Faery Crossing

Copyright Oggbashan February 2020

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons.

Inspired by Rudyard Kipling's Dymchurch Flit from Puck of Pook's Hill.

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"John! John! Wake up!"

I heard the faint voice seeming to come from the doorway of my moon-lit bedroom. I rolled over and peered but there was no one there. Was it a dream?

"John!"

The voice was more insistent. If it was a dream there was no harm in playing along.

"Yes? What is it?" I muttered.

"We need your help. Now! Please?"

The voice ended on a tone that wrenched at my aged heart. Dream or not, I could tell desperation and hopelessness.

"What do you want? What do you want me to do?"

"We need you to take us in your boat. Please. Hurry."

Why not? I had retired as a ship builder and local pilot several years ago. My wife had died and left me at a loss. My yacht, ordered by a local businessman who had been jailed for fraud before he could pay me, was my only interest and even that was palling with no one to share it with. The voice sounded young and attractive. Almost any woman seemed young to me now.

As long as it wasn't smuggling. Not that I'm against smuggling but I didn't want to die in a jail.

I struggled out of bed and hauled on my underwear. I looked through the bedroom door but couldn't see the woman.

"Down here," her voice said.

I looked down, gasped and put my glasses on.

I looked again. She was still there. She was a dream fit for any man, young or old. Her blonde hair streamed over her shoulders. Her filmy dress emphasised her figure, not skinny but with sufficient roundness to suggest delight. But she was only twelve inches high.

She stamped her booted foot.

"Please hurry. We need you, John."

"Who needs me?"

"The Faery. Us. The little people, the fairy folk. Don't you recognise a fairy when you see one?"

"If I'd seen one before I might. You're the first one I've ever seen. I'm glad I have. You are well worth it."

"Enough of that. We need you and your boat. Please?"

The desperation was back. Even if she was an illusion she was creating reactions in me that I hadn't felt in years.

"You know where the yacht is?"

"Yes. The others are aboard. The tide will be right if you hurry."

"Where are we going?"

"Not far. Just to the lightship."

"OK. I'll finish getting dressed."

"You'll help us?" Her voice sounded incredulous.

"Yes, why not?"

"The Vicar..."

"Damn the Vicar!" I exploded. "He's a stupid buffoon."

"He may be, but he's turned the locals against us with his preaching against superstitious practices."

"That's because the congregation are afraid he'll attack the real sinning, the smuggling, the fornication and drunkenness. While he rails against superstition they carry on with their favourite sins."

"But he hasn't changed you, John?"

"No. Why should I change at my age? I've never been a smuggler. I'm old enough to be long past fornication and before that I was happily married, and although I like a drink from time to time I don't get drunk."

"And you believe in fairies?"

"I did, even if I'd never seen one before now."

"That's why we need you. We need to get away from the hatred. We can't fly that far over the sea but the lightship men, being sailors, believe in superstition. A few weeks with them and we might be able to come back."

I hauled my sea boots on and I was dressed. I had a sudden thought. The revenue cutter was about. It might stop and board me for being under sail in the night. If I took a few supplies for the lightship men that could be my excuse. I rushed into the pantry. I grabbed a legal, duty paid and stamped, flask of rum, a couple of pounds of legitimate tobacco and a large bag of green vegetables. I could feel the fairy's impatience.

She need not have worried. When we reached my yacht the tide was full and just beginning to turn. I hoisted the sails and cast off. There was just enough wind for me to have steerage way and the moon was shining brightly. I could hear, but not see because of the closed door, a host of fairy voices in my cabin.

The lightship was about five miles out to sea, moored just beyond a sandbank that could be a threat. At this state of tide I might be able to sail over it but I played safe. I took the channel to the West of it and would approach the lightship from the South. I had my navigation lights burning clearly and the sweep of the lightship's beam made my route easy to see.

"Yacht ahoy!"

The revenue cutter was to windward of me without lights.

"Cutter ahoy! This is the yacht Minerva on the way to the lightship with supplies." I replied.

"At this time of night?" The voice sounded disbelieving.

"That's when the lightship men are up and on duty," I replied as the cutter came very close. "They sleep during the day and tend the light at night."

"Can the fairies hide?" I whispered to the female fairy standing in the cockpit.

"Yes. We won't be seen," she whispered back.

"This is His Majesty's Revenue Cutter Amphitrite," the voice yelled at me. "Heave to. We are boarding you for an inspection."

"Aye Aye!" I shouted back.

I lowered the mainsail and turned into the wind. The cutter lowered a gig and it rowed toward me. I took the thrown painter and fastened it. A Custom Officer boarded followed by four armed men.

"You are?" He asked abruptly.

"John Ifill, retired ship builder and pilot," I replied.

"Retired pilot? Why are you taking supplies to the lightship if you are retired?"

"It's a private gift from me for men whose service has saved me many times over the years," I answered,

"And what is this gift?"

