Busted

Fairy drop No. 2 went horribly wrong.

I'll begin by telling you that I have grown up feeling like I can get away with things. When the adrenalin kicks in my special powers can work magic, make me invisible, help me jump fences, dodge whatever needs dodging and get away with it all. Stealthy secret fairy drops at this time of year give me a rare opportunity to test this belief. I must say, after tonight, my faith is still standing but a little shaken.

So it goes... I pull up to their house, well I'm parked in front of the neighbor's house actually. It's 8-ish. Calder's already in bed. (Thank goodness I'm doing this one by myself!) The driveway's empty, so I've got free access to the front stoop where I'll leave the surprises, which I do quickly and easily. Great. And then I see a car coming down the street. I think to myself, "Oh $*!#, that's probably going to be them!" So I jump off a couple concrete steps in my clogs and start running across their yard. I stumble and fall to my knee (why did I wear clogs!) and then all the way to the ground, but get up before they can see me, and keep running towards the darkness and shelter of a big tree in the neighbor's yard. It was their car!

They pull into the driveway and I wait behind the tree for them to walk up to their door, find the fairy treats, and go inside. No such luck. The neighbor's kids were with them in the car and they're all headed right towards me! I flex my invisible powers to no avail. One of the kids spots me. They yell, "There's someone hiding in our yard!" So, I think, "Ok. I've been spotted. Now I just have to avoid being identified." I run quickly across the yard to the driveway and stop between the two cars parked there. One of the girls says, "It's a girl. You go this way, and I'll go that way." The kids are all hyped up. They've now got the neighbor mom and are trying to tell her there's someone hiding in their yard. It's clear this sweet fairy drop has gone south, but I have no idea if they know who I am, so I'm still trying to keep my identity a secret. One of the moms dissuades the girl from attempting to find me and tells everyone to go inside. I run to the far side of the cars and back along the house to a dark spot by a fence and think I'm free but then I hear the neighbor mom say, "I'll get your dad to go check it out." Uh oh.

So I book it to my car, hop in, and start off. The dang street is a dead end and I'm headed the wrong direction. I see the dad has come out with a flashlight and he's standing in the street waiting for me to come back. I turn around and my only hope is that I can have my unavoidable conversation with him out of view of the mom and kids to whom I'm supposed to remain anonymous. The dad is pissed. He's standing in front of my car, hand on the hood, flashlight in my face. (Can you blame him?) I roll down the window and tell him as quickly as possible, knowing that he won't understand, that I'm leaving secret gifts for his neighbor's family; that I'm really sorry if I scared his kids, and that I'm trying to not have them figure out who I am. He doesn't really care. Says they've had "trouble" in the neighborhood and his daughter's worried. I tell him I'm so sorry. Really. But it doesn't make it better.

As I drive away I can see that everyone, including my little fairy family, are all in the living room window of the neighbor's house watching this confrontation in the street. I can only hope that our family's mama realized what was going on and was able to explain it to the kids without giving everything away. And really, none of that matters. We'll still continue making little things to drop off at their house. We'll still *attempt* to do it in secret. Because every time those kids open their door and see a little surprise for them and their family, well, that's the kind of excitement and joy that this secret fairy thing is all about.

My knee is sore. I'm a little rattled - though much less so than a couple hours ago. And I'm not so sure my special powers are (or ever were) as strong as I believed them to be. But I do know that as stupid as it is I still dig the adrenalin and would rather engage in some crazy game of hide and seek than give myself up and completely spoil the secret.

And in the meantime, here's what the fairies left this time...



Homemade sugar cookies.



A bouquet of holly berries. And a couple little toys (a wind-up motorcycle guy, and this cute monkey pen whose arms and legs jump around when you push down to write.)

So, there you go. A secret fairy drop gone wrong. Oh well. It'll be fun to tell the story at the reveal party in January.