by Gwyneth Rees
‘Any news?’ Ellie heard her aunt ask.
‘Not good, I’m afraid,’ Mr Daniels replied.
Ellie couldn’t hear their conversation after that, and in any case her attention had been caught by the museum room, which had glass cases fixed all around the walls, containing lots of old toys. In the cabinet nearest to her Ellie saw an old wooden train set, a sailing boat, a tin monkey, some musical instruments, a couple of thick wooden jigsaws (one of which was still in its original box), some wooden farm animals, a pile of old comics and a jack-in-the-box. The next cabinet held wooden skittles, several skipping ropes, a spinning top, an ancient-looking dolls’ pram and a child’s tricycle as well as an assortment of hoops and balls. A large wooden dolls’ house sat in the next cabinet on its own, and in the centre of the room another glass case housed all the old dolls and teddies. Right at the front of that cabinet, seated around a little square picnic rug (which had a doll-sized teapot and four teacups laid out on it), were four toys that Ellie found herself particularly drawn to.
Sitting on one side of the rug was a very old yellow teddy bear, whose amber-coloured glass eyes seemed to be looking straight at Ellie. He had several bald patches in his fur, and his mouth had disintegrated at the ends so that he looked quite sad.
Positioned opposite him was a plump china doll. Blonde wavy hair fell down around her pretty face, which had two dimples in the cheeks and a trace of pink still remaining on the rosebud lips. Her eyes were blue and made of glass and she had eyelids that looked like they would close if you laid her down. She wore a frilly blue dress (which had been hitched up on one side to show off her long frilly knickers) and she had only one shoe, made of the same blue material as her dress.
On the right of the china doll was a Welsh costume doll, with a soft body and very fine features painted on to her stockinet face. She had brown eyes with perfect little dark lashes, a sweet little red mouth and a delicate nose. Her black hair was arranged in two neat plaits, and she wore a red velvet dress with a blue checked apron and matching shawl. Her hat was a traditional tall black Welsh one, made of felt, with a trimming of white lace under the brim.
The last of the four toys that had been placed around the rug was a painted wooden soldier who wore a red uniform with gold buttons. His paint was faded now rather than shiny, but he must have once looked very smart indeed. He had a little wooden rifle (painted silver) attached to his hand, and black marching boots on his feet.
The toys looked to Ellie as if they might be in the middle of a silent conversation with each other and she couldn’t stop staring at them.
Suddenly she saw something yellow moving inside the glass case. Could it be another fairy? Excited, she hurried round to the opposite side of the case to see if she could spot it there, but whatever it was, it had vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
‘Ellie, have you finished?’ Aunt Megan called out to her from the doorway. ‘Mr Daniels needs cheering up so he’s going to come with us for our cream tea.’
Reluctantly Ellie left the cabinet and went to join her aunt. But as she glanced back she was sure she saw the china doll’s skirt moving slightly as if something was hiding beneath it.
‘Aunt Megan, why does Mr Daniels need cheering up?’ Ellie whispered, as they walked with him along the narrow pavement towards the village tea shop.
‘Really, Ellie, you can speak to Mr Daniels directly,’ Aunt Megan told her. ‘I know speaking to people you don’t know makes you nervous, but it sounds very rude if you talk about them as if they’re not here when they’re standing right beside you!’
‘Sorry,’ Ellie mumbled, flushing bright red.
‘Oh, there’s nothing wrong with being a bit shy,’ Mr Daniels put in quickly. ‘I was shy when I was a lad – though you’d never know it now!’ He smiled kindly at her. ‘Ellie, the reason your aunt reckons I need cheering up is because I’m going to have to sell my museum soon.’
‘Really? What’s going to happen to all the toys then?’ Ellie couldn’t help wondering if they might need new homes, in which case . . .
‘Unfortunately all the toys have to be included in the sale,’ Mr Daniels told her, shaking his head as if he didn’t agree with that. ‘A businessman from London wants to buy the whole building and knock it down so that he can rebuild on the land. But he has a daughter who’s about your age and he wants to give the toys to her.’
