No one takes me seriously. No one! They all laugh when I say something. I am not trying to be funny when I tell you that there are fairies on Dartford Heath, I am not being funny when I tell you that the fairies speak to me. I join in all of the fairy games. Why when the fairies play their flying games I too am given fairy wings and I fly as high as the fairies. It is wonderful being able to do all that which the fairies do and I don’t care if you do laugh it is you all that are missing out on all of the wonderful things that we do together. I eat fairy cakes that are so nice that even thinking about them makes my mouth water. The fruit juices are refreshing and are sweetened with wild honey from the bees. No I don’t care when you laugh at me it is you that are missing all of the fun.

The voice I was hearing was from a child, a small child. I began to wonder who it was that was not taking him or her seriously. I know that there are fairies I come into contact with them every day. I don’t play their games any more that is true, but I do listen to them and often watch as they work. Fairies are like fleeting glimpses of another world to anyone that cannot see them, (willow the wisps) those evasive creatures that one sometimes sees when it is foggy on the moors of Dartmoor or Exmoor. People say they do not exist but many swear that they have glimpsed the ghostly shapes that roam the moors.

I don’t care, go off and play your silly old games. I have my own friends, I don’t need you at all. The child’s voice sounded so sad and yet so pitiful that I went to see who it was that so bitterly complained. I found a young sad eyed boy of about four or five, looking at me with tears in his eyes he said, “ I too don’t care, let them play on their own I have my fairies.” Smiling I looked at the lad and told him that although fairies are good friends to have, it is sometimes better to have other friends, boys and girls of his own age to play with. Soon you will become tired with playing with only fairies. Now of course you can fly with the fairies . you can eat the fairy cakes and have great fun but you will have no friends that live near you. No one to share your Birthday cake and party with you. No one that comes to visit you and help you when you go to school.

I spoke to the child for a good ten minutes then his face broke out into a smile and off he ran to join the other children that were playing in the fields at the bottom of the road. His appearances in Fairyland were now very few and far between. He now had friends of his own age. Fairies were never mentioned although he could still see them. His fairy flying days were over no fairy wings could carry his weight as he grew into a sturdy lad. Fairy cakes did not interest him any more a bar of chocolate was also very good, sweet and tasty.

In the fields at the bottom of the road are some old diggings, there was once an old tin mine that had been blocked off years ago. Not many people remembered the old mine and it was never talked about. The children while playing football kicked the ball out of the field into what looked like a large patch of gorse bushes and brambles. There was a mad rush to find the ball so that the game could go on. Then a piercing cry, “Help! Help me!” One of the bigger boys had fallen through a wooden cover that should have kept all out of what was considered a dangerous mine shaft. The shaft was not deep but small.

Soon the fire Brigade arrived, one of the boys had telephoned nine, nine, nine. The emergency call.  Soon fire brigade lorries or tenders as they are sometimes called arrived and the boy was soon found that had fallen into the mine. It would have been easy for the fire men to get the lad out of the mine shaft. The shaft was too small for a fireman to go down and fix a belt to pull the injured boy out. The boy that I had once heard saying “No one takes me seriously.” Said to one of the firemen that he would go down the shaft he was not too big and he could fix the belt around the lad in the shaft if the fireman showed him what to do.

At first no one wanted to risk another child’s life. But eventually the firemen showed the boy how to fix the belt around the other boys waste and shoulders. Lowering the boy down the shaft that was now lit by some very strong lamps the firemen talked to both of the boys all of the time. Soon the belt was fixed and the first boy was pulled up out of the old mine shaft. Then the injured lad was gently pulled up to the surface. One of his legs was broken. He was taken to the local hospital. The newspapers were full of praise for the boy who once cried bitterly “No One Takes Me Seriously.” He now has plenty of friends and plays with the other children. One day he told me in confidence that he sometimes misses his fairy friends. My advice to him was this, Go into the woods and keep your eyes open if you believe enough they will come. Later I saw him coming from the woods. The lads face was smiling and his step was jaunty, he has surely seen his old friends, but sees them now with other eyes.