The rain had stopped only fifteen minutes ago. Charlie was so thankful for that – she never liked driving on the rain – not to mention that this thunderstorm right in the middle of April was really out of the ordinary. It’s as if the heavens wanted to get rid of all that water at once, and what better than to drop it all down on the German southern plains, close to the foothills of the Alps. The afternoon sky was now clean, and a small rainbow was stretching from the white mountains towards the thick forests of Bavaria. On the road from Munich to her small village, Charlie was listening to music, a random pop song that was quite the sensation among the local youth lately. It was one of those not-so-memorable hits, that yet managed to hit number one in the charts. She was humming the tune along, as she sped along the highway. Tomorrow was Saturday, and she had her first free weekend for a month now, intending to spend it at home, visit her parents.
Charlie, a half-French, half-German young woman of 24, was what we could describe as a winner in life. Outsmarting everyone by a good margin at school, she coupled that natural talent with her love of those American CSI shows that were on TV from time to time, and went on to study forensics at the University of Berlin. She graduated top of their class just a few months ago, and she was now a junior officer at the Bundespolizei, the German Federal Police. While it was not as exciting as on the TV shows, she was content. Her supervisors were already amazed by her skills, and internships on the American FBI or a post at Europol were not out of the question for her. Charlie was practicing her English, just in case the FBI intern position was true, but she didn’t want to go that far from home.
Indeed, now that it had finished raining, she could feel the sweat on her back, her white top sticking on her back and on the car’s seat. She definitely needed a shower once she arrived at home. The annoying song ended, and another, even worse, took its place. Charlie started fiddling with the car’s radio, trying to tune in to something that wasn’t made for mindless fifteen year olds. Station after station failed her. Oh, there was the sports channel, having a show about Germany’s team for the World Cup in two months. “Nein, danke” she thought, and changed station again.
Too busy changing stations, she did not see it coming. A small puddle of rainwater, innocent yet deadly, right there, on the entrance of the next turn. She steered left, as the road went, but never saw it. Not expecting it, Charlie suddenly found her car slipping to the left, out of control. Hitting the breaks hard, her car started spinning, and then there was a loud horn from the other side of the road, a flash… and a crash.
Charlie’s car was hit full force by a truck, loaded with iron ore. Her car was hit on the side, the driver’s side, and the truck lost its balance (itself coming out of the corner), and crashed on the side of the road. She could not see very well, but she felt an intense pain on her neck. The airbag had blown up, but the car’s door had hit her on her ribs full force. Somehow, Charlie managed to pull herself out of the broken window, the broken pieces of glass cutting through her hands, tearing through her clothes. She didn’t know how did she just do it, since her whole body was filling her with pain. No other car had passed by since the crash, and Charlie fell on the ground. It all became hazy, as she thought she saw someone move inside the truck. Her legs started wobbling, and her black pumps couldn’t keep her balanced, curse the heels. Charlie fell on the side of the road, her vision completely blurry. All she could see was the forest right on the side of the road, the tall green trees, the soft grass that carpeted the forest. The green leaves were shining on the Sun’s afternoon rays, and Charlie, almost unconscious, did not even realize that her arms were slowly pulling her towards it, nor that her legs were kicking, helping her crawl inside the forest. All she could feel was that she was in intense pain, and no more feeling came from her arms and legs, even though she was sure they were moving. It was as if her body was not her own anymore, moving on it’s own, leaving only the pain for her to feel.
Was it two minutes that she crawled? Or two hours? She could not say. Her vision was blurred, all she could see was that she was slowly moving forward, towards the thick forest. She could hear the sirens of the ambulance on he road, but the sound was muffled and distant. She thought that she heard footsteps around her, and the barking of a police dog, but no one came to her rescue. She wanted to cry out, but couldn’t. Her breath was barely coming out of her lips, and all the energy she sucked in was diverted to her endless crawling. She could smell the wet grass, feel the droplets of dew on her face and arms, her clothes becoming moist.
Right before she finally passed out, she thought she saw a small stream, sparkling blue, and closed her eyes. Taking a few breaths, she felt for a moment a rush of adrenaline, as if her strength was finally returning to her. And then, something odd, the taste of strawberries on her lips, as if the wind itself was kissing her, as the pain of her injuries returned to hit her brain in full force. Charlie wanted to let out a scream of pain, but on her last conscious moment, it felt, no, it didn’t just feel, she knew, that instead of a scream, her whole soul was being unleashed from her, escaping through her stiff body, rushing out of her dead lips.
“I am dead”, she thought, as she felt her existence dissolve into nothingness.
**************
And yet, she felt her being being held together, somehow. She was “seeing” a multitude of lights, all leading up to a white spot on the very end. The lights were of all colors, mixing and moving, and while there was color, it changed before she could tell what color it was. Her ethereal “ears” could hear a loud, melodious crystalline chiming that grew larger, as if the sweetest windchime was being blown by the strongest winds. The taste of strawberries returned, even though she was sure that the didn’t have a mouth to feel taste with. Indeed, she did not feel lips, head, or a body of her own. She was just a point, an existence in this churning swirl of color. And suddenly, she felt as if she’s falling, and was that a pair of eyes that suddenly appeared on the mix of color? They were gone right away. The colors died down, and Charlie’s spirit felt as if it was falling down, speeding up, falling, falling, falling as if rushing to crash on the bottomless pit that awaited her soul.
