An Enigmatic Stepsister Pays a Visit

Carletta was living in a rented apartment but that evening she would go to her stepparent’s house to spend some time with Jane who always loved having her round. Jane was age twelve and on this occasion she wanted them to take turns reading stories about fairies from a book that had been sent to her. Carletta was known to be very good to her young stepsister and nearly always did what she asked, even to the point of taking a high-quality dress with her to wear when she came to visit. Jane had a great love for Carletta and always felt inspired by her.

There was that distinctive knock on the front door and Jane ran to answer it. Carletta always knocked rapidly with her fingertips and hardly ever used the doorbell. 

“Carletta! Mum! Dave! Carletta’s here!”

“That’s lovely dear. Ask her if she wants tea,” said her mum, then added, “dad and I will be heading out soon.”

Carletta came in, glancing around nervously, then jumped as Jane suddenly darted forward and threw her arms around her while shouting, “Yay!”

“Ow! Okay, okay, you don’t need to run into me like that Jane.”  

There was a noticeable impatient air about Carletta this time. She still felt somewhat haunted by the Blithson gang. Was there really no chance they might track her down? Were the family and her beloved Jane really safe? Those gang men would stop at nothing to get back at her.

She cleared her throat and said, “okay, come on Jane. I don’t actually have all evening this time. Let’s go and sit down.”

“Oh. Why aren’t you staying the night?”

“Well, I have work tomorrow.”

“So?”

Carletta sighed. “Uh, I might stay over next time.”

Jane looked blankly at her, then said, “okay, well you can change into your nice black dress now anyway and then we can look at the book.” 

“Oh yeah, sorry. I didn’t bring my dress this time.” She then met Jane’s suspicious and rather disappointed look.  “I forgot.”

“Aw, that’s a shame! Do I have to remind you every time? That motorbike uniform is pretty cool but you look way too much like a man in it.”

Their mum who was standing nearby, smiled and Carletta laughed. “I used to be that fashion model, remember?”

“I know!” said Jane, “it’s a pity you stopped doing that job.”

“It wasn’t for me Jane, and I don’t really wear dresses anymore.”

“Just bring the black one next time. Okay, let’s go. Do you want some tea?”

“No thank you.” 

Jane then presented her with the fairy book which was an illustrated Flower Fairies book.

Carletta sat down on the sofa and Jane immediately sat down right next to her. “Okay, shall we have a read then?”

“Yes. Me first,” said Jane.

David passed by. “Alright Carletta?”

“Yeah. Hi Dave.”

Jane chose a story and began to read. As she continued reading, she kept looking to see if Carletta was paying attention but noticed that she was biting her lower lip now and then and anxiously looking about.

“What?!” Jane finally blurted out in a hurt tone of voice. “Are you listening Carletta?”

“Of course!”

“Okay. Your turn.”

“Okay.”

Carletta picked up the book and began reading. Her voice was very pleasant to listen to.

After some time, Jane moved up even closer to her sister and putting an arm affectionately round her neck, spoke gently and softly in her ear, “are you her? Are you that missing fairy?”

Carletta laughed. “What? Are we playing a game now?”

“No, I’m asking you a serious question.”

“What missing fairy? Anyway, of course not sweety.”

“It’s okay,” she whispered, “you can tell me if you are. I’m talking about Stephanie, the Princess. Lots of girls know about her and like to talk about her. Some say she’s corrupt! And into bad things and dangerous things and crime… and…. and y’know. They’re trying to reach out to her!”

Carletta sniffed, tilting her head back and widening her eyes. She then shook her head. No, that’s not me.” She caught Jane’s intense look and briefly blushed, then immediately looked away, clearing her throat.

“Okay,” said Jane in a forgiving tone, “well that’s good but it would be amazing if you were a fairy. But I’m also glad you’re just my sister. Let’s keep reading.”

Carletta wasn’t sure whether to tell Jane that fairies don’t really exist and that Raymond Ashford, who was known as the ‘Wizard of England’ was writing her all those ‘delusional letters’ about how she was a missing fairy princess named Stephanie Goldmaracynthia Bell, who urgently needed to let him teach her how to return to the higher world. She used to believe this was true but didn’t feel ready at the time to return to that apparent home world. But later, she stopped believing in it altogether.

She decided in the end to let Jane keep believing for the time being. It was part of childhood, part of being a young girl to believe in fairies and she would not be the one to take that away from her. At least not just yet.

She stayed for quite a generous while longer before getting up to leave. Her parents were scheduled to go out to a restaurant that evening so they didn’t see much of her. And David was never that close to Carletta and only exchanged a few words with her.  

“Stay the night next time!” said Jane, “and bring your dress and nice shoes.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure. Okay, bye for now Twinkle.”

“Bye!”

As she was heading for the door, Jane called after her again, “hey! Carletta. Did you forget?”

“About?”

“My birthday’s coming up! You didn’t ask me what I want.”

“Oh yes. You can tell me now.”

“I’ll send you a picture of what I want and the details. You’ll love it and probably even want one too!”

“Okay! I hope it won’t be too expensive though.”

“It is expensive but it’s for my birthday and you have a job so I think you can afford to get it for me.”

“Humm, well, I hope so.”

Jane smiled and began happily looking up the product she desired on her phone.

Carletta took a longer route home than usual, doing her best to avoid contact with any Blithson gang members.

Jane sent her the details of what she wanted for her birthday. Carletta sighed, then glanced at the item and at the price tag.

Ouch! A large, super high-quality and handmade Barnes & Higgens Premium Model Fairy figure for £425! Those were stunning looking models with customisation options. Jane had sent all the information from the name of the model fairy that she wanted to be written on the box, to the colour of the dress and the specific wand and wing design. The name she chose of course was ‘Princess Stephanie.’

But it was far too expensive. There was no way she could buy that for Jane. Unless of course she stole it or stole some money for it from the Blithson gang. Anyway, she wouldn’t worry about that for the time being.  

She had to decide on the next step to take to tackle all the trouble she had just created for herself. She was at war with a deadly city gang who had named her the ‘Black Angel’ because she had attached large, black plastic wings to her shoulders before making her first strike against them during which she had stolen weapons from two men and a bacon roll after throwing down a homemade dust and girt bomb. She had also planted a small recording device on one of them while they struggled in confusion and which she used to monitor their next moves and plans.  Perhaps she could find a way to recruit other delinquents or outcasts from other gangs to form a new gang under her leadership.