Philippa Fisher and the Dream-Maker's Daughter (11 page)

We’d nearly caught up with Mom and Dad. I wished that we still had hours to keep talking. We’d only just got started!

“Come on, slowpokes. Robyn’s dad will be thinking we’ve kidnapped her!” Dad called.

“I don’t just believe in them,” Robyn added quickly, her deep brown eyes staring into mine. They didn’t look sad anymore. They looked full of mystery, as though they were so deep you could hide your biggest secret in them and it would never be found. “I
know
they’re real,” she said.

“You know it? But how?”

“I saw something once,” Robyn said quickly, then she stopped. “Look, I don’t know if I can trust you yet. I’ve never told anyone about this, and you’ll think I’m stupid or crazy.”

“I won’t!” I insisted. “I’ve told you I believe in them, too.”

“I know — I’m just not sure. It sounds so corny and childish.”

Before I had a chance to convince her otherwise, Dad had jumped in between us, putting an arm around each of us and making us join in with knock-knock jokes all the way back to the village.

But all the way there, I had just one thought in my head.

What did she know?
What had she seen?

Robyn and I didn’t get another chance to talk. Her dad was waiting outside the shop when we got back. I thought he was going to have another outburst — but he didn’t. He just looked relieved.

“Hello, darling,” he said gruffly, gathering Robyn into his arms and kissing her head. “Did you have a good time?”

“Yeah, Dad,” she said, wriggling out of his arms. “How’s the shop?”

“Oh, fine, fine, you know.” He nodded to Mom and Dad. “Thank you,” he said. Then he turned away.

“The girls had a lovely time together,” Mom said to his retreating back. “They didn’t stop talking for five minutes.”

He half turned back and gave us all a quick smile. “Thanks again,” he said.

“Maybe see you again before we go?” I said to Robyn.

“Definitely!” she replied with a grin. It felt like a deal. There was more to be said. More to find out and share. I was desperate to know what she’d meant earlier, what she knew about fairies — and just as desperate to tell her all about my own experiences!

I wondered for a second if it really would be disloyal of me. Was it giving away fairy secrets if I told her about Daisy, ATC, and 3WD?

Surely it couldn’t be disloyal as long as I didn’t tell her Daisy had been to see me here. Daisy was under orders from her superiors, but I wasn’t! I had no idea if she would be able to visit me again, and not being able to talk about her with anyone was driving me crazy. But finding someone else my age who knew fairies existed — well, that was the next best thing to actually being with Daisy!

“Can Philippa come over tomorrow?” Robyn asked her dad as he opened the shop door.

He paused for a moment in the doorway. Turning back to us, he said, “Well, I don’t know. I mean, she’s on vacation with her parents. She might not want to spend all —”

“I’d love to!” I said. I turned to Mom and Dad. “Can I? Please?”

“Oh, I’m sure we can manage without you for a few hours, sausage,” Dad said with a smile. I tried to pretend he hadn’t just called me “sausage” in front of a brand-new friend.
Dad, I’m not six anymore,
I wanted to say. I didn’t, though. I never would. I just wished that he would one day figure out for himself the correct way to refer to his nearly twelve-year-old daughter in public. I could feel my cheeks burning. I studied the ground so I could hide them.

“Right. OK, then,” Mr. Fairweather said. “We’ll see you tomorrow.” And with that, he took Robyn’s hand and went inside.

We stood in the street for a moment.

“Not the most sociable fellow on the planet,” Dad said.

Mom nodded seriously. It didn’t bother me, though. I didn’t care what Mr. Fairweather was like as long as he’d let me and Robyn be friends.

I spent all evening thinking about what Robyn might have meant earlier. What did she know about fairies? Had she had an experience with a fairy godmother like I’d had? I wondered which department her fairy could have been from. She might even have had someone from the Three Wishes Department, too. Daisy told me people had to be really unhappy to get a fairy from 3WD, and surely Robyn would have qualified for that. She’d had so much sadness in the last year. Maybe that was it. Maybe she’d even met Daisy! How amazing would that be!

My mind was still spinning with thoughts and questions when I went to my bedroom. As I got ready for bed, I thought about Robyn living in this very house.

Had this been her bedroom? I glanced around, looking for a clue or sign of any sort. There was nothing. The rental agents would no doubt have changed it completely since she’d lived here. But the fact that we were connected by the house as well as everything else made me feel even more excited about our new friendship.

I wished I could tell Daisy about Robyn, tell her there were other girls like me who believed in fairies. I wanted to tell her about the day I’d had and the conversations I’d had. I wanted to tell her about everything, because that’s what you do with your best friend.

