More Things Than Are Dreamt Of
an excerpt

May
In which Abby leaves her dishes dirty.

“Abby!” Claire called and banged on Abby’s door harshly. “Will you come out and do your dishes already!”
It wasn’t a question, so Abby opened the door and looked into Claire’s angry face. “I need them dirty. I’m waiting for the dish fairies to come and clean them for me.”
Clare looked even angrier and threw her hands up in frustration. “Auuurgh, when will you realize that there are no such things as fairies? Your dishes have been sitting there for a week and I’m not going to clean them for you. They’re starting to attract flies.”
“I guess I could clean some of them,” Abby said reluctantly. “But I want to leave some in case the dish fairies happen to be passing by.”
Claire sighed. “Fine. Let’s try to compromise. You can leave some dishes in the sink all the time...” Abby started to nod, “but,” Claire continued, “if they stay there for three days without getting cleaned then you have to wash them. I don’t want moldy, fly-attracting dishes in our kitchen. And I want enough space left in there to wash my own dishes.”
“Alright, it’s a deal,” Abby said and left her room to go wash some of her dishes. She had to admit Claire was right, it was starting to get pretty gross. She swatted at a tiny fruit fly with the wet dishcloth. The only problem was that Claire and everyone else didn’t seem to understand the importance of Abby’s work. Even if nobody believed in these things, just the myths themsleves had to have some basis in fact, right? Just because no one could prove they did exist, didn’t mean that they did not exist. And that’s what Abby was here to prove. She turned the water on for one final rinse of a plate and put it in the drying rack next to the others. She had left a few cups and her cereal bowl from this morning along with some assorted silverware. That should be enough for the dish fairies to pay a visit. She checked the tape in the video camera hidden in the cabinet. There was nothing on it except a shot of the sink and then her doing the dishes. Abby hadn’t realized she’d been humming to herself. She rewound it and set it up to tape over all that.
She grabbed her light sweater off the back of a kitchen chair and went outside for a walk. It was such a beautiful day out. And the days were getting much longer. Summer was definitely on the way. Just a few more weeks until all the pools would start to open. Soon school would be over as well and Abby would go back to her summer job at the ice cream parlor. It was kind of annoying that she didn’t have the funds to take the summers off like most of the teachers did, but the ice cream parlor was kind of fun and it wasn’t quite full time. She could relax a bit during June, July, and August.
Abby wandered down to the park. She was planning to sit on one of the benches, but on such a beautiful day everybody else had gotten there first. She contented herself to a patch of grass near a cluster of trees. It hadn’t rained recently so the ground was nice and dry. As she sat there a group of eight guys entered the park and clustered around one end. Abby recognized them sd the group of weeekly soccer players. They always showed up on a Sunday afternoon for their own little game. Four always wore red shirts and four always wore green. They looked like a strange set of Christmas elves. Abby never paid them much attention so she wasn’t sure if it was always the same four men in red and the same ones in green, or if they switched colors every now and then. As usual they marked out their field and set goalies. A spot on the side of the park was perfect for them. There were two clusters of trees spaced about sixty yards apart. Each cluster had a pair of trees that made do as a goal and the appointed goalie would stand between them to stop the ball from entering. A real soccer field is actually one hundred to one hundred thirty yards long, but Abby didn’t know that as she was not a sports fan. Sixty yards worked fine for this game because there were only three people actually kicking the ball around on each team. None of them could play any proper positions except the goalies.
Abby watched them for awhile. The day was so idyllic that she didn’t want to go home yet. Her tape would be running out soon. She noticed that some of the other park goers had left and there was now an empty bench closer to the informal soccer match. Slouching on the grass was fine for a few minutes, but a bench would be better for her posture. Plus, she could watch the game more closely. Abby walked over and plopped down on the bench just a the green team scored a goal on the red. They cheered and clapped eachother on the backs. Abby smiled. They were just as happy and rowdy as the little kids she taught. One of those green guys looked familiar. Oh my gosh, it was the guy from the laundromat. The laundry fairiy, as Abby had since thought of him. When she had met him in the laundromat she hadn’t recognized him as one of the usual soccer players. Apparently she’d never paid as close attention to them before.
Abby almost felt like it was fate. They were each being drawn to the same spots. The same park, the same laundromats. Her heart rate began to speed up and her palms sweated. Destiny was upon them. It was now or never. He would look over and see her and recognize her. His eyes would light up and he would start towards her, first at a jog and then at a run as he got closer. Abby closed her eyes and put a hand to her chest. She felt as though she should swoon. But wait. That was silly. She opened her eyes and looked out at the players. The green team was now busy trying to get the ball away from the red who was very close to a goal. The man hadn’t even looked Abby’s way. She sighed. She should be getting back home now anyway. Iron her clothes for school tomorrow and check if the dish fairies had come. She got off the bench and stomped her foot to try to get the circulation back. She started home.
The dish fairies hadn’t been by. Abby dirtied another plate for them with her pasta and vegetables. She rewound the tape in the camera again and went off to read in bed. That night she dreamed of falling in love with a soccer ball. He would not have her because she was not round enough and Abby ran away crying into a laundromat where a single red shirt spun in the wash.