Fairies in the bushes

“Bradley, Bradley…..Braaaadlyyyyy,” whispered the soft voices around the side yard where a grove of flowering plants separated their  small rental cottage from the neighbors. He had a warm feeling in his chest whenever he heard them which was happening every few days. He was always going out to the bushes to check, and sometimes he saw twinkling lights around the flowers and moving up and down the leafy stems. When he stood very still their murmurs would surround him, and they seemed to be telling  him everything would be okay, don’t be sad, it will get better. He wasn’t sure if the sounds were coming through his ears or from inside his head but it didn’t matter, they were very real and always inspired him to try to be a good boy.

One evening just before sunset which seemed to be their favorite time, he brought Natalie out to show her. They started whispering at him right away. “No Bradley no, nooooooooo,”  he heard. It was louder than usual, then there were some scary clicking sounds and then they stopped.

“Oh! I don’t hear anything. Where do you think they are?” She said. She had hurried out, excited by the discovery which he had kept secret for months.  But now she looked down at him with one eye closed, which she always did when she thought he was lying.

“Right here, Mom,” he said. His voice squeaked, he was almost shaking, scared that he did the wrong thing and now he was in trouble. “Right by these flowers. They just stopped.”

“Ohhh? They talk to you but they won’t talk to me? What the hell is that all about?”

“I swear Mom. I’m not lying. We can try later.” He was worried he had scared them away.

“Maybe you’re going to turn out crazy like your grandmother,” she said. “Little shit.” Natalie went inside, lit a cigarette, and returned to the endless little projects that kept her busy. It wasn’t that she thought he was lying. Reincarnation, psychic predictions, and the Tarot were her favorite subjects. She especially loved astrology and could use the data tables in Horoscope magazine to chart people’s astrological forecast. But finding out her 5 year old son had a psychic gift while she didn’t, infuriated her.

The voices were quieter after that, and didn’t come as often. Once Natalie caught him talking to them and threatened to wash his mouth out with a bar of soap. He spent less time in the garden, which wilted a bit in the heat that summer. Then school started and he met the kids who would be in his first grade class. He was shy but after a while made friends with a freckle-faced boy named Tommy and a pretty blonde girl named Sherrie who both lived in his neighborhood. One day he couldn’t help but ask them if they ever heard voices in the flowers. They had not but they were excited to see what he was talking about. The next day after school they came over and stood with him very still by the flowers. Bradley’s palms were sweating, and he was breathing in tight short gasps worried that the voices wouldn’t come. They stood  still, until someone started to fidget.

“I don’t believe you!” said Tommy, loud enough to be heard from inside the house.

Sherry was nicer. “We can try again sometime, I want to see the Fairies,” she said, softly.

Fairies, she called them. Wow, she knows! Then Natalie came rushing out, barefoot in a flowing night gown. “Did you tell them? What did you say to them?” She was mad.

“I told them about the – Fairies.” Bradley was shaking and stammering and very afraid to lie.

“Get inside and sit on the couch until I’m back, mister.” She collected his friends and walked them home which didn’t take long because Sherrie lived 2 doors down and Tommy was a block away across the street. He sat there and waited, afraid. Whenever she called him mister something bad happened.

Natalie threw open the door, breathless from her fast walk and went into the bathroom. “Don’t you dare move!” she shouted. He heard the sound of running water, then her footsteps as she came towards him. Grabbing him by the jaw, forcing his mouth open, she scrubbed it out with a wet bar of soap. It made him choke and spit, and left a horrible taste in his mouth for hours.

He never knew what happened to the voices in the bushes, because he stayed away from them after that. He stopped believing that they could care about him, or that there might be such a thing as Fairies.