But before that, you want me to go down to Earth, collect the fairy, and bring her back to you so she can be punished accordingly.”
The second star twinkled even more strongly. “Also correct.”
I paused before saying anything else. They wanted me to personally go down to Earth and collect Daisy so she could face the worst punishment of her life. And if I didn’t want to? I had the feeling this wasn’t a polite request — and I knew from Daisy that you don’t turn down orders from ATC High Command.
“OK, then,” I said. The only other problem was the small matter of my not having any idea how to get down to Earth. If I knew that, we wouldn’t have been in this mess in the first place.
“We will transport you to the portal,” one of the stars went on as if it had read my thoughts. “From there, we want you to take this for FG32561 to get back here.”
At that moment, something appeared out of nowhere and floated over toward me. It landed on my knee.
“A box?” I asked.
“Open it.”
I lifted the lid, and a waft of multicolored smoke billowed out like a silk scarf on a breeze. As the colors floated around the box, a piece of parchment floated out and mingled in among the colors. I looked up at the stars.
“Read it.”
I snatched the piece of parchment and read aloud.
“Go to the highest ring of stones,
And read aloud this rhyme.
Call out the numbers that you see,
And travel just one time.”
I looked inside the box. There was nothing else. No numbers.
“Where are the —” I began.
“The numbers will appear when you are at the portal. Recite the poem, and they will flow out with the colors. When FG32561 says them out loud, she can cross over. She is to use this to come back to ATC. We will take it from there.”
“Right,” I said, placing the parchment back inside the box. The colors instantly floated back inside, and I closed the lid. “Right,” I said again, not really knowing what else to say.
r /> The stars said nothing more. Their light was fading. The interview was over.
I backed toward the door. “OK, well, thank you,” I said, opening the door and letting myself out.
As soon as I was through the door, it disappeared and I was alone in the vast white emptiness of ATC High Command. My knees gave way as I thought about what I had to do. I could hardly think of a worse punishment. Find my best friend — and bring her in to be punished.
I didn’t have long to think about it. Within moments of my leaving the room, two figures approached me — out of nowhere, like everything else around here. As they came toward me, I saw that they were young men, boys, not much older than me. It hadn’t occurred to me that fairy godmothers could be male. I guess they’d be fairy godfathers or godbrothers or something.
Smiling, they approached me and both shook my hand. “Well done,” one of them said as we walked along the corridor together. “Very impressive work you did there. We do like to see them caught like that, especially when they think they’re being so clever.”
“Mm,” I said.
“Makes our day, that does,” the other one said. “It’s generally a bit dull at RPD. Not usually all that much happening.”
“RPD?” I said, hoping it wasn’t something else that I should have known.
“Retrieval and Punishment Department,” the first one said lightly.
“Typical,” the other one said with a wink. “No one’s ever heard of us!” Then he led us around a corner to a new corridor. “Shortcut,” he explained, and I followed in silence.
As we walked, I realized I’d been here already. It was the same corridor Daisy and I had come through when we’d arrived at ATC. Or a similar one, anyway. Bright white, spotless, and completely empty, except for us. It seemed to go on forever.
After we’d been walking for a while, the boys came to an abrupt halt. “Well, this is our stop,” one of them said. “Do you want us to wait here for you, in case she gives you any trouble?”
“No, I’ll be fine,” I said, trying to smile reassuringly at them. The last thing I wanted was to be escorted straight back to those stars with Daisy. I’m not sure what they had in mind if Daisy caused “trouble,” but I didn’t want to find out.
“You’ve got the code?” the other boy asked.
I patted the box under my arm.
“We’ll leave you to it, then,” he said. “Good luck.”
“Thank you,” I said with what I hoped was an efficient nod. I waved awkwardly at them. “See you later.”
They waved back. Then in unison, they turned around, walked a few paces — and disappeared.
I let out a breath. I was on my own.
I turned slowly around. All I could see was blank white space. Which way was I meant to go? Where was the door to the portal?
Then I remembered how all the other doors worked around here. Without stopping to question myself, in case the smallest amount of doubt squashed the idea, I stepped confidently forward and walked into the wall.
Instantly it dissolved, flowing into a bubbly, spongy mist. Which was quite a relief, I have to say, as I didn’t need to add a few broken limbs to my problems.
I walked through the mist and out the other side — and emerged into pitch darkness.
There was no floor, no wall, no ceiling — nothing. I was standing on pure black space! A complete void surrounded me. I gave myself up to the fact that I had no idea where I was, how I’d gotten here, and how — or even if — I would ever get out of it.
Then I heard a voice.
“Philippa?”
Daisy! I peered into the darkness. Still I couldn’t see a thing. Could she see me? Was she in here with me? “Daisy?” I called back uncertainly.
“I’m on the other side,” she said.
“Other side of what?”
“The tunnel.”
“Tunnel? What tunnel?”
“At the portal. The stone circle.”
