This Is How It Always Is(15)

“Which they could use anyway because they were kind of scruffy fairies, but they wouldn’t listen—”

“And Grum was wary of how to make a night fairy tarry—”

“And other things that rhymed.”

“Yeah, and other things.”

His Greek Chorus of sons. No wonder this was the best part of his day. Except …

“Can we have a girl tonight instead?” Claude interrupted.

“Instead of night fairies?” said Penn.

“Instead of Grumwald,” said Claude. “I’m bored of a prince. I want a princess.”

“Grumwaldia?” said Penn.

“Yeah! Grumwaldia!” said Claude.

“Grumwaldia sounds like a lake in Vermont.” Roo had never been to one but was right about that anyway.

“Princesses are boring,” Rigel whined.

“Girls in fairy tales are losers,” said Roo.

“No they aren’t,” said Claude.

“Yes they are. Not like losers. Losers. Girls in fairy tales are always losing stuff.”

“Nuh-uh,” said Claude.

“Yuh-huh. They lose their way in the woods or their shoe on the step or their hair even though they’re in a tower with no door and their hair is like literally attached to their head.”

“Or their voice,” Ben put in. “Or their freedom or their family or their name. Or their identity. Like she can’t be a mermaid anymore.”

“Or they lose being awake,” said Roo. “And then they just sleep and sleep and sleep. Boooring.”

Claude started crying. “A princess could do cool stuff. A princess could be better than Grumwald. She wouldn’t have to sleep or lose her shoe.”

The boys’ emotions looked divided between worried they’d get in trouble for making their baby brother cry and antsy about how much storytime had passed and how much was left and how no story was yet being told. Worried about getting in trouble and antsy were in fact the boys’ predominant emotions. Well, maybe not worried. More like chagrined after they’d already gotten in trouble and antsy to get in more trouble.

“It’s no fair,” Claude whined. “We never get a princess.”

“It’s no fair,” Rigel and Orion whined. “We’ll never find out what happened with the night fairies.”

“It’s no fair,” Claude added. “They always get their way because there’s two of them.”

“Enough!” Penn said again. “We can do both at once.”

“We can?” Ben was unconvinced.

“Yes, because those night fairies the witch was making Grumwald capture? They had a night fairy leader named Princess Grumwaldia.”

“Stephanie,” Claude corrected.

“Princess Grumwaldia Stephanie,” Penn amended.

“What was she wearing?” said Claude.

“She was wearing a lavender nightgown but short, not tea length, so as to leave her legs free for fleeter flight. And she thought Grumwald was a big baby because he was so whiny about having to rule over his little kingdom and at the same time study for Algebra II, which he thought was really hard. He also had a lot of extra student government work to do since the secretary dropped out after the treasurer took the social coordinator to homecoming. Princess Stephanie, as a night fairy, didn’t go to high school, obviously, but her kingdom was much, much vaster than Grumwald’s. His stretched from the north fork of the forest to the horizon of the east sea. Hers … well, Stephanie was in charge of the night sky.”

“All of it?” Claude was impressed.

“Not all of it—”

“See?” Rigel and Orion: Captains, Team Grumwald.

“Just the stars.”

“Wow.” Claude snugged up against Penn, a kind of thank-you.

“It was Princess Stephanie’s job to oversee the night fairies, and it was the night fairies’ job to manage the stars.”

“This is starting to sound like reality TV,” said Roo.

“You didn’t think the heavens just managed themselves, did you? You didn’t think all the night fairies did their whole lives was tease poor Grumwald? They had to see that the stars came out on time, sparkled as appropriate, dimmed so the moon didn’t get pissed off when it was full, fell just when wishers were watching. This was a stressful job—way more stressful than SGA president or even prince—because there are a lot of stars out there, and Stephanie was in charge not just of making sure they were behaving properly but also that they were happy.”

“How do you keep stars happy?” Claude whispered.

“Well, exactly,” said Penn. “It was a big job. A big, big job. Stephanie and the other night fairies started every evening at dusk, and it often took until nearly dawn to get everything set. ‘Look alive there, Sirius. A little more light, please, Centauri. How do you feel, Ross 248? Anything we can do to make you more comfortable?’ So by the time dawn came, Princess Grumwaldia Stephanie was exhausted and ready for bed. Just like all of you.”

Ben and Roo went off to finish homework, but the little ones were ready, and Claude was already mostly asleep. He stirred when Penn transferred him to his own bed to ask, “Can I stay up till dawn too, Daddy? To help with the stars?”