Jennifer followed her friends to the stream, it wasn’t far from her dad so she knew she was allowed to go. Her tire swing was tied to a tree a few feet from the stream and then there was the tiny dock that her and her mother had made out of scraps so they could sit with there feet in the water, the water was not very deep but the current was strong and it would pull a little girl like Jennifer down if she ever fell into the water. The water came past Jennifer’s head so she knew not to go into the water, she was a good swimmer but not good enough to swim in the stream without her mom or an adult holding her. Jennifer sat on the dock and looking into the crystal clear waters below. The sun reflected off of some of the stones at the bottom of the stream, even though the stream was deeper than Jennifer’s height it was so clear you could see the bottom as if you were looking through glass. Jennifer and her mother used to collect stones from the water, usually her mother went into the water to gather them for Jennifer but sometimes Jennifer would hold onto her mother and help gather stones by pointing them out to her. Jennifer looked up at the sky, it was blue with only a few little puffy clouds overhead a perfect Summer day. Jennifer returned her gaze to the water below the dock. She looked at her party dress and her party shoes and took off her shoes and socks, she lifted her dress so it wouldn’t get ruined and dipped her feet into the water, it was chilly but nice.

Jennifer swung her feet around in circles and watched the water move. Behind her she could here her friends playing, probably playing with the tire swing her father had put up for her. A little ways from the swing was also a sand castle where Jennifer and her mother would build castles for the ‘fairies’ or so her mother would say. Her mother would tell stories about fairies and the magical fairy kingdom where they lived. She would tell these stories while they made sand castles, or even while they were just sitting around with there feet in the stream. Jennifer smiled as she remembered her mothers stories, and how her mother would make them seem all so real and so beautiful it was as if she was describing something she had seen before, deep down inside Jennifer believed that fairies were real but that no one could see them. Jennifer liked fairy’s and collected fairy stuff all the time, she even had story books with fairies in them. Her mother liked fairies as well, she had a collection of ceramic fairy’s which Jennifer received after her mother passed away, they were on her shelf with her own collection. Then Jennifer remembered another collection she had, the collection of stones that her mother had helped her to gather from the stream. The stream made the stones polished and shiny and Jennifer loved that about them, they were not sharp or pointy usually either. Her stones were inside a plastic case where you could see each and every one in her collection. Jennifer dropped her head to her chest and sighed then she whispered to herself and to the stream "Now that mommy is gone my collection won’t grow anymore cause daddy won’t help me...." Then she started to cry again but as soon as she realized she was crying Jennifer took out her handkerchief and wiped her tears away and shook her head "mommy would want me to be happy today, not sad." She whispered to herself and pulled her feet out of the water. She put her shoes back on but not her socks because her feet were still a little wet, then she ran over to the tire swing and joined in with her friends.

April put an arm around Jennifer and smiled "Want me to push you on the swing Jen?" Jennifer smiled and nodded at her best friend. So when another girl was done with the swing Jennifer sat in it and April pushed her high and fast. Jennifer laughed and screamed in delight she felt like she was flying. Jennifer giggled and laughed as she went higher and higher. One of Jennifer’s ribbons that covered the elastics on her pig-tails came untied and fell to the ground but Jennifer never noticed it she just kept on swinging. Jennifer looked at April and smiled as she climbed off the swing a little wobbly, "Now it’s your turn April, my turn to push you." April giggled and climbed onto the swing. The girls took turns on the swing for a while until another girl wanted to use it, so Jennifer and April gave the swing to her and went to join Nancy in the sand box, Nancy was 6 like Jennifer but her hair was straight and black that hung to the centre of her back when it was in braids. Today she wore her hair in two french braids and she wore a simple yellow party dress with a ribbon around her waist. Nancy was not much of a girly girl she liked to wear jeans and play in the mud but her mother had made her wear a dress to the party. Nancy was sitting in the sandbox and she was building a sandcastle and was using her G-I Joes inside of it, Jennifer smiled and sat next to Nancy, April sat across from both girls. Jennifer remembered that she had left her fairy doll on the picnic table and ran to go get it. "Jen can you bring me baby May too please, I think she is sitting next to your fairy doll" Called April as Jennifer ran to the table. Jennifer heard April so she grabbed baby May for April and ran back to the sandbox. She handed April her doll and they started to play in the sandbox with Nancy.

