Disclaimer: I acknowledge that Disney Fairies & associated content are owned by Walt Disney Company. I am not interested in profiting from this document. It is for the enjoyment of fans only.
Author's note: To those readers who are strongly religious - this is just a work of fiction for your entertainment. Please don't read anything more than that into it.
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Lizzy's Sunset - Chapter 3 - The Cycle of Life Career Fair
As Pixie Hollow shrank away beneath Lizzy, it faded into unnatural darkness, as did the moon and stars. The only remaining light came from a bright, white-green source on the horizon.
"Move toward the light." Lizzy said, with a knowing grin. "It's not like there's anything else."
As she approached the light source, she saw it was a vast green park, with puffy white clouds floating in a pillow of blue sky above it. All around was darkness.
Lizzy slowed to a landing near the edge of the park, then floated forward to a huge stone archway with a sign above it reading: Cycle of Life Career Fair.
A brilliantly glowing ball of light approached her, and spoke with a reverberant contralto voice "Welcome to the Cycle of Life Career Fair. Please come this way." Lizzy followed the lightball to a small table holding a curious camera, and a computer monitor.
"Please look into the camera." said the lightball. Lizzy did so. "Human female, long life, good behavior, fair bit of experience..." read the lightball from the monitor.
"What is this place?" asked Lizzy, "Is this Heaven?"
"Heaven? No, Lizzy. Heaven is a human invention. This is where you choose your next life. You've done well. You should have a wide variety of options: human, animal, alien, magical, and fantasy." Lizzy looked stunned. "But I suggest you choose with care, if you go too far down the ladder of life, you will need to work your way back up."
"What's at the top of the ladder?" asked Lizzy.
"Gods. But you won't be able to see those booths."
"You mean like the gods of Olympus?"
The lightball laughed. "No, they were drop-outs. New universes are created all the time, and each one needs a responsible god to take care of it." Lizzy raised her eyebrows. "You mustn't worry about that right now, you have a way to go yet. You need to build life experience."
"What do I do?" asked Lizzy.
"Enter the park, explore all the booths there, and choose a new life. No harm can come to you here. Don't be afraid to talk to anyone, or ask questions. It's YOUR life."
"Thank you, I guess." Lizzy responded with some confusion. She noticed many other lightballs talking to other humans, and animals, and other creatures she didn't recognize. She floated into the park.
Perfect lawn grass, peppered with assorted tall trees stretched for miles into the distance, all beneath a blue sky with dreamy small clouds. It looked like a wonderful place to spend an afternoon, though a bit busy with humans, animals, and other things. Occupation booths of various sizes lined the perimeter of the park, each one populated by at least 2 similar creatures.
Lizzy shrugged, wandered to the booths at the right edge of the park, and glided slowly along, studying each booth. This area had pairs of fish in each booth, floating in the air. "Fish out of water." she commented to herself, amused. Farther along were eels, seahorses, rays, and sharks.
The next area seemed to be reptiles. Lizzy looked at the salamanders, and marveled at the brightly colored frogs. "This is like the most complete zoo in the world." she thought while gliding past the turtles and lizards, but she hurried past the snakes and crocodiles.
It seemed like Lizzy had spent an entire day looking, and there was much more to go. Her head was spinning, so she decided to stop for a break. She floated into the park a little way. Lizzy noticed she wasn't hungry, and felt no need to sleep. "Why do I need to choose a new life?" she asked herself, "Why can't I just stay here?"
"Because it's boring." answered a young sheep, laying in the grass next to a relaxing tiger. "You can't eat, you can't run, you can't sleep. This isn't life."
"Move along, human" said the tiger, "You're not part of this conversation."
"What do you have against humans?" Lizzy asked.
"Humans drove me out of my hunting grounds, and later killed me. I'm going back as a tiger again to bite them."
"If you really want to hurt humans," Lizzy suggested "You could go back as a virus or bacteria."
"Mmm." the tiger reflected, "I'll keep that in mind."
Lizzy floated to the next section, which had every bird she'd ever heard of, and more. Every size from hummingbirds to ostriches, every zone from parrots to penguins. Seed eaters, fruit eaters, fish eaters, and birds of prey from swallows to eagles. Even farm birds, but none of their lives felt right for Lizzy.
She drifted into what seemed to be the mammals section next. Lizzy paused before one booth, thinking "I could be a koala bear...", but she continued on. She did the same at the otter booth.
Lizzy was amused at the mice queued up at the elephant booth, but surprised at the elephants queued at the mouse booth. "Go figure." she thought. She raised her eyebrows at a few women interested in the horse booth.
When Lizzy spotted a dignified gentleman before the dog booth, she had to stop and ask, "Excuse me, sir. Why do you want to become a dog?"
"I just love dogs." he answered. "I've owned and bred them all my life, so this is my chance to be one." Lizzy nodded and moved on.
She came across a very long queue. Looking towards the front, Lizzy saw a team of humans working in the enlarged booth. "I guess this is my stop." she said to herself, and joined the end of the queue, behind a terrier. "Excuse me, uh..."
"Sparky" filled-in the dog.
"Excuse me, Sparky. Why do you want to be a human?"
"Are you kidding?" he asked, wagging his tail "Humans have the BEST FOOD! I only got a little taste as a dog, but I want more!"
