Fairy Stories & Other Tales

A tall woman with a mannish face bearing a hint of a mustache on the upper lip stormed through the streets like a tiny self-contained hurricane beating against the flow of bodies.             If one more person calls me ‘sir’ I’ll scream, she thought.             Then she took a breath, which was immediately followed by an eye roll.   Pull it together Joanna, she told herself just before she slammed into a tiny old woman whose neck really was far too bent to see her coming.               When the fairy rose from the ground directly in front of her Joanna realized she may have let her thoughts spin wildly out of control.             ‘I can grant you a wish, my dear, if you like…’ the fairy was nonchalantly examining her nails as she spoke to Joanna. ...

The world woke blinking, and found that all was well.   The trees were green and lush, the oceans teaming and cool, the mountains high and steady.   And the people were at peace.             But peace was dull, the people found, and so the trees were felled, the oceans emptied, the mountains set to trembling.   All tumbled and came to ruin until the day when the earth stood still, for upon it lay nothing more than bones.             The world woke again, and all was once more set to rights.   The trees were green, the oceans cool, the mountains high.   And the people were, once more, at peace.   Yet again the people found peace dull.   Down came the trees, up rose the oceans, trembling went the mountains.   And the earth was again barren.             Then came a day when the wo...