It's a Love Thing (8 page)

The conversation died again, until we
got to my house. "Okay, please just tell me who it is," she
demanded.

"Alright. If you insist," I said
casually.

"Yes. I insist," she replied with
exasperation.

I jogged upstairs and grabbed the
four-inch by four-inch box my mom had helped me tie a huge pink
glittery bow around. I came downstairs and set it on the kitchen
counter in front of Tink. My hands shook pretty good, but she
didn't seem to notice.

"Her ear or some other body part isn't
in here, is it?" She glanced at me, worry etched in her
brow.

"Tink." I shook my head. "Open the box
and you'll see the prettiest girl in the world. That's who I want
to go out with."

She tugged on the ribbon. It unfolded
and Tink let it drop to the counter. With her wand, she lifted the
lid off the box and set it aside. She took a hesitant step closer,
put her hands on the side of the box, took a deep breath, and
peered inside.

Her eyes shot to me instantly. "It's a
mirror."

I laughed. "Yes, I know."

"You want to go out with . . . me?"
She looked puzzled.

"Yes. But I realize it means you'd
have to spend your Dag som—Day as a Human with me so if you'd
rather not, I under—"

"Yes. I accept."

"Really? Because I don't want to take
that away from you if you had other plans," I explained.

"No. I can't think of a better way to
spend my Dag som en människa than with you." She beamed, and added,
"Thank you, Pete. I'm flattered."

"Thank you, Tink, for everything." I
picked up the discarded ribbon and twisted it nervously around my
fingers. "Is tomorrow too soon?"

"No, not at all. I'll have to talk to
Jaxton, but that should be fine. What are we going to
do?"

"Bowling, for one," I suggested. She
laughed. "And definitely not a movie, for two. It's your one and
only day as a human, Tink. I want to make this special for you. We
can do everything you want to do." She started to protest, but I
cut her off.

"I'll have plenty of time to go on
other dates, but you only get one day as a human. We are doing what
you want."

"Oh, Pete, you are the sweetest." She
flew to my shoulder and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "I better get
going. I'll have Jaxton bring me here in the morning. I get a full
day, clear up until midnight. What time do you want me
here?"

"Depends on what you want to do," I
pointed out.

"A million different things." Giddy
with excitement, she flew around the kitchen aimlessly.

"Nine a.m.?"

"How about eight. I want to enjoy
every second."

"Eight it is. See you tomorrow," I
laughed.

She waved and disappeared.

*****

At seven fifty-eight the next morning,
Tink, along with a male faery, appeared in my bedroom. Dressed in a
tiny green business suit, I almost laughed at him. If it weren't
for the stern look on his face, I would have. For a little guy, he
was formidable. I didn't dare say a word as he sized me up. Tink,
of course, looked beautiful in her pink shimmery dress.

"Good Morning, Mr. Pancerella," he
said sternly. "I'm Jaxton Williams. I'm here to discuss the
contract."

"You can call me—contract?"

"Yes. Since Tinkanova is barely
eighteen, a contract between the two of you is necessary." He waved
his wand. I noted it to be longer and thicker than Tink's and
wondered if it wielded more power. Remembering the painful zaps I
received from her wand, I didn't dare asked Mr. Williams in case he
decided to demonstrate.

He flicked his wand and a small, yet
never-the-less menacing, document appeared on the dresser. I picked
it up with my thumb and first finger, noting the calligraphy-like
writing. Jaxton flew over next to my ear to review it with
me.

"You'll need to initial each
statement."

A pen with silver sparkles on it
appeared in my hand as he began reading.

"I agree to abide by the following
rules in regards to Tinkanova-Marie Bellitoinski while she is on
her Dag som en människa. I will not encourage Ms. Bellitoinski to
disregard these rules and will do everything in my power to make
sure she abides by them.

"'Number one: No alcohol.' She’s only
eighteen as I've already stated so it is illegal for her to consume
alcohol." He pointed to the little box for me to
initial.

"I'm only eighteen too. It's not like
I can walk into a store and buy it," I said. He ignored me and
again tapped on the little square.

Writing as small as I possibly could,
I squeezed my initials into the box. Jaxton spouted off the next
rule before the ink dried.

"'Number Two: No illegal activities of
any kind. This includes but is not limited to: stealing, breaking
and entering, purchasing and/or ingesting illegal
substances.'"

"I'm not a criminal, and I don't do
drugs," I barked. This stupid imp managed to get on my last nerve
in a very short period of time.

"Sign, please." He tapped on the box.
I looked over at Tink. She shrugged her shoulders in sympathy. I
again squeezed my initials on the document.

"'Number three: No pranks of any kind.
This includes but is not limited to: Destruction of mailboxes with
bats or explosives. No toilet papering, commonly referred to as
TP'ing, the property of friends and/or strangers.'"

"Seriously? TP'ing is a rite of
passage. It's not—" he interrupted me with another tap. I roughly
signed the document, this time not caring if my initials overflowed
the stupid little box.

Jaxton turned the document to the next
page. It contained only one more rule.

"'Number four: No
jaywalking.'"

"That's it? No jaywalking?"

He answered with another point to the
square. "You'd be surprised how many faeries we lose jaywalking.
Remember, we're used to flying, it is not natural for us to look
for vehicles when we want to cross the road, Mr.
Pancerella."

I hadn't thought about that. I made a
mental note to watch Tink carefully when we were near the
road.

"Now, if you'll sign your full legal
name here, I'll be off." I signed my full name, Peter Mathew
Pancerella, in my best handwriting. Okay, it wasn't calligraphy,
but it wasn't half bad either.

