Excerpt: The Sunshine Line

I sipped my coffee and stared blankly out the kitchen windows. Blankly was a good word for it. The fog was so thick you couldn't see the other side of the street at this elevation. I felt isolated in a world of weirdness. Almost against my will, my eyes slid to the bar between the kitchen and the living room where I could see the tops of a few fairy heads and the entire upper half of Amaleen as she dusted Molly's crystal critter collection. It was then that I noticed Becky sitting at the feet of the crystal fairy. She was staring up at the arrogant expression on the crystal face, her own expression almost rapt. Suddenly Amaleen's duster came down on crystal and live fairy alike.
Becky exploded with rage. “You mewling spur-galled vassal! Watch yourself or I'll bite you, I swear by air and fire.”
I wondered what her insult was supposed to mean, and even more why someone should be afraid of the bite of a creature as small as she.
Amaleen did not appear either frightened by the threat or sorry for her transgression. “Don't get in the way of my work, then, you ill-tempered owl-fodder.”
Clearly these fairies weren't all peace and love and rainbows like the children's books would have one believe. At least Amaleen's insult made a little sense to me.
I turned my eyes back to the kitchen and found that Molly had been watching me watch the fairies. “We have got to get that portal fixed. This is a disaster waiting to happen.”
It was? It seemed to me it was a disaster that had already happened.
“And you don't know how?” I asked
“No. I don't know why it broke. This hasn't happened to me before. I didn't know it could.” She looked deeply troubled.