Ferry has been thinking a thousand times whether to tell Ben and Mattilda the truth about himself. The visit at May's, but mostly the fact that she also believed in fairies, finally determined him to make up his mind. So he decided they should all meet at Ben's, for his room seemed the safest place for revealing such an important secret.
But when he sat on the chair in front of his friends, his courage faded away. They waited for a few minutes, watching Ferry fussing on the chair. Matilda's patience eventually came to an end.
"I hope you know Dad doesn't let me visit other classmates," she said as her foot was beginning to tap. "I had to tell him I'm going to the library."
On such a lame excuse, Ben could hardly hold himself from laughing; but once meeting Matilda's squint, he stopped and looked away.
Ferry took a deep breath and then finally said, "I need to tell you a secret about me. But you have to promise you won't say anything to anyone until the end of your lives."
"All right, we promise," said Ben. His eyes were sparkling with curiosity.
"Oh, no. Not like that," said Ferry. "You have to swear first."
"We swear," said Matt, whose foot's tapping increased.
Ferry gave it a little thought and then said, "So be it! Repeat after me. Ben, you're first. I swear..."
"I swear..." Ben repeated.
"... to be hit by lightning..." continued Ferry.
"... to be hit by lightning..." said Ben with a trembling voice.
"... and the lightning to get through my brain..."
"... and the lightning to get through my brain... Wait! What?!" asked Ben slightly worried.
But Ferry continued, "... and not know what two plus two equals, nor my name..."
Ben repeated with a frightened look on his face, "... to be the dumbest child in school, and stay in the third grade for the rest of my life..."
Ben was now merely whispering while repeating the oath.
"... if I'll ever tell what Ferry is going to tell me," Ferry ended triumphantly.
Ben could now breathe easily, "... if I'll ever tell what Ferry is going to tell me!" he said.
"And..." Ferry continued to Ben's exasperation, "all the two-year-old children to laugh at me and become the town's fool..."
Ben repeated after Ferry in half-voice.
"... if I'll ever tell what Ferry is going to tell me!" Ferry finally said.
Ben finished the oath almost in tears.
"Now it's your turn, Matt," said Ferry, acting as a judge in a court.
But before he could say anything, Matilda was already ahead of him, "I swear that if I tell what Ferry is going to tell me, my brain will hit by lightning..."
"No, wait!" Ferry interrupted her. "Your oath has to be different. Repeat after me, "I swear,"
Matilda repeated without much enthusiasm.
But Ferry continued untroubled, "... to be hit by lightning and become crippled, and not be able to climb the lowest branch..."
Matilda was slightly irritated, mumbling, "... lightning... crippled... branch..."
"... to crawl like a worm..."
Matilda's irritation increased. Ferry continued without minding her, "... and my family to move me around and forget about me when the time is hot..."
"... forget about me... hot..."
"... and flies and bugs invade me while I'm long forgotten in the heat... "
But Matilda's patience, however, had a limit, "Will you stop that already? I don't really care about your secret, anyway! I bet it's something about a flower or something like that," she said, standing up and ready to leave.
"All right, all right. I'll tell you," Ferry finally said. If he came to think of it, he enjoyed playing jokes on his friends from time to time. Even though that meant being mean to them. And he was surprised sometimes about that sort of behavior which was nothing like him.
"The thing is, you can't tell anyone," he insisted.
"WE WON'T TELL ANYONE!!!" his friends shouted in one voice.
"Though I bet Ben's sisters have already found out all we've talked about," said Matilda.
Indeed. When Ben opened the door, his sisters fell one on top of the other, giggling.
"Now we know what scares Ben the most," they laughed.
Ben chased them away like chicken, and then returned to his friends.
"Well?" Matilda asked. "What's your big secret?"
Ferry took a deep breath.
"Well... I think... I can see fairies," he finally said, breathing out.
After a moment of silence, Matilda burst into laughter while Ben tried in vain to hold himself from laughter.
"What? You don't believe me?" Ferry argued.
"Of course, we believe you," Matilda said, laughing. "Just as we believe all the other weird things of yours. Like someone is drawing instead of you. Or whispering all the answers at school. Or that no one can take a picture of you."
Although Matilda had to admit that she asked herself many times how Ferry could fix the shoes in his father's workshop all by himself. Then she thought maybe his parents helped. But still...
"How about you, Ben? Do you believe me?"
Ben avoided looking at him, "Well... my mother believes in these things, but I... I'd rather think they're not real. You know, if they can't be explained by science. Or if they don't have a logical explanation."
"Oh, yes, that coming from someone who believes in aliens," Matilda mumbled.
