Forest of Pears

“Let’s go past the corn field into that forest over there to play,” Blake pointed with his juice box.

“No! That is not a good place to go!” River protested.

“There could be fairies in there though,” Blake threw his empty juice box into the backpack him mom gave him for outside play with drinks to stay hydrated.

“That could be cool,” Abby started to walk towards the forest in awe, but River grabbed onto her wrist.

“Look, you can’t stop us from going in there if we want,” Lanie rolled her eyes and also started walking forward.

“I will run back and tell our parents that you all are going into the forest and they will come back and get you all in trouble,” River threatened.

“If you are so concerned about us, why don’t you come in as our bodyguard,” Lanie told River, who was ten and the oldest of the group. Blake and Lanie were both eight while Abby was only six.

River finally gave into the wish, “Fine, we will go in all together.” He led the front of the four of them into the forest. They walked for a mile looking at the same old boring trees until they came across a river running through the forest decorated with many colors of fruits around it. There were blackberry bushes surrounding the area, tomato plants reaching up from the ground, and a couple of pear trees dropping ripe pears from its branches.

“Oh look, yum!” Abby started to gather some of the dropped pears, but they were full of bugs, so she threw them aside.

“I will climb the pear tree and gather some, you all go gather tomatoes and blackberries. Be sure to wash them off in the river first though,” River instructed while he hopped up the branches. They all gathered the fruit and washed them off at the river to eat in the grass.

“Oh, these young children live in the forest now?” An older woman came out from around some trees with a man her age. The children all rose up ready to run for it.

“Oh no my dears! It is okay that you come and share the food with the others,” she assured them.

“The others?” River was the only one bold enough to speak back.

“Yes, the others in the homeless tents. You didn’t know that there is more tents set up around here?” She asked them.

“No, we came from the neighborhood past the field. We didn’t know this was for the homeless people. Sorry, we will make up for taking these by offering some juice or milk from our backpack” Lanie started to unzip Blake’s backpack.

The woman came forward, “Oh my how lovely! We do not drink milk much here because of how it spoils so quickly. We mostly take in canned food when people give to us. My name is Charlotte by the way.”

“No milk! That is horrible!” Blake was shocked.

“We usually don’t have children here with us, so milk isn’t always a concern, but it is nice to have. My name is Cole,” the man smiled at the children.

“My name is River, and this is Blake, Lanie, and Abby,” River did not detect a threat from the two and decided to trust them. They all sat together drinking milk and enjoying more fruit for a while until River decided they had been gone for too long and the four decided to head back to their homes.

“I didn’t know people lived that way,” Abby felt sad for the couple, “But I really wanted to see fairies.

“They were fairies, Abby,” River laughed.

“They were?” Abby wondered.

“Yeah, didn’t you see how they basically came out of nowhere. They were definitely forest fairies.”

“Oh don’t make things up just to make her believe in something,” Lanie playfully smacked River.

“No, they really were. You will see that something good will happen to you for treating them kindly too.”

“We will see about that,” Lanie shook her head while they each headed back to their separate houses for the night.

****

The next morning, all of the children went outside to play after breakfast as usual. There was a bowl of pears waiting for them when they were all in the backyard of River’s parent’s house. It was sitting in a swing an they all knew where it came from.

“The forest fairy!” Abby jumped excitedly and grabbed for the pears.

“Hey wait, save the seeds. We should plant them,” Blake suggested.

“Oh cool! We can have out own pear tree like the one that was in the forest,” Lanie pulled a clear sandwich baggie out from her pocket and fished out the seeds into them. Over time they watched the tree grow full size and played around the tree while enjoying the fruit. Abby hoped that fairies would come to the tree each day she saw it. One day she finally begged the four to go back into the forest again to see if the fairies would be there.

“We need to search all around then and see if we can find anything,” Blake headed the front of the four this time into the forest where they came back to the same pear tree area and looked around.

“Hey look at this,” Lanie yelled to the other three after a while of searching. The children all ran to the same rocks she was pointing at. On top of the rocks were two little purple and silver wings.

River picked one up and examined it carefully, “They look like preserved fairy wings.”

“Yay, they left us a hint of their existence!” Abby jumped.

“Are you sure they aren’t butterfly wings? Maybe we should search and find out,” Lanie suggested.

“Yeah, let’s research this then,” Blake walked carefully with the wings and found two pieced of glass to place over them into a frame to keep them on the wall in Abby’s room. River looked into the wings on the internet and did not find any that matched the shape or pattern of the ones they found. He did not find any other wings on the internet that could match them besides drawings people had about fairies.

“They are real! I knew it! I am going to tell everyone at school about how I have seen actual fairies!” Abby was excited

“Just know that people may still not believe you. They may think you just made it like those art drawings River found on the internet,” Lanie warned her.

“Lanie doesn’t believe!” Abby was upset.

“Yeah, it’s true though Abby, people will try to debunk you. I would only share if they already also believe in fairies,” Blake suggested.

“I want everyone to know about the fairies even if they don’t believe though,” Abby huffed.

“Hey, if people aren’t okay with you believing in them. That is not the friends to make, right guys,” River looked to them all.

“Sure, I guess so,” Lanie hesitantly agreed with River.

“Plus if we back her up that we all found these wings together, it may help the others at the school to believe us. If not, that is on them,” River continued.

“Makes sense to me. They may be jealous they did not get their own fairy experience,” Blake smiled up at the wings on the wall of Abby’s room.

“Either way, we are fairy friends,” Abby started to run back outside to the pear tree and the rest followed.

“Yeah, fairy friends,” Lanie plucked a pear from the tree and took a juicy bite.