Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon A Time Crossover
Season 1, Episode 11, Chapter 7
STORYBROOKE, MAINE
Vidia shrank into her chair. After enduring an entire day living with the constant talk about the upcoming Super Bowl the game finally began following a lingering pregame ritual and the singing of the American National Anthem. If that wasn't bad enough, the halftime show seemed to drag on forever. Now that the contest had restarted it was her thought that it would all be downhill from here.
She was wrong. The reason for her cowering occurred shortly after the beginning of the second half. When the game began the New York Giants scored a two point safety after Tom Brady of the Patriots committed a penalty in his own end zone. Later New York added a touchdown. However, as Claire so often reminded her to the point of annoyance, never count Tom Brady out. Surely enough he led the Patriots on scoring drives that sent the two teams into the locker rooms at the mid-point of the game with New England leading New York by a score of 10 – 9.
When the second half began the Patriots received the kickoff and the offense meticulously began a lengthy seventy-nine yard drive that culminated in a twelve yard passing touchdown that gave the Patriots a more comfortable lead. When receiver Danny Whitehead caught the ball from quarterback Tom Brady, Claire jumped from her chair and roared her approval.
"YYYYEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!"
This was not a delicate, ladylike cheer. Nor was it a high pitched shriek or squeal. No, Claire dug down from the bottom of her diaphragm and pushed out a deep, throaty bellow that sounded less like a woman cheering on her team and more like a warrior generating a frenzied bloodlust in anticipation of battle.
The hot dog she held in one hand suffered as it was squeezed into mush. The can of soda in the other fared just as badly. Fortunately, it was nearly empty at the time.
"TOUCHDOWWWWWN!" Claire boomed once again. She held out her arms, shaking them in a hysteria driven madness and then bear hugged Tina who was screaming at the top of her lungs and jumping up and down like a crazed jack in the box.
"WOOO!" the young blonde girl whooped. "This is it! We're gonna roll!"
This wasn't the cool and unruffled queen that Vidia remembered as perpetually reserved and never demonstrative. No, this was a crazy person on the verge of a full berserker rage. Vidia nearly slipped between the cushions of her chair when Claire put out her hand for a high five. The fast flyer wasn't sure if her hand would survive the encounter intact.
"Oh don't be that way," Claire smiled.
"Yeah, come on, Sis," Tina pled. "We're winning."
Timidly, Vidia put out her hand where it was slapped by both Claire and Tina in quick succession. She got her hand back in one piece. They went back to watching the game while Vidia just shook her head, her eyes wide with alarmed amazement. This moment reminded her of some movie she had seen on television while in the hospital: Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
~O~
PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND (The Late Georgian Period)
Marianna couldn't understand what Silvermist found to be so much fun. This was work, not play. The talent guild instructor sighed. Poor, silly girl. Yet the edict from the queen was not open to interpretation. Marianna was to learn what it would take to take and hold Silvermist's attention so she would learn from the instructor.
"Look," Silvermist called happily. She had taken the water bridge from the pond to the stream and turned it into a set of stairs. Fish were bounding from one "step" over the risers to the next one. The fish actually seemed to be enjoying this. A few were having such a playful good time that they twirled in the air between steps while others whipped their tails side to side. Many didn't continue swimming upstream, instead they flopped back into the pond and took the water stairs again. One fish repeated the water stairs at least five or six times before Marianna chased him off.
"Shoo. Scat. You have to swim upstream, remember?"
"Oh, why do you have to so serious all the time?"
"Because you are in training," Marianna explained. "It is to be taken seriously."
"But the other water talents are having fun," Silvermist pointed out.
"Yes, but they have finished their schooling," Marianna fumed. "You treat this as a lark. Something to be disregarded as an impediment to your entertainment. Well no more. You must learn the proper fundamentals and learn them correctly or you will never succeed as a water fairy."
"I do take my training seriously," Silvermist corrected, though the smile on her face never waned. "I just want to make it fun."
"Fun." There was that word again. For this young initiate everything seemed to come back to that one expression.
"So that's it then, isn't it?" Marianna snidely remarked, flittering around the girl in a slow circle. "That's what this all boils down to."
"Oh, don't say 'boil' in front of the fish," Silvermist gasped. "They don't like it."
