by Gwyneth Rees
CONTENTS
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‘This is going to be the most boring holiday ever,’ Ellie’s older brother, David, complained as their train came to a halt at the station where they had to get off.
But Ellie wasn’t listening. She had already spotted their aunt, who had promised to meet them at the railway station with her car. It had taken several hours on the train to get this far, and now Ellie couldn’t wait to get outside.
‘Hi, Aunt Megan!’ she called out excitedly as she stepped down on to the platform. Aunt Megan was their dad’s older sister, who lived in a small village in south Wales. She wasn’t married and didn’t have any children, and she had always doted on David and Ellie.
Aunt Megan looked the same as ever, with her slightly old-fashioned hairstyle and her sensible but colourful clothes, and Ellie ran to her straight away to give her a hug.
‘Don’t bother helping with the bags or anything, will you?’ David grumbled from behind her.
‘Oh, David, what a big boy you’re getting!’ Aunt Megan exclaimed – which was what she always said when she saw him and which never failed to make him cringe. ‘It must be at least two years since you were here,’ she added as she helped him with the cases.
‘It’s three,’ Ellie corrected her. ‘I was six and David was eleven. Though we only stayed for the weekend then.’
‘Is it really that long since you were here? You’re getting so grown-up, travelling all this way on your own.’
‘It wasn’t that difficult,’ Ellie pointed out. ‘Mum and Dad put us on the train and all we had to do was sit in our seats.’
‘Yeah – though they were fussing so much, they obviously reckoned we wouldn’t even be able to do that without getting into trouble,’ David added drily. ‘Not that Ellie would dare get out of her seat, in any case. She’d be far too scared in case somebody spoke to her.’
Ellie scowled at him. OK, so she knew she was shy, but it didn’t help to have him make fun of her because of it.
‘The car’s just over here,’ Aunt Megan said as they walked into the station car park. ‘It’s a bit of a drive, as you know.’
Aunt Megan lived on the edge of a village in a beautiful valley, and Ellie had been looking forward to coming to stay ever since their aunt had invited them. It was the first weekend of the summer holidays, and their mum and dad were flying abroad tomorrow and would be gone for a whole week. David had wanted to stay at home alone, but he hadn’t been allowed to.
David climbed into the front of the car and Ellie got in the back. At first Ellie tried to join in the conversation from the back seat, but it was very hot in the car and she soon nodded off.
She didn’t realize how long she had slept until she woke to find that they’d stopped at a small petrol station. It had ‘Owen’s Garage’ written on a big sign outside – along with something in Welsh that Ellie didn’t understand. Ellie remembered the garage from their visit three years earlier. It was on the main road that led into Aunt Megan’s village. She was about to point out to David that they were nearly at their destination when she noticed he had fallen asleep too.
Aunt Megan was standing beside the car, chatting to the old man who was filling up their petrol tank. (This was the only garage Ellie had ever been to that wasn’t self-service, though she remembered her aunt saying that all petrol stations had had pump-attendants in the old days.) Ellie reckoned the old man must be Mr Owen, the owner.
She yawned and was about to wind down her window to get some fresh air when she thought she saw something moving inside the garage shop. She stared for a bit longer, and yes – there were definitely two yellow things flitting about on the counter. Curious, she opened her door and climbed out to go and take a closer look.
‘Are you all right, Ellie?’ Aunt Megan asked.
She nodded, stepping quickly past her aunt and heading for the open door of the shop. There was an old-fashioned till on the counter and something yellow and fluttery immediately disappeared behind it. She hurried over and peered behind the till.
‘Wow!’ she cried out, because there, hovering in the air, supporting a bar of chocolate between them, were two fairies in yellow petal dresses.
Ellie was speechless with shock. Although she had always believed in fairies, this was the first time she had ever actually seen one.
The fairies were clearly shocked too, because they shrieked when they saw her, and dropped the chocolate bar on the floor. In a matter of seconds they had whizzed out of the open door and vanished.
‘Wait!’ Ellie called out, running outside after them.
