It Wasn't Meant To Turn Out Like This

Mayza frowned as Suzy reached down between her seat and Senior’s seat and lifted a flat box wrapped in plain silver wrapping paper into view. Suzy and Senior smiled knowingly at each other as Suzy held the gift out for Mayza to take.

“Oh, please, I can’t accept a gift,” Mayza said quickly, blushing slightly. Surely they had already realized that she didn’t wish to be treated special. She had been reluctant to come to dinner even, on account that Senior explained that the two of them wanted to treat Mayza to a nice dinner out of gratitude for all that she’d done for the family over the years. Mayza required no thanks for what she had done.

“Oh, no, please, take it,” Suzy insisted, persistently holding the box out for Mayza to take. “It is the least we can do.”

Mayza frowned and sighed but accepted the gift anyway. She carefully pulled the wrapping paper away from the box and pulled the lid open. A piece of paper rolled into a scroll and tied with a red ribbon sat within the box. Tucked underneath the scroll was a flatter, smaller chunk of paper. Mayza pulled out the smaller paper first and studied it briefly. It was a one-way plane ticket to Seattle, Washington.

“Seattle?” Mayza asked in confusion, holding up the plane ticket. “And it’s only one way.”

“Indeed it is,” Senior answered, taking a sip of his wine. He leaned forward, resting his clasped hands on the empty table in front of him. The three of them had already finished eating a delicious dinner at the restaurant. “Outside of Seattle, in the large forest forming a half-circle around the city, there is an only-fairy settlement. It is the only settlement for freed fairies in the entire country, possibly in the entire continent. The climate in this forest is about the same climate as the fairy dimension. The fairies who live there have constructed an entire village that looks almost identical to a typical village in your own home dimension.

“It sounds lovely,” Mayza agreed. “But it’s only for freed fairies.”

Senior grinned and nodded at the box. Mayza looked down at the scroll and pulled it from the box as well. Looking uncertainly up at her owners, and receiving two encouraging nods in return, Mayza untied the ribbon from around the paper and gently unraveled it. She was shocked to see that it was the title saying that the Haner family owned her.

She skimmed down through it, finding nothing too spectacular or revealing. But at the bottom, beneath a dotted line, there was one line of text that read:

I hereby grant the above fairy freedom.

Beneath that, there were two lines that had “Signature” beneath them. Suzy and Brian Sr. had signed both of the lines. Mayza felt her jaw drop and looked up at the two of them once more.

Senior smiled. “All the children have moved out. It’s just me and Suzy. Suzy first brought up this subject with me when she realized more often than not you were sitting around with nothing to do. Suzy can handle all the housework, once again, on her own. We decided to grant you your freedom.”

“I...I’m...What?” Mayza stuttered, filled with such beautiful joy that she almost couldn’t speak.

“You now own yourself again. The plane leaves in two days.”