“I don’t remember a tunnel at the stone circle,” I called.
“It’s not a normal tunnel — the kind you dig underground.”
“What other kinds of tunnels are there?” I asked.
“Fairy ones,” Daisy replied. “You came through this one when we went to ATC together, except you didn’t realize it because you had me there to lead you through.”
“Through? Through what?”
“Close your eyes,” Daisy called.
I did as she said.
“Keep them closed until you can picture a tunnel,” she said. “Visualize it: You’re at one end of it, and it’s long and dark, but you can see the light at the other end. You can see a hole ahead of you. When you can see that hole, open your eyes.”
I concentrated on picturing a tunnel. Once I was sure I could see a light at the other end, I opened my eyes.
The darkness had lifted! I could see the hole at the end of the tunnel — and Daisy was in the middle of it, waving and grinning at me!
“Daisy!” I ran toward her. But nothing was happening. I could feel my feet and legs moving; I could even see them moving. But I wasn’t getting anywhere. “I can’t reach you,” I said. “Why isn’t it working?”
Daisy’s smile dropped. “I don’t know,” she said. “Well, I probably do. I don’t think you can come out this way.”
“Why?”
“It’s because you’re a human.”
“But I’ve done all sorts of things at ATC!” I said. “I’ve even flown! I know how to do the thinking thing.”
Daisy shook her head. “I guess humans don’t have the power to go through the fairy portals by themselves.”
“So I can’t get to you?” I said, trying not to think about what else this meant. That I couldn’t get back to Earth, back home, back to my parents. Could I even get back to ATC or would I be stuck here forever, spinning slowly around in the huge vast emptiness of space?
“You can only go back through the tunnel, but not out this way, I guess,” Daisy said. “And I can’t get to you, either, since they’ve taken my fairy godmother powers away. In fact”— Daisy paused —“how did you even get here?”
Which was when I remembered what I was here for. I held the box out in front of me. “Daisy, I’ve got something for you,” I said nervously.
Daisy smiled. “You brought me a present?”
“Not exactly.” I grimaced. “They told me to bring it here.”
“Who’s they?” Daisy asked, the smile disappearing as she saw the look on my face.
“Um, RPD.”
“RPD — Retrieval and Punishment Department? What have they done to you? Philippa, are you OK? Are you being punished for helping me?” Daisy’s questions came out in such a rush, I didn’t know which one to answer first.
“Daisy,” I said eventually. “They don’t want to punish me at all.”
Daisy smiled brightly. “Well that’s great! That’s — oh.” Her face fell as she realized what I was saying. “You’re here for me, aren’t you?” she said. “You’ve come to collect me.”
“It’s High Command. They want you. They don’t even realize I’m human,” I said. “They think I found you on purpose. They’re going to reward me!” I hated saying all this to Daisy, but she was my best friend. I wasn’t going to hide it from her.
“It’s OK, I understand,” Daisy said quietly. “And it’s still great that they haven’t found out about you yet.” She nodded at the box. “So what’s in there?”
I looked at the box. “It’s got a poem inside it. It’s for you,” I said.
“A PTC,” Daisy said. “Portal Transfer Code,” she explained when she saw the blank look on my face. “It’s for getting across a portal when there’s no other method available. You use it once and then it vanishes. They want you to give it to me so I can get back.”
“So they can punish you,” I said.
“I guess so.” Daisy looked about as glum as I felt.
“Look, here’s what we should do,” I said, determined t
o do something to help. “You come back, and we go to ATC together. I’m not going to abandon you. I’m not letting you face them without me. I’ll tell them why you did what you did, how you were trying to help, how the whole thing is practically my fault, and —”
“Philippa, the whole thing isn’t practically your fault!” Daisy interrupted me. “It wasn’t you who chose to break one of the most important rules of FGC. You didn’t force me to come down to Earth, to disguise myself so I could make contact with you. You didn’t even know I was doing that! No, I’m not letting you take the blame. Anyway, I’ve got a better idea.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
Daisy paused for a moment before saying, “You use it.”
“Use what?”
“The code. It’s a one-way trip, one use only, and will work for whoever says the code. This could be your one and only chance to get back to Earth! Philippa, you have no choice. You have to use it. Come back here and get on with your life.”
“What? Get on with my life? How could I do that, knowing that you’ve just put yourself in even more trouble to help me again?”
“You have to use it,” Daisy insisted. “If you don’t, it’ll only be a matter of time before they find you out — and it’s not even worth thinking about what they’ll do to you when they discover that you broke into ATC.”
“I didn’t break in! I just read the poem on the rock!”
“It doesn’t matter. That’s not how they’ll see it. I know how it works. ATC is a good place, and we do brilliant things — but the rules are strict, and the people who enforce them are even stricter.”
I thought about what she was saying. This might be my only chance to get back down to Earth. I could use the code and be home in minutes! The thought was so appealing. Except for one thing.