Fall Beginnings

“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire,” I said, finishing the reading of my short story to my class. “Wait, what do you mean ‘by the time you stepped outside, the leaves were on fire’?” my teacher questioned, “Is that the end of the story?” When I nodded, she made a mark in her gradebook and said, “What kind of ending is that? That is not how you finish a story. I’m giving you a D!”

I winced. I knew that they wouldn’t understand. This assignment was supposed to be a made-up story about fall, but while trying to write one, I had gotten writer’s block, so I decided to write it based on something that actually happened. Of course, no one would

ever believe me if I just told them what happened, but I had to get the experience out of my system somehow, so turning it into a “fictional” story seemed to be the best way. I thought I’d get a better grade than a D for it though, because I felt it was pretty well-written and what had happened was just so… unbelievable.

As I sat back down and the next student stepped up to read their story, I allowed my mind to wander back to that day: the day I met the creature who changed the seasons, or at least some of them.

It started like any other late summer day: a bit cool, but with a distinct feeling in the air that let you know it was eventually going to get much hotter. I had woken up, eaten breakfast, and opted out of getting my normal cup of coffee, instead substituting it with a steaming mug of apple cider. I was sick and tired of summer and was past ready for fall to arrive. The weather would be cooler and fall fashion is just so chic, you know?

As I sipped my cider, I glanced at the clock, making sure I had enough time to finish it before I had to get on the bus for school. The next part of my routine was looking at the calendar, counting down how many days until fall finally began. Only three left. I looked at the weather forecast for the day. Even though I knew it’d be hot later, I decided to wear a cozy orange fall sweater with some white pants and brown boots, making sure to pack a t-shirt and shorts to wear later once it warmed up.

I still had some time, so I picked up a fashion magazine to read while I waited. I stared in shock at the cover, which said “Fall Fashions for the Year”. I could have sworn that it had

been a summer fashion magazine only moment earlier. I flipped the pages back and forth, confused. I got up and looked at my calendar again, checking to make sure that it was indeed still three days until fall. It was. I looked at the magazine again and shrugged, choosing instead to pick up an ad paper. Right on the front page was a Starbucks ad for their seasonal pumpkin spice latte. By

this time, I was starting to get a little freaked out. Pumpkin spice lattes never came out early! What was going on?

I ran to the window to see if somehow the outside was changing along with the things inside my house, but it wasn’t. Hearing a noise, I spun back around just in time to see something

hovering around my summer scented watermelon candle. I silently crept up to it and discovered a tiny fairy-like creature slowly changing my candle from a watermelon to a salted caramel candle, one of my favorite fall scents.

“What are you doing?” I asked, startling it. It fell backwards, landing in the candle. I rushed to help, hoping it hadn't gotten hurt. Normally, something like this would have freaked me out, but today was different. I was almost taking the weirdness in

stride. As I attempted to help, I accidentally knocked the little thing over again. It got up and flew up to my face, shaking its little fist, squeaking madly. "I--I'm sorry, I c--can't tell what you're s--saying," I stuttered, backing up as it continued to fly around my head.

As I watched, it suddenly grew into a full-sized human girl! Well, almost human. It still had wings but other than that, looked like a normal person. “You big idiot!” it yelled, “I come and try to do something nice for you, and what do you do but knock me down and almost rip off my wing!”

I just stood and stared at it. First, all that weird stuff was happening, then I see this little tiny fairy thing, and now that same fairy thing is standing in front of me, the size of a normal human and is yelling at me. “Can you even hear me?” she yelled. All I could do was blink. “Oh great, now you’ve done it,” she said turning away, “Scared the human to death. They told you that you shouldn’t try to bring fall early, no matter if the human liked it. They told you that you weren’t stealthy enough to do it without the human noticing. Oh, you’ve done it now. What are you going to do? You just violated the code by killing a human!”

As she muttered on, I was finally able to gain my composure enough to speak, “Um, excuse me? I’m not dead.” As soon as I spoke, she jumped, then whirled on me, shouting, “Will you stop doing that? You about scared me to death!”

I stood demurely, trying not to look at her as she yelled some more. Once she finally calmed down, she told me, “The name is Feuer. I know it’s not great, but it’s fire in German and fits the leaves in fall and my personality perfectly. Yes, I am a fairy. Yes, I can grow and shrink at will. No, I won’t be here long, and yes, I change the seasons from summer to fall. That answer all your questions?”

I opened my mouth to ask her how many fairies there were, but before I could get a word out, she shrunk herself and blew something in my face that smelled like cinnamon. The next thing I knew, I was waking up on the floor. It was 8:00, and the bus was pulling up. I got up, glanced around my house a bit disoriented, grabbed my bag, along with my now “Fall Fashion” magazine and headed for the door. By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.