Our little valley was covered in a blanket of snow. And now it even stormed and rained. It was so cold that the raindrops turned into icicles wherever they landed. The trees, roofs and window-sills were covered in ice.

My brother, mother and I were watching nature's palette. Did our eyes deceive us or was there something caught in an icicle hanging from the window frame?

Mother brought a colander to the window to carefully take in the icicle. She brought it into the kitchen and put it into the sink so it would not make a mess. Slowly the ice melted and lo and behold a little fairy emerged from the ice!

Still shaking from the cold, the little fairy tried to unfold her wings. It took several times until she finally succeeded. The poor thing must have been surprised by the weather when she tried to fly home on a moonbeam.

Mother made a bed out of cotton balls in a little shoe box. The fairy lay in it and rested. We had no words to describe what we were thinking. All we could do was stare at this little visitor.

The fairy warmed up and started flying around the room. It did not
say anything, but just sprinkled a little gold dust around. It flew close to the window several times, as if looking for something.

Suddenly a bright moon beam lit up the room. Mother said, "This must be a sign for the fairy to come home. Open the window," she told us.
So we did, and out went the fairy straight up the moon beam.

by Elke Mebes