The three girls played in the sandbox for a little while then they heard Gregory calling all the guests to the picnic table. Jennifer, Nancy and April ran from the sand box while Crystal, Hazel and Anna came from the swing and the dock. It was time for everyone to go home and it was time for Jennifer to have her bath. Jennifer walked her friends to the door and said her goodbyes, Jennifer stood at the door and watched as the last of her guests left the party. Jennifer looked at her father as he swept her off her feet and carried her up to the bathroom. Jennifer stood and watched her father carefully pour bubble bath into the tub as he ran it for her. It was already 7:00pm the day had been long and tiresome, Jennifer rubbed her eyes as she climbed into the tub, her father put a couple fairy bath toys into her tub along with her mermaid Barbie dolls.

It was 8:00pm when Jennifer finally got out of the bathtub. She put her Pyjama’s on and went to the kitchen for her bedtime snack. Her father gave her a plate with two melon slices and a glass of grape juice. Jennifer ate her snack in quiet. "So you had a pretty busy day today didn’t you sweetie, and now your 6 years old. You are growing up so fast you really are." Gregory smiled at Jennifer as she ate her snack. After brushing her teeth Jennifer joined her father in the living room and watched a movie, since it was Jennifer’s birthday she was allowed and extra hour before bedtime, her mother had made that rule on Jennifer’s fourth birthday. Jennifer laid her head on a pillow on the couch and watched a movie with her father, half an hour into the movie Gregory looked at his daughter and saw her sleeping peacefully. Carefully her stood up and turned the movie off and picked up his daughter. He carried her all the way to her room and she slept the whole way. Gregory tucked Jennifer in and she didn’t move a muscle. He turned on her fairy lamp and went back down to the living room. He sat on the couch and clicked on the table lamp, he picked up his novel and read for a couple of hours and fell asleep with his book in his hand. Since his wife’s death he had troubles falling asleep in his bed, often he would fall asleep on the couch.

Jennifer woke up screaming and crying, her face was hot and wet and her sheets were all twisted in a bunch, Gregory burst into his daughters room just as she woke up. He ran to her side and held her in his arms, he could feel her shaking in his arms. This was not the first time she had woken up with a bad dream a few times since the death of her mother. Jennifer cried into her fathers arms and then looked at him "Mommy ran from me, she heard me but she ran away from me. Mommy looked right at me but she kept running from me, I tried to keep up with her but I couldn’t. Daddy why did she run from me, doesn’t she love me." Jennifer broke down into uncontrollable sobs. Gregory looked at his shaken up daughter and sighed, "It was just a dream honey, mommy loves you, she always has and she always will she is in a good place now, a happy place." Jennifer nodded her head and laid back down on her pillow still crying and shaking. Gregory picked up a storybook and began to read it to Jennifer, half way through the book Jennifer had cried herself back to sleep, he watched her and listened as she shuttered once in a while as she slept. "Poor thing, I hope she gets better soon I hope my little ray of sunshine comes out from behind the clouds again." Gregory stood up and walked quietly out of his daughters room and into his own room. Gregory sat up in bed till he finally drifted off into sleep. He tossed and turned through the rest of his sleep. But he did sleep, it wasn’t a restful sleep but it was sleep none-the less.

