The Garbage Fairy

Trish Plumsberry isn’t the usual teenage girl of Manhattan, New York. No, it isn’t because of  her long black nails, her absolutely pale skin or the fact that she always has enjoyed eating her broccoli. Perhaps it’s more along the lines of the fact her hair’s naturally purple, her eyelashes are over an inch long and the fact she visit’s the local garbage dump every two days.  She is about 5’0” tall, has a petite build and beautiful, long, and wavy hair. Trish lives in an apartment with her mother, a single parent, and her gorgeous cat Matilda who seems to have a mysterious glow about her. For most of Trish’s life, she had led a normal Christian lifestyle, until her sixteenth that is. It’s hard for her to have friends because of her questionable hobby of garbage dump visits, but when she talks to her peers in school about what she’s been up to, she makes it seem like the most fun-filled romantic trip anyone can be on. She can talk hours upon hours about that dump and all of its “beautiful” garbage. She sits there, sometimes for hours gazing up into the moon, wondering if the earth was as beautiful as the moon is from this distance. Scared that she will someday slip and admit that it’s been a garbage dump all along, she tries to isolate herself as often as possible.1

September 20, 2005, 11:00 P.M, Matilda the cat is perched upon her favourite spot underneath the window as the apartment is still. A little mouse runs out of his hiding place, and like a lioness who has spotted a deer, Matilda hunts the mouse and catches it within the blink of an eye. The door creaks open silently as Trish enters, probably arriving from another one of her garbage dump trips. “Today was my birthday, another beautiful trip to that garbage dump. I don’t know why it is spoken of in such ill terms. The wind rustling my hair, the silent groans of garbage in result of an unsuccessful Tetris match.  The moon, oh, the moon was clearer and closer than ever. The -- Matilda!”2

Trish was surprised to see a scrawny mouse dangling from Matilda’s glossy white teeth. With a tiny smirk, Trish snatched the mouse from Matilda’s salivating and disappointed mouth and shooed it outside the door. She looked in the mirror and found a note, which seems like it’s been through a mini war, ink against lead. While examining the scribbles, she could  recognize her mother’s distinguishable perfume.3

“Mum must be working late tonight.” Trish said with a bored  tone. The day had been relaxing, just as she had hoped. With no one to order her around, and no one to toss dirty dishes in one hand and a cat litter scooper in the other, she reclined in the nearest sofa. Trish quickly jolted up, realizing that something pointy was consistently and rudely nudging her backside. It is a children’s book entitled Garbage Fairies.4

With a smile that couldn’t be held back and a little giggle Trish said, “Well I guess mum must still think I’m her little girl. I’m at least interested in the story’s topic. It’s better than getting socks again at least!”5

Little did she know that this one story would change her life. She spent days upon days reading and studying the colourful and pleasant pictures. The book gave her as much comfort and warmth as her precious garbage did. She took little pieces of it and stored them safely away in the corners of her heart just as she did with her magical garbage. She researched into fairies, read more books on fairies and decided that she needed a story to refer to about specifically, garbage fairies. Her first writing was a little poem about a garbage fairy.6

“Little fairy prance around,7

Circling skies without a sound.8

Looking for a place to live,9

Found a home under a sieve.10

Cans of soup being her garden,11

Soggy food beginning to harden.12

Old worn tires on the soil,13

Surrounded by puddles of oil. 14

Dancing through her garbage home,15

Laying on beds of chicken bone.16

This is her shelter from the acid rain,17

For the garbage doesn't cause her pain.18

Happiness in the form of decay,19

Using her trash as a means of play.20

Treating old buttons as her pillows,21

Her only view is the trash billows.22

in this world23

of half-empty cups24

we're looking down25

but she's looking up.”26

What was just one poem became more and more writings, whether lyrics, poems, one-liners and finally a story. Trish was taken into her little fairy world and could not come back. All she could think about was that maybe, just maybe, she was adopted. Perhaps her real parents were garbage fairies, from the moon of course.  Maybe that’s why the moon appears to be so beautiful to her. It would as well explain why she has so much room in her heart for every piece of garbage placed into her haven, the dump.27

To understand poor Trish, one would need an understanding of her past. She never has had a childhood, for living in a single-parent home requires double the work. She didn’t have time for the boogeyman, bedtime stories or even fairytales. All she could do was work, work and work. Her mother only tried to encourage Trish in her garbage fairy fascination, as it would get the child out of her, so she can move on and be at peace. Hopefully even make some good friends.28

It is now the frigid winter, the month of elves, reindeer and the magic of Christmas. What used to warm the Plumsberry family is gone, it is now tales of the magical garbage fairies and their struggle to bring happiness in every child’s glowing face. Between every rosy cheek, was to be a smile, for good ol’ Rodger the fairy wouldn’t allow anything else. The garbage fairy, Rodger, will visit Trish soon to bring her presents, excessively wrapped in newspaper, cardboard and wrapping paper. Christmas is by far the favourite holiday for these creatures, because of the amount of garbage that comes in result.29

“Mum! I can’t believe Christmas is over already! It seems as if it were just here. Rodger has been good to me, I love my new socks!” said a satisfied Trish. Even if Trish only had received a few new pairs of socks, she was  very happy that her mother let her go on with the garbage fairy idea. However, there is always a line between acceptable and absolutely not, as Trish will soon learn.30

“Extra, extra! Read all about it! Girl goes gonkers with garbage gimmick!” said a little boy, about the age of seven.31