"I'm not interested in the fish right now," Marianna answered. "This is all about you. It's all about you having as much fun as you possibly can no matter what. This is you thinking only of yourself."
"No. I make my training fun so I'll always want to practice," Silvermist answered. "But it's always about them, not me."
"Them? Who is them?"
"The fish," Sil replied.
"Fish?"
"Yes, I want to fill their lives with as much joy and happiness as I can."
The fish? It was all about the fish? That was her motivation? "Oh my aching wings," Marianna grumbled. "You! Are! A! Water! Talent!"
"I know."
"You have more responsibilities than just these fish swimming upstream." Marianna was enraged, her voice nearly shouting at the newcomer. "We bring rains to the mainland, put morning dewdrops on spider webs. And we keep the creeks, streams, brooks and rivers flowing both here and on the mainland. It is a huge undertaking."
"I know it is, but why not make your work enjoyable and fulfilling," Silvermist replied. "Here, try it yourself."
Marianna cocked her head in a confused manner. Silvermist dissipated the current water stairs much to the disappointment of the many fish who were eager to try it. She then formed another arch of water and asked Marianna to touch it at certain points to form the steps. Marianna was unwilling at first, but Silvermist prodded her into attempting it.
"Oh, okay." With nothing to lose Marianna touched the water arch at a few various intervals creating an uneven set of stairs. The fish didn't appear pleased and even seemed to be afraid of the large rise in the middle.
Sil was not amused. "Oh no, no. That will never do. Try it again." Silvermist remade the water arch and beckoned Marianna to do it correctly this time. With a sigh she did just that, carefully forming steps and risers at equidistant points across the arch. The fish, who were concerned with the original were now quite ecstatic. They quickly lined up and bounded from step to step, twisting or twirling in midair as they did. It was almost like a game to them. Marianna noticed just how happy Silvermist was made by this. She actually seemed to be deriving satisfaction from the joy the fish were experiencing.
Ridiculous, she thought.
"Say, why not try something different," Silvermist suggested. Her idea was a corkscrew of flowing water that would take the fish on a fun ride up to the flowing stream.
"Corkscrew? Where did you come up with that idea?"
"I don't know. I thought it would be enjoyable."
Creativity was supposed to be for solving existing difficulties. That was how Marianna saw it. It was how the tinkers used it. But Silvermist took it further. She believed that creativity could be extended beyond necessity and into the realm of enjoyment.
Marianna thought the whole idea was dumb, but went along with it anyway. She formed a corkscrew shape with the water with varying sizes of loops that emptied into the stream. Fish which had been eager to try the staircase were suddenly amazed at the new method of ascending to the stream. They instantly lined up and entered the flowing waters of the corkscrew, zipping through the curls and twists. If fish could squeal they would have. Upon exiting many jumped into the air flipping head over tails with irrepressible joy.
One young fish leapt from the stream and into Marianna's arms. She barely caught it, having been taken entirely by surprise. The little creature was smiling with such unabashed glee that Marianna couldn't quite take it all in. Then it snuggled up against her cheek in thanks for such an amazing ride.
When this happened it awakened something in Marianna. A feeling lost long ago. She vividly remembered a moment when she was just an initiate. Upon arriving in Pixie Hollow all those decades ago Marianna was placed under the tutelage of the best water talent trainer at the time. Her name was Cordelia. Like Marianna today, she drove her students to reach the fullest potential of their talents.
"Why can't I play with the fish?" Marianna asked once. "It's so much fun and they love the games I create for them."
"You had the brightest talent glow of any water talent we've ever seen," Cordelia answered. "I won't let you fool around like a human child. This is serious work we do here."
Those words now sounded quite familiar. Marianna had spoken them or something like them to many of her students over the years.
"But I hate that I can't have fun while I practice," Marianna begged. "Why can't we make games out of our work?"
Cordelia responded by smacking the girl across her knuckles with a stick. Marianna recoiled in pain. "You remember that the next time you want to play," Cordelia snarled. "I'm not going to let the greatest talent I've seen to go waste. Is that understood?"
