91. The Little One

                                                    

 “Gingerbread in a casino’s safe!

 Yo, ho, ho, he no longer needs his rum!

                The devil’s now a cookie because he tried to save!

Yum, yum, yum, now is sweet what once was scum!

He thought he knew it all, he had a lot of gall! 

Hum, hum, hum, he no longer needs his rum.

Now he'll crumble if he's wet, yet no one will be upset.

Yum, yum, yum, someone else will drink his rum.

If he knew this, the jerk would surely be sore pissed,

But he's left us and it´s clear this bully won't be missed.

Yum, yum, yum, shall we toast to this with rum? 

“Be very careful with that,” said Fiona to the singing waiters who were toting the gingerbread man Salty now was to the casino’s safe. Fiona had decided to keep the biscuit there in case anyone should be tempted to eat it.“He wanted to look good and now he really does, poor thing. He’s a very appetizing biscuit, baked just right, a lovely golden brown, and very nicely decorated too, with the right amount of frosting.”

“Are you going to search for someone that can turn him back into what he was?” asked Angelino, who had been elected union delegate of the singing waiters employed at the casino's restaurant. “I wouldn’t do it. We’re better off without him.”

Like the rest of the waiters at the casino, he belonged to the crew  of flying and singing amorettos that had once worked at The Poultice.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” said Fiona.

“If you feel confused, know that we feel desperate,” said Angelino.“We didn’t want to work for Salty, but when The Poultice folded up we had no choice."

Angelino then began to advice Fiona what she ought to do.

"Fiona, take control of this place. Call Santichu Semeurtzi and tell him you need his help because you are turning the casino into a spa and an ashram. Don’t forget to say an ashram.Working here unbalanced Santichu’s chakras and he is trying to heal among the Buddhists. We’re a bit sore he left us here behind, but we’ll get over it if things change. Please do this, Fiona. We want to stop having to dye our plain white wings weird colors. Salty wanted us to look like exotic parakeets. I admit my wings were kind of pretty.  But it’s too much trouble to keep dying them. And I suspect the dyes he made us use are toxic. Besides, we’re amoretti, not lovebirds.”

   

“It might work,” said Branna, who had come to her sister’s aid as soon as called. “As a mathematician, I could take charge of the casino. But I think a spa is a much more useful community facility.”

“It might work,” Fiona brightened up. She smiled a little.

“Nobody must know Salty is now a cookie,” said Branna. “All of you amoretti must be sworn to silence.”

“How will we explain he is missing when someone comes asking for him? No one will believe us if we say he just left.”

“We’ll stick to the truth as much as we can. We’ll say he was reduced to ashes while trying to fix an oven.”

“What if his awful friends want to take over the casino?” asked Fiona. “What about Tropez and the Bumps? Will I have to fight them?”

“We’ll have to ask Darcy to speak to them.”

“I’m beginning to see this fall together,” said Fiona. “It’s settled then.”

“And now...what  will you do with the oven?”

Fiona strolled up to the oven. Its door was still open  She gave a little sob and to her surprise the oven echoed it. Surprised that the oven should be sad too, she peered inside it.

“Oh, my!” she breathed softly. “Oh, my! Oh, my! Oh, my!”

“What is it, Fiona? Get away from that thing!” cried Branna.

But Fiona had already stuck her hands inside and pulled something out.

“You can’t imagine what I’ve found in here!”

She turned to show Branna what she cuddled in her arms.

“Oh! Oh, Fiona! You carried it, now you have to keep it!”

Fiona stared at her sister and then at the tiny creature she held in her arms.

It is the law of the fay that if one of us finds a fairy baby and picks it up, the finder has to keep the child until it is at least seven years old.

Fiona gulped. She swallowed again and then she said, “Well, I guess we are one more.”