Plenty Read Free

be safe. Because it’s necessary –
necessary
– for every living creature – to have a
sanctuary
. I’m a living creature, aren’t I?”
    “You certainly are,” Mum said.
    “You carry your sanctuary in here,” said Dad and touched Maddy’s chest. “And right now your home is wherever me and Mum are, pumpkin.”
    And that’s when Maddy Frank knew it was no good. The argument was done. She was lost. When her parents started talking about the things she wanted being
inside
herself
there was nothing left to say. Her stomach dropped. Her throat ached. And in the once-warm and soft spaces of Maddy Frank the frost hardened.
    Right at that moment of giving up Maddy wanted to reach out to the fairies and wish the biggest, strongest, deepest wish she had. She knew, of course, and had known for a long time that the fairy magic was gone. That it was only in stories now. But some part of her still hoped. Maybe there would be just enough magic left in the real world to stop this terrible day.
    There wasn’t.
    She looked at her watch.
    It was 3.29
    It had all happened in nine minutes.
    “It’ll be fine,” said Mum. “I promise.”
    “What about school?” Maddy whispered. The words came on icy breath.
    “Trust us,” said Dad.
    But Maddy Frank didn’t think she’d ever trust these people again.

Chapter Three
Karatgurk
    That night Maddy Frank nearly cried but didn’t. Or rather, she wouldn’t. It felt better to be angry than sad. Being sad felt small and wrong; being angry felt strong and right. When she felt the tears coming she pressed her lips together and frowned instead. She fell asleep with the ache of tears in her throat and she dreamed the same dream over and over.
    She dreamed she woke up in her own room. Everything looked real and ordinary. There was her ordinary table with the blue bookcase painted with white clouds. There was her part-open wardrobe. There was her ordinary wall covered in pictures of fairies. Again and again she woke up in this dream room in which everything looked and felt real – except for one thing.
    In the dream, her birthday hadn’t happened. Her parents had never said they were moving. In the dream, she didn’t have to leave Fitzroy. Every time she woke, she woke up in the dream room. The ache in her throat would be unbearable – and then she’d realise. She didn’t actually have to do it. In the dream, she didn’t have to move.
    Dream happiness would flood her body. Her throat would stop aching. It was like the whole dream house sighed and relaxed.
    But then the dream fairies would come. Hundreds of them peeling off the fairy wall and flying about the dream ceiling. They slipped out of books like silverfish. They dropped from picture frames like pressed flowers. They even flew out of the dream wardrobe like seeds in a wind. And with shock, she would realise what was happening. They were leaving.
    The fairies were leaving Jermyn Street.
    They arranged themselves and took off in tiny squadrons, whirring to the windowsill and out into the summer night. Once airborne, all the squadrons followed one lead fairy, brighter than the others. Bright as a star. She could see them, black against the grey sky, flying in formation. Flying away from her.
    “Come back,” she called and in the dream her voice was deep and broken. And as she watched the fairies leaving, an icy wind picked up in the dream room and snow began to fall.
    Then she’d wake up in her ordinary room and it would all start again.
    This went on until she was neither awake nor asleep but somewhere in between.
    The last time she woke, Maddy was worn out but she could tell she was really awake because the ache in her throat didn’t go away. Her heart hung heavy as a sloth but her mind jumped like crickets. She tiptoed out into the backyard. The orb-weaver had spun its web high in the silky ti-tree and the tent was still set up from her birthday campout the night before with Sophie-Rose and the Emmas. Everything smelled