I Believe in Fairies

         I stand at the entrance to the fairy realm. It is an eye, looking out from behind the moss on the wall by the well. There is magical writing there but I cannot understand it. Is it a spell, a charm, a prayer? Maybe I should have paid more attention in school but as I look at it I cannot recognise any of the shapes and feel sure it must be a whole new language. The lettering is carved out and filled in in a different material, something blond. Wood, sand? I'm not sure but it reminds me of the marquetry box that grandfather keeps his stamps in.
         I wipe the grime from my knees and wonder if I dare make like a man and face my innocence. Can it really be true? Mike told me it was all just fanciful and that I should grow up so I ran away. I ran to the tiddler pond as fast as I could and cried where no one can see me.  But I believe in fairies even if Mikey doesn't and if I can't be happy in this world I want to be in theirs.
No.
Not really.
         I would be sad not to have Grandpa tell me stories or not to run with Patch in the woods in Summer. But I would like to visit their world. Just once. I need strength to face the wolves of my fear, to feel new earth beneath my feet and dance, run, sing to the sky tossing caution to the wind.
      As I stand and look, the eye begins to morph before my eyes into a portal and a voice sings out
     "Enter my arms my love, this is the only fracture in my defences. You must decide quickly whether you truly believe. It is the only way."
There was no doubt in my screaming heart. Mikey had to be lying. I knew I should not enter anywhere without exits but I could not bear to miss this opportunity. There was no knocker but as the corners of the eye squeezed inwards and the curves became arches I found myself drawn forward through the pupil in the violet heart of the eye.
      Inside there was a parlour for the spider and the fly with a door through to further curiosities. A well dressed black beetle shone behind a silvered teapot, sitting on a tapestry pincushion. At the sight of me he looked up.
      "Are you lost" he asked
      "I'm not sure Sir," I said. It seemed sensible to be polite as I was in someone else's house although I had never talked to a beetle before.
       "Why are you here?" He tapped constantly , impatiently with his front feet on the teapot so it was difficult to hear what he had said exactly.
      "I believe in Fairies."
       "Well why wouldn't you" he said in a rather irritated voice, "but why are you here?"
       "I want to see the Fairies," I said, and then, rather more bravely, "I want to ask them if they can help me get tall."
     "Well, that's better young man. They have heard your wish but to make it come true you must chose the right door. You are in control of your own destiny. To be a man you must know your path and have the courage to follow it, wherever it may lead, then no one will ever look down on you again."
        I looked around the small dark parlour and saw that there were several doors to chose from set into the mud crust walls. One was from darkness to light, a door within a door a sunlit alley between offering your more possibilities. Another was old, solid, studded with no peephole or knocker. It looked sturdy and forbidding and I imagined the maze that must be hidden by such a door, a maze with a Minotaur heart. The third door was so fresh and new it was not yet mounted onto the wall. It was still being painted frantically. Just the right shade of blue to feel friendly. It lay open in the frame leading to wobbly ill fitting  cobbles like the ones that lead home from the mill.
        I chose the third door, under the sign of the fish and eyed into the bright space beyond, a new era. I tiptoed timidly through and fell with a light touch on to a sledge that instantly transported me down a rabbit hole depositing me in front of a foxed mirror which held a semblance of my reflection and a myriad of secrets.
       The mirror had writing around it. Look into me and see what you wish to be true. It will be so. I backed away not wanting to look until I was ready. I needed to think about this carefully. I wondered if I could fuse more than one wish, there were so many things that I wanted, Mikey's bike for a start. I wanted Grandpas gimpy leg to be better too so that it didn't hurt him in the winter. But I was at the benign mercy of the Fairies' good will and I did not want them to hold a grudge against me for being greedy.
         I made my choice and stepped up to the mirror wishing to be a man secure in his importance to the world and able to support the people he most loved. I would no longer be a lost soul fighting to be seen, an innocent abroad.
        I opened my eyes and found myself standing by the wall next to the well. No portal was visible now. Looking down at my reflection in the well's cool green surface I see aman, fully grown wearing a top hat.