We made it! The last part of The Five Fliers series (Read the other parts: PART 1, PART 2, PART 3, PART 4). I hope everyone had as much fun reading and playing along as I had writing and creating the puzzles. Thanks for taking this journey with Tracy, Aiden, and the Five Fliers all month long! Let's see if our mysterious creatures get home...
Part 5: A Spray of Water and A Ray of Hope
“This will work,” Tracy repeated over and over. “Yes, Rose, it will work.”
The Five Fliers buzzed around her face, now only as big as a fingernail.
Aiden would be there any min—YES!
The dried brown grass of Mrs. Jenkin’s backyard crunched as she ran up the slight hill.
Aiden and a striking, tall woman with a slight hunch to her shoulders started towards her.
“Grams, aren’t you going inside?” Aiden asked, darting a glance at Tracy.
“I was asked to come out here,” his grams said.
Tracy stopped and caught her breath. “I called her! I wanted to explain! To show her...well, you know.”
“I told you, I tried—” Aiden started but Tracy wasn’t going to give him the chance to get upset.
“They’re here!” She held out her arm and called each Five Flier by their name. When the little dragonesque dragonflies didn’t appear her knees started shaking. “You promised!” she added. “Well, sort of.”
But then she spotted them!
The five little creatures buzzed up to Aiden’s grams and circled her face.
“They’re so tiny,” Grams said, eyes softening. “I’ve never seen anything like them.”
“They used to be much bigger,” Tracy laughed. “Aiden was helping them. We have to get them home.”
Aiden had been silent, watching with a small frown of concern but she nodded him on. If he wanted to get along with his grams, this was it.
“I tried to tell you...they ruined your pressed flowers...your memories of Gramps. Not me.” But then Aiden’s eyes widened in surprise. “Look!”
With a small spark, the miniature Five Fliers shrunk to nothing more than a ball of gleaming light. Light Green. Dark Green. Orange. Purple. Pink.
“Well then, let’s get them home,” Grams said, turning to Aiden. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”
“That’s okay...I never wanted you to think I didn’t like you living with me.”
“That makes me so happy to hear,” Grams said with feeling. “But Tracy says the creatures bring Spring and see—the flowers aren’t making it!”
“I knew this would work. You didn’t need a new—” Tracy started.
“Yes, yes, you were right,” Aiden said.“But what did the final puzzle say?”
“Aiden!” Grams shot him a stern look. “Thank you, Tracy, for bringing me here.”
Tracy grinned as Aiden let out an exasperated “Thanks.” She passed her notes of the last solution over. The parchment was now blank.
“I’m certain this is where they came from.” Aiden danced on the balls of his feet.
Tracy was glad to see his energy coming back. They’d all need lots of it if they were going to get the Five Fliers home.
“I don’t see any rainbows,” Aiden complained.
“And tomorrow is the last day of April. There isn’t any time to wait for one.” Grams frowned.
The glow of pride of having the three of them working together faded as worry set in. Tracy had been avoiding the question but now it was right in her face. What if they failed? The Five—
“Wait,” she said. “Where are the Five Fliers?”
“Do you hear that?” Aiden asked. His heart pounded but he felt calmer than he had in weeks.
Grams knew.
He and Grams were okay.
Everything would be okay...as long as they found a rainbow.
The buzzing intensified. It wasn’t the Five Fliers, it was more like...”WASPS!”
“Oh! No!” Tracy yelled. “Orange Juice come here! Purple Majesty get away!”
A swarm of wasps buzzed through the air, chasing the Five Fliers across the yard. Up, down, swooping, they wouldn’t give up.
“The Five Fliers are so small! The wasps might eat them!” Tracy covered her mouth in horror.
“We’ve got to get them home!” Aiden’s eyes soared over the yard.
Rainbows...refracted light...shows up after it rains.
But it hadn’t rained all month!
“We need water!” he yelled as the buzzing continued.
“The hose!” Grams hurried to the side of the house.
Tracy danced after the wasps, swatting the air with her bag but the chase was too fast for it to do any good.
Aiden ran after Grams and grabbed the hose’s nozzle as Grams ran to the spigot to turn it on.
Where was the best place to go? Did it matter?
Dragging the hose, he ran to the middle of the yard, by the rock wall.
“Please work.” He squeezed the nozzle. Water sputtered and popped. But then, a steady stream shot out!
“Hit the wasps!” Tracy yelled.
“But the Five Fliers!”
“They’ll be okay!”
He aimed, water sprang through the yard. Droplets slid down his face, his hands becoming slippery. It was like holding onto a wet frog.
“Is it working?”
“No! We need a rainbow!” Tracy yelled.
Aiden frowned. This had to work—where was the rainbow? “Run around! Check all the angels!”
And then, to his relief, the cry came. “HERE!”
It was Grams, off to his left, pointing to a large gray rock. The full spectrum of colors glittered in joy.
“It’s not very big.”
“Neither are the Five Fliers!” Tracy yelled and with the same breath, “This way!”
“Over here!” Grams swung her arms up and down.
But the chase continued.
Purple Majesty was nearly cornered by five wasps. Sweet Grass zigzagged high above them.
“Their names!” Aiden yelled. “You said it helped!”
Tracy was next to Grams. All three of them shouted at once. “ORANGE JUICE! SWEET GRASS! EMERALD! ROSE! PURPLE MAJESTY!”
The glowing dots changed directions. Like flaming arrows, they shot through the air, blowing past the wasps and converging together to fly into the rock. Into the rainbow.
Wasps, on their tails, smacked the hard rock and tumbled, dazed to the ground.
A blast of wind rippled around the garden. The nozzle fell from Aiden’s hands.
He ran to Tracy and Grams as a rumble echoed around them.
Blue skies filled with gray and white clouds, tinged with a pinkish hue. Rain, with a slight glimmer of purple, splattered around them. The wind roared with a hazy orange quality.
And hovering over the ground in big sweeping breaths of light and dark green, transparent fingers tapped on the sad looking green stalks and bare earth.
The Five Fliers were home.
Tracy held her arms out as the rain poured down. She laughed and spun, flinging water from the tips of her hair. “It’s good luck! Things are going to get better.” Then she added, “I’ll miss them. Maybe I’ll get a pet lizard.”
Grams put her arm around Aiden’s shoulder and squeezed. Even though he wasn’t crazy about hugs he enjoyed the moment. He stepped closer.
“Maybe,” he said. “We can make new pressed flowers?”
“I’d like that.” She squeezed him tighter.
Green shoots at their feet unfurled, uncovering the first hint of colorful Spring. The yellow tulips promised a wonderful season of joy and luck—and new memories.
The end.
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