I opened the window before I got into bed.

Please come in again, Daisy.

I lay in bed, glancing at the window every five seconds. Nothing. Maybe she wasn’t coming. She said it was hard to get away.

I tried to stay awake, tried to keep watching, but the fresh air and the walking and all the thinking must have worn me out, and I couldn’t stop my eyes from closing.

There was a noise in my room. A creaking sound — it was coming from the window. Someone was there. Someone — or some
thing.
Cold air rushed into the room, brushing over my face, and the curtains whooshed softly.

Then there were sparkles, lights, crackling around me, filling the room with color.

Daisy!

I was wide awake in a flash. There she was! In my bedroom. She was bending over, kneeling on the floor beside my bed; something on her wrist was flashing.

“Daisy?” I whispered, sitting up in bed. She jumped up instantly.

“Philippa!” she said quickly. She ran a hand through her disheveled hair and smiled at me.

“You came back!” I said, grinning widely.

“Of course I did,” she said. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know. I guess I —”

“What? Thought I’d forgotten about you?”

I laughed, but then I noticed the way she was smiling. It looked — I don’t know. Different. Kind of forced. As though she were hiding something.

“What were you doing just now?” I asked.

“When? Oh, that — I just dropped something,” she said. “So, what have you been up to today?” she added, glancing around the room as she spoke. She was different from the last time she’d been here. I couldn’t put my finger on what had changed — she just seemed nervous and edgy.

“We’ve been in the woods,” I said.

“We?” She stopped glancing around.

“Me, Mom, Dad, and Robyn.”

“Robyn?” she said. “Who’s Robyn?”

“She’s my new friend. She’s great. She lives here, and she came out with us today, and we talked and talked all day. She’s the first person I’ve been able to talk to for ages.”

“I see,” said Daisy, trying to sound casual and unconcerned.

I laughed. “Daisy, she’s not a replacement for you. Surely you know that! You’re the best friend anyone could want.”

She smiled.

“You’re a fairy godsister!” I added.

Daisy’s smile fell. “Oh, right. Is that the only reason I’m such a good friend?” she asked.

“No, it’s not! It’s because you’re loyal and brave and strong and daring, and you’re fun to be with!”

Daisy’s face relaxed into a smile. “OK,” she said. “I was just checking.”

“It’s just nice to have someone I can talk to,” I said. I wondered whether to mention what had happened at the end of the day. Should I tell Daisy that Robyn believed in fairies? That she knew something? That I’d told her I knew something, too?

Before I had time to decide, Daisy went all serious again. “Listen, I can’t stay long,” she said.

“I understand,” I said. “You’re afraid of getting caught.”

Daisy shook her head. “No, it’s not that. They know I’m here this time.”

“What? How come? I thought you said you’d be in terrible trouble if you got caught.”

“I know. But things have changed.”

“What do you mean? What things? How have they changed?”

“I can’t tell you,” Daisy said.

“You can’t tell me? More secrets,” I said, trying to hide my disappointment. I wished Daisy didn’t have to keep so many things secret from me. I wished we could share everything, like real best friends.

Daisy’s cheeks puffed out in that way that they sometimes did when she was embarrassed about something. “OK, to tell you the truth, I don’t really know,” she said.

“You don’t know why you’re here?”

She nodded. “I have to get something. It’s in here, but I don’t know what it is.”

“Oh.” This time I didn’t even try to hide my disappointment. She hadn’t come back to see me at all! “I understand, I’m just a job — again,” I said.

Daisy perched on the edge of the bed. “Philippa, listen. You’re not just a job, and you never will be. I just have to do this,” she said. “They’ve hinted that if I do it well, they’ll give me some time off when we can actually hang out together before you go home again.”

“What is it you have to do?” I asked.

“I’ve got to find something.” She was holding her wrist out. “And I have to get on with it. They told me to be quick.” She pressed something on her wrist, and the flashing was there again — the same flashing I’d seen when she first came into my room.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“My MMC,” she answered, walking around the room and watching the flashing.

“MMC?”

“Micro MagiCell. They have to be tiny in this department,” she explained.

Daisy had used her MagiCell — the most important part of a fairy godmother’s equipment — to help me make my three wishes earlier this year. It did amazing things, like tell you when the next shooting star was due. That’s when all the wishes in the world are gathered up and taken back to ATC. And it could tell you if there was danger approaching and if someone had had a fairy godmother’s help before, and all sorts of things.

“What’s it telling you?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. Hang on.” She held her wrist out, staring at it as she maneuvered around the room, finally stopping at the bedside table. “Got it!” she said. She looked across at me. “What’s in here?”