Book II – The Magic Within
— Chapter 1 —
The fairies in the garden
Ana opens her eyes melancholy. She had just woken up from a peaceful and restful sleep. A few days had already passed since the mysterious event that had transported her family to that peculiar city. Still lying down, she observed Tobias sleeping in the next bed (she and Tobias had put the beds together after combining the two single rooms). She looked to the other side and observed the bedroom window, just below which there was a small piece of furniture with a vase of petunias. On the wall next to her, a colorful abstract painting contrasted with the white that dominated the room. She adjusted herself against the headboard, sitting with her back against it, and remained there, thoughtful, for a while.
Her RRT1, which was on the bedside table next to it, beeped. It was a message from Marlene to confirm a meeting with her right after lunch. Ana just observed the device for a few moments with a neutral expression. There was a lot of information to digest, and she felt insecure and scared, a feeling shared, to a greater or lesser extent, by all the newcomers. After all, they ‘dropped in out of the blue’ there, simply ripped from their previous life. She sighed, getting up shortly thereafter, and felt a somewhat mysterious atmosphere surrounding the room. When she turned around, she saw that Tobias was looking at her.
“What are you thinking about, Ana?” he asked.
She took a few moments to respond and made a shy, slight ‘no’ shake of her head.
“Nothing… nothing whatsoever,” she said.
“Something is bothering you, Ana,” he said firmly.
“I miss home. Of the other house, my old one. It’s ironic, isn’t it? This place is almost a paradise. You, Rafael, and Bruna are here. I should be happy. But this feeling of melancholy keeps haunting me…”
Tobias hugged her affectionately. Ana leaned back comfortably against his welcoming chest.
“It’s perfectly normal, Ana. We had a whole history in the other world, and you know it’s unlikely we’ll go back there. We all know.”
At that point, they hear a knock on the door, followed by a child’s voice.
“Mom!”
Ana moved away a little.
“You can come in,” she said.
Bruna came bouncing in, pulling her brother, who still looked sleepy.
“Someone turn her off, please,” said Rafael, lazily.
While being watched by the smiling Tobias, Ana joked and lightly pinched Bruna’s nose.
“Let me check if you’ve switched off here.” -slight pause- “Oh, don’t turn off!” Then grabbed Bruna’s ear. “So let’s see if it’s here. Oh, it’s not either!”
Bruna laughed delightfully at her mother’s joke, who got excited, hugging her daughter effusively. The melancholy she felt disappeared as if by magic.
“Mom, I want to go to the Forest of a Thousand Things. I saw a fairy there.”
Ana furrowed her eyebrows.
“Okay,” she said. “My appointment with Marlene is only in the afternoon.”
“Oh, that’s not fair…” Tobias complained. “Why do only I have to go pick up leaves?”
“Because it was just you who messed up,” Ana replied.
Tobias snorted slightly at Rafael’s still sleepy face, who said,
“Well, I really need to wake up. This morning I have to present myself at Cepesq II2.”
Ana smiled.
“I almost forgot,” she said. “Congratulations on your new job!”
“I don’t even know if it’s a job. This place is blowing my mind.”
“Yes, in all of us. But you will be scored, won’t you?”
“Yes. One standard point per hour.”
“So I guess it’s a job…”
Tobias got up and put his hand on Rafael’s shoulder while Ana left the room with Bruna. Some time later, everyone was sitting at the table to have the traditional Brazilian breakfast: milk with coffee, bread with butter, and orange juice with a slice of papaya. After breakfast, they dressed more appropriately to go out.
Outside, a clear sky with few clouds and inspiring blue was waiting for the family. It was Ana who took the family vehicle to drive. The first stop was in the garden, where Tobias would serve his alternative sentence. There, he found Júlia and the two PSI311 androids who accompanied them on their work (Alfredo and Tamara).
Ana then continued to Cepesq II, where she left Rafael, and headed towards the Grove of a Thousand Things.
Already walking with Bruna along one of the endless trails in the Grove, Ana comments, carefully observing the surroundings:
“I’m increasingly fascinated by this place.”
“It’s a magical forest, Mommy,” replied Bruna. “I want to find my little fairy. I saw her up front.”
