Lily's Pesky Plant Read online

  One day Iris had turned up with a daisy umbrella, insisting that the seed would grow best in the shade. The next day she fretted that it wasn’t getting the sunlight it needed. In the afternoons, Iris would sit on the spotted toadstool, talking about the seed and writing in her book.

  “It’s not every day that someone finds a new plant,” Iris told Lily. “I’m writing everything down. You know, for future garden fairies.”

  Lily just smiled. Iris was the only garden fairy she knew who liked to read about gardening. The other fairies just gardened.

  Still, she couldn’t blame Iris for being excited. Lily was just as curious to see what kind of plant would grow.

  Iris finally finished mulching the garbage. She picked up the bucket of plant food and set off in the direction of the seed. Lily went back to tending her violets.

  Suddenly, Iris shrieked.

  Lily dropped the spider silk and raced back to the toadstool. Maybe Iris had hurt herself! But the red-nosed fairy was grinning from ear to ear. “Look, Lily!” she said breathlessly. “It sprouted!”

  Lily looked where Iris was pointing. Sure enough, a small seedling was growing where they’d planted the mysterious seed.

  Lily clapped her hands together. “Oh, it’s beautiful,” she whispered.

  In fact, the seedling wasn’t beautiful at all. Its leaves were a sickly yellow color. Its stem was covered with little spots, as if it had a bad case of chicken pox. But that was the thing about Lily. She thought every plant was beautiful.

  Iris was thrilled. “Vidia!” she called out to a fairy passing by. “Come look at our new little plant!”

  Vidia flew over to them. She looked at the seedling and made a face. “Darlings, I’ve never seen anything so ugly in my life,” she declared.

  Iris’s face fell. Lily frowned. Trust Vidia to say something mean, she thought. The dark-haired, fast-flying fairy was as spiteful as they came.

  “It reminds me of a sick caterpillar I saw once,” Vidia went on. “If I were you, I’d put it out of its misery now. Iris, dear, why don’t you run along and get a shovel to dig it up?”

  Iris’s glow flared with anger. She scowled at Vidia.

  Lily ignored Vidia. “Iris, let’s give it water,” she said. “It looks like it could use some.”

  Iris gave Vidia one last angry glance. Then she picked up a bucket and hurried off to the stream.

  “Lily, dear, how can you stand having her around all the time?” Vidia said. She glanced at Iris’s back. “A garden fairy without a garden.” She shook her head. “Tsk, tsk. How sad.” But Vidia didn’t sound sad. She sounded amused.

  “She’s better company than some fairies,” Lily replied.

  Vidia gave her a sugary smile. “I can take a hint, sweetie,” she said. “Have fun with your little sprout. But you should watch out for those spots. They look contagious.”

  Rising into the air, Vidia put on a burst of speed and disappeared.

  For the next several days, Lily and Iris carefully tended the plant. They watered it every morning. They talked to it every afternoon. The seedling seemed to enjoy the attention. It grew amazingly fast. Soon it towered over the fairies’ heads.

  It grew uglier, too. The small spots grew into big warts. Sticky sap dripped from its bark. It sprouted thin, droopy branches. Sometimes Lily thought Vidia was right. It did look a bit like a sick caterpillar—a great big sick caterpillar with droopy legs.

  Lily didn’t care. She could tell that the plant was happy, so she was happy, too.

  The other fairies weren’t quite so open-minded. “Lily, come quick!” Tinker Bell burst into the tearoom one morning. “I just flew past your garden. A monster is attacking your buttercups!”

  Lily dropped her teacup and the two fairies raced out of the Home Tree.

  Outside Lily’s garden, they paused behind the rosebush. With silent looks they agreed they would take the beast by surprise. Tinker Bell drew her dagger. The two fairies crept forward.

  “There it is!” Tink whispered, pointing.

  Lily began to laugh. She laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks.

  Tink stared at her in surprise.

  At last Lily flew over and landed beside the “monster.” “Tink,” she said between chuckles, “meet my newest plant.”

  “That’s a plant?” Tink said. She blushed and lowered her dagger. Taking a few steps forward, she peered up at its ugly branches. “What kind is it?”