"What every sailor needs," I replied. "Rum, baccy and green vegetables,"

I pointed at the heap in the cockpit.

One of the men with him unshuttered a lantern.

"Sealed duty paid rum and duty paid tobacco." He announced.

"I am surprised, Mr Ifill," the Customs Officer said. "Not everyone on the sea at night has paid duty but you have. We'll leave you to continue to the lightship."

He left. It took me several minutes before I could get under way again.

The fairy woman was beside me again.

"Thank you, John. That could have been awkward. I thought you were wasting time bringing this but..."

"I expected to be stopped. That cutter has been around for weeks. If I didn't have an apparently legitimate excuse my yacht would have been taken into port for a thorough search and you wouldn't have got to the lightship. Now they'll be watching to see that I actually go there. Which we will. We'll be alongside in ten minutes."

"Thank you, John. Our reward will be waiting for you on the quayside when you get back."

"Reward? I don't need a reward. You wanted help. I could give it."

"I know. But the Faery has to pay debts. We will."

"What about the men on the lightship? Will they notice so many fairies joining them?"

"They will and know. There have been a few of us always with them but with so many we will bring them luck, safety, and great dreams of their sweethearts."

As we came alongside the men on board recognised my yacht.

"What can we do for you, Mr Ifill?" One of the crewmen said as he took my rope.

"I've brought you some supplies as a present." I replied.

"You have?"

I passed over the rum, tobacco and green vegetables.

"Come aboard and have some tea."

I followed him down to the crew's cubby. Only then did they see what I had brought them.

"Duty paid genuine Jamaica Rum! And Duty Paid tobacco! Thank you, John. These are very welcome even if unlikely to be used unlike the veg. The revenue cutter suspects we get given smuggled drink and baccy to keep quiet about the smugglers' movements. We do of course. Both keep quiet and accept gifts. They search us every month or so but never find anything but it would be suspicious if we had no booze or baccy on board so we always have some legitimate stuff on show. Your gifts will make us look more genuine than we have been. The bottle of brandy has been on board for two years and a couple of ounces of baccy aren't enough for the crew for months."

"I'm pleased to help." I said.

"I can feel you've brought more aboard as well."

The fairy woman appeared standing on the table.

"Yes, Andrew, he has," she said. "He has brought some fairies fleeing from a wrathful vicar."

"Hello, Linda," Andrew said. "Great to see you again."

"Can we stay? For a few weeks or maybe a month?"

"Of course, Linda. The Faery are always welcome aboard. You bring us luck."

"Thank you, Andrew. John? Can you come back in about three weeks when the night tide is right?"

"Yes, Linda. Are you sure that will be long enough?"

"Probably. I can't see people following the vicar's advice for long. They'll get bored and revert to their usual superstitious rituals, good for us."

"OK. I'll leave you now and come back on the next full moon, Linda, weather allowing."

"Thank you, John. Don't be surprised by our thank you on the quayside."

"OK, Linda. Until the next full moon or a week earlier if I can,"

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I knew the cutter observing me as I made my way back to the harbour. As I made fast I was aware that there was someone standing beside a storehouse. I stepped ashore and the figure came towards me. It was a woman, an unlikely sight in the harbour area in the early hours of the morning.

"Hello, John," she said. "You could help them?"

It was the widow Whitgift. Her husband had been a skilled craftsman at my boatyard before he died of a heart attack about five years ago.

"Yes. I have just returned from the lightship."

"I sent them to you, John. They needed help from someone who wasn't afraid of the vicar and the only one I could think of was you. I was right, wasn't I?"

"Yes."

"And now you're coming home with me. I have a full kettle to make tea and some freshly baked fairy cakes!" She laughed, a very attractive sound.

She took my arm as we walked the hundred yards or so to her house.

She opened her front door and stood aside.

"John, I want to invite you inside as my guest, but before you come in, I want you to carry me over the threshold. It's a superstition but you are the first man to cross that threshold since my husband died."

"And the Vicar is against superstition. For you and against him, Susan, I'll take you over the threshold."

I lifted her up into my arms. She was surprisingly light and I was very pleased to carry an attractive woman. She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me -- the first proper kiss I had had in years. I staggered, not from her weight, but from the impact of that kiss. I went through the door and into her living room.

"Sit down, John," she ordered.

She made no move to regain her feet. I sat down with Susan on my lap and her arms still wrapped around my neck. She lifted herself up to bring her face in front of mine before kissing me again and again. Eventually she pulled back and looked intently at me.

"I'm the fairies' reward to you, John. You're my thanks from them. We should accept their gifts."

I couldn't respond. Susan was kissing me again.

A quarter of my hour later we had drunk our tea and eaten some fairy cakes. Susan took my hand and led me upstairs to her bedroom.

"I want my reward, John," She said. "You're my reward; I'm yours."

