"Pixie" by Llola Lane
Who ever heard of a fairy afraid of heights??? Well that was Pixie... afraid to soar high in the sky with the birds. Afraid to visit her friends in the giant tree tops. Afraid to go higher than a few feet from the ground. In fact... she got around mostly by walking. She didn't wander far from her home in an old tree stump, at the bottom of a hill. As she sits on the edge she contemplates her next move. She thinks about her childhood and her mother and lets her mind wander back. It wasn't her fault really that she was scared of heights. She's been terrified ever since she can remember. Her mother told her of a fall she had when she was very little and that is probably why she is scared. Her mother left her alone for a few short moments in her nest. And when she returned... Pixie was gone. Pixie had been carried away with a gust of wind, and her frail little wings couldn't lift her back to the comfort of her nest. Pixie doesn't remember the wind that made her fall from her nest, but she does remember falling uncontrollably. Even now her stomach gets queasy as she remembers. She also recalls landing on a soft bed of algae at the edge of a riverbed and, being all wet. She's not sure why she survived the fall but she IS grateful to be alive. She is brought back to reality by a little voice talking to her... "Go ahead... you can do it," the voice says. This was her first time flying in a long time. She'd made it up to the windowsill; now she needed to fly a little further to deliver her prize. The sill is far from the ground. She doesn't look down. Her stomach is getting queasy again. She takes a deep breath and looks at the little girl lying in her bed just a few feet from the sill. She has black hair and doesn't have any covers on. She looks like an angel sleeping. Her feet move and she makes a little moan. "Go ahead Pixie... it's time. Before she wakes!" The voice talks to her again. Pixie looks up and sees her mother standing on the sill next to her. "You can do it. You are grown now. It's time to earn those wings. Don't worry.... You won't fall. They CAN carry you. Try!" Pixie stood up on the sill. She closed her eyes and let her wings flap. They slowly carried her up, a few inches off the sill. She opened her eyes... She was doing it!!! She had spent so much time on the ground that she didn't really try her wings much. They were stronger than she remembered. She flew to the bed and never looked down. Over the bed she was confident that if she fell it would be a soft landing, so she let herself fly a little. She soared high up into the canopy and MADE herself look down. She twirled around. Her mother was still on the sill watching her. Mother urged her on to her duty, but Pixie was having too much fun. She swooped and glided all around the bed. She even managed to fly off the bed a few times but that didn't seem to scare her any more. Her stomach soothed and she didn't feel queasy any longer. Mother was getting restless and was waving her onward frantically. She had played long enough. It was time to work. "Earn those wings" as mother said. She was not a little girl anymore. She was an adult and it was time to act like one. Composing herself, Pixie made her way to the little girls’ pillow. She waved her wand over the pillow and the tooth appeared inside the wand. She then tucked a coin under the pillow and flew to the little girl's head. She blew her a kiss and fairy dust swirled into the air. The little girl stirred in her sleep and moaned as she sucked her thumb. Pixie smiled at a job well done and looking at the little girl, she knew she'd never be afraid of heights again.
