Finding Happiness
Chapter 1: Discovery
Hi, my name is Maria C. Taylor, a school girl. I live in this snug little town called South Kensington; my address is 14 Bolton Gardens, a small townhouse covered in wild flowers and honeysuckle at the end of the road.
Ever since I was little, I've always been captivated by this that were unknown to people. I was always going out and looking for something new and taking it home to show everyone, whether it was a rock shaped like a flower, or a flock of geese with green and red feathers.
I'm in my last year of school right now. About two years ago, my parents died at around the same time as each other, so since then I earn my food and home helping out in a local bakery and tending to the crops before and after school. It's actually a lot more fun than it sounds. After that, I intend to work full time and save enough money to become a school teacher at a famous prep school in London and become the greatest philosopher ever, it's my dream.
I'm not saying my life is bad, it's actually very nice, the peace and quiet. It's just-well…I have a secret I've been keeping for a long, long time; one that not even my parents knew about it. It's sort of a taboo for me, and I fear the day I have it exposed where everyone can see. No, I don't even want to imagine such a thing.
Well, that's enough of that. Let me tell you about the day my life really changed.
It was just another day in the country side; it was summertime. A regular family of two, a doctor and his little girl, Lizzie, were coming on another one of their visits to spend the summer away from the city of London. Lizzie was my favorite visitor; she had the wildest imagination and told the most intricate made-up stories I ever heard. Today was no different; she had come with a box full of "fairy stuff" to make a little house for them to live in. I thought it was the cutest thing.
"Hello again, Lizzie!" I called out from the road. She turned to me and smiled.
"Hello Maria, look at this," she gestured at the little house she made nestled between the roots of a tree. "It's a little house for the fairies. Do you like it?"
"I love it. If I were a fairy, I'd be much honored to live in such a cute house." She giggled and ran off to find more flowers for it. I chuckled quietly at her imagination and continued on my way to work at the crops before the rain hit, not even giving that house another second thought.
A couple days later, it was sunny again, and I went on my way to bid my farewell to the Griffiths before they left.
This is where the life-changing began. I saw them by the tree Lizzie put her house, having tea with little, real life fairies! I couldn't believe it and did a double take.
"Oh hello Miss Taylor!" Mr. Griffiths called out. "We're Having tea with real life fairies, can you believe it!?" I was so deep in awe, I could only nod at the sight. I slowly walked up to them and knelt down in the corner of the picnic blanket.
They were real all right. There were girl fairies, boy fairies, small fairies, big ones. The one that seemed to stick out the most was the little green leaved fairy next to Lizzie; she was pretty.
"Where did they all come from Lizzie?" I asked, still in awestruck.
"Up there." She pointed up at the sky. "You can't see now, but at night, it's second star to the right and then straight on till morning. It's called Pixie Hollow."
"'Pixie' Hollow? But I thought these were fairies."
Lizzie shrugged. "It's a bit complicated." I giggled at her innocent remark. "Buuut- If you want to be more technical, fairies come from baby laughs"
"Baby laughs?" I asked, thoroughly intrigued.
"Just the first one."
"Incredible."
I stayed with them a bit longer till it was time for me to head home. The more I thought about those fairies, the more I was intrigued to go to this Pixie Hollow. What did it look like? Did they have all four seasons at once, like in Lizzie's field journal? Did they really have a tree that made this yellow dust that makes you fly without the need for wings? I mulled over this the whole way home.
'She said second star to the right.' I had made up my mind. I was going to go there and learn more about these small mythical beings. I race inside an packed a bag. How, you may ask, is an ordinary human being going to get to such a place high in the sky without wings or even pixie dust?
This is the secret I've mentioned earlier, the one I kept secret and hidden away where no one else could see but my own. You see, I am no ordinary human. I never was.
I'm a witch.