Writers Workshop

Once upon a time, not so long ago (last month to be exact) there was a little girl who wished to see the Christmas fairy. Now, no one else believed in the Christmas fairy; after all, Christmas was a time for Santa Clause, not fairies. But the little girl, oh she believed with all her heart. She knew that anything was possible. You see, Cora had experienced miracles in the past. Why just last summer she met a family of mer-people and helped them save their home from being discovered by other humans. So is a Christmas fairy really that far off, that unbelievable?

That being said, of course Cora believed in things the rest of us simply wished were true. For her, anything was possible. It just took a little faith, a little hope and a lot of determination. Cora thought about her Christmas fairy often. She read about them in an old, dusty book that she found in the back of the library. It said that Christmas fairies were small, rare and hid deep in the woods until Christmas Eve. After Santa left gifts for the children, the Christmas fairies would sneak into the towns and dust the children’s gifts with fairy dust. Sometimes the fairies were pranksters and left sneezing dust on the gifts. Mothers and fathers would quickly bundle the children up to keep them from catching colds. They couldn’t go out to play or show their friends their new toys. This, of course, made the children sad as Christmas break was long and boring from that point on.

Other times, the fairies were gentle and sweet, dusting gifts with joy dust. These lucky children would dance and play happily for hours, while grateful parents watched on. Sometimes the fairies would even dust the parents’ gifts and whole families celebrated the season joyfully. All in all, Christmas fairies could be counted on to keep things interesting. And Cora was always interested in interesting things.

It was three weeks until Christmas and Cora was no closer to finding a fairy than she was to flying to the moon. She searched the library again. There were no more references to Christmas fairies in any of the books she read. She sat for long hours, reading book after book. Sometimes she studied so hard her eyes hurt. Once, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her when she saw bright sparkles of light around the corner of a book shelf. She scampered off to investigate only to find a dark, empty set of shelves devoted to tax law. She yawned and returned to her table. “Well,” she said to herself, “I guess it’s time to try looking online.”

She sat down in front of a computer, logged in and typed Christmas fairies into the browser. Suddenly the fairy world seemed to open up to her. There were many stories from countries around the world of Christmas fairies and their magical effect on the human world. In Germany, there is a story of how the Christmas tree came into being that involved a Count and the Queen of the Christmas fairies. Cora thought that story was sad, as the count lost his fairy queen. Norway hosts tales of Julenisse, a Norwegian nisse or elflike character who looked a little bit like Santa Clause. Julenisse doesn’t bring gifts on Christmas Eve, but rather watches over and protects people. There were many more stories of similar characters related to Christmas time. Most involved friendly creatures, who sometimes behaved a little naughty, but generally were kind. She wanted to find a Christmas fairy more than ever.

She read on about how captivating fairy dust was, leaving the human in a trance-like state. With a silly smile on the person’s face, he or she would spend the day happy. Cora wanted this more than anything for Uncle Mike. “He’s been so sad lately.” She thought if she could find a Christmas fairy, she could ask the fairy to bless her dear uncle with happiness. After all, if it weren’t for Uncle Mike, she wouldn’t even be here. He rescued her as a child and raised her as his own. No natural father could love a child more.

Once again, a little glimmer of light from a darkened corner of the library caught her eye. Suspecting there was something more to this unexpected light show, Cora slowly got up and began to move towards the twinkling brightness. She pretended she was looking for a particular book, commenting to herself how difficult that book is to find. She stopped by another set of shelves, perusing the tomes and feigning interest in one book cover’s artwork. She made her way across the room in this rather slow, seemingly disinterested fashion. Twenty minutes later she found herself in front of the set of shelves where she saw the distant glimmer. The glow was duller now, as though someone was trying to hide it. Nearly extinguished, it was barely visible. Cora rounded the corner, pretending all the while, to be looking for a book on horticulture. “Well, I’m certainly in the wrong section,” she muttered. She turned quickly to see a small fairy-like being watching her. The creature froze in place, its discovery unavoidable. Cora gently smiled, knelt down and spoke very quietly to the frightened creature. “Hello, new friend.” The tiny being looked at Cora with wide eyes.

“You speak the language of the fish people,” it stated rather blankly. Now it was Cora’s turn to be surprised. “How did you know that?” she asked.

“Just now, you said hello in fish language.” Then looking curiously at Cora, the fairy said hello in the strange bubbly undersea language.

“But I didn’t know I could speak it above the water,” noted Cora. “How strange. How is it that you speak this language? I thought all fairies were land creatures.”

“Your books don’t tell you very much and you shouldn’t assume you know everything,” the cranky little imp countered. Cora thought to herself, “Great, I finally meet a fairy and he is a snob.”

“I’m not a snob, or a he for that matter,” it stated.

“Oh, so you can read my mind? That’s rude. Well if you aren’t a he, then you must be a she.”

“Again, you assume. Some fairies are neither he nor she. They just are. I just am.” With that the little “Just Am” began to scamper away.

“My name is Cora. What’s yours?” Cora gently asked, hoping to continue the conversation. Just Am disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

“Fantastic first encounter,” Cora grumbled disappointedly. She was more curious than ever. Well at least she knew where to find her fairy. With that, she turned off the computer; put her books back on the shelves and walked towards the front of the library. She was tired, after all. So tired, she began to doubt what she saw and experienced. “I’ve gone fairy-mad,” she thought with a giggle. There was that glimmer of light again, off in the distance. “Good night little fairy.”

“Good night little human,” the fairy mumbled with a smile. “Hmm, maybe this one isn’t so bad,” it thought.