‘All the toys?’ Ellie was amazed. ‘She won’t have room for all of them, will she?’
‘This man is very wealthy and apparently his daughter is an only child and she has a whole floor of the house to herself.’
‘She sounds rather spoilt to me,’ Aunt Megan said, clicking her tongue. ‘A whole floor of the house indeed!’
Ellie didn’t say anything but she couldn’t help wishing that she could change places with this girl, just for a little while, to see what it would be like to have all that space to yourself, with no big brother to annoy you.
‘I dare say I should count myself lucky really,’ Mr Daniels continued. ‘This fellow was here on holiday and noticed my advert asking for donations to keep the museum going. He came to see the building and offered to buy it from me. Normally I’d never have agreed, but I just can’t afford to keep the place going as it is, and at least this way I won’t be in debt any more. I’ll even have enough money left over to buy myself a little cottage to live in.’
‘But I really like your museum,’ Ellie said, frowning.
‘So do I,’ Mr Daniels replied, and Ellie noticed a tear in his eye. ‘It breaks my heart to let it go, it really does. But what choice do I have?’
Aunt Megan put her arm through his.
‘I’m so sorry, Daniel,’ she said. ‘I just wish there was something I could do . . .’
‘It’s all right, my dear,’ Mr Daniels said, patting her hand. ‘Don’t you worry about me. It’s not the end of the world, and I’m sure I’ll feel a lot better after a nice cream tea, eh, Ellie?’
He smiled then, clearly trying to be brave, but Ellie knew that underneath he was still sad, and that a cream tea wasn’t really going to make any difference. If only there was something she could do to help save the museum. But right at that moment she couldn’t think what.
Ellie was still thinking about the toy museum when she went to bed that night – so much so that she forgot to leave any chocolate out on her windowsill for the fairies. So when she was woken in the night by a noise in her room, she didn’t guess at first that the fairies had come back.
Then she spotted them. In the dim light she could just make out two fluttering creatures hovering above her brother’s bed, holding the glass of water she always kept on her bedside table at night. As she watched, they tipped up the glass and let some of the water spill out on to her sleeping brother’s face.
He woke with a start and yelled out crossly, immediately reaching for the bedside lamp. The fairies quickly dodged out of the way, and when the light came on Ellie couldn’t see them any more.
David was glaring furiously at her. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
‘It wasn’t me – it was the fairies!’ she defended herself. ‘They just splashed some water on you!’
‘Yeah – right!’ he retorted.
Just then one of the fairies came flying out from her hiding place on the other side of David’s bed. ‘I’m sorry, David, but we needed to wake you up,’ she told him, hovering directly in front of his face and clasping her hands together excitedly as she spoke. ‘I’m Myfanwy – you do still remember me, don’t you?’
As Ellie stared open-mouthed at the fairy, who she now recognized as being one of the two she had previously seen at Mr Owen’s garage, David continued to glare at his sister, and it was clear that he was totally unaware of Myfanwy’s presence. ‘Ellie, if you don’t shut up with all this fairy rubbish I’m going to . . .’ He paused, sensing something wasn’t quite right. ‘What is it? What are you staring at?’
‘Can’t you see her?’ Ellie whi
spered.
‘See who?’
‘Oh no!’ Myfanwy exclaimed, clearly upset, as David got out of bed and headed for the bathroom, muttering that he was going to dry his face on a towel.
As soon as he was out of earshot Ellie finally found the courage to speak to the fairy. ‘David doesn’t believe in fairies any more. That’s why he can’t see you,’ she told her in an apologetic voice.
Myfanwy turned to stare at her. She looked horrified.
‘Are . . . are you the fairy he rescued when he was little?’ Ellie continued shyly.
‘Yes,’ Myfanwy answered, sounding as if she still couldn’t believe that her hero had deserted her. ‘I was playing hide and seek with a dragonfly and I accidently fell into your aunt’s fishpond. My wing got caught in some weeds and I was stuck under the water. I was ever so frightened because a big goldfish looked like it wanted to take a bite out of me! But then David reached in with his fishing net and scooped me out. After he’d rescued me I asked him to take me to the bottom of the garden, where I knew the other fairies would find me. Such a caring little boy he was . . . which is why I knew . . . at least I thought I knew . . . that he’d be able to help us now.’