Before she even had time to pinch herself to see if she was dreaming, Mr Owen came to join her. ‘Saw some of our fairies, did you?’ he asked.
Normally the fact that a stranger was talking to her would have made her blush, but now she was too amazed by what she had just seen to worry about anything else.
‘We’re pretty well populated with them in this valley,’ he added.
‘But . . . but . . . Aunt Megan never . . .’ She trailed off. Her aunt had never mentioned that there were fairies living in the valley, and Ellie certainly hadn’t seen any the last time she’d been here.
‘Oh, your auntie doesn’t believe in them. That’s why she never gets to see any. Fairies are only visible to people who believe in them – like you and me. The fairies always come to my shop for their chocolate supplies because they know I’ll realize it was them and won’t go blaming anyone else when a bar or two goes missing.’
‘The fairies steal chocolate from your shop?’ Ellie could hardly believe it.
‘Oh, they don’t steal it. They exchange it. They always leave me something in return.’ He walked past her to the confectionary stand. ‘It’s here with the chocolate bars, see – a fairy flower bracelet!’
Ellie gasped in delight as he lifted up a sparkly bracelet made of lots of fresh flowers threaded together, large enough to fit on a small human wrist.
‘It’s the fairy dust that makes it sparkle like that,’ the old man explained. ‘Those flowers won’t wilt for months. Here. You can have it if you like.’
‘Thank you!’ she exclaimed, hardly able to contain her excitement as she slipped it on to her wrist and found that it was exactly the right size. ‘Shame they left their chocolate bar behind,’ he said, bending down to pick it up. ‘It’s broken so I won’t be able to sell it now. You may as well have that too.’
Ellie could hear her aunt calling to her. ‘I’d better go,’ she said quickly.
As he handed her the broken chocolate he said, ‘The fairies will definitely come and see you tonight if you leave this out on your window ledge for them.’ He chuckled. ‘They’re greedy little things really. Some of them have got quite fat tummies, if you get close enough to have a look!’
“ELLIE – HURRY UP!” David’s voice reached her now, much less patient than her aunt’s. He had obviously woken up and was in a grouchy mood.
As soon as she got back into the car Ellie showed her aunt and brother the bracelet and told them about seeing the two fairies.
David started laughing. ‘You’re crazy!’
‘No, I’m not! Mr Owen says there are lots of fairies here!’
‘Well, he’s crazy too then! Everyone knows there’s no such thing!’
‘If there’s no such thing as fairies then who do you think made this?’ Ellie demanded, thrusting the fairy bracelet under his nose. ‘The fairies left it for Mr Owen and he gave it to me.’
David looked at it scornfully. ‘It’s just some sill
y flower bracelet that some little kid probably left in his shop.’
‘No, it’s not!’ she protested. ‘It’s a fairy bracelet, David. Can’t you see how sparkly it is?’
Clearly David couldn’t – and neither could Aunt Megan, although she wasn’t as rude about it as David.
‘Mr Owen has been telling everyone about the fairies for as long as I can remember,’ their aunt said in a trying-to-keep-the-peace sort of voice, as she started up the car. ‘A lot of folk in the village believe in them.’
‘Great,’ David muttered sarcastically. ‘So we’ve come to spend a whole week in a village full of nutters. You should fit right in, Ellie.’
‘David – that’s not very nice, is it?’ Aunt Megan scolded him.
‘He’s never nice,’ Ellie said, glaring at her brother. ‘Anyway, I don’t care what he thinks. I’m going to leave this chocolate bar on my window ledge tonight, because Mr Owen says that’s the way to get the fairies to come and visit me.’
‘Oh, well. If you’re just going to do that with it . . .’ And before she could stop him, David had reached back and snatched the chocolate from her hand.
‘Give that back!’ she screeched, but he was already ripping off the wrapper to take a bite.
Aunt Megan was too busy manoeuvring the car out on to the main road to stop him, though she did sound cross as she said, ‘Oh, David, that’s very unkind!’
