Lilting bells echoed through the room as the fairy extended her legs and waved her miniscule hand. Her jade face looked inquisitively around as the golden butterfly flapped its wings. The silver tree branch they rested on swayed gently on the wind. The movements repeated, lightly, sweetly, slowly, until it began to freeze. A shining face looked upon it, crestfallen that it had once again stopped its beautiful music.

“Sweetie?”

The voice startled the little girl. Who was it? What did it want?

“Want a cuppa? We need to put the fairy away now.”

Sweet fruity tea was nice, but the girl wanted to spend the rest of eternity looking at the fairy. It was so delicate, with its tiny tendrils of gold for hair and glass wings.

“No touching, remember?” A gentle hand touched the little girl’s. She hadn’t realised she was reaching for it.

“Come on, do you want to go on the lake with your cousins?”

The little girl did not want to leave the fairy, but the mild lady always placed the fairy behind a thick wall of glass where the girl could not see it. That was so cruel of the otherwise kind lady, but it could not be helped. So the little girl left to be with the loud, loud cousins. They ran and they laughed and splashed water at each other and at the little girl. She did not like it. She wanted the fairy.

Then they bustled her and the others back to the house. They gave her scones and sweet fruit tea and all the girl could see when she closed her eyes was the fairy.

They wrapped her up tight in a coat and a scarf and sent her to another house where they gave her toys to play with and dinner to eat, but still the fairy consumed the little girl’s thoughts.

So the little girl slipped away when the adults weren’t looking. When she reached the house and quietly opened the door, she saw a plain brass key sitting on the dining table.

What joy! It was the key to open the fairy’s cage.

The girl gripped the key tightly in her plump little fist, utterly determined to open the sinister wall and free her gorgeous fairy.

Stealing through the creaking rooms, the afternoon light shone, thick and golden like honey, through the windows. Finally, finally, she reached the room she desired.

It was old and grand, filled with exotic treasures from faraway lands. But there was only one treasure that the little girl sought. And there it was, the light from the windows reflecting off the silver and glass to make rainbows float throughout the old dusty room. She unlocked the wall, breathless from her derring-do, and reached for the fairy. She set it on the carved table and carefully inserted the glimmering key.

The fairy came to life, stretching and dancing in her familiar way, the little bells tinkling out the usual pretty song.

The little girl sat, enraptured by the music and the lights, and could not hear the crackling or see the dancing flames.

A candle, an open window, and a gusty day were all it took.

But at least the little girls last thoughts would have been of beauty and happiness.

That is all any of us can ask for, really.