Fairy Queen of the Forest

Every Saturday after I eat cereal and watch cartoons I head to the creek in my backyard, partly because Mom thinks it’s good for me to play with people my age, but also because I do enjoy being Fairy Queen of the Forest. Besides, Elinor always brings tea for the tea party and June brings cookies, so there’s not much to hate. 

The creek borders my house and Elinor’s. There’s an old wooden picnic table there where we have our tea parties and one of us gets to be the Fairy Queen. The table’s usually soggy and wet from the morning dew, but I always just pretend it’s made of glistening glass with a gold beaded rim, straight from a fairytale palace. 

“Is it okay if I’m Fairy Queen today?” Elinor asks one day. She holds up the dress. It was meant to be my turn, and Elinor was Fairy Queen last week, but her hamster died earlier this week so June and I say it’s okay. She wrote a poem in his honor and read it to the class and Miss Walker even gave her a lollipop. 

The dress belongs to Elinor anyway, so we never like to argue. She puts it on over her plaid brown dress. It’s so dreamy–light green with a glittery bodice and sheer puffed sleeves like sugar-spun cotton candy. The skirt is tulle with dark green applique designs of twisting vines and ivy. Elinor said she found it in the forest, but June and I know her grandma gave it to her. 

“I shall now serve the tea,” Elinor says in her Fairy Queen voice. She’s so good at it; she can do the fancy accent and everything. 

“Thank you, kind Queen,” June says as Elinor pours tea into her dainty tea cup. I wait patiently for mine.

“Princess Beatrice, have you any updates of the forest?” Elinor asks me. She pours my tea, and I watch it swirl and steam. When I’m not the Fairy Queen of the Forest, I’m the fairy princess scout, so I’m responsible for coming up with stories. 

“The troll tried to invade our court,” I say. “But a fairy warrior fended him off with her sword. She nearly died in battle, and she came back bleeding gold, in need of help.” June crinkles her nose. “Wait! Change it to a prince.” She has broken character. She’s meant to be my sister, Princess June, the kind-hearted healer fairy. 

“What?” I say. “But–” 

“I could fall in love with him!” Elinor suggests. “He could become the king of the forest, forever defending the fairy court.” 

“But there’s no one to play him…” I say, my voice trailing off. My image of the fairy warrior bleeding gold begins to dissolve from my mind, like a stupid sugar cube in a cup of boiling tea. 

“We could invite James,” Elinor suggests, brushing invisible crumbs off the frills at the front of the dress, capturing both mine and June’s eyes. James?! I want to scream. “James teased us last year,” I remind her, my voice going desperate. He called me plain Beatrice, he called June chubby, he called Elinor mean. I don’t know why they’d want him around. I don’t know why they want a prince fairy warrior who will forever change our game. I don’t know why they can’t just go along with my story. 

“But he’s nice now,” Elinor says. I don’t remember him being nice, but maybe he was. Maybe he was one of the people who wrote her a card about her dead hamster. “He is,” June agrees. 

“But does he like tea?” I ask. It’s one of the rules of our game. It’s one of the best parts.

Elinor crinkles her nose. She smooths at the dress again, contemplative. The mood is ruined and I think it’s my fault. 

“Queen Elinor,” I say, trying to start the game back up. 

Elinor just sighs. “Let’s play tomorrow. I’m tired.” 

“Okay,” June says. 

I snap my mouth shut. 

Elinor reaches her arms up to remove the green dress; the magical tulle that transforms her into a queen, the applique so delicate it looks like real ivy crawling up the bodice. When it’s half-off her body, covering her face, there is a sound like ripping. Elinor squirms out of the dress and it falls into her hands, the seams at the bodice torn and frayed. 

I gasp. 

Elinor stares at the pool of fabric in her arms and laughs.

Inspired by:

The Bridge to Terabithia (1977) by Katherine Paterson, novel (Jesse and Leslie playing in the woods)