‘Help you with what?’ Ellie asked curiously.
Just then the second fairy flew out to join her friend. ‘Myfanwy thought David might know of a way to save the toy museum,’ she explained. ‘I’m Bronwen, by the way.’
Ellie smiled at her before saying, ‘I went to the toy museum today. Mr Daniels is very upset about having to sell it, isn’t he?’
‘He isn’t the only one,’ Bronwen said gloomily. ‘It’s a disaster for the toys too. The poor things are horrified.’
‘Can toys be horrified?’ Ellie asked in surprise.
‘Of course they can!’ Myfanwy said. ‘And we’re frightened too. If the museum closes we won’t be able to come to this valley any more, because the toy museum is also our entrance to Fairyland.’
Before Ellie could react, Bronwen snapped crossly, ‘Be quiet, Myfanwy! You know that’s meant to be a secret!’ She looked apologetically at Ellie and added, ‘I’m sorry but there are certain fairy secrets that we’re not supposed to tell any human – not unless we have special permission from our fairy queen.’
‘Don’t worry – I would never give away a fairy secret,’ Ellie burst out excitedly. ‘But this is amazing! Does Mr Daniels know that the entrance to Fairyland is in his museum?’
‘He doesn’t even believe in fairies!’ Myfanwy exclaimed scornfully. ‘He’s no use to us at all, which is why we came here to ask David to help us. Our fairy queen already gave us permission to tell him about it.’
‘I can try and help you instead, if you like,’ Ellie offered.
‘We’ll go and tell Queen Lily about you right now and ask her if that’s all right,’ Bronwen said. ‘She’s up in the hills looking after a sheep with an injured leg, and we’ve to go and help her as soon as we’re finished here. I expect we’ll be busy for most of the night, but tomorrow we’ll send you a message and let you know what she says.’
‘What sort of message?’ Ellie asked, but at that point David came back into the room – and within seconds both fairies had flown away.
The following morning, as Ellie was still wondering what sort of message the fairies could possibly send her, a sheep with a bandage round one of its legs appeared in Aunt Megan’s back garden. The garden backed on to fields, and Aunt Megan assumed that the sheep must have come through a gap in her fence, though when she searched she couldn’t find one.
‘It’s a mystery how she got inside,’ Aunt Megan said. ‘We’d better shoo her up the drive, along the road to the nearest gate and back into her field that way, I suppose.’
But every time they tried to approach the sheep it ran away in the wrong direction. Finally Ellie crept up to it on her own, and to everyone’s surprise the ewe stayed put. When she got close enough Ellie saw that the animal’s bandage had sparkly dust on it, and that’s when she realized that the sheep must be the same one the fairy queen had been helping the previous night. Then she noticed, tucked into its bandage, a tiny sparkly envelope.
Ellie quickly grabbed the envelope and slipped it into her skirt pocket before her aunt or David had time to see. Then she led the sheep – who went with her obediently now – out of Aunt Megan’s garden and along the country road until they reached the nearest farm gate.
‘You’re a regular little shepherdess, Ellie,’ Aunt Megan complimented her as she followed a short way behind, and Ellie could tell that even her brother was impressed.
Once the sheep was safely back in its field Ellie waited for her aunt and brother to turn back towards the house before opening the fairy letter. Inside the envelope was a folded sheet of sparkly paper, which had tiny flowers pressed around the edges and sparkly fairy writing. It said:
To her amazement, each word vanished as she read it, and by the time she had read the whole message, both the paper and its envelope had completely disintegrated into a shower of golden dust.
*
That afternoon Ellie told her aunt she was going into the village to buy a postcard to send to her parents. Her aunt nodded her consent without hesitation, but David looked suspicious and said, ‘Why do you want to send them a postcard when they’re on holiday too?’
‘I just want to. OK?’ she said, scowling at him.
