The Fairy, the Lady and the Oak

The Fairy, The Lady And The Oak


A small bump of earth amidst the gravel caught the Oak Fairy's eye.

She'd been so very sad since the oaks and pines were taken from her hillside meadow. Now stark, cream colored houses stood upon a flat, desolate plane where once there was rolling hilly nature.

Perched on twenty feet of imported fill, the cold, impersonal housing development kept the early morning sun from reaching the older houses downhill. At night they reflected their streetlights into the back gardens and windows of the older residences, banishing the gentle darkness of the night. An ugly, grey concrete-block wall held the fill in place, looming above the ravaged back gardens of the older homes that had ringed the ancient meadow.

The ground preparation and building of the new housing tract caused great pain to the Meadow Fairies and the people who lived around it. The meadow creatures fled as their homes were destroyed by the smashing and wrenching of the great machines that roared and clambered there. For years the engines' noises overwhelmed conversations and blew clouds of dust into the air. Homemakers couldn't keep up with the mess and wept helplessly and silently at the dusty, dirty, noisy chaos their lives had become.

But now, this tiny bump in the ground, this small swelling of earth, brought a bit of hope to the banished Oak Fairy.

And this hope gave her the strength to bless this tiny place with her fairy magic. She stayed nearby, hidden under the great spreading arms of a rambling rosebush to keep watch over this courageous new life and protect it from harm. She blessed the nourishing dew that fell upon it each night. She sang happy songs to it while she bathed in sparkling dewdrops in the morning light, snug in the curl of a rose petal.