Ana smiled. She had already seen some children playing with small flying beings that had butterfly wings and looked like fairies. She deduced that they were small toy robots and that perhaps that was what her daughter had seen. Bruna was in no rush, despite wanting to go to the place where she, supposedly, had seen the fairy. They walked calmly. In fact, tranquility was a characteristic of Ybymarã’s culture that almost all travelers3 were beginning to assimilate. The slower pace had its advantages, especially here, in the Grove of a Thousand Things. They could observe details along the way that they would miss if they were in a hurry. And there were many, many details to see in the Grove.
“Look, Mommy!” Bruna exclaimed, pointing and looking up.
Ana looked up and said,
“A caxinguelê4!”
The animal was on the trunk of a tree, descending upside down. Ana addressed her daughter:
“You know, Bruna, where we come from, the Indians believe that it is in the form of a caxinguelê that our soul goes to heaven when we die.”
They watched the small animal, fascinated by its ability to descend upside down. When it reached the ground, they could still see him. Bruna extended her arms, inviting him to come closer. He came, slightly afraid, until he placed his nose against the little hand of smiling Bruna, who managed to caress him for a few moments before he ran back to the tree and nimbly climbed it. Ana, satisfied, followed the scene. Then she said, alluding to the small animal’s extreme agility:
“It’s not for nothing that they call him a ‘serelepe’ either.”
Then she took Bruna’s hand.
“Come on,” she said.
Further ahead, they found a small square with a rustic kiosk in the middle, where they could rest, drink water, and satisfy other needs. It was a point of convergence of several trails, circular in shape, with open-air benches around the ‘circle’ of the square.
Ana and Bruna sat on one of the benches, intending to observe the place. From there, they saw a small, agitated group of lion tamarins in a nearby tree. Almost on the other side of the square, a toucan slowly flapped its wings. But it was another little animal that caught their attention.
A small bird with black wings, a reddish head, and a yellow breast had landed on the bench, less than a yard from Bruna. They remained absolutely still so as not to scare away the small, beautiful bird that, curious, approached Bruna, slowly and zigzagging. She and her mother watched, smiling, the bird’s movements. It then jumped onto one of Bruna’s legs, who smiled excitedly but remained motionless. The bird lay down there. Bruna slowly and carefully raised her right arm and smilingly stroked the little bird’s head with the tip of her index finger. After a few seconds, it got up and took flight, under the attentive and satisfied eyes of Bruna and Ana.
“Your wish will come true!” said a woman who was about two yards away and had observed the scene.
They came back to reality.
“How?!” Ana exclaimed, still amazed.
“It was a uirapuru. Whoever finds one has a wish fulfilled,” adds the woman.
Bruna got excited.
“I’ll be able to see my fairy!” she exclaimed.
The woman continued:
“The Fairy Garden is just ahead. Who knows, maybe a fairy will choose you,” she said, pointing to Bruna.
Bruna got up and tugged at her mother’s arm,
“Come on, Mommy, I want to find the fairy soon!”
“I would wish you luck, but you don’t need it,” said the woman, mentioning the uirapuru.
Ana even managed to see the beautiful bird perched on a branch before following Bruna along the trail that would take them to the Fairy Garden. It was a very colorful place, with small decorated trees, a small lake, and flower-shaped houses, which continued to disappear into dense vegetation. Everything in miniature. Even the trail they passed was narrow, made up of separate rocks, where only one person at a time could pass without any problems.
Bruna followed cautiously, and Ana copied her. However, she was intrigued. She had been like this since the meeting with the woman and the uirapuru, when she said that a fairy could adopt Bruna. She had already seen so many incredible things in that city that she was beginning to imagine that, perhaps, it was possible that there were real fairies there.
In any case, he continued patiently with Bruna for about half an hour, admiring and enjoying his daughter. She walked along the narrow trails decorated with petunias until she began to get tired. Then Bruna stopped, looked at her mother, and put her little finger in front of her lips, asking for silence. Ana was intrigued again, furrowing her eyebrows. Bruna knelt down, carefully extended one of her arms, and made an inviting movement.
“Come, come here!” she said, with all the care in the world.
Ana asked herself in a whisper:
“It will be possible?”
