This toolshed would be an Aladdin’s cave to such a collector. My family didn’t believe in letting things
go if they still worked. Though chock-full, the shed was orderly, because that had been my grandfather’s
way. When we’d come to live with him and Gran, he’d drawn an outline for every commonly used tool.
That was where he’d wanted that tool to be replaced every time it was used, and that was where it was
still kept now. I could reach unerringly for the trowel, which was maybe the oldest tool in the shed. It
was heavy, sharper, and narrower than its modern counterparts, but its shape was familiar to my hand.
If it had been really, truly spring, I’d have changed back into my bikini to combine business with
pleasure. But though the sun was still shining, I wasn’t in a carefree mood any longer. I pulled my
gardening gloves on, because I didn’t want to ruin my fingernails. Some of these weeds seemed to fight
back. One grew on a thick, fleshy stalk, and it had sharp points on its leaves. If you let it grow long
enough, it blossomed. It was really ugly and prickly, and it had to be removed by its roots. There were
quite a few of them springing up among the emerging cannas.
Gran would have had a fit.
I crouched and set to work. With my right hand, I sank the trowel in the soft dirt of the flower bed,
loosening the roots of the nasty weed, and pulled it up with my left hand. I shook the stalk to get the dirt
off the roots and then tossed it aside. Before I’d started I’d put a radio out on the back porch. In no time
at all, I was singing along with LeAnn Rimes. I began to feel less troubled. In a few minutes, I had a
respectable pile of uprooted weeds and a glow of virtue.
If he hadn’t spoken, it would have ended differently. But since he was full of himself, he had to open his
mouth. His pride saved my life.
Also, he picked some unwise words. Saying, “I’ll enjoy killing you for my lord,” is just not the way to
make my acquaintance.
I have good reflexes, and I erupted from my squatting position with the trowel in my hand and I drove it
upward into his stomach. It slid right in, as if it were designed to be a fairy-killing weapon.
And that was exactly what it turned out to be, because the trowel was iron and he was a fairy.
I leaped back and dropped into a half crouch, still gripping the bloody trowel, and waited to see what
he’d do. He was looking down at the blood seeping through his fingers with an expression of absolute
amazement, as if he couldn’t believe I’d ruined his ensemble. Then he looked at me, his eyes pale blue
and huge, and there was a big question on his face, as if he were asking me if I’d really done that to him,
if it wasn’t some kind of mistake.
I began backing up to the porch steps, never taking my eyes from him, but he wasn’t a threat any longer.
As I reached behind me to open the screen door, my would-be murderer crumpled to the ground, still
looking surprised.
I retreated into the house and locked the door. Then I walked on trembling legs over to the window
above the kitchen sink and peered out, leaning as far over the sink as I could. From this angle I could see
only a bit of the crumpled body. “Okay,” I said out loud. “Okay.” He was dead, looked like. It had been
so quick.
I started to pick up the wall phone, noticed how my hands were shaking, and spotted my cell phone on
the counter where I’d been charging it. Since this was a crisis that definitely called for the head honcho,
I speed-dialed my great-grandfather’s big, secret emergency number. I thought the situation qualified. A
male voice, not Niall’s, answered. “Yes?” the voice said with a cautious tone.
“Ah, is Niall there?”
“I can reach him. Can I help you?”
Steady, I told myself. Steady. “Would you please tell him I’ve killed a fairy and he’s laid out in my yard
and I don’t know what to do with the body?”
There was a moment of silence.
“Yes, I’ll tell him that.”
“Pretty soon, you think? Because I’m alone and I’m kind of freaked out.”
“Yes. Quite soon.”
“And someone will come?” Geez Louise, I sounded whiny. I made my spine stiffen. “I mean, I can load