Ellie reached the museum at ten minutes to three and, since her aunt had already told her that Mr Daniels had gone to see his solicitor that afternoon, she hurried up the outside staircase and tried the door handle, half expecting it to be locked. But she discovered to her relief that it was open, just as the fairies had said it would be.
Quickly she slipped inside and closed the door behind her. She was now standing in the small entrance hall, with the door that led to the museum on her right, and the door to Mr Daniels’s office straight in front of her. She had expected Myfanwy and Bronwen, and possibly even some other fairies, to be there, so she wasn’t surprised when she heard the sound of muffled voices coming from the museum room. Nervously she tiptoed over to the closed door and knocked.
There was silence for several moments, then an unfamiliar growly voice called out, ‘Who’s there?’
‘It’s me – Ellie.’ Slowly she pushed open the door and entered the room, expecting to see the fairies.
Instead she saw the four toys she had admired on her precious visit, sitting on the floor around the picnic rug with the dolls’ tea set laid out in front of them.
‘Hello,’ the teddy bear growled.
Ellie felt the blood drain from her face as the costume doll said something in Welsh that she didn’t understand and the toy soldier said, ‘I’m so sorry but I believe I’m going to sneeze. A-A-A-TCHOO!’
‘Do you have to sneeze all over our picnic?’ snapped the china doll. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve got a clean hanky, have you?’ she added, swivelling her head sharply to look at Ellie.
And that’s when everything became a hazy blur and Ellie felt the room slipping away from her.
‘Bronwen, this is all your fault,’ Ellie heard a familiar fairy voice say as she opened her eyes. ‘If you’d let me tell her in the first place, it wouldn’t have come as such a shock.’
‘Yes, well, I didn’t know you wouldn’t be outside to meet her like you said you’d be, did I?’ Bronwen retorted.
‘I only went to get some chocolate for the tea party. How was I to know she’d be early?’
‘She was only ten minutes early!’
‘Bronwen . . . Myfanwy . . .’ Ellie sat up and rubbed her head, which she must have bumped when she fell. ‘What happened?’
The two fairies were hovering over her looking anxious. ‘Ellie, are you all right? We didn’t mean you to get such a fright. You weren’t meant to see the toys until we had explained things to you.’
Everything was coming back to Ellie now. ‘I don’t understand,’ she began. ‘The toys, they were . . . they were . . .’
>
‘Alive?’ Myfanwy finished for her, grinning. ‘That’s the other secret of our toy museum, you see. The toys are always coming to life when there’s nobody about to see them!’
‘I don’t believe it,’ Ellie muttered.
‘You must do,’ Myfanwy said impatiently. ‘Otherwise you wouldn’t have seen them. Only people who believe in toys coming to life can actually see them do it. That’s part of the magic.’
‘Not all the toys can come to life,’ Bronwen added quickly. ‘The person who made the toy and the child who first owned it both have to have believed in fairies for it even to be possible. Quite a lot of toymakers believed in fairies in the old days, but hardly any do now. That’s why it’s mostly only old toys that come to life.’
Ellie stood up slowly. It was hot and stuffy in the museum, which was probably another reason for her faint. Luckily she hadn’t really hurt herself and now she looked curiously at the four toys sitting around the picnic rug. Watching her with gleaming eyes were the teddy bear, the toy soldier and the two dolls she had seen earlier. The other toys, as far as she could see, were all still in their cabinets.
One by one, the four toys introduced themselves.
‘I’m Tedi,’ the teddy bear said in a much less growly voice than before. ‘It’s spelled the Welsh way, not the English way,’ he added. His mouth was now finished off at the ends with some sparkly dust, so that he looked smiley instead of sad.
‘That’s T-E-D-I,’ the Welsh costume doll spelled out for her. ‘I’m Dilys and I’m presuming you don’t speak Welsh. Is that right?’
‘Yes, sorry,’ Ellie admitted meekly. ‘My dad’s Welsh and he knows a little, but he hasn’t spoken it since he was a boy.’
Dilys tutted her disapproval as she reached forward to pour out the tea.