Oh how Marianna desperately wanted to play and have fun. She had worked out complex shapes and outrageous stunts in her head. She tried to enact them, but it wasn't long before Cordelia found out and put a stop to it. Each time the trainer struck Marianna across the knuckles with stick. "Now stop playing around and get to work," was the constant refrain Marianna heard.
That repressed desire to just go nuts and have fun had been buried for so long that now those emotions couldn't wait to get out. This was why she loved being a water fairy. The joy it brought to the fish and the other animals of the water. The very same reason Silvermist enjoyed being a water talent.
Her eyes welled up with tears. Her heart opened up and let in joy for the first time in so long. She took a fish in her arms and embraced it with rapturous elation. To Silvermist's surprise Marianna smashed the corkscrew and flew into the air while letting out a tremendous sound of laugher and delight. Then the trainer scooped water from the pond and began to form the most incredibly complex and daring "water slide" anyone had ever seen.
It rose and flowed and drooped and swirled and bounced this way and that. Right in the middle of it was a huge rise that turned into a giant drop that made it look more like a thrill ride than a simple means of locomotion for the fish.
"Whoa!" Silvermist gasped. "I've never seen that before."
"No one has," Marianna said, nearly exploding with energy. "I've had that in the back of my mind for ages. It has never been attempted before now."
The fish were surprised and thrilled. Quickly they took to the new water structure and rode it all the way through. In particular they enjoyed the huge descent in the middle. Riding to the very top and sliding down at breakneck speed before pulling up and into two giant loops. A second, smaller but no less thrilling drop deposited them into the stream.
Marianna beamed with pride as the fish couldn't want to try it again and again. Then, periodically, Marianna would alter the shapes of the floating tubes of water. The entire ride became more thrilling and entertaining with each iteration. The fish of the pond never had so much fun.
The same was true for both Silvermist and Marianna, who smiled steadily and giggled often.
This was Silvermist's motivation. And at one time, it was also Marianna's. What a wonderful gift the little fairy had given to the instructor. Marianna felt as though she had found her joy once again.
~O~
STORYBROOKE, MAINE
Dave's restaurant was packed. Misty's idea to draw in casual diners and families that might otherwise stay in and watch the game at home hadn't worked out as she had intended. Instead the bar crowd spilled over into the dining room gorging on appetizers and chugging beer as they watched the game on the big screen LED televisions strategically positioned throughout the dining room.
Takeout orders swelled just prior prior to the start of the Super Bowl and continued steadily through first half of the game. Call volume waned somewhat during the latter part of the second quarter, but increased markedly during halftime. The game while tight wasn't an offensive highlight reel like some past Super Bowls. There was no massive offensive explosion as when the Chicago Bears beat down these New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX following the 1985 NFL season.
Nor was it like the entertaining match between the Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII which was a tight game to the very end with plenty of scoring from both teams. This game was a defensive struggle as the Giants regularly put pressure on Tom Brady with just four down linemen and dared him to throw into the teeth of their coverage, something Brady could not do consistently.
On the other side the outcome was quite similar. Eli Manning was in a constant duel with the Patriots defense which accomplished a similar task. They blanketed his receivers while putting regular pressure on him forcing Manning to throw or take a sack and lose yardage. One the fourth quarter began, though, calls for takeout began to diminish. The game was tight, but it was getting late and the dinner hour had passed.
Business within the restaurant, however, remained unmanageable. With so many people in the bar and dining hall Misty had to move around helping out in all phases: kitchen, bar service and dining room. Even with every employee called in to work the staff was overwhelmed. Food orders took thirty minutes longer than normal to prepare and the bar had to replace the keg for each brand of beer they served at least once that night.
"Me and my big mouth," Misty complained while delivering drinks and cheese sticks to several tables in the diner. Upon returning to the kitchen she looked at her haggard staff and announced, "Next year, if I get another one of these bright ideas, remind me to keep it to myself."
Her sous chef nodded and said with a laugh, "I wish I had told you to keep it to yourself this year."
~O~
Claire's cheerful demeanor turned to anxiety as the championship game progressed. After New England scored to open the third quarter they did not score again. The Patriots defense, however, successfully kept the Giants out of the end zone for the entire third quarter. New York did manage to kick two field goals during that period closing the gap on their opponent.
