The Fairy-Tale Matchmaker (6 page)

“I'm sorry,” said Cory. “But I don't think I'd make a good spider stomper. My feet are much too small to stomp one of your spiders.”

“I didn't think you'd want the job. But at least we got to see each other again,” said Marjorie.

Cory nodded. “Now that I'm no longer working at night and don't have to sleep during the day, I'll actually be able to see my friends.”

Marjorie smiled. “I'd like that! And maybe we can go somewhere that doesn't have things jumping out at you.”

“I'm sure I can find a place like that!” Cory said with a laugh.

Cory told her uncle about her day at dinner that night. He seemed interested, especially when she mentioned the spiders in Marjorie's house. “How big did you say they were?” he asked.

“As big as my hand,” Cory said, holding up her hand and spreading her fingers wide.

“I don't know if this will work or not, but I have an idea that might do the trick. There's a spray made from chrysanthemums that I've used to get rid of insects. It's worked well for me, but then I've never tried it on such big spiders. I have some in the garden shed if you want to try it.”

“I would! Thank you!” Cory told him. “I think that at this point, Marjorie will try just about anything.”

The next morning, Micah was already making breakfast when Noodles followed Cory into the kitchen. “Someone sent you a message,” Micah said, gesturing to an envelope propped against Cory's plate.

“Was it my mother?” asked Cory.

Micah shook his head. “It wasn't her handwriting.”

“Good,” Cory said, taking her seat at the table. “Because I really don't want to read what she has to say.”

Because of the hours she'd had to work as a tooth fairy, Cory hadn't gone out at night with a friend in a very long time. Although she knew that Daisy wouldn't get her message until the flower fairy returned from work, she wrote back to her saying, Everything Leaks at 7:00. She was about to put it in the basket when she stopped and asked her uncle, “Do you have any special plans for tonight? Do you mind if I go out with Daisy?”

“Go right ahead. Noodles, Flicket, and I will be fine, won't we, boys?” Micah said as he dropped a handful of lettuce leaves in the woodchuck's bowl. Flicket was nearly finished with a pile of nuts.

“Thanks!” Cory said, dropping the message into the basket. She was determined to make her stay with her uncle work out. If he hadn't offered to let her live with him, she didn't know where she would have gone. Until her mother accepted that Cory was not meant to be a tooth fairy, she wasn't sure she wanted to talk to Delphinium again. The way things stood now, she wasn't sure that would ever happen.

Cory began to slather crushed berries on a piece of toast. The morning newspaper was on the table, so she glanced at the front page as she took a sip of juice. There was another picture of Santa Claus, only this time he was standing beside one of his elves; they both looked very unhappy.

“Apparently, one of Santa's elves punched a reporter in the nose,” said her uncle.

“It was probably one of those paparazzi who always follow them around,” Cory replied. Noodles grunted as he munched his lettuce.

She opened the paper to the help-wanted section and glanced down the column. “The ads are all the same as yesterday,” she said, then noticed that one was missing. The ad from P. Cottontail wasn't there.

“I should have applied there while I had the chance. I don't know what I'm going to do if I can't get a job,” she told her uncle. “Mother will probably tell me I should have thought of that before I quit the TFG. All I know is that I
don't
want to collect teeth. I want to help people. I just don't know how.”

The woodchuck came over, a piece of lettuce sticking out of his mouth. He stretched out on her foot and closed his eyes while he chewed.

“You're so lucky, Noodles. You don't have to worry about your future. You know I'll always be here for you.” The woodchuck grumbled when she rubbed his back with her other foot, but he didn't stop eating.

Cory turned to the next page. There were ads for used carts, reconditioned magic wands, and one for axes that could cut through anything from a ripe tomato to a solid oak door. A giant was selling a toothbrush—barely used.

Cory pointed the ad out to her uncle. “That's just gross,” she said. “It doesn't say much for his hygiene.”

Her uncle swallowed his last bite of toast. “Or that of the person who buys it,” he said. “Sorry, but I have to run. I have some students coming in early for extra help this morning. I'll see you this afternoon. Noodles, it's just going to be you, me, and Flicket for dinner tonight, so think about what you'd like to eat. I know—how about lettuce!” he said with a chuckle.

Cory waved good-bye as her uncle left the kitchen. She didn't have very many relatives, but he'd always been her favorite, partly because he was the only one with a sense of humor. When she heard the front door close, she turned back to the ads. A few people had listed houses for sale. Below that were ads placed by people looking for things.

“Look, Noodles, it's the same giant who's selling his toothbrush,” she said after checking the contact information.

“I didn't see anything interesting today,” she told the animals. “I suppose I could go try out Uncle Micah's idea on Marjorie's spiders.”

Flicket flicked his tail, dropped the last empty shell, and scurried out the open window. Noodles snorted and rubbed his jaw against Cory's ankle, his eyes still closed. Edging her foot from beneath the sleeping woodchuck's head, she went into the main room to send a message.

