Modern Day Fairy Tale

Once summer started, Mom got used to Elizabeth’s constant presence. She was over just about every single day except when her mom needed her to stay home. That wasn’t very often, maybe a few times during the month.

“You know, for as often as you’re over here, I ought to adopt you,” Mom joked.

Elizabeth smiled. “Maybe. That would be kind of cool.”

“And that would make you my sister, which would be super weird,” I said. It was the truth.

“Yeah, that’s true,” Mom said. “Well, it was a good thought.”

Elizabeth and I agreed. “It was a good thought, yes, just a bit strange.”

“Are you girls hungry?” Mom asked, totally changing the subject. She looked at her watch. “Oh, dear. I’ve got to go or I’ll be late for my appointment. Will you girls be okay for a few hours?”

“We’ll be fine, Mom,” I said.

“Okay. There are some brownies in the frig if you want some. Just don’t eat the ones on the purple plate. Those are for the barbecue at Sally’s tomorrow. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Have fun.”

Mom rushed out to her car and drove off. I looked at Elizabeth. She looked at me and grinned as if she knew exactly what I was thinking. We were having brownies. From the purple plate.

We ran to the fridge and found the purple plate. I took a brownie, then Elizabeth took one. Just in case Mom had a specific amount on both plates, I took two from the yellow plate and stacked them on the purple plate. By the time I finished, Elizabeth was half finished with her snack.

“They’re good, but they taste kind of funny,” she said as I took a bite. She was right. There was an odd flavor mixed in with the chocolaty goodness. I shrugged and finished the brownie.

A few minutes later, I wanted junk food. Like, seriously bad. I wanted potato chips and chocolate and Twinkies. Normally, I don’t even like Twinkies.

“Do you have any potato chips or M&Ms?” Elizabeth asked.

I opened a cupboard to begin my search for junk food. “They should be in here somewhere,” I said, sorting through the contents in front of me. Where were he chips? I new we had a bag or two.

After a mostly disappointing search, I finally found a bag of plain Lay’s chips. “Will these work?” I asked, holding up the bag.

“Yeah, those are fine,” Elizabeth said.

I tore open the bag and popped a chip into my mouth. It tasted good, but one wasn’t enough. Elizabeth and I pigged down the entire bag, then we searched for sweets that weren’t brownies.

We came up nearly empty-handed. The only product of our sweets search were four stale Pull-N-Peel Twizzlers. It was better than nothing, so we ate those, too.

After that, I realized something. “I figured out why she said not to eat the ones on the purple plate,” I said.

“Really? Why is that?” Elizabeth asked.

“Those weren’t just any brownies. Those were pot brownies. She didn’t want us to eat them because we’d get high and eat everything else.”

“Oh.” Elizabeth looked at the floor for a second. “That explains why they tasted so funny.”

“Yes, it does. We should go in my room and pretend to watch a movie, just in case she comes home soon.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Good idea.” She grabbed me by the hand and pulled me into my room. “What movie?”

“How about Constantine this time?”

“Yeah, sure.”

I popped the disc into the player and pushed play. Whether or not we actually watched it was to be determined.

After we came down from our highs, the movie was over. Mom pulled into the driveway as I shut everything off. I was kind of nervous about her being home. What if she found out?

“You know what I’ve always wanted to do?” Elizabeth asked, shattering my thoughts.

“What’s that?”

“I’ve always wanted to fall asleep under the stars.” Elizabeth smiled dreamily.

“That would be so much fun. Let’s do it.” I gathered up some blankets and pillows.

Mom knocked on the door. “Iggy, I think it’s about time you girls went to bed.”

“We’re going to right now,” I said. “We were thinking of sleeping in the back yard tonight.”

“Okay. I’ll leave the back door unlocked so if you two need anything, you can get in.”

I picked up the blankets and pillows to carry to the back yard. Elizabeth took the pillows from the top of the pile and carried them outside.

We picked a nice spot with a clear view of the night sky and settled two blankets and pillows on the ground. Elizabeth got in the makeshift bed first, making herself comfortable. I sat down and pulled the remaining blanket over us.

Once I got comfortable, Elizabeth snuggled in close to me. I put one arm across her waist and kissed her softly. She smiled and looked up at the sky.

“This is really pretty,” she whispered.

“Not as pretty as you, love,” I whispered back with a smile.

Elizabeth fell asleep first, her rhythmic breathing becoming my lullaby. It didn’t take long until I, too, fell victim to heavy sleep. The smile never left my face.