I was driving down a dirt road one night on the way to visit my cousin who lived in the city of Fernhollow. Local legend said that the road ran right through the center of a large fairy ring which would appear during the rainy season. I had been riding through that stretch of land at least once a month for my entire 32 years of existence and had never seen anything strange. The only thing remotely unusual was a large ancient 6 foot obelisk with odd runes on it. There was also the ruins of an old castle and village that burned down in 1850.
It was around 10:30 at night, and suddenly, a deer charged out into the road right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and lost control of the car, sending the car careening into a tree. The airbag deployed, and I blacked out. When I came to, I. Grabbed my purse and stepped out of the car. Miraculously, I was not hurt. I looked and saw my car, now a crumpled up steel mess, wrapped around a tree trunk. I breathed a sigh of relief that I had not been hurt, and took my phone out of the purse. I took my phone out of my purse and dialed 911. “911, may I have your emergency?” The 911 dispatcher asked. “Yes, I crashed my car into a tree.” I answered. “Excuse me? I think you are breaking up.” The 911 dispatcher said. “I got into an accident and crashed my car into a tree.” I said. “Look, if this is a joke, it isn’t funny. Prank calling 911 is a crime!” The dispatcher said, her voice sounding both frightened and angry at the same time. “Prank? This isn’t a prank! I just wrecked my car! I need help!”
“Oh wow, that’s freaky.” The dispatcher said. It sounded as if she had pulled the phone away from her mouth. I was absolutely enraged by this point. “Jack, come hear this voice on the line.” She yelled to someone.”Hello?” A man’s voice asked. “My Name is Caitlin Donohuge and I need to file an accident report.” I yelled. “Wow, that’s weird.” He said. I heard a clunk on the other end. “Hello?” I asked. No one answered. “Hello?” I yelled. Still no one answered. They had hung up on me! I called my mother, but she did not answer, so I left her a voice mail. The phone rang and I answered it. “Hello?” I said. There was a pause and a puff of air like someone breathing into the receiver. “Mommy?” A child’s voice asked. I didn’t have any kids. “No, sweetie I’m not your mommy.” I said. “Mom-my!” The child whimpered. The child hung up. I then got a text message which read, “ My name is Gretchen. Can you give my ex boyfriend Jason a message for me? Tell him I am going to beat his beat his butt for cheating on me with Daria?”
This one got me scared.”No. You fight your own boyfriend.” I texted back. “ Can’t I’m dead! U R alive!” Then a bunch of little angry face emoji’s flashed across the screen. The phone rang again. “Hello?” I asked. There was a pause.”I’m coming!” A gravely voice growled. The sound of the voice made every hair on my body stand on end. “Who-who are you?” I whimpered. Suddenly someone tapped me on the shoulder. I screamed at the top of my lungs. Turned and saw an elderly gentleman standing behind me. Relief washed over me. “Aye, you need a ride to the next village?” He asked. I was relieved that someone had found me. He stood beside a horse drawn cart. I assumed that he was one of the country farmworkers.”Yes. Thank you so much.” I said. “I tried to call the police, but they didn’t seem to want to talk to me.” I continued. He replied, “Yes, that seems to happen a lot around here. Bad reception.” I climbed aboard the cart. “My name is James by the way.” He said. “My name is Caitlin.” James climbed aboard and snapped the reins. We trotted off down the dirt road, which was quite a new experience for me since I had never ridden a horse or been in a carriage. “I’ve seen a towing company in one of the nearby villages. Perhaps we can contact them in the morning about your car.” He said. Then, a thought occurred to me. The next village was not for at least a hundred miles. “The next village isn’t for a hundred miles. It is where my cousin lives.” I said. “No, my village is right up here.” He said. “He can’t be thinking of the old ruins of what used to be a village.” I thought. My phone rang again, but this time I did not answer. I looked at and did not recognize the number. A while later, we rode over a hill. At the foot of that hill, in the place of the ruin, was an old stone castle surrounded by a small village. All of the lights in the village were dark, save for the castle where bright lights blazed forth from every room. “But, that village burned down in 1850! It can’t have been suddenly rebuilt over the past month since I drove to see my cousin last!” I said. James said, “What do you mean you think it burned down? I will tell you about that fire. The whole village was lit up in flames one night and suddenly, there was a huge rainstorm and the fire was out!” “There was a huge rainstorm and the fire went out, but the villagers all perished and it burned to the ground.” I said. Or did it? It all seemed a bit hazy now. I must have hit my head really hard during that accident. The sooner I was able to fix my car and see a doctor the better. “In fact, tonight is the anniversary of that fire and Prince Finnian always has a ball to celebrate.” James said. “He invites all of the villagers. I’m sure he would love it if you joined us this evening.” He said. My heart gave a leap. I had never even been to a ball before. “I would love to!” I said, smiling.
