I Was a Teenage Fairy (Ageless Books)

196 Pages·2000·0.45 MB·English

by  Francesca Lia Block

Francesca Lia Block
I Was a
Teenage Fairy
For my three fairy queens
Gilda, Joanna, Lydia
Contents
Part I
Barbie & Mab 1
Part II
I Was a Teenage Fairy 63
About the Author
Other Books by Francesca Lia Block
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher

PART I
Barbie & Mab

I
f Los Angeles is a woman reclining billboard
model with collagen-puffed lips and silicone-inflated
breasts, a woman in a magenta convertible with heart-
shaped sunglasses and cotton candy hair; if Los
Angeles is this woman, then the San Fernando Valley
is her teenybopper sister. The teenybopper sister snaps
big stretchy pink bubbles over her tongue and checks
her lip gloss in the rearview mirror, causing Sis to
scream. Teeny plays the radio too loud and bites her
nails, wondering if the glitter polish will poison her.
She puts her bare feet up on the dash to admire her
tan legs and the blond hair that is so pale and soft she
doesn’t have to shave. She wears a Val Surf T-shirt
and boys’ boxer shorts and she has a boy’s phone
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number scrawled on her hand. Part of her wants to
spit on it and rub it off, and part of her wishes it was
written in huge numbers across her belly, his name
in gang letters, like a tattoo. The citrus fruits bouncing
off the sidewalk remind her of boys; the burning oil
and chlorine, the gold light smoldering on the windy
leaves. Boys are shooting baskets on the tarry play-
ground and she thinks she can smell them on the air.
And in her pocket, whispering secrets about them, is
a Mab.
Maybe Mab was real. Maybe there really are girls
the size of pinkies with hair the color of the darkest
red oleander blossoms and skin like the greenish-
white underbellies of calla lilies.
Maybe not. Maybe Mab was the fury. Maybe she
was the courage. Maybe later on she was the sex. But
it doesn’t matter if Mab is real or imagined, Barbie
thought, as long as I can see her. As long as I can feel
her sitting on my palm, ticklish as a spider, as long as
I can hear the cricket of her voice. Because without
her then how would I be able to ever go inside?
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