Pilgrim Story – told by Pallas Athene

July 30th.

Bored out of my skull. No pony, no tennis partner, and no golf course. Summer holiday is dragging on, like an unwilling child who refuses to walk beside his mother. I never thought I'd say this - but I wish I was back at school.

July 31st

Bored.

August 1st

Very bored.

August 2nd

Losing the will to live.

September 4th

Tomorrow is the day I go back to school, and I wish it wasn't. I would kill to stay here at the house, and I mean that. Mother and father aren't any kinder, and I still don't have the pony, and no one will play tennis with me. But there is something else. Something, that whenever I think about it, it stirs an excitement in my veins that I never have felt before.

For the past fortnight I have been walking around, hardly knowing what direction I was going in, an inane grin on my face. Mother was convinced I had found a boyfriend, and in a way I have. Well, a friend who is a boy, in the least. But I told her it was nothing. I told her that I was only happy to be free from private school for the next few weeks. I don't know if she really did believe me, but at least she pretended to take my story as the truth.

But I am babbling … let me explain. It was after about a fortnight into the holiday that I made an amazing discovery. One I had never dreamed of, but one that I'm sure every other child who has the will to imagine has thought of. I never had the will to imagine. I had the capabilities, but life seemed to bleak and humdrum to me. The unexciting routine of waking up and just being had become all to commonplace for me. Perhaps that is why I met Lilywhite.

It happened one night, when I couldn't sleep. For a person as fed up of living as I was, who believed the world to be an uninteresting and perhaps frightening place, it was amazing the amount of thoughts I had. If only I had that many during the day, I wouldn't nearly have been so bored, but at
night I didn't appreciate them. I only saw them as an obtrusion on my path to sleep.

Well this one night I was having a particularly intense internal debate about something I cannot remember, and care not to. It's what happened afterwards that I want to remember for the rest of my life. That night I was so fed up, I decided to go for a midnight sail. The stars were out and it was warm. The moon cast its eerie shadow over the lake my parents own, causing a shining white reflection.

It took me a lot of time and effort to set the topper up on my own, but in the end I did it, and pushed it out to the shore. I only had very thin cotton shoes on so I could feel every pebble. The sharp ones hurt me, and some even dug in so much they made me cry out. I was wearing a white nightdress. I didn't think I'd get wet. I never sailed much – sailing wasn't really my thing – but I knew how to, and from my experiences it shouldn't be very wet. I only meant to drift around, and there was no wind.

I climbed into the boat and set off. Not a lot was going on, apart from me drifting around this huge lake, with nothing particular to do, and nothing particular to think about. Soon enough I got fed up of the water, and moved over to a little place on the far side of the lake. It was like a haven amid the willow branches, which grew unkempt, as if trying to touch the cool water beneath them.

It was here that I moored the boat, by taking some rope and tying around one of the willow trunks. For a while in lay in the boat just looking around. I grabbed a flower from the bank and tore the petals off. I threw them into the water and watched them float away, until they reached the other side and entangled with stray willow roots.

'Ahoy hoy!' the voice rang clearly in my ear. It was high and child-like, and very piercing. I jumped so much that the boat rocked dangerously. I could hear it was behind me, and quite close. My hand gripped the side of the boat as I stammered my reply.

'Who … who's that?' my voice was trembling. My fingers would be too, if I wasn't holding the boat so hard.

'Ah, don't be so scared, little kid,' something touched my shoulder. I shivered involuntarily, and clenched her teeth in fear. A shooting pain ran through my gum, but I ignored it. All she could think about was the thing on my shoulder. 'I said don't be scared!' said the voice. 'Look, I'm going to need to help getting down, so if you wouldn't mind just holding your hand out … palm side up … that's it … now don't throw me of, will you.'

Something stepped onto my hand. No, that's crazy! I thought, just after the original notion popped into my head. There's nothing so small that can walk onto a person's hand. But that's certainly what it felt like to me. I turned my head … and screamed in horror. The little thing standing – yes, standing – in my hand went flying forwards. For a minute I was scared it would land in the water, but it didn't. It landed at the end of the boat. After a dazed minute, it stood up, brushed itself off, and smiled at me. I did not return the greeting.

Instead I said the obvious. Well, at least it is the obvious when you are faced by a little man, around six inches high with a very round face and blood red skin, wearing only rags. 'What are you?' I asked. Perhaps I was having hallucinations. I was sure there was many explanations. Perhaps I had finally cracked – perhaps I was a character in an Enid Blyton book and this like wasn't mine after all! Perhaps … perhaps aliens really existed?

'I'm a fairy, stupid,' he said. Well, at least I thought it was a he.

'A fairy?' she asked. 'I don't believe you. Aren't fairies supposed to have wings and little wands?'

'Yeah, and I bet you expected me to come all kitted out in a little bridesmaids dress and all, didn't you?'

'I didn't expect you at all! In fact, I'm extremely inclined to think that I'm still floating around that lake somewhere, asleep in my boat.' She pinched herself hard on the arm.

'You're awake.'

'I guessed…'

'You're awake and I'm real. So, now we've got that sorted out, I guess I have to get to know you.'

She was confused. 'Why would you have to get to know me?'

'Fine, let's do it the other way round. I'm Lilywhite, a fairy. No I won't go away, no I am not fifty years older than you, no I won't die if you say you don't believe in me, and no I don't spread dust that can make you fly, with a few happy thoughts. Oh, and just to clear up. I don't have a wand, I don't give three wishes, and I certainly don't fly. In fact I suffer from vertigo, so don't hold me any higher then one metre from ground level. You?'

He went so quickly, it was like he was on super-speed. 'My name's Ise'

'I know.'

'I'm fifteen.'

'I know.'

'And you're the most interesting thing that's happened in my life for a long time.'

'I know.'

'Then why did you ask?' I asked him.

He shrugged. 'To humour you. And to check up on my facts.'

'You've been studying me?' I was shocked and surprised. This thing knew things about me?

'You're not happy,' he said. But you didn't have to be a genius to know that.

'Understatement of the year…' I muttered.

'And no wonder,' he continued, on the same vein, 'with parents like yours.'

'But what can you do about it?' this time it was my turn to shrug my shoulders.

'You wouldn't believe…' he said mysteriously. 'Get out of the boat and open that curtain of willow branches.' I was perplexed, but I did as I was told. And beyond the curtain was something I could never have expected – not in my wildest dreams (which, up until now, hadn't been very wild).

Thousands of teenagers all stood there, dancing or drinking or eating or just sitting down. They were all young, around my age, and they were all smiling. No, grinning. Grinning these huge great big inane grins. They looked truly happy, and I wanted to party too, with them.

'Here, have a sip,' Lilywhite said, and I saw that he was holding a cup out to me, too. I took it and had some. It tasted like apples, perhaps it was cider. It was nice – I like apples.

'It's called Devil's brew,' he said to me with a sly smile. It only occurred to me for a second that Devil's brew was an odd name for a fairy drink, but as soon as I tasted it again, I realised that I didn't care. For once I was truly happy.

I don't remember everything that happened that night, but I do remember that I had a good time. And I also remember that I went back the next night, and the next night, and in fact every night after that. I want to go every night after today as well – I want to be there for the rest of my life. But because I go to boarding school, I can't be there. Perhaps I should bunk off school? You never know – it's been done before. And will they really miss me?

I know Lilywhite would.