  “I don’t know. I found the seed in the forest and planted it,” Lily explained.

  “Well, it’s very interesting,” replied Tink. “But I’d hate to bump into it on a dark night.”

  Even the other garden fairies were doubtful. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Rosetta. “Are you sure you want such an ugly plant in your garden?”

  “I’m sure,” said Lily.

  The other fairies looked around at the beautiful flowers and shook their heads. But they didn’t say anything more. If nothing else, they thought, the mysterious plant kept Iris away from their gardens.

  ONE MORNING, Lily noticed a strange odor in her garden. It smelled like rotten tomatoes, and a little bit like sour milk.

  How odd, Lily thought. She began to walk through her garden, looking for the source of the stink.

  Soon she came to the red spotted toadstool. It was empty. Iris hadn’t yet arrived.

  Lily covered her nose with her hands. The smell was even stronger here.

  Bumble, who had followed her, began to flit around nervously. Suddenly, he darted away.

  “I wonder what’s gotten into him?” Lily said to herself.

  She turned and saw something that made her forget all about Bumble. The mysterious plant had grown flowers. And what strange flowers! They practically exploded from its branches. The centers of the giant flowers were pale and sticky-looking. Spiky white petals stuck out from the edges, like crazy uncombed hair.

  The flowers were not pretty. But in their own way they were interesting, Lily thought.

  Curious, she rose into the air until she was face to face with one of the flowers. She leaned forward, closed her eyes, and…

  Ugh! Lily’s eyes flew open. Her wings froze in midflutter. She dropped out of the air and landed on the ground with a painful thud.

  The horrible rotten-tomato smell was coming from the flowers.

  Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

  Bumble zipped over to Lily to see if she was okay. A moment later he darted away again. He couldn’t stand the flowers’ smell.

  “Lily, are you all right?” asked a muffled voice.

  Lily looked up and saw Iris hurrying over to her. She was holding a leafkerchief over her nose and mouth. “I saw you fall,” she told Lily.

  “I’m all right,” Lily replied. She rubbed a bruised spot on her knee. “Just surprised. I really wasn’t expecting it to…stink so much!”

  Iris held out a clean leafkerchief. Lily took it gratefully. Covering their noses, the two fairies stared up at the big, smelly flowers. Iris looked worried.

  “You’ve gone and spoiled it,” Iris complained. “That’s what happens when you baby plants. They develop obnoxious personalities.”

  Behind her leafkerchief, Lily smiled. Iris had babied the plant even more than Lily had.

  But Lily didn’t think that was the problem. In fact, she didn’t think there was any problem. She had a feeling that the plant was doing exactly what it was supposed to do.

  Before she could say so, other voices interrupted.

  “What is that smell?”

  “It’s as if all the food in the kitchen went bad!”

  “It’s coming from over there!”

  A little group of fairies and sparrow men came flying toward them from the Home Tree. They were all wearing clothespins on their noses. They came to a sudden stop when they saw the giant flowers.

  “Goodness!”

  “How ugly!”

  “That’s what smells so bad.”

  “Lily, what in the
name of Never Land is wrong with that plant?” asked Dulcie, a baking-talent fairy. Her voice sounded funny because of the clothespin pinching her nose.

  “Nothing,” replied Lily. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.”

  “Well, can you do something about that smell? It’s blowing in the windows of the tearoom,” said a serving-talent sparrow man. “Queen Ree sent us to find out where it was coming from.” Ree was the fairies’ nickname for Queen Clarion.

  Lily looked around. Her eyes fell on a patch of lavender.

  “I have an idea,” she said. Hurrying over to her lavender, she picked a few pieces. She tucked a bit inside her leaf-kerchief and tied it around her nose and mouth like a mask. The lavender’s sweetness covered up the bad smell.

  She handed the rest of the lavender to the other fairies. They pinned the flowers to their noses with the clothespins. Then Lily returned to the lavender bush and began filling her arms with flowers.

  “Everyone come pick some,” she instructed. “We can take it back to the other fairies in the Home Tree.”

  Just then, she heard a sound.

  BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ …

  At first Lily thought Bumble had gotten his head stuck in a flower (it happened sometimes) and was buzzing for help. But the sound grew louder.

  BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ …

  She looked up. A black cloud seemed to be moving toward them across the sky.

  BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ …

  Lily looked closer. It wasn’t a cloud at all. It was a huge swarm of wasps!

  “Look out!” Lily cried.

  The fairies leaped into the lavender for cover as the wasps dove toward them. Nearby, Bumble hid in a patch of clover.

  But the wasps weren’t after the fairies. Buzzing loudly, they clustered around the flowers on the mysterious plant. They seemed to like the strange, stinky smell.

  In the lavender, the fairies waited…and waited and waited. They hoped the wasps would get tired of the flowers and go away.

  But the swarm only grew.

  Lily’s legs began to feel cramped from crouching so long.

  “What do we do now?” Dulcie whispered to Lily.

  Lily sighed. She had no idea what to do. They couldn’t make a dash for the Home Tree because they might get stung. A single sting could be fatal to a fairy—after all, the wasps were nearly as big as their heads. But they couldn’t hide in the lavender forever.

  Just then, Lily heard a caw. She peeped out of the lavender and saw a large black shape swoop down from the sky. Another dark shape followed right behind it.

  Ravens!

  And riding on the ravens’ backs, right between their wings, were fairies.

  THE RAVENS DOVE at the wasps. They flapped their wings and cawed fiercely. The swarm began to break up. The wasps were afraid of the huge black birds.

  Finally, the last wasp was gone. Lily and the other fairies climbed out of the lavender.

  The ravens landed next to them. On their backs were Beck and Fawn, two animal-talent fairies.

  “A scout saw the swarm go into your garden,” Beck explained. “We thought there might be trouble. So we called the ravens.”

  Beck said something to the ravens that Lily couldn’t understand. Then she and Fawn fluttered to the ground. With a great rustle of feathers, the birds stretched their enormous wings and flew away.

  “Is anyone hurt?” asked Fawn.

  Iris, who had been silent, suddenly burst into tears. “I nearly got stung!” she cried. “A wasp came this close to me!” She held her hands an inch apart.

  Some of the fairies from the kitchen frowned. After all, everyone had been in danger. Yet Iris seemed concerned only about herself.

  Fawn gently patted Iris’s back to calm her down. She was used to taking care of frightened animals. Frightened fairies weren’t that different.

  “Anyone else?” asked Beck.

  The other fairies and sparrow men shook their heads. They were all scared, but no one had been harmed.

  “Come on, Iris,” Beck said. “Let’s go back to the Home Tree. A cup of tea with honey will make you feel better.”

  “And in the meantime, someone ought to do something about that plant,” Fawn added.

  “What do you mean ‘do something’?” Lily asked.

  “Well, chop it down or pull it up. You know, get rid of it,” Fawn said.

  Lily drew back as if she’d been slapped. Chop down a plant? Just hearing the words made her legs ache. She had never chopped down a plant in her life. She couldn’t even pull weeds from her garden—instead, she encouraged them to grow elsewhere.

  “The wasps liked those flowers,” Fawn explained. “They could come back at any moment.”

  Lily looked at Iris. She hoped Iris would say something good about the plant. After all, Iris loved it as much as Lily did.

  Iris’s eyes were wide and her face was pale. But she didn’t say anything.

  Lily turned back to Beck and Fawn. “The plant is growing in my garden,” she said. “I will take responsibility for it.” She looked at Dulcie and the other fairies from the kitchen. “Tell the others in the tearoom. You have my word that no one will be endangered here again.”

  There was a long pause. “All right,” Dulcie said at last. “I’ll tell the queen you’ll take care of the smell.”

  The little band of fairies headed back to the Home Tree.

  As Beck led her away, Iris glanced back at Lily. Lily thought she looked sorry. But she couldn’t say for sure.

  For the next few days, Lily was very busy. Every morning she picked armloads of lavender to hand out to the fairies of Pixie Hollow. Her leafkerchief masks were a good way to cover up the smell of the stinky flowers. But it took a lot of lavender to keep everyone happy. Lily’s lavender plants were starting to look bare. What would happen when she ran out?

