Ticket to Faerie Read Free

she took the handle from him, he asked: "Can we
dispense with that here? I'll keep the collar on if you insist, but," he
looked from side to side, "I do have my dignity."
    "Whatever," Alyssa muttered. She guessed a talking dog
didn't need a leash so she tucked it into her backpack, slipped her
arms into the pack's straps, and eased them up onto her shoulders.
The mouse resettled on top of the strap, and Alyssa turned her head
to look at it. "Do you know where we're supposed to go?"
    Max raised one paw and pointed toward a path off the main
road that led into a thick strand of trees. "Giserella's is that
way."
    Alyssa stared at Max. "How in the world do you know?" On
the other side of the road, shoulder-high rows of corn lined a field
behind a low stone wall. Except for the red, green, orange, blue, and
pink tassels, Alyssa could be standing on a road anywhere in the
western Oregon countryside. This just can't be real.
    "Everyone knows how to get to Giserella's, love," the mouse
whispered into Alyssa's ear. "The trick is to find your way out
again."
    Alyssa reached into the side pocket of her pack and pulled
out the compass. She held it in her hand until the needle stopped
moving and pointed in the direction of the path.
    "Sorry, love, that's not going to do you much good here." The
mouse snorted. "But then, that's why you have a ticket."
    "Why not? That must be north." Alyssa pointed in the
direction that the compass did.
    "Turn around three times."
    Alyssa blew out her breath and did as the mouse instructed.
The compass needle now pointed down the road in the direction
they had come. Well, this sucks. She put it back into her pack,
wondering how many of the other items she had chosen to bring
with would also prove useless. Max pranced down the trail and she
followed him. After walking through the silent woods for what
seemed like miles and drinking half the water in one of her bottles,
she spotted a cottage nestled among the trees near the path. Smoke
drifted from the brick chimney and black and purple flowers
bloomed in planters hanging from the windows on either side of the
purple wooden door.
    Max turned off the path to follow flat stones that led to the
cottage door.
    Alyssa trailed after him and banged on the door.
    A little girl opened it. "Yes?" She had blond pigtails, almost
as long as she stood tall, and wore a purple and black checked
pinafore over a starched taffeta dress with puffed sleeves and a full
skirt. The dress fabric shifted between purple and black.
    "We're looking for Giserella," Alyssa said.
    "I'm Giserella. Why?"
    "The ticket lady said I could get a magic potion from you to
cure my grandma from pancreatic cancer." She didn't say you were
just a brat .
    Giserella put her little fists on her hips. "And why would I
want to give you that?"
    "We've got cool stuff to give you," Max said.
    Alyssa glared at him.
    "Oh." Giserella tilted her head to one side. "Like what?"
    Max pushed his nose at the pack. The mouse stepped away
from the strap and Alyssa lifted it off her shoulders. She reached into
the outside pocket, pulled out the compass and offered it to
Giserella.
    "What do I want with this?" She handed it back to Alyssa. "It
won't work here."
    Alyssa rummaged around in her pack, trying to decide what
she could part with. Max nudged her elbow when she touched the
MP3 player. Reluctantly, she withdrew it. "What about this?"
    "That's more like it." The girl's lips curled upward and
Alyssa noticed that her teeth came to sharp points. "Of course, this
might get you a cure for breast cancer or maybe lung cancer. But,
pancreatic cancer, that's a little trickier." She held the MP3 player up
to her ear and shook it.
    Alyssa, while trying to find the cell phone that seemed to
have gotten buried in the bottom of the pack, pulled out her t-shirt
and set it on the porch.
    Giserella picked it up. "Very nice." She held up the black
t-shirt with a purple Pink Floyd emblem on it. "All right, then, I'll
make you a potion.