CHAPTER FIVE: Goodbye
Next Saturday did come, though the time between the two Saturdays sped on ever so slowly for Tinker Bell.
She waited restlessly for the boy to come, now and then taking a peek between the branches of the willow. When she saw him, she forgot all the care she was trying to take in staying hidden, and had almost escaped the willow's embrace when she noticed that his eyes were trying to tell her something. She stopped on her tracks, and only then noticed that a woman was walking beside the boy.
If a person would look at this woman, he would find nothing particularly outstanding about her. But if one would look closer at her eyes, he would see that they sparkle with the most extraordinary light. What it was exactly, nobody knew, but that was exactly why the sparkle was so special.
"Mother," the boy said. "Let us take our rest here beneath this willow. Does it not look positively cozy to you? There, right between those roots?"
"Why, yes, sweetheart, it does, doesn't it?. Come, sit beside me." Mother arranged her skirts as she sat, with no thought of all the dirt the thick material could pick up from the ground. "Now, where was I? Ah, yes, the pirate Smee. He was a most curious pirate, for he was ever so polite even when they came pillag—"
Her son interrupted rather abruptly, "No, Mother, I would hear no more about those pirates. Tell me about that fairy Tinker Bell instead." The last was said with an upward glance, and when the surprised Tinker Bell looked down at him, he gave her a wink.
And so Tinker Bell heard about herself from the boy's mother, and was pleased. She was, after all, quite vain, and in her amusement she giggled at particularly entertaining spots. The two people nestled between the tree's roots below heard her tinkling laughter, but only the boy recognized it for what it was.
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It became a routine that every Saturday, the boy and his mother would "take their rest" beneath the branches of Tinker Bell's willow, and the fairy heard more and more tales of her home. But she was no longer able to speak to the boy, for his mother was never sick again, and always was beside him when he got to the tree.
It came to the point that Tinker Bell no longer felt that one Saturday a week was enough time to see the boy or hear his mother's stories of the fairy's home. It was not even an entire day at that, but a mere slip of an afternoon.
And so she decided to follow them back to their house one day, despite of her fear of being seen. She had some trouble accomplishing the feat, for the late afternoon sun was still bright enough that there was no need yet of the street lights which she could disguise herself as, sho she had to content herself with two large leaves with which she covered herself as she flew. It was not a very effective disguise, and indeed some people saw her, but they were all afraid of being laughed at if they admitted to having seen the fairy.
When they arrived at the boy's home, which was a two-storey house of a modest size, Tinker Bell stayed outside and flew up to one of the closed windows. She waited by the sill, holding on to the two large leaves in an effort to dim her light, especially as it became more noticable when the skies started to darken. It was purely by chance that the window was that of the boy's bedroom, and when she saw that he had entered, she promptly threw the leaves and zoomed about most excitedly, trying to catch his attention.
When he saw her, he rushed to the window and unlatched it. Tinker Bell flew right in and proceeded to tickle him. "I have missed you!" she whooped.
The boy rolled around the floor in his merriment as he tried to escape the fairy's affectionate gestures. As the fairy flew about him, some of her shining dust got stuck on him, and the boy's joyous laughter only made the effect of the dust much more potent, that in seconds he was up in the air. He only laughed harder when he realized that he was flying, and Tinker Bell took a hold of a shank of his hair and made him follow her around the room.
"I'm flying! Look at me, I am flying! Hahahah!"
"I can see that, you silly boy!" the fairy laughed back indulgently. "You need not shout it out for all of London to hear!"
It was a good thing that nobody saw them flying inside the boy's room, else his family would have been accused of practicing the most powerful witchcraft even in that very modern and informed time. Sadly, it had become easier for people to believe in such a dark thing as witchcraft than in the beautiful magic of fairycraft.
After long moments of flying around, the boy landed sitting on his bed. He held out his hand for the fairy to step into.
"Why did you follow us home, my Fairy? You could have been seen!" The trace of worry was overshadowed by the happiness in his voice.
"I wanted to see you, of course," she replied with a saucy tilt of her head.
"How have you been, Tinker Bell?"