We rode through the village and stoped at the imposing edifice of the stone castle. A young butler was waiting outside. James said to him, “This is Caitlin. She is going to be staying in our village for this evening.” The butler looked her over with his eyes. “Well, Let me see if the Danielle has any more dresses from her shop to lend to you. Come stand inside here.” He said. He opened the door and the three of them walked inside. Suddenly, I had to use the restroom very badly. “Excuse me, where is the restroom?” I asked. The butler led me to the door where he said the restroom was. I went inside and discovered that the toilet was very old fashioned with a pull, but it still had some sort of indoor plumbing. When I was done, I walked outside and saw that I was completely alone in the hallway, save for an odd and intoxicating sort of singing I heard coming from down the hall. I followed the singing and went to the door of a room. I opened the door and saw no one. I walked inside and the door slammed shut behind me. Terrified, I looked around me, but saw that I was alone in the room. On the bed was a rock with the same odd runes that were on the stone that stood alongside the road. Curious, I picked up the rock and traced the runes with my finger. Suddenly,a blinding light shone forth from them, and the rosebush that was sitting on the balcony shook. My heart throbbed in terror as suddenly a beautiful woman in a bright red dress just floated out of the bush and into the room. “Wh-Who are you?” I asked. The woman grinned and said, “I am Rosetta, the fairy who lives in the bush.” The woman said. “F-Fairy?” I stammered. “I’m sorry if I disturbed you.” I continued. The fairy laughed a high musical laugh. “Disturbed me? I summoned you up here by making you have to use the restroom.”
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My heart was fluttering with excitement by then. I believed that fairy godmothers were the stuff of stories.”Aren’t fairy godmothers just the stuff of stories?” “She laughed. “Of course not! Godmothers? Yes. A fairy would never lower themselves to being anyone’s servant! Fairies select kings and queens of countries!” The fairy snapped.”You are so queenly looking! What royalty are you related to?” She asked. I burst out laughing. “I am not related to any royalty! My mother worked at Harbor Freight and my father worked at Mc Donalds!” I said.
“That’s ridiculous! You must mean that your mother was the Lady of Freight Harbor and your father was Sir Donald, knight of Hamburg!”
“No, they weren’t.” I said. “Well, no future queen can go to the ball in those rags now can they?” She said. Personally, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with my clothing. My phone rang in my purse again. I took it out to turn it off. I saw a ton of text messages and missed call numbers on the screen that I did not recognize. I scrolled through them to see if any of them were from my mother. None were. Some of the messages were downright terrifying. “Are you getting texts and phone calls from the dead?” The fairy asked. “How did you know?” “I can see the texts.” The fairy said. It occurred to me that she really was standing right in front of me. “I also am a fairy and we cross between the world of the living and the afterlife. Did you happen to have a near death experience, like your life flashed before your eyes or something?” She asked. “Yeah, I crashed into a tree and badly damaged my car.” I replied. “I can stop those texts for you. When someone either dies or comes close to death, the dead can communicate with them and contact them by phone.” “Oh, please do stop these strange calls!” I said relievedly as I handed my phone to her. She changed the keyboard to the strange runes and typed something into the phone. Then she handed the phone to me. “What is your favorite color?” She asked. “Pink!” I replied. Suddenly, I was engulfed in a cloud of pink cotton candy smoke. When it disappearred, I saw that I was wearing the most beautiful pink dress that I had ever seen. I looked at myself in the mirror and gasped in awe. “Thank you!” I squealed.
