The Little Fairy

Sarah came up to help after Rich and Don had gone outside to look at the cherry picker. I was still trying to find the right software to make flyers. "Here, photoshop works the best for this." She scooched me out of the chair and double-clicked on the blue logo, opening it to a blank page. She fiddled with fonts and free pictures for about 30 minutes and finally settled on something we both liked and pushed print and made 100 copies.

"100 seems like a lot." I looked over the first printed page, the bold, black headline reading "Save the planet, Save yourself!"

"I honestly don't think it'll be enough. We need to go door to door along with hanging them on street signs, in businesses, the whole 9 yards!" She spun the chair around to look at me, crossing her arms.

"Should we start off doing door-to-door?" I gathered up the pages as they printed out and set them on the desk next to the monitor.

"I think we should start with posts. It's Sunday so most people are at Church."

"What's Church?"

"It's a place of worship for a God, monotheistic people, meaning they worship one God only. People are really stuck up about it, too." She leaned back in the chair, the back leaning a little too far, making her jolt upright to help her not fall as she scowled at the chair and proceeded to lean back again.

I nodded and continued to collect the papers until they were all done. Sarah said we needed more ink and paper, so we'd go to the general store in a few hours.

We strolled through the aisles, picking up food as we went along. "Soy milk, check," Sarah said as she put a half gallon of the milk alternative in the cart. "Now to the produce." She led us around the store with ease.

"What's soy milk?" I peered over her shoulder at the carton.

"A drink made from soybeans. People who can't drink dairy use it or people who don't want to drink milk have it." I nodded as she picked out some fruits and vegetables, placed them in a mesh bag, and moved to the next thing. She led us to the housewares section and grabbed a few large packages of plain white paper, and then over to the electronics to get some printer ink.

Sarah loaded up all our items onto the conveyor belt. "Good evening, Marjorie." Sarah's voice peaked up into a southern twang, much more pronounced than it already was.

"Sarah Beth!" Majorie, who I remember as the woman who helped Don and me out when he first brought me here, came around the till and wrapped Sarah into a tight embrace, pulling back after what seemed like 10 minutes to look at her from arm's length. "You've grown so much! How's city life treating you?" She finally let go of Sarah and walked back around to the register to start scanning our items.

"It's going alright, having a bit of a quarter-life crisis, but I'm doing alright." She continued to load the items onto the belt, her eyes barely leaving Marjorie's.

"I see you're here with your cousin, uh..." She trailed off, pausing her scanning as she tried to remember my name.

"Kreya, miss." I nodded, standing by the handle of the cart.

"Cousin?" Sarah looked at me confused, as she finished putting the last of the groceries on the belt. "Did my dad tell you that?" She laughed and pulled the cart around the till to start loading the groceries back in.

"Are ya'll not cousins?" Marjorie looked in between the both of us.

"No, she's my friend from the city. I asked dad to watch after her until I could take my leave from school. God knows why he felt like he had to lie to you about it."

"$153.23 is your total, miss Sarah Beth." She put both her hands on her hips. "And you tell that dad of yours he doesn't need to lie to me."

Sarah laughed and nodded as she slid her card into the chip reader. "Will do, Marjorie."

"And tell him to stop being such a stranger. I could use some friendlier faces here." She winked and handed Sarah the receipt.

"I'll see you later." She pulled the cart towards the door and out into the parking lot, heading to the truck that was waiting for us 3 spots from the building.

"Are we going to make more flyers when we get home?" I helped Sarah load up the groceries into the bed of the truck.

"Nah, I probably need to help dad with the apples if Rich hasn't already. There's more stuff that needs to be done around the farm." She slammed the door to the bed shut. The door creaked in protest as she closed it.

I nodded and climbed into the passenger side of the truck, hoping that Don was still okay from the boom falling.