We Believe in Fairies

            Gus rides in the back seat and doesn’t talk much. He’s a thoughtful little guy and I steal secret looks at his precious face in my rearview mirror. Brown eyes stare out the window, and I know he’s contemplating the fairies again.

            As we unbuckle his seatbelt at Trader Joes, he asks rather nonchalantly, “Granny, do you think there really are fairies?” 

            “Well, Gus, I’ve never seen one, but I have seen signs of them and I guess I want to believe in them. So yes. I do,” I respond as I take his tiny, soft hand in mine.

             “I know! Me too, Granny!” an audible sigh follows and silence again. On to other things.

            Yesterday Gus spent the better part of the afternoon constructing a house for fairies. It’s cold now in Portland and he was concerned about their welfare and wanted to entice them indoors, into Granny’s house! Secret doors are important to fairies apparently; lighting is too, so he gave the house several windows and a soft carpet underfoot. With these things in place, Gus wrapped and tied and taped and arranged a magical little fairy house, and, when it was done, he sat back and admired it proudly. He didn’t say much…. but I think he knew the fairies would come.

 And they did.

            The next morning Gus lost his very first tooth. “I wonder,” he whispered as he looked at it, “I wonder if the fairies are going to like having my tooth.”

            After school that day, I picked Gus up and we took our usual leisurely stroll down Wisteria Way to my place. There were several fairy house spottings and we collected the most beautiful leaves we’d ever seen. “Granny! Look at this one!” Gus would exclaim as he’d point to a glossy, scarlet sweet gum leaf, “and look at the beads of dew sparkling! I bet the fairies drink it right off the leaves!”

            And we sang our “Little Drop of Dew” song and continued our walk and talk until we arrived at my apartment.

            There, right next to Gus’s fairy house were two more! One made of birch bark and one of crimson felt, and inside the felt one was a tiny note from the fairies thanking Gus for his house and also congratulating him for the perfect little tooth. They had also left Gus a gift: the tiniest little shell and a eucalyptus nut. These things don’t exist here in Portland, so now we know fairies travel to far off places!

            Do I believe in fairies? How could I not!