“The director’s taking a shower. He’ll be—”
“The fewer people who know about this, the better.” Aaron was awake now and fussy. Bruce picked him up, marveling again at how strange life was. A week ago he’d been a bored firefighter with an emptiness in his life that he couldn’t seem to fill. Not with endless girls, not with dangerous risks, and not with family. Then, after one visit from his brother, he suddenly had magic, a child, and—
Laddin walked in, and Bruce didn’t even try to hide his sappy smile.
He had love, and that was the best magic of all.
Laddin sat in the rocking chair and held out his hands. “Give me Aaron, then start talking.”
He did, but not to Wulfric and Laddin. As soon as Aaron was settled, Bruce lifted his head and called for the pixies.
“Erin Rodger-Dodger and Fetid Feta. Erin Rodger-Dodger and Fetid Feta. Erin Rodger-Dodger and Fetid Feta, I call you to come to me!”
“You named your baby after me!” Erin cried as she spun in a circle on her toe, right on the armrest of the rocking chair.
Laddin jerked, jostling the baby, who let out a cry of dismay. “It’s okay, baby! You’re going to have a wonderful life of magic!” Erin said as she pulled off her fairy hat and set it on Aaron’s forehead. It slid right off. It was the size of a thumbnail, but that was okay because she caught it and put it back on her head.
Meanwhile, Fetid Feta appeared next to the bathroom, crossed his large arms, and glared at everyone in the room. “I should have a baby named after me! I’m the biggest!”
“We didn’t—” Bruce protested, but Wulfric cut him off.
“Don’t go there.”
Right. “I need to ask you two some questions.”
“Will it get us to Fairyland?” Feta asked.
“I don’t know.” That was a true statement. He focused on his first question. “Why do you appear like that? Like cheese?” he asked Feta.
“It was because of the man like you. The one who created the demon.”
It took a moment for Bruce to follow that, but Laddin was already there. “The one who created the demon? You mean the one who wrote the short story that started this whole thing?”
Feta nodded. “He was like you.” He pointed at Bruce. “He had a lot of magic, and he liked cheese.”
“Like me?” Bruce asked. “He ate a fairy fruit?”
“So he could have a baby.”
“Named after me!” Erin said as she spun around.
“Why do the cheese fairies play Angry Birds, then? Back when you first met Laddin at the tree?” They’d gone over every detail of the past few days, and that was a question he’d asked yesterday too.
“Because everyone likes Angry Birds!” Erin said. Then she launched into the air as if she’d been thrown from a slingshot and crashed on Feta’s chest. He tumbled backward into the bathroom and they rolled around like in the game.
“Can’t argue with that,” Wulfric said. “I love that game.”
So did Bruce, but he didn’t have time to talk about video games. “But can you change your appearance? Can you look like something else?”
Erin sat up. “Why would we want to?”
“To get into Fairyland.” Bruce pointed at Aaron. “Can you look like our baby?”
Both pixies stared at him for a moment. Then, abruptly, there were two more infants in the room—one the size of a handspan on the floor, the other nearly six foot tall as he lay half in and half out of the bathroom.
“No, no!” Bruce said as he jumped onto the bed to avoid getting kicked by Feta. “One baby, and exactly the same size.”
Feta abruptly shrank down to the appropriate size, but Erin sat up as her regular self. “How will this get us into Fairyland?”
