Close Your Eyes and Look to the Skies

      ”If you close your eyes and look to the skies, you may catch a glance of her.”

      That was what Ger’s father had always told him anyways. It wasn’t until the Baby Gelert grew up and told his friends this that he realized what a paradox it was. Close your eyes and look to the skies?! You can’t do both. Ger had been the laughing stock of his peers for years over that remark. Every once and a while they would still make a snide comment or two just to watch Ger’s face flush red with shame; to be honest, his friends weren’t the best of friends. However, Ger’s father hadn’t made it through the Battle for Meridell and he had no siblings so his “friends” were all that he had so he clung to them even though they weren’t the nicest. Ger still remembered the last night with his father before he left for battle……

      “The Space Faerie is older than you can imagine but she is still a beautiful sight to behold,” his father had told him as they gazed up at the night sky.

      “What’s she look like, Da?” Ger had asked; he was only 5 at the time and all stories of faeries still amused him greatly.

      “She is what happens when the bluest sky you can imagine blends with the starry night. She is perfection. She is safety. She is a savior.” Ger’s father glanced at him and tried to store this memory in his mind forever. “Once, a long time ago, she helped save all of Neopia from Dr. Sloth”

      “Will she come save you? If you need help tomorrow, will she come help?” Ger asked earnestly. Ger’s father sighed; despite his attempts to explain things to his son, Ger still believed that his father would only be gone for one day.

      “We’ll have to see, won’t we? Just remember, Ger, if you close your eyes and look to the skies, you may catch a glance of her.”

      That was his last memory of his father and the words had stuck in Ger’s head. Despite his “friends” teasing he still found himself thinking back to his father’s final words. Sometimes, after a particularly rough day, Ger would gaze up at the night sky with a mixture of excitement and anger. What would he do if he saw the Space Faerie? Grin in excitement? Jump like a little boy? Yell at her? Ger had very conflicting feelings when it came to the Space Faerie. A small part of him had maintained his boyhood fascination and joy about faeries, but a small part also hated her. She hadn’t come to save his father. No one came to save his father and no one was coming to save him. He was stuck in this same town with the same people and the same “friends.”

      “I hate you!” Ger shouted as he closed his eyes and tried to keep the tears in.

      The baby Gelert did this often, the gazing up at the skies part anyways, but the shouting was new. The Space Faerie tilted her head in confusion. There was no one around so who was he yelling at? He opened his eyes and stared straight at her; he couldn’t see her because she was so far out she just looked like another starry section of the sky, but she still felt the accusation in his eyes. She still knew who he was yelling at.

      “Why does he hate me,” she pondered as she flew farther away from the boy and his accusing, angry eyes. Usually the Space Faerie doesn’t hover and watch any particular neopet, but this Baby Gelert had sparked her curiosity, so she returned the next day and the day after that. Finally it had been a week and she had her answer. By listening to random people in town and by watching the Gelert she finally knew to be Ger, she realized where his anger stemmed from, but she didn’t know how to help. She helped to save the people of Neopia from intergalactic issues; she had no hand in the Battle of Meridell otherwise she would have helped save Ger’s father. Even though she knew she shouldn’t feel any guilt, she still felt bad for Ger’s unfortunate life and she decided to try giving him items to help ease his life. She threw food to help his hunger and toys to ease his boredom. Sadly though, as high up as she was, she couldn’t aim very well and the items kept going to random people in Meridell.

      Things had not improved for Ger since that night he yelled at the stars. In fact, things had gotten a little worse. One of his “friends,” a particularly mean-spirited Pink Peophin named Puck, had suddenly made it a game to taunt Ger. For some reason items kept falling out of the sky; everyone was excited to see the free food and toys but no one knew where they were coming from. Puck decided to make a joke of it and said that the Space Faerie must be in a good mood. Now, every time anyone in Meridell got an item Puck would find Ger and mockingly exclaim “they must have looked with their eyes shut!” All in all it was a very rough time for Ger and no matter what he did it just seemed to get worse. He finally took to hiding in the forest because it took Puck and the rest of them a longer time to find him. It made for a lonely time, but at least he didn’t have to see everyone else smiling over items he would have loved to have. In his loneliness, Ger began to talk to the skies, in the hopes that someone was listening. He spoke from his heart and came to the realization that he had no right to be angry at the Space Faerie. His anger would not bring his father back.

      “I forgive you,” Ger said, gazing up to the sky. As he sat there gazing at the starry night, he could almost swear that it was getting closer to him. No… it wasn’t the sky getting closer to him, it was a black box? That can’t be right, he thought. “It’s a book!” he managed to say before the book clonked him in the head.

      “Are you alright?” a timid voice said, waking Ger and causing his head to hurt a little more.

      “I’m fine I think but what happened again?” Ger foolishly asked.

      “If you believe everyone in town? The Space Faerie must be in a good mood.” Ger stared at the female Mutant Draik before him.

      “Who are you? And don’t you believe the stories in town?” Ger asked hesitantly.

      “My name is Sal and the people in town are fools. That story doesn’t even make any sense; why would the Space Faerie throw things at us because she is happy? What a load of hogwash,” Sal said with a slight smile. “Whoever came up with that story clearly wasn’t dealt a full deck, if you know what I mean.” Her smile broadened and Ger realized he knew exactly what she meant. Sal clearly knew who had started the Space Faerie story and she clearly didn’t think very highly of Puck.

      “I’m Ger,” he said, a little needlessly since she clearly already knew Puck so she would have known him, even if he didn’t know her.

      “I know,” she responded, her grin still plastered to her face. “Do you know we lived three doors apart growing up?”

      “We did? How is that possible… I’m certain I would have remembered you,” Ger said, unable to keep the shock from his voice.

      “You had other things to think about; we moved there right after the Battle for Meridell. My parents have a thing for war-torn lands. Most people in town avoid us because they think we are strange.” Sal stared at Ger, waiting for him to ask the question she always got.

      “Why do they like war-torn lands,” Ger asked, fulfilling her expectations.

      “Everyone always assumes they come because they love blood and war,” Sal said, readying herself for the pain of another lost potential friendship; no one ever asked for the real reason, they all accepted the blood and war story.

      “So what’s the real reason they are here?” Sal was shocked to hear actual curiosity in Ger’s voice. Ger genuinely wanted to know her story.

      Sal’s smile somehow managed to grow as she said “My dad is a builder and my mom is a nurse.”

      “You should stick with the first story; it is way cooler,” Ger laughingly said. “Want to go get a snack in town?”

      “Sure. Can we get ice cream? I love eating strawberry ice cream in front of Puck. His face is priceless… especially when I add in a nice evil grimace or an evil laugh or two”

      The Space Faerie watched the Baby Gelert and Mutant Draik wander off towards town in disbelief. He hadn’t even glanced at the book she had tried to give him, not that it seemed to matter anymore. To the best of her knowledge, the book, Friends Forever, remains in the forest to this day. However, the Space Faerie doesn’t hover over Meridell anymore. Instead she has begun to focus her attention elsewhere. Dr. Sloth had been quiet for a while and she had been yearning for a new task to help all of Neopia. Now she had her solution: she would travel all over the world and give random items to those in need. Every once and a while she would check in on Ger but he hardly ever looked for her anymore; he was always off playing with Sal. However, one night he walked out to the edge of town, closed his eyes, and looked up to the skies. He swears he saw her and perhaps it really did, but it didn’t matter anymore. He wasn’t alone anymore.

      The End.