His Dogness

While Sparkle Girl and Doobins played in the sprinkler, Garnet sat on the porch stitching the straps onto a dress. When the children were done, they joined her on the porch and picked up the towels that Garnet had stacked there for them.

“That dress is very beautiful,” said Sparkle Girl as she dried off her hair. “Who is it for?”

“Lily,” said Garnet. “It’s a birthday present.”

“Lily the Fairy?” asked Doobins who was holding his towel without bothering to dry off.

“Yes, Lily the Fairy,” said their mother.

“That dress is kind of big for a fairy,” said Doobins.

Sparkle Girl, who had been thinking the same thing, said, “It looks like it would fit you, Momma.”

“It will fit Lily just right when we’re done,” Garnet said.

Garnet took Doobins’s towel, dried him off and sent both of them inside to change.

Later, she asked whether they would like for the dress to be from all of them or whether they wanted to make their own presents for Lily. They both wanted to draw her a picture. Sparkle Girl got out a sheet of paper and started to cut off a tiny square like she did when she left a note for the fairies.

“No need to do that,” said Garnet. “You can draw a regular-size picture.”

“Won’t it be too big for her to carry?” asked Sparkle Girl.

“It will be just the right size when we’re done,” said Garnet.

“How old is she anyway?” asked Doobins.

“I don’t know,” said Garnet.

“I bet she is at least 19,” said Sparkle Girl.

Sparkle Girl filled her sheet of paper with flowers of all different colors. On his, Doobins drew a turtle with a caterpillar on his back. Both of them were wearing armor.

“I thought it might scare Lily if I drew them fighting,” said Doobins. “So I just drew them on their way to the Gladiator Convention.”

Once they had wrapped their presents, Sparkle Girl said, “Now what?”

“We go over to Mrs. Cocovole’s,” said Garnet.

Mrs. Cocovole lives next to Mr. Chundy’s Magic Mart. It’s hard to see her house from the street because the front yard has so many trees.

“Ah, I was expecting you,” Mrs. Cocovole said when she answered the door. “The iced tea is ready. And, of course, I have chocolate milk for Mr. Doobins.”

Doobins doesn’t like tea hot or cold.

While they were having their tea and milk and cookies, Mrs. Cocovole told them a story about the time Mr. Chundy left his Marvels out in the rain.

On one wall of Mrs. Cocovole’s living room are five doors. Sparkle Girl and Doobins had had always wondered where all those doors went. But, when they asked, Mrs. Cocovole just told them that, one day, they would see.

When they were done, she stood up and said, “Children, today is the day you will see where the first door goes.”

She walked over and opened it. Sparkle Girl and Doobins felt a little nervous so they let their mother go through it first. When they followed, they found themselves in a hall lined with pictures.

As they walked down the hall, they looked at the pictures. Every one was a fairy.

At one picture, Sparkle Girl said, “Momma, that one looks like you.”
“It does,” said Doobins, “only you don’t have wings.”

When they came to the door, they opened it and stepped onto a rock surrounded a rings of looked like tree trunks, only smooth, and leaves big enough to sit on. High above them, they could see pink petals big enough to use as blankets.

It took Sparkle Girl and Doobins a moment to realize that they were standing among giant flowers.

“Wow,” they said. “Where are we?”

“The flower garden between Mrs. Cocovole’s and Mr. Chundy’s yards,” Garnet said. “Those are those zinnias you like so much, Sparkle Girl.”

“So we’re as small as a fairy?” asked Doobins.

“For the moment,” said Garnet. “Now let’s put down our presents and get back home.”

On the way back down the hallway, Sparkle Girl and Doobins paused again in front of the picture that looked like their mother.

“Did everything go well?” asked Mrs. Cocovole.

“Just fine,” said Garnet.

Although Sparkle Girl and Doobins hardly ever take naps any more, that’s exactly what they wanted to do after their adventure. After Garnet tucked them in, she went into the living room and pushed aside the grandfather clock. She opened the door behind it and looked inside the closet.

Hanging there were the wings that she had had to take off so she could start her life as Sparkle Girl and Doobins’s mother. Poos Maloos the Cat came over to take a look into the closet.

Garnet smiled and said, “When I took those off, Poos, I had no idea just how much joy Sparkle Girl and Doobins would bring me.”

She nudged Poos out of the way, closed the door and rolled the grandfather clock back into place.