Niva could see fairies. She saw them at night. And at day too, but their hazy, gray forms were less visible in all the light. They weren't anything like the fairies she had read about - no frilly skirts, no magic wands, no dance, music or glitter, no toadstool parties, no minusculity.
If she hadn't known them better, she might have thought they were ghosts.
But no, they were fairies alright.
Because fairies have an aim, a Purpose. Ghosts are just impressions of people left on earth. They don't have a Purpose. They are usually friendly, but sometimes, they have been known to turn quite nasty. In any case, one must not provoke them.
Ghosts can reappear at will. They can come if Called. But fairies? They don't come. They stay. When their Purpose is fulfilled, they go away and no amount of Calling ever does any good.
What Niva saw were definitely fairies.
The first one she had noticed had been a little girl. Niva had caught her petting a stray cat on the road. She was just a haze, like a localized fog, but with a definite shape. Little Girl was years ago. One day, the cat had disappeared and Niva never saw her again. Sometimes she wondered if Little Girl and her cat were in heaven.
Her next fairy sighting was an old man. He had turned up in Niva's own house and she had seen him sitting on the sofa, looking at her father. Perhaps he was the Great-Uncle about whose demise they had learnt through that late night STD call. The one her father had dearly loved. He had even flown over to attend his funeral the very next day.
She could have sworn it was Great Uncle wh had cured her father's cancer. He was never in pain when he was near him.
But the day the doctors had said her father was completely cured, Great-Uncle had gone away.
The more fairies Niva saw, the more she began to notice them. They were all around her, quitely working through their Purpose. When their work was done, they went away. They didn't talk to her, but some of them noticed her. A wave here, a look in her direction there.
Their People could feel their presence most of the time. How it was expressed in each was different. You could feel calm in their presence, seem more focused or feel your anger dissipate at their touch.
Over the years, Niva saw a whole lot of them. Once in a while, she would help their People through actions like picking up her neighbour's post, helping the old man next door cross the street, buying her maid's daughter storybooks, befriending the lonely boy a floor above her, feeding the mongrel warm milk in the winters, even teaching her maid to read. The fairies liked her for it and once in a while, did something for her too. The fairytales talk of fairies granting us wishes - actually what happens is that we just earn ourselves a favour from them. Everytime you help a fairy in his or her Purpose, you get "a wish granted". Even those who cannot see fairies. It is simple - You must do something in order to get something.
One night, Niva saw a fairy woman in her room. That was the first time one had been inside her room. She was semi-there. Half fairy, half nothing. Perhaps it was a fairy that had come to say goodbye before going and had started her journey already? Niva smiled at her and brought out her books. She still had three hours of solid studying to do. Tests were coming and she hoped to do well.
The fairy was still there when she finally went to sleep.
Next morning, her father woke her up at 5 o'clock. His eyes were bloodshot and he looked distraught.
"Your mother," he said. "She died in her sleep."
Niva looked around. The dairy was still there, stronger than before.
"Baba, you know, she is going to be there with us through everything we do. We just need to look out for her."
Niva could have sworn the fairy smiled at her.