But David, who had already shoved the whole thing into his mouth, just laughed.
Aunt Megan sighed. ‘Tell you what, Ellie,’ she said, looking at her niece sympathetically in the rear view-mirror. ‘I’ve made a lovely chocolate cake for tea this afternoon and I’ve decorated it with chocolate buttons. Why don’t you leave some of those out for your fairies instead?’
‘OK,’ Ellie said, though she still felt furious with David. If their parents were there, he’d never have dared act like that.
‘You’re such a baby, thinking fairies are real, Ellie,’ David jibed, his mouth still stuffed full of chocolate.
‘I don’t just think it – I know it!’ Ellie retorted. ‘I told you. I just saw two of them in Mr Owen’s shop!’
‘Yeah – right!’ David snorted.
Then Aunt Megan said something surprising. ‘Don’t you remember the time you saw a fairy, David? You were about four, I think. You and your parents were staying with me and you came running into the house, very excited. You said you’d found a fairy in my fishpond, and you wouldn’t stop talking about her for hours!’
‘I don’t remember that,’ David said, sounding irritated.
‘Well, I do.’ Aunt Megan started to laugh. ‘You kept saying you had rescued her from being eaten by a fish!’
‘See?’ Ellie said gleefully. ‘So don’t you dare make fun of me for believing in fairies!’
‘Well, I was only four then, wasn’t I?’ David retorted. ‘I was too young to know any better. You’re nine, in case you’ve forgotten!’
They were still arguing about whether or not fairies were real when they arrived at Aunt Megan’s cottage a few minutes later.
‘Come on, you two! That’s enough,’ Aunt Megan said, ushering them into the house. ‘Let’s have some tea. I’ve been baking all week for you coming.
When it was time for bed that night, Ellie left all the chocolate buttons she had saved from her piece of cake on the window ledge, just as Mr Owen had suggested. Unfortunately she was sharing Aunt Megan’s spare bedroom with David, so she made sure she picked the bed nearest to the window, and that she left the curtains open so she could keep an eye on the chocolate buttons after she’d put them on the ledge. Then she lay down facing the window to wait.
She needn’t have worried about David, because he was so tired after their long journey that he fell asleep almost as soon as he’d got into bed. Before she knew it, however, she felt her own eyes starting to close too. She tried her hardest to stay awake, but soon she was so fast asleep that she didn’t hear the flutter of wings and the whispering of tiny voices as two fairies landed on the windowsill.
After exclaiming in delight at the chocolate buttons, one of the fairies flew right inside the children’s room. She had bright green eyes, short, light brown curly hair and a very cheeky freckled face. Her dress was made from two layers of daffodil petals and she wore a pink cardigan made from finely spun local sheep’s wool. She flew straight over Ellie and stopped when she reached David.
She peered down at him excitedly. ‘It’s him, Bronwen!’ she called out. ‘He’s a lot bigger but it’s definitely the same boy. I knew I recognized him at the garage.’
The second fairy had flown into the room now. She had brown eyes, dark hair that fell sleek and straight to just below her shoulders and she wore an altogether more solemn and sensible expression. Her dress was also made of daffodil petals and her woollen cardigan was a pale lilac colour with pretty buttons made from sparkly birdseeds.
‘Myfanwy, isn’t that the little girl who made us drop our chocolate?’ she said, glancing at Ellie, who was still fast asleep.
‘Yes, she must be his sister or something. Oh, wasn’t it kind of him to leave us all those chocolate buttons? I told you he was kind! And brave! His name’s David – and if it wasn’t for him, goodness knows what would have happened to me when I fell into that pond!’ She had flown even closer to his face now. ‘See how handsome he’s become. Oooh – I wish he would wake up! Do you think if I poked him a little bit . . . ?’
‘No, Myfanwy!’ Bronwen warned, but the fairy was already prodding at David’s nose with a tiny finger.
‘If only I’d brought my wand with me,’ Myfanwy said impatiently. ‘The jagged edges would be sure to wake him.’