And suddenly, Charlie opened her eyes.
She was facing the grass, her head resting down on it. She felt her body, but she could not move it. It wasn’t pain – indeed, she felt no pain at all, but it was as if she did not know how to move anymore. The soft murmuring of the clean water stream close to her greeted her ears, and the smell of fresh grass and spring flowers was coming alongside her breath through her nose. Charlie felt the soft caress of the grass blades on her arms, but not elsewhere. She felt that her wet, torn clothes were still on her.
“I am not dead. I just fainted. I am alright… thank God…” was her first thought. Charlie did not believe in the afterlife, and her experience unsettled her. It was all coming back now, however. The crash, her mindless crawling, the feeling of death coming closer, and finally, her brain almost shutting down and putting her through a psychedelic light show.
She lay there, thinking that her broken bones might make it difficult for her to move. But maybe, if she could move her arms just enough to reach her mobile phone, then she could alert someone. Slowly, feeling returned to her body, and she could move her limbs again. Very carefully, she turned around, facing the treetops and the sky above. It was a vivid light blue. Charlie figured out that she slept the whole night on that patch of forest grass. Her body felt a little stiff, but there was no pain anymore. Indeed, surveying her arms, she found no cuts, no pieces of glass on her palms, even though she was sure she cut her palms as she was pulling herself out of her car. Very slowly, she pulled her torso up, sitting on the ground, and pulled herself over to a nearby tree, letting her back rest against it. Her clothes were indeed torn and wet, but there was no scratch, no bruising, no blood anywhere on her body. Her right pump was nowhere to be seen, probably torn off as she was crawling, and her right one barely hanging on her foot. With a soft kick, it was dislodged from her toes, and she flexed them, feeling control of her body coming back to her.
Still not daring to move, she scanned the environment around her. She was sitting on the edge of a small forest clearing. Tall trees were all around her, and she could not see which way was the way out, or which way she came in – even though she crawled, her tracks were erased by now. The stream was deep and wide enough to be considered the start of a small river, and indeed, a small waterfall, not even two meters tall, was on the other side of the clearing, creating the crystalline sound of the water splashing. Flowers of all colors were around her, and the boughs of the trees formed a shadowy canopy above her head, letting only a few strong rays of sunshine through, and a small spot of light blue sky visible. Even though she was deep in the forest, Charlie felt calm and protected here. It was as if that spot was blessed. Very slowly, she pulled herself up, and tried to stand on her feet. Managing to do that, she walked over to the stream, and pulled herself down again, on her knees and hands, looking at her reflection on the water. Her face wasn’t injured either. Bending down low, her lips met with the cold running water, and she gulped a few sips, feeling refreshed.
Only when she pulled her head up, and pulled her long blonde hair from the front of her face, where it fell, did she see the creature staring at her on the other side of the stream. Sitting on a small rock, splashing her feet on the water, was a tiny, naked female form. Not even half as tall as your common Barbie doll, the figure did not wear any clothes, and a set of thin, almost transparent green wings sprouted from its back. The fairy was smiling at Charlie, watching her with some excitement apparent on her tiny face.
Charlie almost fell in the stream, but instead, she just pulled herself over, and sitting down, gazed at the creature, unable to move, or take her eyes away from that wonder of the forest. Sitting cross-legged, her hands on her knees, her heart pounding hart, Charlie just stood there. The fairy moved – was she giggling? And pulled herself up on the small rock she was sitting on, on the bank of the stream. She flexed her body and spread her wings, fluttering them slowly twice, before she jumped out of a sudden, and fluttered across the stream. Charlie was unsure, what to do, what to say. The fairy stood only half a meter or so in front of her face, airborne, her wings fluttering and creating the smallest of breezes against Charlie’s face. She could see her details quite well now. The small creature had a perfect female form. Her breasts were a bit small for her body, but stood proudly up on their own, her curves fit her slim body, and she had very long hair, reaching all the way to her waist – of a shimmering color that matched her wings, an indescribable shade of light green. Or was it light blue? The more she looked, the less she could decide. Charlie noticed a few curls of hair of the same color on the creature’s crotch, protecting her otherwise non-existent privacy. The fairy’s face looked happy, excited, but also serious and grown up. It had a timeless quality on it, and you couldn’t really say that it was youthful, but neither old. She was smiling at Charlie, apparently aware that the human facing her was still taking her existence in, unused to the nymph of the forest. Her legs were hanging idly moving just a bit in synch with the motion of her hovering body. Only at the very end of her dumbfounded staring did Charlie notice the tiny sandals that were wrapped on the fairy’s minuscule feet, with two thin straps, one holding her toes, the other around her ankle.
The fairy clapped her hands, and landed right in front of Charlie, looking up at her, smiling.
“Erm…hi?” Was all Charlie could say.