Meanwhile Jennifer woke up again but this time she thought she had heard her mothers voice from out in the yard. It was 12:00am according to her clock. Jennifer put on her housecoat and looked out her window, she saw a flicker of lights near the stream in the backyard. Being a curious six year old Jennifer tied her housecoat up and slipped on her slippers and tiptoed out into the back yard through the back door in the kitchen. Jennifer felt a cool breeze that picked her housecoat up, but that was fine the air was warm. She made it to the dock at the stream and watched quietly, she saw the flickers of light again, they looked like a bunch of fireflies only bigger. Jennifer watched in awe as the lights twirled and danced in the air, then she noticed the lights were not white or yellow they were blue and green. Jennifer held her breath as she watched the lights across the stream continue to dance. She had never been to the other side of the stream, she remembered her mother telling her that streams where gateways to other worlds and that on the other side of streams where worlds of magic and mystery. Realizing she was holding her breath Jennifer let it out with a woosh then she went to move as close to the edge of the dock possible, she was in awe watching the lights that she did not realize she was as far over as possible. It happened all so fast, one minute she was on the dock and the next she was falling into the cold water of the stream, Jennifer gasp as the cold water hit her. She tried to grab for the dock but the current had already started taking her downstream a little, she could see the dock but she could not reach it. All of a sudden Jennifer was under the water, an undertow current caught her and pulled her down into the water. Jennifer tried to get to the surface but came with no results, she was still under the water and moving downstream. She thrashed and kicked a

nd fought with all her might to get to the surface but nothing was working. Jennifer could see the moonlight through the surface of the water but then her eyes grew tired as did her body, she was not strong enough to fight the current of the stream, it was to strong. Jennifer felt herself sink further into the water, she knew that the stream was a few feet taller than she was, her mother was tall and the water came to just below her mothers chest. Jennifer felt as if she had a bag over her head, she knew she was drowning, she had swallowed too much water when she went into the stream she never had a chance to hold her breath because she hit the water to fast. Her lungs were full with water and Jennifer saw her life flash before her eyes, she remembered her party and her mother and her father and all her friends, she wanted to cry but the water was surrounding her as it was. Jennifer felt tired and closed her eyes, just as her eyes closed she could see a bright light through her closed eye lids, she shot her eyes open and saw a bunch of green and blue lights surrounding her, they were in the water, above the water and all around her. She felt her body lift out of the water and into the air just above the stream, she was not being lifted by a hand but rather she was being lifted by air, or what felt like air, she felt like she was floating on a cloud. Her body quaked from the shock and coolness of the water. She still could not breath to well, her eye lids drifted shut once again.

When Jennifer’s eyes finally opened she was on the grass beside the stream in her backyard, she was shuddering uncontrollably by then but at least she was safe and still alive. She saw the lights surrounding her again but this time she made out the shapes inside of the lights, they were little people, little women to be exact. Jennifer’s eyes were still hazy from the water but she could see that the women were beautiful. They all looked like angels, little humans with wings. Jennifer was lost in awe at the sight of the "fairies" or at least that is what she thought they were, then she thought that she must be dreaming and that she will wake up in her bed, warm and dry, but she didn’t. Jennifer tried to sit up but she was too weak, she felt herself be lifted by a cushion of air, the "fairies" were lifting her up into a sitting position. "Wh.....a....t are you? Are you ...you..fairies?" Jennifer heard giggles and saw that the women were looking right at Jennifer. One of the women fluttered over to Jennifer right in front of her eyes almost. Jennifer saw that her hair was golden like Jennifer’s and she was wearing a lily for a dress, her hair glittered and her body sparkled, her wings were transparent and blue. "Of course we are fairies, what did you think we were?" Jennifer blinked her eyes at the words that came out of the fairies mouth, they sounded like music to her ears. "So fairies are real then? Wow, I knew inside that they were real I just never imagined..." Jennifer yawned, she was still tired from the fight with the stream. "Little one go home now and get into clean dry cloths. But I want you to make me a promise little one, please. You cannot tell anyone about us, you cannot tell anyone that you saw us because if anyone knew we truly existed that didn’t deserve to know we would be destroyed. And I want you to do a favour for me, one a day bring sweets to the dock, anything. S