She was tapping her foot, wondering if she was wasting her time, when she heard a
ping!
and a reply landed in the basket.

Cory was still reading Marjorie's note when a message from her mother arrived.

Cory had read more than enough. Crumpling the message into a ball, she tossed it into the garbage
basket and went back into the kitchen to get Noodles. While she was out, the woodchuck was going to stay in her bedroom along with his chew toys. She didn't want her uncle to have any reason to ask her to leave.

Marjorie was waiting for Cory when she arrived. She was seated on the garden bench again with a large book in her hand and a small table bearing two pink tulip cups beside her. This time she was thumbing through
A Tour of Fairy Gardens
. Spider-size smudges stained the cover.

“Oh, good, you're here!” Marjorie exclaimed when Cory returned to her human size. “Come sit down. Would you like some mint lemonade? The mint is from my garden. I'm so glad you came. I have a lot to tell you. First of all, I know you don't really want the job I offered you, but I think you should take it.”

“Have the spiders gotten worse since yesterday?” Cory asked, sitting down with one of the tulip cups in her hand.

“Oh, no, nothing like that. It's just that I've received an anonymous message telling me not to hire you. It said that you were still under obligation to the Tooth Fairy Guild and weren't free to pursue another career. I got so mad when I read it! I think what they're doing is underhanded and sneaky. We can't let the big guilds dictate how we live our lives! That's why I think you
really should become my spider stomper. I know your feet aren't much bigger than mine, but we can figure something out.”

“I really appreciate the offer, but to tell the truth, I already have something else in mind. My uncle recommended a spray we can use on the spiders. He's not sure it will work, but it's worth a try.”

“I saw a huge one in the kitchen this morning,” said Marjorie.

“The bigger the better!” Cory replied. “If it works on a really big one, we'll know that it'll work on any of them.”

Marjorie led her to the back door that opened into a bright, sunny kitchen with yellow walls and white cupboards. A spider the size of a small dog squatted on the kitchen table, turning to look at them when they entered the room.

Cory dug into her pocket for the small bottle of spray that she'd taken from her uncle's shed. If this worked, she'd come back with a bigger bottle.

“Have your book ready in case this doesn't work,” Cory told Marjorie.

Darting toward the table, Cory squirted the liquid on the spider, nearly stumbling over her own feet backing away when it looked as if the creature was about to jump on her. Instead of jumping, however, the spider
twitched, shook itself, staggered to the edge of the table, and fell off. Cory held her breath while the spider lay still, but a moment later it was back on its feet, limping out of the kitchen.

Suddenly, Marjorie sneezed so explosively that Cory jumped, startled. She began to worry when the poor girl couldn't stop sneezing. When Marjorie finally stopped, she was so weak that she had to sit down. Taking a lace handkerchief from her pocket, she patted her streaming eyes dry and said, “Even if it had worked, I don't think we could have used that spray in here.”

“I guess not,” Cory said with a sigh. “We'll just have to think of something else. Say, I'm going to meet a friend for dinner tonight. Why don't you join us? It should be fun.”

“I'd love to!” said Marjorie. “Do you know how long it's been since I ate out with friends? It's been … so long that I can't remember when. See, I knew something good would come out of that ad!”

Another note from her mother was waiting for Cory when she returned to her uncle Micah's house. She threw it away without reading it. After letting Noodles snuffle around the yard and nibble grass, she took him back inside. The woodchuck was rattling his food dish when
Cory began to make them each a salad for lunch; hers had dressing and his didn't.

Noodles was restless again after lunch, so she clipped his leash on his collar and took him for a walk around the neighborhood. They met a few other people walking their pets. A tall, thin genie walking a six-foot-long iguana introduced himself as Salazar, Micah's next-door neighbor. A squat, little woman waddling behind her wild boar stopped long enough to say hello before her boar dragged her down the street. A girl with catlike eyes was walking a spotted leopard. When both the girl and the cat eyed Noodles hungrily, Cory decided it was time to go back to the house. Even so, she liked that there was such an interesting mix of people in her uncle's neighborhood. Most of her mother's neighbors were fairies. From what she understood, the majority of the neighborhoods in the town were made up of one kind of person or another, like fairies or genies or humans, with or without magic. Only a few neighborhoods had a mixture like her uncle's.

By the time they reached the house, Micah was there, sitting on the front porch with a cup of cider in his hand and Flicket the squirrel on his shoulder. “How was your day?” he asked, leaning down to pet Noodles. Flicket chattered at the woodchuck, flicking his bushy tail up and down.

Cory brushed birdseed off the other chair before sitting down. “I tried your spray on the spiders. It made Marjorie sneeze a lot, and when I say a lot I mean I thought she was going to pass out from lack of air.”

“That's not good,” said Micah.

“I know,” Cory replied. “I'll just have to keep looking for something that will work.”

An hour later, Cory was wearing a short turquoise dress the same color as her eyes. Her uncle even told her how nice she looked as she was on her way out the door. She couldn't remember her mother ever giving her a compliment.