"Sorry we have to be so strict, Mr.
Pancerella, but you know how boys are."

"No, how are they?" I really didn't
care for this leprechaun.

"Fickle," Tink answered. She smiled at
Jaxton. "Sorry, but you do say that a lot."

"Because it's true," Jaxton said while
reviewing the document. He made sure I initialed each box, even
though he watched me do it, and he checked my signature. "Nice
handwriting." He pulled the paper closer to his face.

"Mathew is your middle name?" he
asked. I nodded. "We have it as Markus."

"That's my dad's middle
name. We share the same first name but different middle names. We
have the same birthday too, June 30
^th
. Kind of cool,
huh?"

Jaxton went into panic mode. I could
tell by the glow he emitted. It was the same glow Tink got right
before she pointed her wand at me. I ducked behind the dresser and
braced myself for the zap.

"This may change everything, Tink. Are
you sure you want to do this today? Maybe we should wait and let me
feed this new information into our program, just to be safe,"
Jaxton all but begged her.

"No. It doesn't matter at this point
does it? I'm here and I'm ready."

Jaxton, though still green, nodded.
"Very well." He turned to me. "We'll need to leave while she
changes."

Tink held up a small brown bag I
hadn't noticed before and shook it. "Jeans and a t-shirt. I've
always wanted to wear jeans and a t-shirt." She flapped her wings
and I understood. She couldn’t wear them as a faery because her
wings would get in the way.

We walked out of my bedroom, well, I
walked, Jaxton flew, and closed the door. We stood there in the
hallway in awkward silence, waiting.

Jaxton broke the silence. "You defile
her in any way, I will hurt you." He had his wand out and pointed
at my heart. "She's impressionable and innocent and you had better
not take advantage of that."

"I would never take advantage of
Tink," I snapped back. "You don't think very highly of me, do
you?"

"Don't take it personally. You're a
teenage boy, I don't trust any of you."

"How old are you?" I asked. If he was
older than me, it wasn't by much.

"Twenty-one. And-a-half," he
added.

"I'm ready," Tink said from the other
side of the door.

Jaxton turned his wand to the door and
began chanting strange words, concentrating so hard, beads of sweat
ran down his forehead. It seemed to take forever. Finally Tink
spoke, or rather screamed. I reached for the door and Jaxton turned
the wand on me.
"Zap me if you want, but I'm going in."

"Wait," he insisted. "Tinkle, are you
alright?"

Tinkle? I'd forgotten she told me that
is what her friends called her. I really needed to straighten her
out about that.

"Yes. I just saw my reflection in the
mirror. I'm huge!"

Both Jaxton and I let out a sigh of
relief. The door opened, and there she stood: beautiful and
tall.

She said, "You're so little," to me as
I said, "You're so tall," to her. We both laughed.

She turned to Jaxton, pointed and
laughed again.

"Okay. I'm out of here." He flew up in
my face. "Remember the contract and what we talked about." He
jabbed me in the nose with his wand before turning to Tink. "Be
careful. I'll be back at Midnight, not a moment later."

"I will, Jaxton. Trust me."

"You I trust, the jury's still out on
this one," he said, pointing to me with his chin.

"I trust him with my life." She smiled
and dropped her head.

Now that she was normal
size, normal for me anyway, I could make out her features more
clearly. She had thick, long eyelashes that almost touched her
eyebrows. Her cheeks had a soft pink glow and she had dimples when
she smiled.
Wow, she is so
pretty.

"Everything seems so miniature, it's
weird." She wandered around the house touching random things and
smiling, before turning back to me.

"Sorry about Jaxton. He thinks he's my
father sometimes." She shook her head disapprovingly.

Or he's in love with
you.
I didn't say it out loud, not wanting
to plant any thoughts into her head.

"What are we going to do first?" I
asked.

"Bowling," she smiled.

"It doesn't open for a couple of
hours. Would you like to go over to Wal-Mart?"

"Yes!"

Yesterday, I arranged with dad to have
the car. Tink and I had such limited time together I didn't want to
waste it walking everywhere.

At the store, she bee-lined it
straight to the back, heading for the shoe department. She tried on
every high-heeled shoe they had. And she fell in love with each
pair as I fell in love with her. How I was going to let her go I
had no idea, but it was going to hurt, that much I knew.

She tried on a few shirts too, though
not as many.

"Okay. I've learned something," she
said as we left. "I loved the shoes, but I could never fly in them,
and I liked the shirts, but my faery dresses are more
comfortable."

"So you didn't have a good time?" I
asked, feeling bad we'd wasted so much time in the
store.

"No. I had a great time. I always
wanted to try those things. Now I can cross them off my bucket
list."

"One down." I said as she directed me
to the park by the canal.

"I want to feed the ducks. I could
never do it as a faery because they saw me as a bug and would chase
me," she laughed. Her laugh sounded even prettier as a
five-foot-six inch girl.

We stopped and bought some day-old
bread before going to the park. Watching her feed the ducks had me
in tears with laughter. Despite her new size, the ducks seemed to
sense something because several chased after her, nipping at her
heels as she giggled and ran away.

Next we rolled down the hill-something
her wings kept her from doing before-then headed over to the
bowling alley.

The rented shoe thing grossed her out.
"You have to wear used shoes?" Even the attendant laughed at her
expression of horror. I assured her most people felt the same
way.

We walked over to pick out a ball. "I
want that one," she said, pointing to a green glittery
ball.

"It weights nineteen pounds. You'll
need a lighter one."

"But I like how it sparkles." She
picked it up and carried it with both hands to our lane. She rolled
it down the lane one time before going back for a lighter
ball.