ee we fairies like sweet milk and such, were we come from the only thing sweet that we can have is nectar from flowers and fruit juices. If you choose to you can come and see us once a day, but only during certain times.....sunrise, sunset and noon, and midnight during a full moon. Other than that we don’t like to make ourselves visible at any other hour. Do you understand what I am asking you?" Jennifer saw still in awe and felt like she was in a dream, "I promise not to tell anyone, not even my best friend. And I will do my best to bring sweets out here each day. If I want to see you once a day how would I do that?" The fairy’s wings shimmered in the moonlight and she looked even more beautiful then expected, "All you have to do is sit on the dock and wait quietly for us." Jennifer nodded her head and went to stand up on her trembling legs. Once again she felt herself lifted bu a cushion of air. Jennifer headed towards her home, when she looked back she saw the lights disappear as the fairies crossed the stream.

Jennifer went to her room and got out of her wet cloths, she put on dry ones and dried her hair with a towel. She put her wet cloths into her cloths basket and climbed into her warm dry bed, and then she fell asleep, all night she dreamed about the fairies, and her near death experience. That night was the beginning of a new life for Jennifer she did not know it yet but that single night would effect the rest of her life from that day on. Jennifer held her fairy doll close as she slept through the night and right into the next afternoon. Jennifer had no idea how long she had been outside for but she knew she was tired. Jennifer’s father was awake around 10:00am and was surprised to find that his daughter was still sleeping but he decided not to wake her, he knew she needed the rest, he did not know that she had gone outside the night before or anything about Jennifer’s experience the night before.

Gregory had a cup of coffee and a bagel with cream cheese for his breakfast, he did not have to work that morning so he let Jillian have the day off. Jillian did not live with Gregory and his daughter she lived a couple blocks away though. Gregory opened the front door of his home and faced the sun as he picked up he morning newspaper and took in a deep breathe of fresh air. He took his coffee and his newspaper to his chair in the living room, where he sat and read his paper in silence. Jennifer was still sound asleep by the time he finished reading his paper. He decided to get and early start on the daily chores. It was 11:00am when he went outside to mow the front and back yard. He hoped that the lawnmower would not wake his sleeping daughter, and it didn’t. After mowing the lawn Gregory tended to the flower garden at the front of his house, it was his wives flower bed and he hated tending to it but he did not have the heart to get ride of it so he kept it around. After the outdoor jobs had been done Gregory went back into the house, it was 12:45pm by the time he came inside and went up for his shower. He stood in the shower and let the water sooth his stressed muscles, he was tired from lack of sleep but he did not let that get the best of him.

Jennifer stretched her sore arms and looked at the digital clock that was by her bed, even though she was only six years old she knew how to tell time on a digital clock, she was still learning on a hands clock. Her clock read 1:00pm. Jennifer yawned and was surprised by how long she had slept for, usually she was up with her father around 9-10:00am. Jennifer’s arms and legs were sore from the incident the night before, Jennifer was still in awe about the fairies the only reason she knew it was not a dream was that she saw her wet cloths hanging on her hamper and her hair was a mess from going to bed with wet hair. Jennifer swung her legs over the side of her bed and put her feet on the floor, her slippers were wet too but she had an extra pair to wear. She slipped her feet into her spare pair of slippers. She went to put her housecoat on but then remembered that it too got wet from her accident. So Jennifer just went downstairs in her pyjamas and slippers. Her father was still in the shower when she made herself up a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. Jennifer had just finished her breakfast when her father came into the kitchen fresh out of the shower. He felt better now that he had relaxed in a shower for a little while, he felt rejuvenated.

Gregory kissed his daughter on the forehead before she went to the sink to wash her dishes. Jennifer had been told to always clean up after herself since she was five she had started doing her own dishes to the best of her ability, or she would load the dishwasher with her mother or father.