Mara sat on her bike. The sun beamed down on her face as she unbraided and rebraided her jet-black hair. Her brother liked to tease her and call her “OCD” for obsessive compulsive disorder, but she didn't care. Doing something repetitive like braiding her hair helped her to think clearly.
Her dad had told her years ago that if she couldn't be responsible enough to prevent her hair from looking like rats’ tails, then she would have to have it all cut off. When she felt both plaits were perfectly smooth, Mara held her bicycle steady between her legs and pushed off from the edge of her best friend's driveway.
She raced along the back streets from Christi's house toward home. Blocking out her conversation with Christi and enjoying the sun and the ride, Mara decided to take the pathway behind the park at her old elementary school. She jumped the curb and started tearing down the gravel pathway. Mara loved the feeling of the wind on her face and didn't care one bit that she was not behaving as demurely as a fourteen-year-old girl should.
The gravel gave way to an asphalt bridge under which a lively brook chattered. The surrounding bush had become quite dense. This part of the trail was always quiet. Ever since they were very little girls, Christi and Mara had liked to believe that faeries lived in this enchanted section of the trail.
Both girls had vivid imaginations and loved to fantasise that one day something magical would happen to them. Mara knew the exact precautions to follow pertaining to faerie encounters: never step with both feet into a circle of pebbles lest one be pulled into a faerie ring; always place one's shoes away from the bed so as not to encourage creatures to interfere with one's sleep; and never consume food or drink offered by a faerie.
Mara could see the more majestic forest beyond the dense bush through which she was riding. The path carried on toward a clearing that was only barely visible from the schoolyard. Suddenly, her bike faltered as Mara tried to negotiate a large crack in the asphalt. She jerked her head and saw the stream below the bridge. For a split second, Mara felt dizzy.
Then she fell.
She didn't fall into the stream. She didn't fall onto the path. She lay facedown in the clearing a good seven metres away from where she had been. She could not see her bicycle.
Mara sat up and looked around, as one does after falling, to ensure there had been no witnesses. She did not even register the hard knock she had taken on her forehead. But where was her bike? How on earth did she get thrown so far from merely catching her tire in a crack? The clearing looked familiar and yet somehow different than she recalled—brighter. The monkey bars had always been green. Now they were a sky blue. Someone had shifted the sandbox. I could have sworn this place looked different a minute ago, thought Mara. Mara reached up to her braids and realised that she was hallucinating, probably due to having hit her head.
Mara jumped as a figure came rushing over to her like a wisp of air. She had looked around only seconds before and had seen no one. This person was tall and thin, like a stalk of wheat. The first thing out of Mara's mouth was, “Wh—who are you?”
She looked up at the tall girl staring down at her. She had light brown hair (that contributed to the wheat-like appearance) and a concerned look on her face. Despite the height, at first glance she appeared normal except that she was very, very thin. Only then did Mara notice her pointed ears and her brilliant violet eyes.
“My name is Battery,” said the girl. “You should come with me. I want to help you.”
Frightened at the forwardness of this odd-looking stranger, Mara replied unintentionally in a whiny little girl's voice, “Um, I would like to go home. I only live a few minutes away.”
Sensing that she had unnerved the younger girl, Battery looked at Mara and smiled. She was not frightening. She sat on the ground beside Mara. “What is your name?”
“Mara.” Mara bit her tongue. She wanted to say more, to ask Battery about her appearance, but didn't have the nerve.
“Listen, Mara, I saw you fall. It looked to me like you fell out of the sky.”
“Really? That's so weird because I fell way back there,” she said, pointing to the thick bush and the bridge. “I was riding my bike. Where is my bike?”
“Why don't you show me where you fell, and we can look for it?”
Mara looked at Battery and felt that she was trustworthy. She nodded okay, touched the scrape on her forehead, and the two got to their feet. The girls walked out of the clearing and toward the asphalt bridge. Mara knew the exact spot where the big crack should have been in the ground, yet she couldn't find it.
“I don't get it. I remember seeing a huge chunk missing in the path. My tire went right into it. It was right here. I felt dizzy, I saw the stream, and I thought I was going to fall into the water. Then the next thing I remember is being over by the monkey bars.” Confused, Mara looked into the stream to see if her bicycle had gone over the edge. “The crack was right there; I swear it! I wouldn't just fall off my bike for no reason.”
Mara looked frantically at Battery and then realised that Battery had not really scanned the area. She had been standing there simply observing Mara. This time she did not sound the slightest bit whiny. In fact, with a challenge in her voice, Mara looked Battery in her violet eyes and asked, “What? You are creeping me out.”
Battery couldn't help but laugh. It was a tinkly sound, similar to the water in the brook. She smiled her sweet smile again. “I'm sorry,” she said, still laughing a bit. “Most people don't consider me creepy. I was watching you because I think I know what happened to you and how you fell so far. I even bet I know where your bike is. I just wasn't really certain until a minute ago when you couldn't find the crack.”
Battery's giggle was infectious, and Mara couldn't help but laugh. She had been quite rude to this girl who had tried to help her. She was a little embarrassed, and the laughter was a relief.
“Okay, so what do you think happened then?”
Battery looked seriously at Mara. “I look different to you, yes?” Mara nodded. “I know for sure that my ears probably look strange and maybe my shape, too. Well, you look different to me.” Mara looked taken aback but said nothing. Her eyes were fixed intently on Battery's. Initially, Mara had assumed Battery wore coloured contact lenses. Suddenly, however, she was certain that Battery's eyes truly were violet.
“I know someone who can help you. Your house is not just a few minutes away anymore. When you fell, you somehow dropped into my–” and here Battery paused as she selected the appropriate word, “world.”
A slight frown crossed Mara's brow. She then tried a nervous giggle, but Battery's expression did not change. She looked down to her hands and picked some gravel from her palms. She reached up to one braid to check if needed to be replaited. She could feel Battery's eyes on her just waiting for a reaction. Mara could hear her heart beating inside her body. In a moment, she looked up and could not erase the grin from her face.
Still somewhat hesitant, she replied, “If you are not teasing me, this is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me.”
“I am not teasing you. Think about it: do I look like anyone else that you know?”
“No, you don't!” Mara shouted out, laughing now. “I have never seen anyone like you before. Am I in a parallel dimension? This is so unbelievably cool!” Mara had hoped her whole life that something like this would happen.
“I think that your bike is still back in your world, and that is why we can't find it. You can't find the crack where your tire got snagged because it probably only exists on your side. Why don't you let me show you around, and then we can meet my friend? I'm sure he'll be able to help you.”
“I'm just concerned that my father will worry where I am.”
“Well, you can always tell him that you hit your head and passed out in a ditch for a while.”
Laughing, Mara retorted sarcastically, “Yeah, he'll love that. He'll feel really confident about letting me go out in the future!”
Once more, Battery smiled her safe and pleasant smile at Mara. She held out her hand. Mara took it, only a little hesitantly, and the two girls walked off.