The Moonlight Boy | Ferry's Tale # 1

A fairy's gift

"What was she like?" asked Ferry after a moment of silence.

"She was the merriest person I've ever met. Even when she got older and weaker, she still told jokes and laughed a lot. I want to show you something," she said.

She then went to the lower drawer of the chest from where she took out an old wooden box with a little girl on a swing painted on the top. She then sat next to Ferry, pushing some toys aside. When she opened the box, a song came out like drops of music from old times. May took out a picture of her grandmother. She was as tall and thin as May's father. She was always smiling and Ferry could tell just by looking at the pictures she was an amazing woman. Unfortunately, all the pictures were showing her at an old age. In one photo, she was riding a horse; another was portraying her with the Egyptian pyramids in the background. She was just sitting in a field dotted with poppies in a third one.

"What did your grandmother do for a living?" he asked.

"My grandmother was an adventuress," said May and the sparkle in her eyes came back. "She had a lot of jobs during her life. She was a teacher, acrobat, explorer, paleontologist, biologist, ethnologist, and a lot of other jobs ending in -ist. She got bored easily, and she loved to travel. When she visited, she used to bring me a lot of amazing gifts, each one with a great story. Even when she died, she died doing what she loved. She went to explore some strange ruins when an earthquake started and everything collapsed on her and her team. I would've loved to still have her around..." she said softly.

Ferry looked at the smiling face in the photos. One of them particularly captured his attention. It was an older photo, with a yellowish tint. This time, May's grandmother was young and Ferry could recognize the same contagious smile. She was wearing a long, white dress, made of fine lace embroidery. She had a big brim hat that covered her face almost entirely. But something else caught his eye. Besides May's grandmother, there was a tall silhouette. Unlike the young woman, the person sitting next to her was blurry, spreading a white, milky light around. He couldn't distinguish the silhouette's facial features, nor the clothing. The blurry face though captured the eye, even with the crowd in the background. Even May's grandmother looked somehow less interesting having that person next to her. On the back of the photo, he could read September 30th, 1911.

"That's a photo my grandmother took at a big fair," said May. "She told me a lot of wonderful things about that fair."

Ferry couldn't take his eyes away from that strange silhouette.

"Who's with her in the picture?" he asked.

"Oh, that's a fairy," said May as naturally as possible.

Ferry was sure his jaw dropped, "A fairy?!"

"Wait a second!" she said, amused by his reaction.

May got up again and feverishly looked for something in the drawer. This time, she came back with a Swiss chocolate box. The lid was beautifully decorated with a painting representing a dancing couple, but the drawing was dim and flowers of rust were embracing the two dancers little by little as time passed. May opened the box and took out colored glass beads, wooden and mother-of-pearl figurines, rusty coins from all the places her grandmother had traveled, small perfume bottles, porcelain dolls, and many other charming trifles that would have brought joy to any little girl.

She finally found a silk handkerchief with initials MF. She unfolded it and took out an old, silver comb with a big, blue stone encrusted in the middle. A faint scent of lavender scattered as she unfolded the handkerchief.

"It's a gift from the fairy I told you about," she said, caressing the comb with the tip of her fingers. "It's the most precious thing she left me because it's magical. But it's not for me."

"What do you mean?" Ferry wondered.

"My grandmother told me the fairy gave it to her so she would give it to her granddaughter. The fairy knew my grandmother was to have a granddaughter. Some fairies can predict the future, you know? Then she said something odd, something neither I nor my grandmother could understand."

"What did she say?" asked Ferry, feeling his racing.

"She said, 'Tell your granddaughter to give this to the moonlight boy when the time shall come...'"

Once again, Ferry's draw dropped, as he stared at the magical comb which he didn't dare to touch.

"Do you believe in fairies, May?" he asked her, looking into her eyes.

May blushed. "Yes, I do believe in fairies, even though they live only in fairy tales. But then again, you don't have to see it to believe it..."

Ferry was about to tell her he had seen some strange things in his life, too when a scratch at the door stopped him.

"Oh, my!" she jumped from her seat. "I forgot Harry outside."

"Who's Harry?"

"It's my rabbit," answered the girl, opening the door.

Through the half-open door entered the strangest rabbit Ferry has ever seen. He had indeed long, rabbit-like ears, but the mouth was elongated like a wolf's mouth. The eyes were red and gimlet. And the strangest of all, it was walking on its back legs as humans do.

"What a curious rabbit you have, May," said Ferry without taking his eyes away from the odd creature.

"It's a hare, actually," May explained, putting Harry in her lap and offering it a cookie. The rabbit grabbed the cookie with both paws. Ferry could see some sort of suckers on the back of its paws. The creature was crunching the cookie without minding them.

"Was it also a gift from your grandmother?" the boy asked.

"Oh, no. Grandma was long gone before we found Harry. He found us, actually. He was scratching at the door. Last summer, on a stormy night."

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