

As I got to the top I heard a voice hiss my name, it was Mama Odie’s snake, Juju. I walked lazily to the highest part of the creek to look at Pixie Hollow. Yet I was walking out with my head down in bewilderment. Walking out of Mama Odie’s shrine was a moment I had fantasized about for years, I fantasized myself skipping out, to jubilate with my family.

She told me to return when I find a more valuable gift for her. I was devastated, Mama Odie rejected the flower I had searched endlessly for and most importantly denied me my ticket to Pixie Hollow. The snake on her neck let out a loud laugh, and without a second glance, Mama Odie said, “Join’em with the rest” while signaling to form my flower to a huge flower vase of glass flowers. With all the courage in me, I presented the flower and told her I would like to go to Pixie Hollow. “What do you want Tick Tock Croc” she hissed. A three feet figure with a snake around her neck emerged from the shadows. As I approached the entrance of Mama Odie’s shrine, I heard an old screeching voice call my name. I was overwhelmed with joy, I was finally going to be a chef in Pixie Hollow. It was a long way down the Creek but every step felt worth it. It was not until she unwrapped the luminous glass flower from a napkin that I understood.Īfter eating mother’s stew I set out for Mama Odie’s. She began to tell me about how she dreamt I would become a talented chef. I walked closer to the source of the aroma to ask mother about the celebration. Mother only cooked her special stew on special occasions, making me curious about what we were celebrating. But since I swallowed an alarm clock when I was three, it had earned me the name Tick Tock Croc as well as made me too noisy to hunt. Ordinarily I would not be allowed to become a chef because of gender roles that insisted males hunt while females cook. This stew is the major reason I wanted to go to Pixie Hollow because it is my dream to be a chef at Pixie Hollow. I remembered the first time she cooked her stew, its uniquely delicious taste, the taste mother claimed to have come from the hand of a white feather hat pirate. I searched the highs and lows of Croc Creek to find her the glass flower.Īt mother’s, the aroma of her famous feather hat stew was eluding, making me nostalgic.

So I decided to give her the rare glass flower. They all told me to go big and glamorous, to find rare herbs or artifacts. It seemed like a fair deal, I had asked creatures who had visited Mama Odie, for gift ideas. Mama Odie, the Voodoo priestess, promised every creature in Croc Creek one wish, provided they present an outstanding gift to her. It has become a habit of mine to admire their fantastic island from my boring one, Croc Creek, but today is different, today is the day I visit Pixie Hollow.

But a black cloud is about to overshadow this new-found liberation, as well as to put Wendy on the wrong side of the law.įresh, insightful and funny, as well as unflinchingly honest about the tougher side of life, Kenny Boyle's debut novel takes us deep into the psyche of a likeable misfit who treads a fine line between reality and fantasy - and just wants the world to see her true self.I could not take my eyes off Pixie Hollow, the island where the fairies live, it was beautiful, always glittering with gold pixie dust. It's just what Wendy needs and it's also brilliant for her creative juices. Jobless and depressed, she finds consolation in a surprise friendship with another disgruntled ex-colleague, wild-child painter Cat, who encourages her to live more dangerously. But her manager isn't amused by that and, after a public dressing-down, Wendy walks out. She tries to brighten her call-center job by shoehorning as many long words as possible into conversations with customers. So how comes she's on the run after an art heist?Īn aspiring writer from the Southside of Glasgow, Wendy is in a rut.
