Callie
“Callie,” Mrs. Cromwell cooed as I open the door to the small general store just a couple blocks away from the shop. “It’s so good to see you. I feel like it’s been months since you’ve been in.”
“It has been,” I replied, using the fake friendly voice that I had perfected over the years. “It’s just been busy at the shop.”
Mrs. Cromwell’s snow-white hair was piled into a bun on the top of her head. She wore a floral apron, tied neatly around her waist, a perfectly modest pair of slacks, meticulously ironed, and black flats. Her cheeks were rosy, and there was a sparkle in her eye. There had always been a sparkle in her eye, ever since I was a little girl. Her husband had played Santa Claus at the town Christmas celebrations for years and I was convinced until I was a teenager that she was the real Mrs. Claus. Of course, magic like that didn’t live in my life anymore.
“It’s been so busy here today, with the festival just a couple towns over and everything. I’m glad I stocked up last week. I almost forgot. What can I do for you today?”
I was already taking bottles of wine from the shelf and putting them in the cart. “I came to get a few things; I’m throwing Willa a surprise birthday party tonight. I wanted to see if you had those chocolate raspberry filled truffles that she likes so much?”
Mrs. Cromwell clapped her hands together and hurried to the back. I smiled as I put several more bottles of wine into the basket, knowing full well we wouldn’t get through all that, but I wanted to be well prepared. It wasn’t every day that your best friend turned forty and when I did, she threw me a huge bash. In the end, I just wanted Willa to know that she was special.
Mrs. Cromwell came from the back carrying two containers of the truffles, decorated with pink and green flowers on top. “I just made these. I had a feeling someone would want them.”
I headed over to the register and gave my best fake smile. “Those are perfect. You must be psychic.”
Mrs. Cromwell let out a laugh, one surprisingly far more boisterous than my pseudo-joke called for, but she had always been like that. I couldn’t help but smile. She rang me up, having small talk about the town as we went and then packaged everything in paper bags for me to carry. When I got to my car, I looked in the back, raising my brow. Between the decorations and the food, I was going to need ten people to help me carry everything into her house. Unfortunately, it was just me, so I was glad I took off early from work. I had a few hours to get ready and I knew I’d be pushing it at best.
Heading back through town I chuckled at the tourists walking by. Most of the men dressed in some sort of Hawaiian shirt or variant of, and most of the women wearing either visors or Fanny packs. I still didn’t understand the whole idea of a Fanny pack. From what Willa told me, and her excitement over them when she saw the local boutique had stocked their shelves with specialized ones, they were coming back in style.
Had Fanny packs ever been in style?
I pulled up into the driveway at Willa’s house and grabbed my purse, rummaging through the bottom of it to find the key to her place. Everyone always thought it was weird that I had a key to her house, but she was my best friend, of course I had a key to her place. We were like sisters, two very different, but perfectly paired sisters. I grabbed the keychain from the bottom, a huge metal, glittery painted fairy keychain with a bright hot pink key attached, and climbed out of the car.
Glancing up at Willa’s house, I was a bit envious. Though we lived in the same neighborhood and our houses were relatively similar, she had the most adorable cottage ever. The house was painted a light mint green, the shutters a bright blue, and her door matched that color as well. There were flowers planted all over the perfectly manicured lawn and if you ignored the houses around it, you could absolutely see it being placed out in the middle of the woods somewhere with moss growing on the roof. It fit with Willa’s personality perfectly.
I grabbed several bags and made my way to the front door, juggling them as I pushed the key and fiddled with the lock before kneeing it open. I was glad she didn’t have any animals. They would’ve made the mad dash and I couldn’t have even stopped them if I wanted to. It would’ve either been the wine or the animals… Let’s be serious. Wine trumps everything. She could’ve had a stampede of bulls rushing me and I still would have held firmly to the bottles of wine.
It took me about six trips, but I finally got everything inside and set up perfectly on the dining room table. I stood back and looked around the open space, picturing in my head exactly what I was going to do to decorate. Glancing down at my watch, I realized I was down to two hours and thirty minutes before the guests arrived, which meant I only really had an hour and a half because I had to get dressed as well. I went to work, pulling out all the frilly and glittery decorations that I knew Willa would love. I had bought two helium tanks and inflated about hundred and fifty balloons, letting them float up to the ceiling with just a small piece of pink, blue, or green ribbon hanging from them.
