Dan Jackson: Magic moment almost wasn't

DAN JACKSON: There are fairies at the bottom of his scrapyard.

APPARENTLY I have no magic left in me. I was coldly informed of this by my beloved the other night ... while I was laughing at her.

She had found herself in a bit of a pickle about 9.30pm as we were preparing for bed and she discovered a note written by one of the 6-year-olds.

It said something along the lines of: "Dear fairies, please leave me a present". Beside it was another note from the other 6-year-old saying: "And one for me too".

Now, this seemingly weird situation had not come about randomly. No.

My fiancée has long believed that childhood is too short and should be prolonged and made magic for as long as possible.

So, in keeping with this, she has recently helped the littlies build a magic fairy garden thingy with a little house (made out of a piece of firewood) and a whole lot of decorations.

It looks quite lovely but I'm guessing the girls thought it was time they got a bit of payback from these fairies after all their hard work so, unbeknown to mum, they put in their request.

I gave her no sympathy.

"How could you read that note and not feel your heart melt?" she said to me and I replied something like "Because I'm not a muppet ... "

That was the wrong answer.

Anyway, it was nearly 10pm and she'd been tearing the house apart looking for little trinkets. She'd even been poking about in her jewellery box, to no avail. I was trying to be helpful by picking up random things and saying: "How about you give them a stapler? A phone charger? Oooh ... I know, some clothes pegs."

By then she had stopped talking to me and was getting her car keys. As she turned to go she flipped me a rude hand gesture and said: "I'm off to the supermarket."

FOOTNOTE: The "fairies" delivered -- and the kids were very happy. Sigh.

�Dan Jackson is a Whanganui journalist and part-time scrap metal dealer