She loved fairies, and she really, really wanted one.
Lila was seven years old, and she had always wanted a fairy of her very own. She had read so many books and watched so many movies about fairies that she considered herself an expert on the subject. She didn't know why she had never seen one in real life. Surely she deserved a fairy, she thought, since she wanted one so much.
Every single day, rain or shine, snow or sun, she would go outside to look for fairies. She had recently watched one of the Tinker Bell movies, and she had learned about fairy camps. She would go and look in every tree that she could find and look for a fairy camp. But she never found one.
She kicked a stump. "It isn't fair!" she cried. "I want a fairy!"
She went home and sat in a chair, frowning hard. Her mother, holding baby Isaac, walked past. "Lila, why so sad?" asked her mother.
"I always look for fairies, but I have never even seen one!" Lila cried. "I'd do anything to have one."
"Lila," sighed her mother, "fairies aren't..."
Lila knew what her mother was going to say. "Yes they are!" she cried. "Did you know that every time someone stops believing in fairies, one dies?"
Lila's mother sighed. "Isaac is getting fussy," she said. "I'd better put him to bed."
Lila frowned harder as her mother walked away. It was always Isaac. Whenever she talked to her mother, Isaac always took her away. Lila sometimes wished Isaac hadn't been born. What use was a baby anyways? All they did was eat, sleep, and cry. She wished she didn't have a brother.
Lila, angry and irritated, went to go watch Tinker Bell again. Fairies were real, she knew it! She put in the DVD and watched. Then, she heard a line that caught her off guard. She'd watched this movie so many times and heard the line so many times before. But today she realized what it meant.
And the first time that a baby laughs, a fairy's life takes flight!
Had Isaac laughed yet? She didn't know. Maybe he would be the key to finally getting a fairy.