because no one had seen Lilly at all. Just as she turned the corner she bumped directly into Monsieur Claude. She noticed immediately that he was flustered himself. His face was beet red and his brow was perspiring. He had loosened his shirt collar, and his bow tie was dangling to one side. His pocket watch was in his tiny hand, his waistcoat was undone, and his jacket was practically falling of his shoulders due to the excessive hovering speed he had been doing down the hallway.
Madame Louise gently pulled his jacket back onto his shoulders and discreetly pointed to his brow. Monsieur Claude smiled gratefully for her discretion and mopped his brow with a clean handkerchief.
“Monsieur Claude, what on Earth is the matter?” Madame asked.
Still gasping for air, Monsieur tried to speak but couldn’t.
“Take your time, Monsieur; take a deep breath.”
Monsieur Claude did just that. He took one, two, three, and one more for luck. Finally he composed himself long enough to speak.
“Oh dear, Madame,” he managed to say. “It’s Boris, one of my young fairlings. Well, I’m afraid I can’t find him.”
Madame’s ears perked up immediately. She grabbed Monsieur Claude’s hands.
“We must hurry, Monsieur, we have a problem.”
Monsieur Claude knew that. He had searched everywhere and Boris was nowhere to be found. The other fairlings had looked everywhere too, but to no avail. Boris had simply disappeared. Monsieur suddenly noticed that Madame Louise looked unusual as well. Her cheeks were flushed, she was hovering too fast for indoor flight, and the normally neat bun on her head looked, well, crooked.
“Forgive me, Madame, but are you all right?” he asked.
Madame Louise shook her head.
“No, I’m not, actually,” she said. “It’s Lilly, one of my fairlings. She’s gone.”
Monsieur’s eyes grew huge. He grabbed Madame Louise’s arm.
“Do you think by chance they’re together?” he asked hopefully.
Without slowing down, Madame shrugged, and threw her hands into the air. She didn’t know for sure, but she was hopeful. Being away from the patch for any length of time, for any reason, was cause for concern, especially for a young fairy who wasn’t supposed to leave the patch without elder supervision. The world for any fairling was a dangerous place, but for a young, naïve, inexperienced fairy, danger seemingly loomed around every corner.
“We must report this immediately,” Monsieur Claude said as he opened the door to the elders’ office for Madame.
“After you,” he said nervously. “I’m right behind you.”
Madame Louise rushed to the roll-top desk of the secretary. She gathered herself as best she could.
“We have an emergency,” she blurted out to the secretary. “I’m pretty sure it’s an emergency.”
Monsieur agreed. He had reason to believe that this truly was an emergency. Boris and Lilly were both missing and had been so for a while. It was already dark and was starting to get cold. They had a problem, a huge problem. Anger had turned into disappointment and disappointment had now given in to fear. Two of their fairies were missing, but where should their search start?
It was imperative that they move quickly. They had to find Lilly and Boris. There was no telling how much danger they were in. What if they had been seen? What if they were hurt? Surely at the very least they were cold and hungry.
A search party was quickly organized. A buzz ran through the patch. Something was wrong. What was going on? Whispers began in the dorms.
“Someone is hurt.”
“No, someone’s missing.”
“No, I heard someone had been caught.”
“Caught?”
“Ahhhhhh,” everyone gasped.
The gasp itself was terrifying, as fear struck each and every fairy in the ward. Another dorm monitor arrived and tried as best she could to appear calm and ease the minds of the little fairies.
“All right, dears, everyone must calm down,” she instructed. “It’s true, we have a slight situation, but everything is under control.”
She smiled softly at the fairies sitting in their beds.
“It’s important,” she said, “that we all think positively.”
Everyone agreed. Positive thinking brought about positive solutions and right now everyone wanted to find a positive, successful solution.
The new monitor tried very hard to act as if nothing were out of the ordinary. She did roll call, poured, little glasses of water for the fairies, and tucked them into their cozy little beds. She didn’t really expect them to sleep, though; she hardly believed they’d even rest. She dimmed the lights, sat down at her station, and picked up Madame Louise’s scrolls. It was no use; she couldn’t possibly begin to focus on them. Reading was out of the question. She took a deep breath and looked at the tiny beds; every pair of eyes was on her. She stood up, smiled at the fairies, and spoke very softly.
“Now, then, little ones, let’s get some rest, shall we? Everything is going to be just fine, just wait and see.”
With that the dorm monitor sat down at the monitor’s station and tried to settle herself for the evening. She couldn’t help but notice Lilly’s empty bed, and unfortunately, neither could anyone else. Each fairy wished Lilly was safe and sound, giggling in her bed, and getting into trouble for talking after lights out.
4 • THE PLAN
Lilly didn’t want to alarm Boris, but she had noticed that the air had started to chill and dusk was falling quickly. Roll call would alert the dorm monitor that they were missing–surely they would send someone to find them. But how would they know where to look? Neither Boris nor Lilly was supposed to be away from the mushroom patch, let alone in the middle of Lafayette forest.
Lilly had already figured out that Boris had probably been flying too high too fast and probably for way too long. Not to mention he was obviously flying in a no-fly zone. Softly she asked Boris the question she couldn’t resist.
“Boris, were you supposed to be flying today?”
Eyes filled with tears and his head in his hands, Boris slowly shook his head. He shouldn’t have been flying, and he certainly shouldn’t have been so far away from the patch. He was hurt, felt very queasy, sad, and disappointed in himself, and, if that wasn’t enough, he was incredibly embarrassed.
“Oh Boris,” Lilly sighed. “Will you ever learn to listen to Mademoiselle Francesca?”
She raised her eyebrows and pointed her finger at him as she spoke.
“Rule number three: Never