Streamers were sashayed across the room and a large banner with fairies on each side, wishing Willa happy birthday, was hung in the space between the living room and the dining room. I meticulously set out all the trays of food, the bottles of wine and glasses, and then ran the vacuum over the room to pick up all the glitter that had fallen down. I knew that I was going to be covered in it, but it didn’t really matter, it would match my costume perfectly. I had told everybody to make it a costume party because, let’s face it, everyone loves a costume party. The theme was Enchanted Forest and I had scoured the Internet for days finding my costume. I even paid more for the shipping to get it here early than I did for the actual costume itself.
After everything was perfect downstairs, I went up to her room and got dressed, standing in front of her tall gold framed mirror. As soon as I looked at myself, I giggled, rolling my eyes. I never actually thought I could pull off a costume like that, a fairy with pink hair and green glasses. I was wearing a polka dotted dress with the bunch of tulle underneath that made it stick out like a tutu. I had also purchased a pair of glittery white tights that I had seen Willa ooh and ahh over when we had spotted them online. I would probably end up giving them to her after the night was over. I wasn’t really the tights wearing kind of girl, unless they had named them yoga pants, and then I would have been fooled and put them on immediately.
I grabbed the can of hair color that I had been using to spray my hair and gave myself a few touchups. It was sparkling and pink, not just pink. For as long as I could remember, Willa had pink hair. I used to ask if it was her natural hair color, and come to think of it, she never answered me. But I guess when you like something, and it worked, you stuck with it.
I slipped my feet into some black flats and put on my small fairy wings as I headed back downstairs and stood in the beauty that I had created within Willa's tiny little cottage. She had so many colorful decorations naturally in her place that my decor almost seemed like it belonged there all the time. Glancing at my watch, I let myself relax a little bit. It was only thirty minutes before the guests would be arriving, but everything was ready and good to go. I headed over to the table and popped open a bottle of wine, pouring myself a glass. For the first time in a very long time, I was actually really excited about the party. It was the perfect tribute to my fantastic and fabulous best friend, and the people that I invited were pretty fun as well.
Leaning against the table, I closed my eyes as I took a long sip of my wine. Before I could pull the glass away though, the doorbell rang. I looked at my watch again just to make sure that I hadn’t misread the time, but it seemed that one of the guests had decided to arrive more than fashionably early. I shrugged and wiped the line of red wine from my lip, almost excited to show off my new outfit. Light on my feet, I headed toward the door and opened it with a big smile.
However, as my eyes fell on the two people standing outside, confusion set in. Standing in front of me were two men, both probably 6'4, exceedingly broad chested, and with muscles in their arms bigger than my head. Their hair was identical, dark with the perfect side part. My eyes shifted down to their chests and I found them wearing white, "I Love San Fran" touristy T-shirts that were about two sizes too small for them. Slowly both of my brows lifted, and I nervously smoothed down the front of my skirt. Sure, they were two strange men standing at my best friend's door, and sure I had watched about two dozen made-for-TV movies cautioning women about that very thing throughout my life, but they were incredibly handsome… And it would be rude to turn them away without asking what they were there for… I mean just in case they were in trouble…
“Hello, can I help you? Are you here for the party?”
They both looked me up and down and then turned and looked at each other, as if they were talking back and forth in their minds. I raised a brow and leaned against the door, watching the two of them contemplate what was being said. I wondered if they shared one brain, sitting there trying to figure out who was supposed to be talking and who was supposed to be thinking.
However, when they both simultaneously looked back at me and stepped forward in a collective movement, I stumbled back away from the door. The one on the right reached out and grabbed my arm. “Willa Lilylark Woodspring, daughter of the Spring Fae King, daughter of the Spring Fae Queen, Princess of Larkspur and all Fae Realms…”
I put my hand up. “Wait…what? Is this some weird stripper thing?”
Both of the men looked at each other again and then grabbed me, yanking me forward. “Hey… stop…I…” One of them yanked a burlap sack over my head.
Who carried a burlap sack around with them?
I struggled to free myself, thrashing back and forth but it was no use. The men were so strong that I might as well have been fighting against the jaws of life. I lifted my legs thinking it would be harder to drag me, but they simply held me up in the air. As my feet landed again and skidded into the door frame, the scent of lavender and sea air filled my senses. Smoothing calmness flowed over me, and my eyes rolled back as my legs turned to jello. Within two seconds, I was completely out cold.