After a few moments, a tiny humanoid creature, just over a foot tall and with a female body, hesitantly came out from behind a small bush. It wasn’t wearing any clothes and had a pair of beautiful, colorful, membranous wings retracted on its back. The little creature opened its wings for a few moments, which made it look like a butterfly. Bruna smiled widely as she called the little being, who approached slowly and hesitantly.
Ana was perplexed. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. As she approached Bruna, the little creature extended her tiny arms towards Bruna’s hands and touched her middle finger. Her tiny hand barely covered the tip of it. Ana bent down and brought one of her hands closer to the little being, who also touched her fingers.
Then she noticed several of these little creatures there, half hidden but curious, with male and female appearances. The fairy climbed into Bruna’s hands and snuggled up.
“How come I never saw these fairies? Am I dreaming?” Ana asked herself.
“No, you’re not dreaming,” said a male voice.
Ana stood up, looking towards the voice. He was a middle-aged man dressed in brightly colored clothes that helped him blend into the landscape.
“Hi, my name is Kayke. I’m responsible for the fairies.”
“Ana,” she replied, extending her hand while looking slightly confused.
Bruna stood up, happy, with the little fairy in her hands. Kayke continued:
“You never came here, to the Fairy Garden, did you?”
“Not me,” Ana replied. “It’s my first time. But Bruna came here yesterday.”
“Just look!” he smiled. “In two days she already won over Maiara… She must have a very pure heart.”
Kayke then turned her gaze to Ana as he said,
“Fairies are extremely empathetic. They know what we are feeling and when they can trust us.”
“Curious…” Ana pondered. “Bruna is also quite empathetic.”
Kayke smiled.
“Well, it looks like Maiara adopted a mother, but you need to agree so that Bruna can stay with her.”
Ana felt a chill, “As it? I have no idea how to take care of a fairy…”
“Don’t worry about that. Fairies are very independent. Furthermore, I will teach Bruna how to take care of her.”
Bruna then took the fairy to Ana’s hands, who took it fearfully.
“She’s very light…” noticed. “I don’t know if we can keep her, Bruna. This is all very… new…”
“Leave it, Mom, leave…” said Bruna, jumping, while Maiara made a cute face.
“It’s not that common for a fairy to choose someone. Furthermore, no one has refused to date,” said Kayke.
Ana, with a look of admiration and pity, looked at the little being’s poor face. Her heart softened.
“Okay, we’ll keep it.”
The fairy smiled, flapped her colorful wings, and flew to Bruna’s shoulder, hugging her as best she could and showering her with kisses. Bruna laughed heartily. Ana was intrigued.
“It seems like she understood what I said…” she commented.
“They understand almost everything we say,” explained Kayke. “You will see that they are very intelligent.”
Ana kind of wanted to regret it but gave up when she saw Bruna and Maiara’s happiness. She sighed, making an expression like ‘so let’s see what happens.’ After a few moments, she was politely interrupted by Kayke,
“Please give me your RRT so you can contact me if you need to.”
Ana took the RRT out of her bag. She still hadn’t gotten used to wearing it on her arm. She just brought the device closer to the one on Kayke’s arm, and, with a simple command, Ana’s RRT registered Kayke’s and vice versa.
“You won’t regret it,” he said. “Send me some videos.”
Kayke changed his expression to a somewhat sad one,
“I already miss her…” he said.
Ana smiled a half-smile in a tone of doubt. Then she nodded hesitantly.
“Come on, Bruna.”
She turned to go back, but, before leaving with Bruna, the little fairy flew to Kayke and said goodbye to him with a little kiss on his moved but joyful face, in which a small solitary tear slid down. He had been through the same situation other times, but he was always moved when a fairy was adopted. He knew he would miss it, but he would never take away from a little girl the happiness of having a fairy by her side.
1 Acronym for the Portuguese ‘Rádio-Relógio-Telefone’ (radio-clock-phone). See glossary.
2 Acronym for the Portuguese “Centro de Pesquisas II” (Research Center II). The accelerator was the Cepesq I.
3 ‘Travelers’ was the name given by the Ybymarã’s natives for the people who were transported to the city in the event that became known as ‘The Bubble.’
4 Brazilian squirrel.
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