She told him she was becoming more and more bored and homesick as the days passed, especially at night, when all that embraced her was the cold arms of the frost that slowly poured in as the autumn faded into winter. "But I do not know the way," she concluded with a despairing little sigh.
The boy was silent for a long time. When he spoke, his voice came out in a very low tone.
"I have always known the way, Little Fairy."
Tinker Bell was shocked by his admission. "Why did you not tell me before?" She stomped her foot in her frustration. "You know how much I had wanted to go home that first day we met! Why did you not tell me!"
The boy fell silent once again. Tinker Bell crumpled in his hand, tears falling from her eyes. It seemed to the boy that it was impossible for such a small body to hold so much water, but Tinker Bell's did just that.
"I am sorry, Tinker Bell. It's just that… it's just that I wanted to always see you, and not just in my dreams… I am sorry, please do not cry anymore!" the boy beseeched.
After a while, the fairy's sobs were reduced to a few hiccups, and once again, she stood, shakily this time, on the boy's hand.
"Tell me how," was all she said.
"Alright," the boy began, ever reluctant. "Listen well, Little Fairy, for the journey to your land is tricky, if you are not familiar with the way yet." As he spoke, the fairy saw the special light in his eyes brighten even more, until it looked to her like two stars shone from within them, and she was entranced. "Look outside, Tinker Bell. You see how many stars there are? It would be so easy to get lost, if one does not take care. Can you not see the way?"
Tinker Bell looked. And looked. And looked even more. The night sky was peppered with an infinity of stars. They all looked the same to her, though each of them tried very hard to twinkle their special way to be noticed by the little fairy. No, she could see nothing special about the night sky.
The boy gently laid a finger against the fairy's cheek and turned her little head to face his own. The stars in his eyes shone ever so much brighter. "Little Fairy… find your way home." It was almost a command.
And then she saw, and she wondered how she could have missed it before. She gasped in her awe, and the boy heard it, and knew that she had seen. Perhaps the other stars had been twinkling too hard that she did not see, for those two stars cared not about the others, and shined without effort, and that was why they were special.
They looked like the stars in the boy's eyes.
"Second to the right, and then straight on till morning."
In her excitement, she shot out of the boy's hand, forgetting to even thank him for his help. But when she got to the window, she heard a soft voice saying, "Goodbye, Tinker Bell. I shall never forget you." She suddenly stopped mid-air. Slowly, she looked back at the boy, and saw that his eyes have lost their light, replaced by a very deep sadness.
And then, in a flash of starlight, an idea struck her head. "Come away with me!" she cried. "Come away with me and see for yourself the jungles and the sea and the sky!"
She bounced around the room, pleased with herself and her brilliant idea.
"No."
That one word, spoken in a very low but decisive tone, caused her to lose her direction, and she hit the wall with a painful splat.
"I cannot, Tinker Bell. The way is long, and I have only learned how to fly."
Tinker Bell shook her head in an effort to clear it after her collision with the wall. "That is the silliest excuse I have ever heard!" She was irritated by the boy's attempt at reasoning. "It is not as if you could forget how to fly while we are flying!"
"No. I will not go. I am needed here. I must become a man, and grow up to be a Respectable Somebody."
Tinker Bell did not realize that the words that came out of the boy's mouth were so very different from those his heart spoke. The boy really did want to go, but neither one of them realized that he was growing up with every word that he spoke. She alighted on the boy's hand once again.
"Why? Why do you need to grow up? Come with me, and you'll never have to worry about grown-up things again!"
"Never?"
"Never."
Had Tinker Bell come a few days earlier, she probably would have been able to convince the boy to come with her. But a lot can happen in a week, and Tinker Bell did not know it, but between the two Saturdays, something new had come into the boy's heart that had filled him with so much wonder. Whenever that something new made itself known, he felt as if he was flying, as if a fairy had sprinkled her dust all over him. But he did not explain this to Tinker Bell, for it was his greatest secret that nobody was to know about.
And so all he said was, "Never is an awfully long time."
Tinker Bell knew she had been defeated, and her heart broke. With not another word, she took off into the sky with all its stars.
"Goodbye, Little Fairy. I shall miss you…" But no one was to hear the words.
And no one was to see that something trailed behind the little fairy as she flew away. For the night was dark, and so was that something.