The score at the end of the third was 17 – 15 in favor of New England.
During the fourth quarter the New England defense continued to harass the New York offense preventing them from scoring for most of the final fifteen minutes of the game. Two plays, however came to define this Super Bowl match.
With about four minutes remaining in the game the Patriots were on the Giants 44 yard line. It was second down with eleven yards for a first down conversion. Tom Brady threw to and uncovered Wes Welker, a typically reliable wide receiver. The pass was a little too high, but still catchable. Wes Welker stretched out to capture the ball but it uncharacteristically slipped through his grasp.
"AAAUURRRGGHH!" Claire yelled. "It went right through his fingertips! He always makes that kind of catch all the time! All the freakin' time!"
Tina reminded her that there was still plenty of time on the clock and another down for New England to convert a first down and keep the drive going.
New England was not able to convert and was forced to punt.
New England's defense began to focus on the Giants two best wide receivers with the hopes of forcing New York to punt. The tactic backfired and quarterback Manning and running back Ahmed Bradshaw skillfully drove the team downfield towards the Patriot end zone.
With the Giants at the six yard line, one minute of play remaining and with New England down to only one time out Patriots Head Coach Brian Belichick ordered his defense to surrender a touchdown on the next play. If the Giants ran on third down and failed to score a three point field goal would give them the lead and would eat up precious time.
The ball was snapped on the next play and the ball was handed off to Giants running back Ahmed Bradshaw. The Patriots defense stepped back and provided an unimpeded lane for the runner to score. When Bradshaw recognized what the opposing defense was doing he tried to stop at the one yard line, but his momentum carried him over the goal line and into the end zone, culminating in what was later described as one of the most bizarre touchdowns in Super Bowl history.
Claire sat at the very edge of her seat, riveted to the television broadcast. New York had taken the lead. The Giants attempted a two point conversion, but failed leaving the score 21 – 17 in favor of New York. Had the Giants been successful New England would have needed a touchdown and a successful two point conversion to win in regulation. With the score as it stood the Patriots would only need to score a touchdown to win.
Brady had done this before. His first Super Bowl win came following the 2001 NFL season against the St. Louis Rams who were at the time billed as The Greatest Show on Turf. The Rams of that era had put together one of the most prolific and unstoppable offenses in NFL history. The Patriots defense slowed them down all game long and Tom Brady drove the team downfield for the game winning field goal and did it with very little time remaining.
It was fully expected that Brady could do it again. New York put heavy pressure on Tom Brady and promptly forced New England into a fourth down situation. The Giants again put heavy pressure on Tom Brady, but he managed to elude a tackler and threw a first down pass. The Patriots quickly moved to midfield, but with only nine seconds remaining. Unfortunately, Brady's next pass fell incomplete.
With no other options left Brady launched a long, desperation Hail Mary pass into the end zone. Tight End Rob Gronkowski was the intended target, but the ball was deflected away by New York Giant defenders. Gronkowski dove to catch the ball as it fell to the ground, but it was beyond his grasp and the ball bounced harmlessly off the turf ending the game and any chance New England had of a comeback win.
"NNNOOOOOOOOOO!" Claire screamed. She slumped to the floor and appeared completely stunned. She began muttering, "Not again, not again, not again, not again… NOT AGAIN! How could the same Eli Manning and this same team do this to us in the same way…AGAIN?"
The irony of this was that Eli's older brother, Peyton was considered one of the most talented and intelligent quarterbacks in NFL history. Yet the older Manning was almost always stopped in the postseason by Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Eli Manning, however, had somehow managed to defeat Tom Brady and the Patriots twice in the Super Bowl and did it both times with stunning come from behind wins.
"Uuggh! I can't watch this anymore," Claire said as she slowly got to her feet and left for the kitchen. Her body language clearly revealed how angry, frustrated and dejected she was.
Tina took her seat and watched the confetti fall and the trophy presentation in disbelieving silence. Midway through that ceremony she turned off the television set, sighed and walked up the stairs to her room.
Vidia, who watched this spectacle, commented to a now empty room, "So…, I guess it didn't go well?"
Whew here is another chapter. That is if anyone is still reading.
Anybody still out there?
Anyone?
Anybody?
Bueller?