  She also worried that the wasps would come back. Every day, she searched the sky for signs of a buzzing black cloud. But the sky remained blue. The only clouds she saw were fluffy and white.

  Then one morning, Lily woke with a stuffy nose. Her eyes watered and her throat itched. Her whole head felt as if it were filled with cotton.

  “What a terrible time to catch a cold,” Lily said as she climbed out of bed. She dressed slowly. She was already thinking of the work that lay ahead of her. She had to hand out more lavender, and she was behind in her gardening.

  When she got to the tearoom, Lily noticed something strange. None of the fairies had on a leafkerchief mask. Instead, they were using their leafkerchiefs to blow their noses. Everyone in the Home Tree seemed to be sick.

  “Hi, Lily,” the other garden fairies said as she sat down at their table. Lily looked around. All the fairies had watery eyes and runny noses. Some had dandelion-fluff scarves wrapped around their throats. Only Iris looked the same as usual—maybe because she always looked as if she had a cold.

  “What an awful cold everyone’s got,” Lily remarked as she filled her teacup.

  “Oh, it’s no cold,” Rosetta replied stuffily. She dabbed at her nose with a rose petal. “It’s that pink dust.”

  “Pink dust?” asked Lily.

  Rosetta nodded. “It’s everywhere. The cleaning-talent fairies can’t get rid of it. It makes them sneeze so much, they can’t get any work done.”

  A bleary-eyed serving-talent fairy came to the table to serve their tea. All the teacups were covered with a strange, sticky pink dust.

  Suddenly, Lily had a bad feeling. “I’ll be right back,” she said. She hurried off to her garden.

  Sure enough, her entire garden looked as if it had been covered in pink snow. When a slight breeze blew, more pink dust floated down from the flowers on the mysterious plant.

  It wasn’t dust, Lily realized. It was pollen. And everyone in Pixie Hollow was allergic to it!

  BY AFTERNOON, PINK pollen covered Pixie Hollow. It floated in the fairies’ chestnut soup at lunch. It stuck in their hair. It gummed up their wings. And, of course,
it made everyone sneeze.

  Iris made tsk-tsk noises from her spot on the toadstool. “I told you not to plant that seed without knowing anything about it,” she said. She sneezed twice and blew her nose, then looked thoughtfully at the plant. “Still,” she added, “it is a most extraordinary plant.”

  Lily frowned at her, but Iris didn’t notice. She had already gone back to scribbling in her book.

  Just then, a fairy bolted into the garden. She screeched to a stop right in front of Lily. It was Vidia. And she looked furious.

  “You should have uprooted that…that thing when it was a sprout,” Vidia snarled. As she spoke, she tried to shake the sticky pollen from her wings. Vidia despised anything that kept her from flying fast. She was so angry, she hadn’t even bothered to call Lily dear or darling.

  “Here, let me wash your wings, Vidia,” Lily said. It was a special kindness to offer to wash another fairy’s wings. Lily felt sorry that Vidia was so upset, and it was her way of saying so.

  “I’m the only fairy who touches my wings,” Vidia snapped. She turned and pointed at the tree. “If you won’t cut it down, I will. I’m sure one of the carpenter-talent fairies would be happy to loan me an axe.”

  And for what might have been the first time in the history of Pixie Hollow, many of the fairies agreed with Vidia. All afternoon, fairies came to Lily to complain about the plant.

  “Ah-choo! I’ve had to throw out three acorn puffs,” Dulcie told Lily. “Every time I…I…I—ah-choo!—sneeze, the puffs collapse! If there’s nothing to eat at dinner tonight, you can blame that plant of yours.”

  Even Terence, a normally cheerful dust-talent sparrow man, was troubled. “That pink stuff has gotten mixed in with the fairy dust,” he told Lily. “It’s messing up everyone’s magic. The music-talent fairies’ instruments will only play in the key of B minor. And the laundry fairies haven’t been able to do the wash. Their soap went haywire and the washroom is eight inches deep in bubbles! Before you know it,” he added grimly, “we won’t even be able to fly.”