Buch lesen: «The Fairy Bell Sisters: Rosie and the Secret Friend»

All the fairies in the Wide World love summer – except the Fairy Bell sisters and their friends on Sheepskerry Island. Sheepskerry is a fairies’ paradise in autumn and winter and spring, and summer should be the best season of all. And for a while, it is.

In June, fairies start doing the things they’ve been meaning to do all the rest of the year: the Stitch sisters sew costumes for dress-up games; the Cobwebs crochet delicate fairy shawls; the Flower sisters take out their watercolours and paint under the pale-blue sky.

In July, it’s time to throw off fairy wings and jump in Lupine Pond and splash in the cool water.

Then there are berries for the picking, all over the island – pinkberries first and most delicate; then raspberries, blueberries, mulberries, boysenberries and finally blackberries when the days are hottest. The Bakewell sisters make pies and muffins with the freshest of the pick, and the older Jellicoe sisters swiftly store up jams and jellies for the winter months if the berry bushes are especially bountiful.

At the end of the day, the fireflies light up and the summer sun goes down; the fairies are ready to lay their heads on thistledown pillows and dream fairy dreams. But first they watch the sunset on West Shore, which every night paints the sky lavender, purple, gold and scarlet, and needs no fairy magic to be beautiful.

Summer on Sheepskerry Island would be perfect, except for the month of August. In August, the Summer People come.

Summer People are just that. They’re people. Human beings. Mothers and fathers. Girls and boys. Most of them mean well, of course, but still they are immense, bumbling creatures who trample fairy gardens and unleash barking dogs and circle the island in stinky boats and altogether make a fairy paradise into a dreadful place. So fairies stay in their houses under the Cathedral Pines and only come out safely at night.

The Fairy Bell sisters love the summer weather and the fruits and flowers of the garden, but they don’t love hiding from the Summer People. Yet hide they must.

Don’t tell me you are one of the very few children who don’t know about the Fairy Bell sisters! You are in for a treat, for you can meet them now. Allow me to introduce you to:

(They are Tinker Bell’s little sisters, by the way.)

If you are anything like me, you’d never suspect that one of the Fairy Bell sisters would end up keeping a secret from her sisters – a very big secret indeed. But just last summer, Rosie Bell did something that she hoped her sisters would never find out. It was an act of kindness, of course, an act of very great and courageous kindness, but it led Rosie into trouble and the fairies of Sheepskerry Island into danger – perhaps the gravest danger those fairies had ever known.

I’d better get this said right now: if your idea of a good book is one where everyone does everything right all the time, then you’re not going to enjoy this one very much.

If, though, you can bear to read about Rosie’s kindness to a little sick girl and how it makes her sisters ashamed of her – even though they know Rosie has done the right thing – then take a deep breath and turn the page.

You turned the page! What a good choice you’ve made!

“It’s the Summer People!”

Rosie heard Silver Bell’s cry and her heart sank. She tried not to think bad thoughts about anyone in the world, but even Rosie could not think too kindly about the Summer People.

“Now we’ll have to stay in the house all day as they unpack and unload.” Lily sighed deeply. “What a bore.”

“We could play Go Fish in the Fairy Pond,” said Rosie, “just to pass the time.” Go Fish in the Fairy Pond is very much like our card game called Go Fish, but there are no kings or jacks in the pack and the jokers are trolls. Rosie started to deal.

Last year’s crop of Summer People had not discovered the fairies’ lovely houses, for their eyes did not know how to see magic and their ears could not hear the music of fairy voices, and that was a blessing.

“How long has our house stood here, Clara?” Silver asked. “Lily, do you have any… sevens?”

“A long time, Silver, longer than anyone can remember. Houses are terribly hard to build as young fairy magic does not extend to architecture.”

“Architecture?” asked Silver.

“House building,” said Lily. “No sevens. Go fish in the fairy pond.”

“In fact,” Clara continued, “a long time ago, before any of us popped into the world, the fairies of Sheepskerry Island lived under toadstools.”

“What are toadstools?” asked Silver.

“A damp kind of mushroom,” said Rosie.

“I could not possibly be expected to live under one of those,” said Lily.

“In those days, Summer People were quite lovely,” Clara went on. “There were only a few of them and they lived very simply. They built the six cottages that are on Sheepskerry now: Newcastle, Arrowhead, Clearwater, Windy Corner, Sea Glass and White Rose Cottage.”

“White Rose Cottage is my favourite,” said Rosie with a sigh.

“Of course, the cottages have gotten much bigger and fancier now,” said Clara.

“Except for White Rose—” said Rosie.

