Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog

she's the pink glob?"
    He squints at me. "She's invisible to humans when she wants to be."
    I laugh bitterly. "Well, she should work on that trick, because she looks like hair gel to me."
    He looks surprised. "You mean, you can see her?"
    "I can see something. I'm sure I'm just hallucinating or dreaming or insane." I rub the spot on my head.
    "I'm sorry about that," he says, dusting some dirt off the knees of his jeans. "She was sleeping when we left for school. We couldn't wake her and knew she would be upset if we left her, so he put her in a paper bag until she woke up."
    "Well, that explains her-whoever she is-being pissed. I would be, too, if you treated me like a ham sandwich." I sigh and hold out my hands in exasperation. "This isn't getting much clearer."
    "I know. Here. This will explain things." He reaches across the room and pulls out his backpack. He unzips the front pocket and retrieves a crumpled paper bag.
    Another paper bag. Great. I peer over as he unfolds it, somehow expecting it to contain all the answers to all the questions that have been swirling in my mind. Finally, he reaches in and pulls out...
    A stick.
    Not like a twig or anything. More like a chop stick. Not even a good set. Just one.
    "Is there a fortune cookie, too?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
    "Stop."
    I shrug. "I know I shouldn't be making light of the situation because you're obviously in some emotional turmoil right now, but if you won't let me in on it, what do you expect?"
    "Okay, okay. You said a fortune cookie?" Under his breath, half to himself, he says, "I think I could do that."
    Staring hard, he holds the stick firmly in his hand, like a pencil, and taps it slowly on the mat beside me, three times.
    "It works better with kung pao-" I begin, but before I can get the sentence out, it appears. I blink, then blink again, and finally look at Cam, who is inspecting it thoughtfully.
    "See that?" he says.
    "See? Yes. Believe?" I murmur.
    "Open it. Read it," he urges.
    I do as I am told. I pick it up, and it's still warm, but yes, it is a fortune cookie. Just a normal, everyday fortune cookie. One that, I'm sure, didn't exist fifteen seconds ago. Shaking my head, I break it open, pull out the sliver of paper, and read: DON'T LET THEM TAKE ME AWAY FROM YOU.
    My eyes trail off the paper, back to his face. The funny thing about Cam is that he'd still like me to think he doesn't cry, even though growing up, I've seen plenty of his meltdowns, from dirty-diaper chaos to the lost-Oreo debacle. And in the split second before I meet his gaze, I know he wipes a tear from the corner of his eye.

Chapter Thirteen
     
    "WAIT. WHO'S TAKING you away? You're moving? Your dad got relocated? Oh, God!" I bury my face in the disgustingly scratchy burlap.
    "No."
    "Oh. Then what the hell?" I'm getting frustrated. Nothing's much clearer except for the fact that my amazingly talented boyfriend has the new skill of pulling Chinese food out of his butt. And now he's looking around again, as if trying to zero in on a fly that's been buzzing around his head. "Wait. Are we talking about Dawn again?"
    "Shh, she can hear."
    Agh, Fine, I'll play along. "Is she here now? Would she like some of this fortune cookie?"
    "I don't know. I can't tell."
    "Well then, I'm eating it all," I say, shoving a piece into my mouth. Even if it did just come from his butt, I'm starving.
    He ignores me, shakes the chopstick in his hand. "I'm not very good with this thing yet."
    "This thing'?"
    "My wand."
    "Wand? Cam, it's a freaking chopstick."
    "A chopstick that can make fortune cookies? Morg, think about it."
    I inspect it, then say, dumbly, "But wands are pretty, and gold. With a star at the tip." At least, the one I got at Disney World when I was five was.
    "It's a training wand."
    Okay, right. So now he is just getting annoying. "Why do you have a wand? Are you a magician? Is Dawn your assistant? And you made her invisible?"
    "No, she's my guide."
    "Your... guide? Like a tour guide? For