30 October

The fairy and the donkey: true story

by Jon Katz
A true fairy story

One day Fanny the donkey had a sore foot, and her hooves had grown long. Her farmer called the farrier.

Fanny  hobbled around the pasture and wished for someone to come and make her feet better. It rained hard for days and she waited and waited.

Then one day, just before Halloween, Fanny and her farmer were surprised to see a pink flash in the barn. “Hello,” said a soft voice. “I am Nikolene the Halloween Fairy and I have brought help for you.” The farrier was right behind her. The farmer’s wife, his former girlfriend, a fairy herself, clapped her hands in delight.

Nikolene the Halloween Fairy came into the barn where Fanny was waiting, and she rushed up and hugged the donkey and kissed her on the nose and rubbed her forehead.  Fanny was startled – she had never seen a fairy before. And the farmer was nervous. He heard that fairies had great powers. “Don’t be afraid,” Nikolene said, hugging the farmer. “I’m good.”

The farrier pulled a pebble out of Fanny’s hoof and she was happy and her leg didn’t feel sore anymore. Then the farrier cleaned and trimmed her feet. And her sister Lulu’s too. Lenore the dog came up and licked Nikolene on the face and she flapped her wings and created a biscuit and gave it to Lenore. Fanny snorted and let the fairy climb up on her back – the first time anyone had ever been there.

Then Nikolene said she had to go home and prepare for trick-or-treating, important fairy work. She hugged the farmer and his wife, kissed Lulu on the nose, and vanished in a puff of smoke.

30 October

Farrier in Bedlam: The Normans

by Jon Katz
When the Farrier comes

When the farrier comes is one of the times that reminds me why I am so glad to live in the country, on a farm. The Normans often come with their daughter Nike, who lives a different kind of life than most kids in America. She is not raised in a phobic way, to fear the world around her, but is allowed to figure out it, have problems, solve them and understand real dangers from the ones we invent in our viscerally neurotic world. Nike understand to stay away from a donkeys’ leg, but thinks nothing of giving them a kiss on the nose, or of jumping on their backs and sitting on them while her father trims their hooves. She’s going out for Halloween as Tinkerbell.

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