“Excuse me young man!”, said an annoyed aged man, “there hasn’t been any newspaper boys in a long time, and I believe you have made up the word gonkers.” The little boy replied,32

“Sorry sir, but lets see you try to say what  I did fives times and quickly!.” Giggling, the young boy ran back home, ready with a new story to tell his family.33

Yes, poor Trish has reached the newsstand. What has she been up to? Whether to begin with the fact that she’s been placing up pro-litter advertisements, or that she’s started a garbage line of clothing, no one knows. In the end, one can truly see that this problem will lead to the polices’ involvement. At school, everyone ridicules her, in the streets everyone stops and stares and at home, the police pester poor January Plumsberry about her troublemaking daughter.34

Although there were many who refused to even look at Trish, there was one boy who could not help but gaze into her jet-black eyes. Something about her just fascinates him. He knows he loves her, but he must be quite...strange.  The more strange she gets, the more he feels close to her. This boy was already in fact quite the individual himself. He has never admitted to having a name, as he feels no name could possibly suit him. Trish is the first girl he has ever felt in love with, and who appears to be the last!35

One day the two finally met, in an interesting sort of way…36

“Ah! Sorry Trish, I must’ve been dazing off, I didn’t see you there. I-I must’ve…I’m sorry! Sorry!” said an unnaturally ruby -coloured boy. Trish was angry, “the boy” had ran right into her while she was carrying a  fresh bag of garbage from her classroom. She couldn’t find a thing to say, so she sighed, gathered her garbage and ran off.37

All Trish could think about was “the boy” as she got home. How his beautiful raven hair curled down his eyes, settling over his lip as if it were to let out a shriek. The mystery of this boy forced some room into her garbage-filled heart, which filled her voice with groans, similar to the familiar badly-played Tetris games in the dump. She was sorrowful that she didn’t introduce herself to him, that she didn’t get his number or ask if she could see him again. Oh, but they did!38

The two were the most spoken-about couple in the entire school. Not because of how cute they look together, but for the fact that the two most strange individuals in the school are now a couple. Who would’ve thought such an isolated personality would fall in love? Could it have been the rejuvenation of Trish’s childhood? Did it give her hope for even love? It must have! For every single day that went by seemed absolutely perfect!39

Many couples dread the day they meet the parents. Whether by nerves or just from not believing they will get along too well, everyone has their reasons. Trish’s reasoning came quite from the heart, as “the boy’s” father is an environmentalist. 40

There never was a meeting, because Trish hadn’t seen “the boy”  for at least weeks. His mysterious disappearance left her in cold solitude. This will not improve a bit, even if “the boy” makes a sudden return. In the local newspaper, there was a tiny article about a new method of weight loss, being hypnotized! A local hypnotist has been offering his service to customers, and records the results in the same section of the newspaper.41

An evil twist of fate happened as Trish opened up the morning paper on what she called a beautiful day for garbage picking. She had reached the article about the hypnotist and to her shock and dismay, she finds that a local environmentalist had his son hypnotized to never again build a liking towards garbage or the local “garbage gimmick girl.” There were no names listed, but Trish knew right away who the article was referring to.42

Trish returned to being that isolated garbage fairy she had thought she’d always be. That garbage heart no longer had any room for anything but garbage. She returned to her annual garbage trips, taking Matilda’s hunted mice away and the repeated gifts of socks. This garbage fairy was trapped in the half-filled cups, which were drunk halfway but the unfinished part was bugging her greatly. She felt smothered by thoughts on how to find the garbage fairies, how to set herself at peace and to finally go on with life. By this time she was almost seventeen and will be out on her own in the world. She won’t have time for fairytales, or in her case “family history”.43

Psychiatrist upon psychiatrist did not do any good for her, she was too dead set on the fairy idea. She needed a companion like “the boy” to take her by the hand and allow her to adventure to the garbage fairyland. One would assume she would never again find someone like this, but even Trish would surely find a partner in the garbage world.44

Deciding to lay back for a while on the garbage, she returned to her normal wardrobe, bathed more often, groomed herself more and even socialized a bit. This act would disguise her among the others, leaving her room to discover that one companion. Perhaps this person was too scared to fess up to being a garbage fairy because of all that attention Trish was attracting.45

Days went by, Trish’s mother finally thought Trish was at peace in mind and ready for work. The work that was placed in Trish’s hands only stressed her more and literally drove her insane. She still strived to find somebody to help her with her adventure. Finally, she received her answer. Matilda! She always was magically beautiful, the mystery in those eyes, the glossy white fangs, she surely must know a lot about the garbage fairies!46

By now the desperate Trish Plumsberry had been driven…insane. She had long conversations with Matilda, which brought her comfort as a pet should. Trish was using the idea of a pet in the right way, but only in her special way. The magical feeling of comfort brought Trish into the lands of the fairies, adventures to the dump where she will find little fairies to tell her more tales of the fairyland. The moon felt all the more closer to her on future visits. Trish was finally getting the love she needed, all from Matilda. Finally, at peace, Trish assumed her act as being a normal human as what the reality truly is. Her missed childhood was finally done with. Although the inspiration she had from her own story filled papers with too much ink. These papers could be found all over Trish’s apartment, which her mother mistakenly threw out.47

These thin papers were splattered with far too much ink to be able to fit into one story. Trish had no choice but expand one story into a series, a movie, an entire soundtrack, a clothesline and of course, a theme park called: ‘Garbage Fairy Playland”. All of which was of course a success, creativity hit where it counted.48

And so,49

She lived happily ever after... garbage and all.50