"It's a bigger probability aliens exist rather than fairies," Ben rushed to answer, always ready to expose his theories about beings on other planets. "If we think mathematically, there are millions of stars like our Sun in the Universe. It's almost impossible a planet like Earth wouldn't exist─ "
Matilda waved her hand, then turn to Ferry, "What do you see, exactly?" she asked, just as suspicious. "Are there tiny fairies with pink, pearly wings, floating in the air and spreading pixie dust?"
Ferry didn't mind her irony.
"No, I never saw something like that. The fairies I see don't live in fairy tales books; not the ones Miss Summer is usually reading to us."
"Maybe you're seeing aliens, like the ones in my notebook," said Ben with his eyes shining, while taking out of his schoolbag a thick notebook, full of pictures of aliens.
"Well, if aliens look like in the films on TV or those in your notebook, then no, I'm not seeing aliens."
"Then how do you know you're not imagining things?" asked Matilda just as querulous.
"Well, that's what I thought at the beginning. That I have a wide imagination as my mother said. But in time, I realized that there is a connection between these magical beings I'm seeing and the things that happen to me or to my friends."
"Like what?" Matilda asked, this time curious.
Ferry hesitated for a moment, "Look... when your grandmother died, I knew something bad was going to happen because I saw a creature hovering about your house."
Matt jumped to her feet, like burnt. "I'm not going to listen to this rubbish!" she said while slamming the door as she got out. Ferry rushed to pick up his jacket while running after her, leaving Ben holding his precious notebook.
He caught with her when she was just about to turn the corner, heading towards her house.
"I didn't mean to make you sad, Matt," he said.
She didn't answer. Instead, she put two fingers in her mouth and pulled out a sharp whistle. From a bush on the side of the road, a dog appeared. It was Shadow, Matilda's dog. Only it didn't look like a dog: it was huge, with grey fur and he looked more like a wolf. Except for his red eyes, shining in the darkness that was settling.
"You have a strange dog, Matt," he said to the girl.
"It's the best dog in the world," she said softly, and Ferry could read affection in her voice.
"I'm sure he is. But he looks more like a wolf. Where did you get it?"
"I didn't get it. He found me, actually. He was scratching at the door, begging us to let him in."
"When did that happen?" asked Ferry, frowning.
Matt was surprised by his question, "Last summer, on a stormy night. Why?"
⃰
It was the second time that week when Ferry asked Matilda and Ben for a secret meeting. This time, Ferry invited them to his house so that no one would listen to their discussion.
"What is it, this time?" Matilda asked after Ferry's mother left the room, leaving a plate of muffins on the table.
"I want to talk about our pets," said Ferry as serious as he could be.
"What's to talk about?" asked Ben.
"Don't you find it strange," Ferry continued, "that our pets showed up into our lives the same way? And I'm pretty sure they also showed up at the same time."
"So what? It's just a coincidence, said Matilda.
"I don't think it's a coincidence, Matt," Ferry said. "You have to admit our pets look and behave strangely."
"But that's what makes them so special," said Ben. "I wouldn't change Izzy for the most amazing lizard in the entire world."
"Neither would I. I wouldn't change Shadow for any other animal in this world," added Matilda.
"I have a pet, too," Ferry admitted. "It's a bird, actually and, I think it's the most amazing bird in the world. It's true, it came into my life recently, but, just like your pets, he doesn't act like a normal raven. And I know someone else who has a strange pet, too."
"Who?" his friends asked.
"May. She has a rabbit that looks nothing like a rabbit."
Matilda rolled her eyes. "May... Why am I not surprised? Maybe every child in our class has a pet YOU find it strange. Because YOU always find something strange even in the most ordinary things."
"In fact," Ben interrupted her, "I must admit Izzy is making things that intrigue me sometimes. He's running, not crawling. And he also loves hot chocolate."
Matilda stood up and started to walk the room from one corner to another, "All right, let's admit we have odd pets. So what?"
"So wouldn't you like to find out more about them? Why are they behaving the way they do? How come they chose us to be their owners?"
The girl had to admit the way her dog was behaving also intrigued her.
"So how are we going to find out? I suppose we can't just ask them..."
"No," said Ferry. " The easiest way is to remember when exactly they came into our lives."
Ben raised his hand as if he were at school. "As far as I can remember, Izzy showed up last summer, on the night of twenty-three to twenty-four of June."
"Same as Shadow..." Matilda almost whispered.
Ferry's eyes were shimmering, "That's strange... So was May's rabbit. Only my raven showed up a bit later."
Ben and Matilda's jaws dropped.
"Do you remember anything unusual happening at that time?"
The two friends tried to remember as hard as they could. Then they both jumped off their seats, shouting at the same time:
"YESSS!!! MR. PANCAKE'S MAGIC SHOW!!!"
And the two children began to tell, interrupting each other, how beautiful and strange the show was. How the town had never witnessed anything like that. Nor would it ever witness again.
Thank you for taking the time to read this new chapter! Please vote, comment, and share Ferry's adventures with your friends.