Worlds Collide (The Land of Stories #6)(4)

The world-renowned author went dead silent and the twinkle faded from his eye. He was shocked, not because of the question, but because he couldn’t remember the answer. He searched every corner of his patchy memory, but he couldn’t recall where his sister was or the last time he had spoken to her. The only memories coming to mind were from when Alex was a teenager, but he refused to believe that was the last time he’d seen her. He was certain he’d had some communication with Alex since then. She couldn’t just have disappeared, as the girl in pigtails claimed… or could she?

“I… I…” Mr. Bailey mumbled as he tried to focus.

It was obvious something was wrong, and the crowd began to shift in their seats. When the author realized his audience was growing uncomfortable, he laughed at their reactions like he was only playing a joke on them.

“Well, it’s a simple answer,” he said. “What happened to Connie at the end of Fairytaletopia?”

He phrased the question like he was playing a trivia game with the young girl—but secretly, the author couldn’t remember the conclusion of his beloved series, either. Trying to recall the whereabouts of his sister made him realize how much information was missing from his memory.

“She and Alec both had a happily ever after,” Annie said.

“Did they?” the author asked. “I mean, of course they did! Then that’s your answer.”

“But, Mr. Bailey—”

“Well, this has been a wonderful evening, but I have to cut it short,” the author said. “I would love to stay and answer all your questions, but my four hours of consciousness are almost up.”

The author yawned and stretched like he was tired, but it wasn’t a convincing performance. In truth, the mental void had terrified him, and he didn’t know how much longer he could keep his fear from surfacing. Mr. Bailey always made jokes about his fading memory, but it wasn’t until tonight that he’d realized it wasn’t a laughing matter.

Later that evening, once his children had dropped him off at home and made sure he was settled, Mr. Bailey searched his house for any clues he could find leading to his sister’s location, but he found nothing—not even a photograph. His children already treated him like a toddler, so he was afraid to ask one of them what had happened to her. For peace of mind, he had to find her on his own.

The author could envision every detail of his sister’s face. Her pale skin, her rosy cheeks, her pale blue eyes, the freckles on the bridge of her nose, and her long strawberry-blonde hair were instantly accessible every time he closed his eyes and thought of her. However, this was how Alex had looked in her youth. She most certainly would have been an old woman by now—so why couldn’t he picture it?

“Oh, Alex, where did you go?” he said to himself.

Mr. Bailey knew only one thing could jump-start his memory. He locked himself in his study and searched his bookshelves until he found copies of the Fairytaletopia series. Just as he’d told the audience at the bookstore, all six books were based on true events he and his sister had experienced when they were much younger. If he couldn’t recall the information on his own, perhaps one of his stories would trigger the memories for him.

Mr. Bailey eagerly pulled the first Fairytaletopia book off the shelf, but remembering the events that inspired each book wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be.

“Think, old man, think!” he said. “Fairytaletopia: The Wishing Charm was about our first trip to the fairy-tale world…. We were collecting something…. There were things we needed to get back home.… Oh, I know—the Wishing Spell! Our dad’s journal helped us navigate and find all the items! We were chased by the Big Bad Wolf Pack and barely survived our encounter with the Evil Queen! That’s also the year we met Froggy, Red, Jack, and Goldilocks!”

The old man was so excited to retrieve these memories that he jumped in the air and his back cracked, reminding him he was too old to be doing such movements. He put the first book in his series aside and moved on to the sequel.

“Fairytaletopia 2: The Evil Fairy’s Revenge,” he read. “What on earth was that about? Wait, that was the year the Enchantress returned! We flew all over the fairy-tale world in a flying ship called the Granny! Alex defeated the Enchantress by taking away her pride! Boy, was she brilliant for doing that. That was the same year we met Mother Goose and Mom married Bob.”

The second remembrance gave him a boost of confidence, and he eagerly moved on to the third book in the series.

“Fairytaletopia 3: The Long-Lost Army,” he read. “That must be based on the Grande Armée that tried conquering the fairy-tale world! The soldiers were trapped in a portal for over two hundred years, thanks to Mother Goose and the Brothers Grimm! Our uncle joined them and found a dragon egg! He raised the beast and our grandmother slayed it right before she returned to magic! Wow, I can’t believe our mother let us out of the house after that one.”

As he moved on to the fourth and fifth books, the memories began to flow so freely he had trouble keeping up with them. It was like a tropical rainstorm had formed in the middle of a terrible drought.

“Fairytaletopia 4: The Literary Journey was when Alex and I chased Uncle Lloyd through the worlds of classic literature! We would have stopped him sooner if he hadn’t separated us into Camelot and Robin Hood. Fairytaletopia 5: A Storyteller’s Quest was when we traveled into my short stories! We accidentally went inside Bree’s writing, and our uncle Lloyd was trapped in the Cemetery of the Undead! We rushed back to the hospital to tell Alex what had happened, but when we arrived, she was gone….”