"I see." Lizzy smiled.
Despite the number of humans working in the booth, the queue moved at a snail's pace. What seemed like hours later, she hovered before a young man in a business suit.
"Look into the camera, please." Lizzy complied. "Ah, Lizzy. Ready for another life as a human?"
"Yes. May I return to England, so I can keep an eye on my grandchildren?"
"Ahh." he stalled, leaning forward and lowering his voice. "Well, since you asked, I'm obligated to tell you... We have no way to fill specific requests like that. Your gender and placement on Earth is random. Statistically, the highest probability is that you will be born in China, India, or Africa."
"Well, I could emigrate to England, couldn't I?" Lizzy suggested, with some disappointment.
"Umm..." he said quietly "Once again, since you asked, I'm obligated to tell you... Your chances of being born into even a middle-class family are very small. You will probably never leave the village you would be born into. Besides," he continued "you don't take your memories with you, only your basic personality."
"Hmm" muttered Lizzy "That doesn't sound like much fun."
"It's the life experience that would be important." he responded.
"I'd like to think about it."
As she drifted away, she heard him say to himself: "Rules. We lose more clients that way." He then spoke up "Next, please!"
Disheartened, Lizzy wandered into the park again. "That was my best choice." she thought. "What can I do now?" She looked around the perimeter. "Well, it looks like I've covered about half the booths. Maybe there could be something in the other half." She floated off toward them.
The next area had truly cavernous booths, because they held dinosaurs. "NO." Lizzy said with conviction. She picked up her speed, but noticed young boys clustered around booths of the taller and more toothy dinosaurs.
The following area was also quite lengthy, with booths occupied by space aliens. "Too weird." Lizzy decided, as she sped past them.
She slowed to a stop at the next area, having spotted a group of young girls at a unicorn booth. Lizzy approached and asked "Are you really unicorns?"
"We are." confirmed one.
"What's a unicorn's life like?"
"We frolic, eat grass, play unicorn games."
"Are there any dangers?" asked Lizzy.
"The occasional evil wizard, but we can usually teleport away, once a day."
"Interesting." said Lizzy. "Thank you." She drifted slowly away.
"She'll be back." commented the unicorn.
This area seemed to be occupied by fantasy and magical creatures. Lizzy glided slowly along, noting some of the creatures she had seen in story books. She swung clear of a pair of dragons showing off their fire-breathing to some computer-gamer humans.
Lizzy saw what appeared to be an ordinary woman & man in a booth ahead. "Oh, they must be a witch & wizard!" she thought. She was about to float over, when something closer caught her eye. Almost hidden between the elf booth, and the leprechaun booth, was a small booth containing a pair of tiny winged people.
"FAIRIES!" Lizzy exclaimed. She rushed over immediately. "You're fairies, aren't you." she stated.
"That's right." replied the fairy. Both she and the sparrow-man were dressed in modern conservative business suits.
Lizzy stood erect, and proudly proclaimed "I want to be a fairy!"
"O-o-o -kay." answered the fairy, with a half-smile. They almost NEVER saw this much enthusiasm. It was usually timid young girls. "Look into the camera, please." She checked the screen. "I don't see any problem here, Lizzy. You can be a fairy."
"Now you must understand," said the sparrow-man "A fairy's life is a working life. It's not all tea parties and dances." Lizzy nodded. "We have magical powers, but they're relatively weak compared to other magic creatures. Because of that, we spend a lot of time hidden from bigger creatures, ESPECIALLY HUMANS."
"Yes. I know all about fairies."
"Do you, now?" commented the fairy, with a smirk. She'd heard this before.
"Yes. My best fairy-friend is a tinker. She lives in Pixie Hollow." The fairy's jaw dropped open. "I went to visit her just before I came here. Perhaps you've heard of her, she's Tinker Bell."
"You know about Pixie Hollow?" asked the sparrow-man, incredulous.
"And you've been there?" asked the fairy.
"Only as... a ghost." said Lizzy, wondering if she'd revealed too much. The 2 fairies converged.
"We need to get that knowledge out of circulation." whispered the fairy to the sparrow-man.
"She wants to be a fairy, let's make her a fairy." whispered the sparrow-man.
"That would be the quickest way to fix this. Agreed." She turned to the worried Lizzy, with a forced smile. "You must understand that your talent and gender will be random. Although there are always more fairies than sparrow-men, because WE do most of the work." she winked at Lizzy.
Lizzy relaxed, as the sparrow-man crossed his arms and frowned.
"Oh,-and-you-don't-take-your-memories-with-you." blurted the fairy quickly. "Now let's get you transferred into fairy limbo. Look into the camera, and concentrate as hard as you can on being a fairy." Lizzy did so. "You want to be a fairy, you want to be a fairy..."
"I want to be a fairy. I want to be a fairy..." murmured Lizzy to the camera, and suddenly she faded from view.
The fairy turned to the sparrow-man, saying "Good show on that frown."
The sparrow-man gave her a deep theatrical bow, "Thenk yaw, mi'lady."
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Author's Post Note:
To misquote Hank Williams Jr.: "If Heaven ain't a lot like Pixie, I don't wanna go."
Any of you Tinker Bell fans want to try re-writing the lyrics to that tune?
More coming in chapter 4!