Soon we were together in her bed, naked. She rode me. After all I am an older retired man and Susan is more than a decade younger than me. My advantage? I could hold back until she had satisfied herself several times. She went to sleep with my erection still held inside her. An hour later she woke again. This time I didn't have to hold back until we went back to sleep again, mutually satisfied.

I was pleased that I had a morning erection but I didn't have it for long. Susan claimed it as her due. She left me, spent and tired, while she made breakfast for us. I enjoyed that, the first breakfast I hadn't had to make for myself since my wife died. I was enjoying the fairies' reward and it seemed that Susan was too.

Over the next few days I went home for much of the day but I was with Susan for breakfast, the evening meal and all night in bed.

On Sunday the Vicar was incensed. The smugglers had left a gift of a barrel of brandy and some lace for the Vicar's wife. He had brought both into the church and railed against the iniquity of those who evaded His Majesty's Customs duties. The congregation weren't impressed. The majority were either smugglers themselves or had benefitted from smuggled goods. I had a clear conscience even though my ship building business had made most of the smugglers' ships. They had paid me promptly in gold, some of it French, but they had been legitimate transactions. Was it my fault that I had built ships that were faster and more manoeuvrable than the Customs' Cutters?

The village had noticed that I and Susan were together. They didn't care. We were both single and no threat to anyone else.

The Vicar was even angrier next Sunday. His congregation had shrunk. The smugglers' response to last week's sermon had been to borrow his horses for the next run. They were returned tired out and the Vicar had to walk the next day. But while he was railing against the smugglers the villagers had returned to their superstitious practices, slowly at first. The hostility against the fairies was receding, replaced by annoyance with the Vicar. By the third Sunday his congregation was only a quarter of what it had been.

Each night Susan and I were enjoying the fairies' reward of making us into a couple that practised and enjoyed mutual sex. I had been able to ride Susan at least once a night. She enjoyed that but I enjoyed her younger body bouncing up and down on me as well. Every night I went to sleep with Susan snuggled up either on top of me or pressed against my side. I was also enjoying two Susan-cooked meals a day. If the Vicar had been less hostile we might have considered marrying each other but we didn't like the idea of him conducting the ceremony.

We were also slightly concerned that we might be the next target of one of his sermons as the village couple most obviously engaging in frequent fornication. We knew of many others who were doing it as single or even married people. There were so many men out at night smuggling that a wife could take a lover without arousing suspicion. But we were blatant. The others were more discreet.

Three weeks after I had taken the fairies out to the lightship the night weather was suitable for another trip. As before I brought duty-paid rum and tobacco. This time because I knew I would be doing it in advance, I had acquired much more. The cost was considerable but I felt I owed the fairies, and the lightship men that had given the fairies a refuge. I went to one of the local farmers to buy a large quantity of green vegetables, far more than the earlier bag I had been intending for my own cooking.

Susan wanted to come with me, to say thank you to the fairies.

The cutter stopped me again.

This time I answered:

"Yacht Minerva, Captain Ifill..."

"Captain?" They queried.

"Yes, Captain. Last time I was single-handed. This time I have a crew person to help, so Captain."

"OK, Captain. On the way to the lightship with supplies?"

"Yes, duty paid where needed."

"OK, Captain Ifill. You can proceed."

I was surprised that they took my word for it. I had expected them to board me again. But perhaps they had heard that I had never been suspected of being a smuggler or of receiving smuggled goods. My last trip must have caused them to do some research on me. Apart from being a fornicator -- not a concern to Customs men -- I had an exemplary lifestyle for a local man who used the sea.

Our reception at the lightship was almost overwhelming. Our goods were very welcome but the fairies appeared en masse. Susan held on to me tightly as so many attractive young females showed themselves. She shouldn't have worried. However beautiful the fairies were, I wasn't attracted to women twelve inches high when I was being hugged by a full-sized woman who could cook much better than I can. I appreciated the fairies' reward and was grateful to them. I wished them well but I wanted to keep Susan. It seemed she wanted to keep me too.

During the journey back to the harbour the multitude of fairies decided to clean my yacht. My desks were scrubbed, my brass work was shining and my cabin and galley gleamed. The yacht hadn't looked so good since it was launched.

I made a point of thanking the fairies when they left the yacht. Linda appeared again.

"It's nothing, John. You saved us and were there when we needed you. By the time you get there we will have cleaned Susan's house too. Some of us will always be around if you need us."

From then on Susan and I were aware that the fairies were nearby. If, at the end of the day we were too tired to wash up our dinner things, by the morning they were washed and put away. The house was always cleaner than I and Susan could achieve.

A few weeks later we had the banns read in a neighbouring parish. The Vicar asked us why. I told him that we wanted our friends and neighbours to come and that his sermons were deterring them. He didn't like that because it was true. It took several months before he relented and toned down his diatribes but by then the whole village was happier because the fairies were back.

Susan, the fairies' gift to me, and me, their gift to Susan, were blissfully happy as a married couple.

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