‘Leave him alone, Myfanwy! You know Queen Lily says we’re not allowed to wake children when they’re sleeping, unless it’s an emergency!’
‘Well, Queen Lily won’t find out, will she? Not unless someone tells her.’ Myfanwy grinned cheekily at Bronwen, whom she knew was far too good a friend to do that.
Just then Ellie started to stir in her bed.
‘The little girl’s eyelids are flickering – that means she’s about to wake up,’ Bronwen warned. (Every fairy was very good at spotting when a human was about to wake.) ‘Come on, Myfanwy! Let’s go!’
The two fairies flew back out on to the windowledge and started to collect up the chocolate buttons, placing them one on top of the other to make two small stacks.
‘This one’s got a bit of cake icing stuck to it – yummy!’ Myfanwy said, licking her lips.
‘Hurry up, Myfanwy!’ Bronwen urged her. Through the open window she could see Ellie opening her eyes and sitting up in bed, and by the time Ellie was fully awake, each fairy was balancing a little stack of chocolate buttons on her head as she took off from the windowsill.
‘Wait!’ Ellie cried out, jumping out of bed and running to the window.
But by the time she got there, the fairies were already halfway across the garden, and they didn’t look back.
The next morning was Sunday and when Ellie told Aunt Megan about the fairies her aunt smiled and said, ‘What a wonderful imagination you’ve got!’ Before Ellie could protest that it wasn’t just her imagination Aunt Megan announced that she was taking them to visit the toy museum in the village that afternoon. ‘I’m sure you’ll find it very interesting. My friend Mr Daniels owns it and though it’s usually closed on Sundays he says he’ll open it today, just for us. It’s only a small museum but it’s got lots of different antique toys and—’
‘I’m too old to be interested in toys,’ David interrupted scornfully.
‘Very well, I’ll just take Ellie then,’ Aunt Megan said swiftly. ‘We’ll go this afternoon.’ She shot David a sly glance as she added, ‘And we’ll have a nice cream tea while we’re out, Ellie, since the museum is so close to the village tea shop.’
Ellie grinned and looked at her brother, who she knew loved cream teas just as much as she did.
‘I suppose I could c
ome for the tea,’ David grunted, sounding like he was offering to do them a huge favour.
Aunt Megan nodded. ‘All right then, David – but only if you’re sure. I wouldn’t want you forcing yourself to eat a cream tea on my account! Ellie and I will go to the museum and we’ll meet you in the tea shop afterwards.’
So that afternoon Ellie and her aunt set off for the toy museum, which turned out to be a large stone house with a grey slate roof, situated in the centre of the village. It had wooden stairs on the outside, leading up to a white door at the top, and both the staircase and the door looked like they badly needed a new coat of paint. Above the door was a hand-painted sign saying ‘Toy Museum’ twice – once in English and once in Welsh.
‘Mr Daniels’s father started the museum fifty years ago, and when he died it passed on to Daniel. He lives in the downstairs part of the building,’ Aunt Megan told her as she led Ellie up the stairs to the door, which was propped open.
‘Is Mr Daniels’s first name Daniel as well then?’ Ellie asked in surprise.
‘It certainly is,’ a friendly Welsh voice answered, and she turned to see a smiling old man with a bald head and large dark eyes standing in the doorway. ‘Daniel Daniels at your service,’ he said, shaking her hand. ‘It is a bit of a mouthful, isn’t it?’
Ellie blushed and the old man laughed.
‘Daniel, this is my niece, Ellie,’ Aunt Megan said, smiling.
‘Very pleased to meet you, Ellie,’ the old man said cheerily. ‘Like old things, do you?’
‘Well . . .’ Ellie hadn’t really thought about whether she liked old things or not and in any case, she was feeling too embarrassed by the attention he was giving her to be able to think straight.
‘Well, why don’t you have a look round and see what you think?’ he said. ‘I’m guessing a lot of these old toys aren’t all that different from the ones you young ones have today.’
So Ellie went into the large room that housed the museum while her aunt followed Mr Daniels into his office to have a chat.