The fairy smiled. “Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Caitlin Donohough.” I said. “And I am Rosetta.” The fairy said. “Now, go get your prince!” She commanded. I walked out of the room. I walked into a ballroom full of people dressed in the most exquisite clothing imaginable. I didn’t think there was any way they all were commoners. James walked up to me carrying a large white dress. He dropped it and his mouth gaped. Suddenly remembered that he had been going to get a dress from a tailor. “Who gave you that dress?” James asked. “The fairy who lives in the rosebush did!” I said.”The fairy gave you a dress?!” He gasped. “Yes!” I said. “And you had no iron to ward her off?” He yelled.
“She was very nice to me.” I said. He sounded as ridiculous as my cousin did. We were approached by a handsome young man. “I don’t think I’ve seen you before.” He said. “My name is Caitlin Donohough.” She said to him.”I am Prince Finnian.” He said. “Would you like to dance with me?”he asked. My heart gave a leap. “I would be honored to your highness.” I replied. We began dancing.
“So, I have not seen you around here.” He said. “I am from Fort Myers. I was just traveling to Fernhollow to visit my cousin. I got in a car accident and James gave me a ride to this village to give me a place to stay for the evening.” We danced for the rest of the evening, and I promised that I would see him again often. I spent the night in the castle. Finnian promised that he would take me to the next village to inquire about a tow truck. After we all ate breakfast, I walked outside to find my car sitting in outside the door, good as new! I told Finnian that I would come see him often, and I drove away. I plugged my cell phone, whose battery died the night before, into cigarette lighter charger. As I was driving, a notification that said that my mother had left several calls last night came up. I called her back. “Hello?” She asked. “Mom, I am so sorry. I tried to call you-“ I began, but she interrupted, “If you are trying to call me on my dead daughter’s cell phone, I will have you know that you are absolutely sick!” She hollered. “Mom, no, it’s me” There was a click on the other end.
I drove to my cousin’s house in Fernhollow. I called her once I got there. No answer. I drove to her house and got out of the car. I knocked on the door and rang the doorbell. I waited for at least 5 minutes, but no one came to the door. Frustrated, I turned the doorknob and walked in. Inside I saw my cousin sitting on the couch, sobbing, and heard her talking to my mother on the phone. “I told her to always have a iron horseshoe charm in her car when driving that road!” My cousin sobbed. “I’m fine! Look, I’m right here!” I yelled, but she did not notice me. I walked over and touched her on the shoulder. Still no reaction. Then, I noticed a newspaper sitting on the sofa. To my horror, it read, “Fatal Car Accident on Route 90.” There was a picture of police trying to pry my car away from the tree, something I did not remember seeing the night before. The article read, “Police received a call at 9:00 pm last night and traced it to the location of the car. The body inside was identified as Caitlin Donohoughe, 32, of Fort Myers.”
My head was swimming. There was no way I was dead. But, there again, I had not thought to question the existence of the old castle either. Or how my car was suddenly whole again. A voice behind me said,” Humans, they always blame us for their own deadly accidents.Just because they commit human error when driving over the entrances to the fairy and afterlife worlds.” I turned and saw Rosetta standing behind me. “But..how?” I asked. I literally could not think of anything else to say. Then, I filled with rage. “You knew?!” I yelled. “Yes. I did. You would not have been able to enter the fairy ring if you were alive.” She said.
“And…everyone at the castle? Are they dead too?” I asked.
“Yes, them too.”
“But, how come you didn’t tell me?” I asked.She replied, “It is against fairy law to tell someone they are dead. That is something we have to let you figure out for yourself.”
“But, do the villagers….know?” I asked.
“They did at one point, but as time wore on, they became absorbed into the afterlife just as you will be.” Rosetta said.
“Now, are you ready to leave. Your family will join you at the ball when their time comes.”
I thought for a moment. “Yes, I’m ready.” I said. And we went back to the village where I married Finnian. As the years went by one by one my family members came to reside there. We are still there. And will be…forever.