“Because the Summer People have changed. The grown-ups at least.”

“Clara, do you have any queens?” asked Lily. She looked out of the window of the great room. “Do you suppose Queen Mab is enjoying her holiday?”

“I’m sure she is,” said Clara. “No queens.”

“It is funny not to have her here,” said Silver, touching the necklace Queen Mab had given her after the Fairy Ball not long ago. “Maybe I could fly over to Heart Island sometime and just drop in.”

“I don’t think so,” said Lily as she rearranged her cards.

“Please, can we get back to the story now?” asked Rosie.

Clara started again. “Back in those days,” she said, “children looked for fairies every morning when the dew was still fresh on the spiders’ webs. Summer Children and fairies played together. Of course, the fairies did not really show themselves – or not too much, anyway – but they left little gifts for the Summer Children and the Summer Children left gifts for them.”

Rosie looked over at the fireplace mantelpiece in their great room. There was a tiny seashell on it, painted bright pink.

“That was a gift from a long-ago Summer Child,” said Rosie. “She gave it to Tinker Bell or at least that’s how the story goes.” No one was quite sure whether that was true, but they liked to believe it was.

“The Summer Children’s greatest gift was the Fairy Village in Cathedral Pines.”

“Pah-pah!” said Squeak.

“Yes, Squeakie. It is rather amazing. Summer Children built our fairy houses, one for every family of fairy sisters who live on Sheepskerry. And it’s those houses we live in to this very day.”

The sisters paused to think about those long-ago days. Their thoughts were interrupted by a clattering din coming from the dock, where the Summer People were arriving on the ferry. Lily peered out of the window. “Now the Summer People are horrible,” she said. “They’re especially horrible on Moving-In Day. We’ll be trapped in this house until nightfall because of them.”

“I’m sure they don’t mean to be so thoughtless,” said Rosie.

“I’m sure they do,” said Lily. “They spoil everything, every year.” And she put her cards down. “It’s no use,” she said. “I can’t concentrate with all this noise. Let’s hide up in Tall Birch and watch them.”

The Summer People were unloading the ferry and carrying all of their many possessions up the paths to the cottages. It took a long time as Sheepskerry Island had no roads and no horrible metal monsters (“They’re called ‘automobiles’,” said Clara). The Summer People filled up wheelbarrows to bring their boxes and bags, trunks and trinkets to the cottages on the island.

Silver flew up to a lookout post. “Looks like there are five families this year so one cottage will be empty,” she called down to her sisters. “That’s a relief.”

“Wuh!” said Squeak.

“Yes, I’d love to do something about it, Squeakie,” said Rosie. “But there’s nothing we can do. We must just put up with them as best we can. Five families is an awful lot.” She sighed. “But I suppose it’s better than six. Be careful up there, Silver!”

“I wonder why they need to bring so much stuff.”

“And why must they make such a racket?” asked Lily. “Don’t they know how sensitive we are?”

“Come down at once, Silver,” called Clara. “You mustn’t be seen.”

“Just one more minute—”

“Now, Silver,” said Rosie.

Silver flew down from the birch as her sister told her. “I wouldn’t mind flying into a cottage while they’re in there, just to see what the cottages are like when the Summer People are inside them,” she said. “I could sneak up on—”

“Oh dear me, no,” said Rosie, as crossly as she knew how (which wasn’t very crossly at all). “You mustn’t do anything like that. The Summer People are to be kept away from at all costs.”

“Rosie’s quite right,” said Lily. “If these human people were to see our magic and discover that fairies live here, they’d tell all their friends who’d come and hunt for us with those telescope things—”

“Cameras.”

“Yes, with cameras and torches and rakes and goodness knows what else. And that will be the end of us.”

“But if we—”

“Hush, Silver, that’s enough,” said Clara in a clipped tone. “You remember what happened on Coombe Meadow Island, don’t you?” Clara didn’t like to have to bring up faraway Coombe Meadow, but she had to stop Silver’s wild ideas.

The other sisters, even Squeak, fell silent. “Did all the fairies lose their homes?” asked Silver at last.

“Every one of them. Their houses were trampled, their school was dug up, their queen’s palace was destroyed—” Rosie had to stop for breath.

“—and many of them were chased until they dropped from tiredness. So it is lucky that they all escaped.” Clara didn’t add ‘with their lives’. She didn’t need to.

“I thought Summer People were nice to fairies,” said Silver.

“Oh, they used to be nice to fairies,” said Clara. “When children still believed in fairies.” She sighed. “But those children don’t exist any more.” (How I wish Clara knew about you!)