Fairies

Harbin was a magical place. I had many wondrous experiences there. One of the most magical places at Harbin was the little shack where my girlfriend Raith lived.

The shack was far away from everyone else, way up a mountain on a rutted dirt road, across an old wooden footbridge, and nestled back into the forest. We both often felt fairy spirits nearby and enjoyed their presence.

Raith loved living in the shack, but wished there was some way to communicate with the rest of the community down the mountain. Then I was asked to take over Harbin’s telephone system.

She asked me to run a telephone line up to the shack, which was crazy. The closest existing line was over a thousand yards away, up a steep mountainside, over a stream, across a dirt road and up a creek bed. Of course, I said yes.

Nothing was easy about laying that cable, but I did it, and Raith had a working telephone.

Soon though, the phone stopped working. I undertook the arduous task of walking the line, and close to the middle, which also means furthest from either end, the cable had been cut.

This was a rough climb up a mountainside. Who would’ve climbed up here to cut the cable when it would’ve been so much easier to cut it at either end?

I fixed it. It worked. And several days later it stopped working again. I walked the line again, found another cut near the middle, fixed it again, and it worked again. This happened several times. We were totally mystified as to who was cutting the cable, and why.

Then, one evening, when Raith and I were coming home, we parked the truck by the footbridge, and heard the phone ringing in the distance. It continued to ring the whole time we walked towards the house.

When we finally got inside, and Raith picked up the phone, it was a telemarketer. Apparently they had a system that just let the phone ring and ring until someone picked it up.

We realized how disturbing the constant ringing was, and thought maybe it was the fairies who were cutting the cable to stop the ringing. Raith started unplugging the phone when she left the house, and I never had to fix the cable again.

A few weeks later, at dusk, I had gone outside to relieve myself before dinner. Deeper in the forest, I saw a bright, white, glowing light. Inside the light, I saw two fairies beckoning me to come.

I’ve thought about this moment many times. Should I go back and have dinner with Raith, or should I go to the fairies?

I imagined how terrible it would be for Raith if I were to suddenly disappear, so wistfully, I went back into the shack.