beatrix bobbit's spring fever

Beatrix Bobbit stared out the gray living room window and sighed. Winter did not want to end. No matter how many springy spells she practiced, the cold and dreary weather clung to them like Mr. Bobbit to Penny after the time Mrs. Bobbit accidentally left her in the forest.

"When can we got outside?" Sybil plopped into the chair by the window with Beatrix.

"Never. Winter will never end."

"Beatrix, dear. Don't be dramatic. Of course winter will end," Mrs. Bobbit shuffled into the living room draped in a blanket. She was difficult to understand while her teeth chattered together so loudly.

Mr. Bobbit shuffled in, trailing Mrs. Bobbit, wrapped in a blanket printed with photos of Penny. A gift from Beatrix.

He grunted and collapsed onto the couch next to Mrs. Bobbit.

"Can I get you some tea?" Beatrix asked.

They both responded with a sneeze.

"Ew," Sybil whispered, following Beatrix to the kitchen.

"Mom and Dad are sick, and it's too gross to go outside. What else can we do?" Beatrix asked while heating the kettle.

"It's grosser inside. Let's build a fairy fort in a tree! Like when we were really little," Sybil pranced across the black and white tiles.

Beatrix couldn't help the smile that spread across her face at this suggestion. "I'm in." Dreary weather was preferable to sneezing parents.

Once the kettle began whistling, she filled two mugs with tea leaves and water, while Sybil sliced strawberries and oranges. They brought the tray in to the tune of Mrs. Bobbit's sniffles and Mr. Bobbit's coughs.

"Ew," Sybil said again. They set the tray down and backed quickly away from their parents.

"Are there COUGH cook COUGH ies?" Mr. Bobbit asked.

"Ew," Beatrix said. "No."

Penny hopped a few feet away and gave Beatrix a pleading look with her little black eyes. Beatrix plucked a strawberry from the bowl, and gave it to her.

"Fruit and tea. It's good for you," Sybil said covering her nose with her sweater.

"No cookies?" Mrs. Bobbit peered over the edge of her blanket. She looked so dazed, Beatrix tried another tactic.

"The cookies are in the bowl," she said, grabbing Sybil's hand and running out the back door to the garden while shouting, "Be back in a bit! Getting more cookies."

Outside in the cool damp garden, they took great, heaving breaths of sneeze-free air.

"Are we this whiny when we're sick?" Sybil asked.

"No way," Beatrix responded.

Sybil shrugged and giggled, "Let's see if we can find that old tree!"

She grabbed her sister's hand, and began skipping into the wet forest. Inside the trees, Beatrix used her witch hat to shield her eyes from the fat droplets of water falling from the leaves.

Sybil merely tipped her head back and stuck out her tongue.

Beatrix saw her sister's hand go to the shell around her neck. She'd been wearing it since they got back from vacation.

The mystery gift from Gemma.

"Are you ever going to do anything with that shell?" Beatrix asked.

Sybil shrugged, and pranced farther ahead. The wet leaves were slippery under their feet, but the further in they wound, the grass turned spongy with bright green moss.

At last, they arrived at their spot. Where the trees bent inward to keep the rain out and pine needles floated down on a soft breeze. The sound of raindrops bouncing off of the leaves added to the coziness of the secluded area. The moss was so thick and soft, it felt like a blanket beneath them.

A large tree with a hollowed out trunk stood at one end, surrounded by a pile of branches and logs.

"Eeeeee it's here!" Sybil did three cartwheels.

"Yep," Beatrix tried one cartwheel, but slipped on a coating of leaves and ended up flat on her back.

"I can't believe that happened AGAIN! Are you okay, Bea?" Sybil asked, peering over her.

Beatrix sat up slowly, then stood. She needed to find a proper cartwheeling spell before she attempted it again. Her last three attempts had all ended disastrously.

Beatrix's vision was still a bit blurry from the fall. When she turned to Sybil, the sea shell dangling from her neck seemed to sparkle, and turn emerald green before settling back to its peachy pink shell shape.

"What is it?" Sybil asked.

Beatrix lifted her hands, the arms of her cloak going wide. "I can't do cartwheels, but I can do this!" A swirl of pine needles rose from the ground as cover, while Beatrix pulled a red basket from inside her cloak.

"WOW!" Sybil grinned, grabbing the basket and setting it down on the moss.

Inside, Beatrix had hidden all of the cookies from the house and mugs of tea that only needed to be heated. There were also ribbons and pillows and blankets for them to decorate their fairy fort.

With a snap of two fingers, Beatrix got a crackling fire going, and positioned the mugs nearby. Then, she handed a bag of cookies to Sybil, and laid the supplies out between them.

They worked quickly. The constant chill nearly forgotten while the fire sizzled and the tea and cookies and movement melted their bone deep cold.

When they finished, Beatrix tapped her mug to Sybil's to admire their work. The hollowed out trunk had been stuffed with blankets and pillows that made the space seem more cramped then cozy, now that they were not so small.

Ribbons hung from low branches, the only pops of vibrant color on the still winterized tree.

"We could take turns?" Beatrix offered, flitting her eyes across the small space. It was a marvel they'd ever fit inside it together.

"Mom and Dad are probably whining for us," Sybil said with a shrug. "I've got a better idea."

Then, she untied the string around her neck, and placed the shell inside the tree, on top of a faded yellow pillow.

Beatrix's eyes widened. "Do you know what it does?"

"Knowing Gemma, it'll be something big!"

So they watched and waited for something big to happen. But nothing did.

And, after a while, the persistent chill of the cold spring crept back in, and their bellies rumbled for grilled cheeses.

"Well that was disappointing," Beatrix threw her arm around her sister, trying to heat them both, and traipsed off towards their home.

By the time they got back, and got Mr. and Mrs. Bobbit real cookies, more tea, slippers, more blankets, toast, juice and two dinners for Penny, they were exhausted.

If they'd known, however, that deep in the woods, their fairy fort in a tree was filling with water, they'd surely have found the energy to see what Gemma was planning.

"What if I did it wrong?" Sybil whispered from beneath her quilt.

"What did Gemma tell you to do with it?"

"Put it somewhere fun."

Beatrix sighed, then sneezed. "We can check it tomorrow. Move it if we have to."

While they slept, their fairy tree fort was flooded, the whole clearing transformed into a turquoise lagoon beneath a canopy of crooked trees.

A green skinned creature dripping in gemstones glided out of the trunk and into the lagoon. Her yellow eyes looked around. She sniffed through a smooshed nose pierced with pearls, and grinned, revealing sharp seashell teeth.

"This place reeks of magic," she said, then she began to laugh.