I woke up very early in the morning...I'll hazard a guess and say 3am. It had been raining all night and we had the blinds and window open after the broiling couple of days we've had.
It was very odd because I don't really remember waking up gradually. I woke up suddenly, sat straight up in bed and turned to look at our tallboy-cum-dresser which is dominated by a medium sized ornamental mirror. It's also home to other bibs and bobs like an oil burner, a jewellery box, framed pictures and a vase or two. Lots of crapola ends up there too of course; Like P's crappy train from Preston Market, deodorant, glassess, bits of paper, burned out candles, empty tampon boxes, used condoms...
Just kidding about the tampon boxes.
Yaanyway, amongs these everyday things, I saw about five or so fairies.
Now I'm probably sounding a bit nutso, friend of the faeries, brian froundish maybe? But let me try and explain.
I guess it's a bit like the classic overcoat-thrown-over-the-chair-which-looks-like-someone-sitting-there scenario.
This was a bit more bizarre as the faces and the bodies of these 'wee folk' were extremely detailed although I should mention they were also static. They definitely appeared real and 3 dimensional but they weren't moving about or anything. Now that I am trying to recall them to describe them I'm having real trouble remembering those details. Nonetheless, the one I remember the most had a child's face in profile and was wearing an oversized top hat. Another was sitting on the edge of the tallboy with it's long legs dangling over the side and there was a smiling one leaning its (her?) chin on its hands.
I felt like I was fully awake but I was wondering how they got in so I must have been dreaming to think these cerazy thoughts? I began to realise that, um, I don't think fairies actually exist and that's when they started to vanish, or rather, become the ordinary everyday things they actually were. The smiling fairy turned into a trick of light reflecting off a framed photo. The fairy with the dangling legs became the roll-on deodorant with an end of a scarf hanging down.
The little boy fairy with the oversized hat was the last to go. But little by little his cherubic cheek transformed into a kink in the plaster of the mirror frame. I could still see the top hat for a while, even though I knew it was just the diamond shaped tile.
I wasn't scared at all, just fascinated.
Now, I might as well admit that this isn't the first time this has happened. In fact, it was a bit of a regular occurence when I was little, mainly, although I had one last 'visit' when I was about nineteen when I woke up to see long haired people sitting in the neighbours tree. Again, it was like wow - what are they doing there? Hang on a minute it's 2 in the morning, this mustn't be real - oh, it's not...
Even when I was little I would dismiss it as dreaming or half dreaming. I never really believed that what I saw was real.
There is really one stand out encounter however..
I was about seven or eight and shared a room with my sister. We had bunk beds and I was on the bottom one. I remember feeling very restless and inexplicably frightened and jittery while I was waiting for sleep to come. Around this time I saw a face in a dim spotlight on the wall opposite our beds. It's all a bit hazy but I think I yelled out for mum or dad who were still up watching tv. Dad probably came down and told me 'to think of Peter Pan' which was his stock standard phrase in these incidents. Then I'm pretty sure I went to sleep.
Much later (I'm guessing) I woke up suddenly and saw figures in a semi circle on the other side of the room. There was a main figure in the middle of the circle flanked by two drummers. I remember even hearing the drums. The scariest thing was that the figure in the middle was holding some kind of knife.
I should try and explain what they looked like. They were pretty much completely see-through and looked like they were drawn in the air with a dim, feathery white chalk...I've always found it hard to describe this effect (I've to
ld this story about 100 times I think!).And they were definitely Aztec. I probably wouldn't have said that at the time as I'm sure I didn't know what an Aztec was, but yeah, they had the large head-dresses and when I see an Aztec drawing I am definitely reminded of the figures I saw.
I was seriously so scared I couldn't scream. I tried to but nothing was coming out. I distinctly remember losing my breath and almost passing out. Then I found my voice and screamed the bloody house down. All of a sudden the room was a blaze of light as Dad came in.
I don't remember bawling but I'm sure I was. I couldn't go back to sleep in the bedroom so Dad made a bed up for me on the couch in the lounge-room. (Meanwhile my mum was just pissed off with another interrupted night's sleep - I can totally empathise now!). My Dad got a mattress and made a bed for himself on the floor next to me and I finally relaxed. My little Mesoamerican friends hadn't left though. They were everywhere around the room. I remember two standing sentinal-like near the front window and one was crouched over the television with a quizzical look like, how does this contraption work?
My father passed away almost four years ago so I can't ring him up and pick his brain about that night. I'm sure I've brought it up but he's never really verified it. In fact my mother says she can't remember the night at all which I find very strange. If it wasn't for my sister and brother then I would be a bit worried that this memory is planted and I'm gonna wake up in a pod with wires hanging out everywhere..man, this post is long and i'm getting tired. Anyway, my sister remembers the night vividly so at least the memory is real...the jury is still very out on whether what I saw was something supernatural or just the result of a very, very active imagination.
Just to finish this off, the reason why I know Brian Fround's name is because I have his 'Fairy Oracle' a tarot card set which I bought on impulse due to the stunning artwork. I've never really used them and had to find them while writing this post so I could spell his name correctly...Guess where they were?
On top of the tallboy...oooeeer! spooky!
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